It’s been a busy week for Rupert Murdoch, from apologising in full-page ads across UK national newspapers to fronting up to a House of Commons inquiry into his involvement with the News of World phone hacking scandal. But he’s not the only character you’ve got to keep an eye on in this unfolding fiasco encompassing politicians, the media and the police.

In an attempt to help you — and us — get our brains around this mess, here’s a breakdown of the week that was for News Corporation and British public life, in more or less chronological order:

  • Rebekah Brooks resigned from News International last Friday and was arrested by police on Sunday over allegations of phone hacking and police bribes.
  • Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigned after it became public that former NotW deputy editor Neil Wallis had been employed as a communications consultant by police.
  • Scotland Yard’s assistant commissioner and most senior anti-terrorism officer John Yates resigned just hours later and is being investigated for giving a job to Wallis’ daughter.
  • Prime Minister David Cameron’s office bowed to pressure and released a memo revealing he’d met with News Limited executives some 26 times since moving into Downing Street a year ago.
  • Sean Hoare, a former celebrity reporter at NotW and the whistleblower who revealed last year that Coulson was aware of phone hacking despite his previous denials, was found dead at his home. Police are not treating the death as suspicious.
  • Police were called to investigate a bag containing a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin outside Brooks’ home. The bag was found in a car park and handed in to security.
  • Internet pranksters LulzSec hacked into the News International websites, redirecting thesun.co.uk to its own personal Twitter account. The group also claims to have downloaded thousands of emails from News’ servers.
  • Rupert and James Murdoch faced up to questioning at a House of Commons committee into their knowledge and role of the phone hacking scandal, with Rupert declaring “this is the most humble day of my life”. Rupert told the inquiry that ultimately he did not bear responsibility for the disaster — as he employs 53,000 people and NotW was only 1% of his business — and that instead responsibility lay with “the people I trusted to run it and maybe the people they trusted”.
  • Rupert Murdoch got hit in the face with a shaving cream pie by a comedian, wife Wendi Deng sprang up and slapped the comedian, and immediately headlines declaring her a “Tiger Wife” appeared worldwide.
  • After Rupert and James Murdoch faced the inquiry, News Corp stocks spiked 6% higher.
  • Brooks also fronted up to the committee, in a separate hearing from the Murdochs, telling the inquiry that payments to private investigators were not her responsibility as editor but that of the paper’s managing editor.
  • Stephenson and Yates faced the other House of Commons committee into the initial police investigations of the NotW scandal. Yates told the hearing that Cameron’s chief of staff, Ed Llewellyn, refused the opportunity for police to brief Cameron on the news that Wallis had been giving PR advice to the Met because it would mean Cameron would be “compromised”.
  • Former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald also fronted the police hearing, telling them that when he viewed email evidence from NotW staff it became “blindingly obvious” that payments to police officers were being made and criminal investigations needed to occur.
  • Cameron faced 139 minutes of questioning in parliament over his relationships with News International executives. He declared he had “never had one inappropriate conversation” with News International executives over the now-defunct BSkyB deal, but admitted he had spoken to News execs about the deal.
  • In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard spoke of the impact of the NotW scandal, indicating Murdoch’s Australian arm News Limited may have to answer some “hard questions” about its own conduct.
  • Two ex-NotW execs came forward to say James Murdoch’s inquiry testimony misled the parliament, and that he was “mistaken” to claim he had not seen the famous “for Neville” email (the email which apparently destroys News International’s original claim that the NotW phone hacking was limited to just royal reporter Clive Goodman) before prior to settling a £700,000 payout to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association. In response, News Corp released a one-line press release from James that stated: “I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee.”
  • After the Murdochs were questioned over News International continuing to pay the legal bills for former NotW private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, News International cancelled the payments “with immediate effect”.
  • Evidence from a 2006 Information Commission inquiry – which studied the use of a private investigator by 31 different UK publications – has been given to the latest Scotland Yard inquiry into News International phone hacking and police bribes.
  • Former NotW reporter Matt Nixson was fired from his current job at The Sun, another News International paper, after an internal investigation.
  • The UK High Court ruled that actor Hugh Grant and socialite Jemima Khan are entitled to view Mulcaire’s files on them, after their phones were hacked, in order to help in their damages claim against News International.
  • The FBI preliminary inquiry into alleged phone hacking of 9/11 victims and their families is under way, with New York Police and a victims’ group already contacted by the FBI. So far no information or allegations of hacking have been uncovered.