The National Basketball Association's (NBA) lockout of players is nearly four months old and has forced the league to cancel the first month of the 2011-12 regular season.

Here is a timeline of key events in the labor dispute:

June 30 - NBA announces it will lock out players when the collective bargaining agreement expires at 12:01 am on July 1.

July 13 - National Basketball Players Association sends memo to players supporting their desires and plans to play basketball overseas.

July 29 - Basketball's international federation gives approval for locked-out NBA players to compete overseas during the work stoppage.

Aug 1 - NBA owners and players meet for the first time since the lockout began with little to no progress and no new proposals tabled.

Aug 31 - Sides meet in New York in second joint meeting since the lockout began.

Sept 8 - Owners and players meet for a second straight day but do not discuss details of negotiations.

Sept 13 - Talks resume for third time in two weeks.

Sept 23 - League postpones training camps indefinitely and cancels the first week of preseason games.

Oct 4 - NBA cancels entire 114-game preseason schedule and threatens to scrap first two weeks of the 2011-12 regular season if no new agreement reached by Oct. 10.

Oct 10 - League scraps first two weeks of regular season.

Oct 12 - Both sides agree to meet with a federal mediator in attempt to resolved labor dispute.

Oct 19 - Talks break down after 30 hours of negotiations before a federal mediator spread over three straight days failed to results in a new deal.

Oct 28 - NBA cancels another two weeks of regular season, through to Nov. 30.