diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers.js b/lib/OpenLayers.js
index 9835c78b69..7f87255f4b 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers.js
@@ -79,9 +79,9 @@
             "Rico/Corner.js",
             "Rico/Color.js",
             "OpenLayers/Ajax.js",
+            "OpenLayers/Events.js",
             "OpenLayers/Request.js",
             "OpenLayers/Request/XMLHttpRequest.js",
-            "OpenLayers/Events.js",
             "OpenLayers/Projection.js",
             "OpenLayers/Map.js",
             "OpenLayers/Layer.js",
diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Request.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Request.js
index 1c2b2c9fff..c5e985e8d0 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Request.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Request.js
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
  * license.  See http://svn.openlayers.org/trunk/openlayers/license.txt for the
  * full text of the license. */
 
+/**
+ * @requires OpenLayers/Events.js 
+ */
+
 /**
  * Namespace: OpenLayers.Request
  * The OpenLayers.Request namespace contains convenience methods for working
@@ -30,6 +34,25 @@ OpenLayers.Request = {
         scope: null
     },
     
+    /**
+     * APIProperty: events
+     * {<OpenLayers.Events>} An events object that handles all 
+     *     events on the {<OpenLayers.Request>} object.
+     *
+     * All event listeners will receive an event object with three properties:
+     * request - {<OpenLayers.Request.XMLHttpRequest>} The request object.
+     * config - {Object} The config object sent to the specific request method.
+     * requestUrl - {String} The request url.
+     * 
+     * Supported event types:
+     * complete - Triggered when we have a response from the request, if a
+     *     listener returns false, no further response processing will take
+     *     place.
+     * success - Triggered when the HTTP response has a success code (200-299).
+     * failure - Triggered when the HTTP response does not have a success code.
+     */
+    events: new OpenLayers.Events(this, null, ["complete", "success", "failure"]),
+    
     /**
      * APIMethod: issue
      * Create a new XMLHttpRequest object, open it, set any headers, bind
@@ -134,17 +157,35 @@ OpenLayers.Request = {
                 OpenLayers.Function.bind(config.failure, config.scope) :
                 config.failure;
         }
+        
+        var events = this.events;
          
         request.onreadystatechange = function() {
             if(request.readyState == OpenLayers.Request.XMLHttpRequest.DONE) {
-                complete(request);
-                if(success && (!request.status ||
-                   (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 300))) {
-                    success(request);
-                }
-                if(failure && (request.status &&
-                   (request.status < 200 || request.status >= 300))) {
-                    failure(request);
+                var proceed = events.triggerEvent(
+                    "complete",
+                    {request: request, config: config, requestUrl: url}
+                );
+                if(proceed !== false) {
+                    complete(request);
+                    if (!request.status || (request.status >= 200 && request.status < 300)) {
+                        events.triggerEvent(
+                            "success",
+                            {request: request, config: config, requestUrl: url}
+                        );
+                        if(success) {
+                            success(request);
+                        }
+                    }
+                    if(request.status && (request.status < 200 || request.status >= 300)) {                    
+                        events.triggerEvent(
+                            "failure",
+                            {request: request, config: config, requestUrl: url}
+                        );
+                        if(failure) {
+                            failure(request);
+                        }
+                    }
                 }
             }
         };
diff --git a/tests/Request.html b/tests/Request.html
index 44349d333f..2fffbb2a39 100644
--- a/tests/Request.html
+++ b/tests/Request.html
@@ -247,6 +247,77 @@
         OpenLayers.Request.OPTIONS();
         OpenLayers.Request.issue = _issue;
     }
+    
+    function test_events_success(t) {
+        
+        t.plan(5);
+
+        var events = [];
+        function listener(event) {
+            events.push(event);
+        }
+        
+        // set up event listeners
+        OpenLayers.Request.events.on({
+            complete: listener,
+            success: listener,
+            failure: listener
+        });
+
+        // issue a request that succeeds
+        OpenLayers.Request.GET({
+            url: ".", params: {bar: "baz"}, async: false
+        });
+        t.eq(events.length, 2, "two events logged");
+        t.eq(events[0].type, "complete", "first event is complete");
+        t.eq(events[1].type, "success", "second event is success");
+        t.ok(events[1].config, "success listener sent config");
+        t.eq(events[1].requestUrl, ".?bar=baz", "success listener sent config.url");
+
+        // remove event listeners
+        OpenLayers.Request.events.un({
+            complete: listener,
+            success: listener,
+            failure: listener
+        });
+        
+    }
+
+    function test_events_failure(t) {
+        
+        t.plan(5);
+
+        var events = [];
+        function listener(event) {
+            events.push(event);
+        }
+        
+        // set up event listeners
+        OpenLayers.Request.events.on({
+            complete: listener,
+            success: listener,
+            failure: listener
+        });
+
+        // issue a request that succeeds
+        OpenLayers.Request.GET({
+            url: "foo", params: {bar: "baz"}, async: false
+        });
+        t.eq(events.length, 2, "two events logged");
+        t.eq(events[0].type, "complete", "first event is complete");
+        t.eq(events[1].type, "failure", "second event is failure");
+        t.ok(events[1].config, "failure listener sent config");
+        t.eq(events[1].requestUrl, "foo?bar=baz", "failure listener sent requestUrl");
+
+        // remove event listeners
+        OpenLayers.Request.events.un({
+            complete: listener,
+            success: listener,
+            failure: listener
+        });
+        
+    }
+
     </script>
 </head>
 <body>