Mike-
I would suggest that you consider the Blog module for what you've described rather than Events (unless you're actually announcing events in which case the various Events entry data fields might be handy).
 
In either case, you can create a custom clickable list linked to "detail" pages using the Reports module.  Making your own list givews you complete control over what data you present without having to rely only on the options included in a module.
 
Here's an exampe of using Reports to create a clickable list of the five most recently-posted Blog entries ordered chronilogically:
 
   http://www.eguanasolutions.com/DNN_Blog/EntryID/34.aspx
 
 
Here's an example of using Advanced Datagrid (a free SQL module similar to Reports) to create an Events status table.  This example could be adapted to provide a list of the five most recent event entries prior to the current date as you described:
 
   http://www.eguanasolutions.com/DNN_Blog/EntryID/5.aspx
 

The point of the two examples are that you can easily create you own list with exactly the data you wish to include as long as you can come up with the proper SQL query to grab the data.
  
Hope this helps-
-mamlin

Mamlin,

Thanks so much for your reply! The issue is now solved!

I was using the events module because the event entry data is being displayed on the "detail" page. I used your example of the Reports module to select the events from the events table, sorted, and built some HTML to use the detail page in the same way as the 'permalink' column from the blog. =)

Thanks again!

-Mike