1975 - Angola gains independence from Portugal. Three guerrilla groups vie for power: Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). UNITA and FNLA are backed by apartheid South Africa and the United States. MPLA is backed by Cuba

1976 - MPLA crushes FNLA and drives back UNITA

1979 - MPLA leader Agostinho Neto dies, replaced by Soviet-trained Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who becomes president

1987 - South African force enters Angola to support UNITA against MPLA

1988 - South African army leaves, and Cuba agrees to withdraw troops by mid-1991

1989 - At African summit in Zaire - now Democratic Republic of Congo - dos Santos and Savimbi agree on ceasefire, which collapses soon afterwards

1991

Apr - MPLA ditches Marxism-Leninism for social democracy and starts preparing for general elections

May - Dos Santos and Savimbi sign peace accord in Lisbon

1992

Sep - Angolans vote in first multi-party polls for president and national assembly, monitored by United Nations

Oct - U.N. certifies poll as free and fair. MPLA wins, but UNITA rejects results and resumes guerrilla war

1993 - U.N.-arranged peace talks open in Lusaka, Zambia

1994 - Angolan government and UNITA deputy sign Lusaka Protocol peace accord, which allows UNITA fighters to integrate into army. UNITA breaks accord, leading to U.N. sanctions against it

1995

Feb - U.N. announces deployment of 7,000 peacekeepers

May - Dos Santos and Savimbi hold peace summit in Lusaka, and reiterate commitment to peace accord

Sep - First peacekeepers arrive

1996 - Savimbi and dos Santos agree to form unity government and to merge forces into a new national army by July

1997 - New government of national unity forms, but Savimbi refuses to join and instead decides to head the main opposition party

1998

Mar - UNITA declares its effective demobilisation, Angola legalises the rebel movement

June - UNITA delays handing over four Angolan regions and the U.N. votes to impose sanctions on UNITA

Dec - Angolan government launches offensive against UNITA. U.N. plane shot down. Thousands killed in next four years of fighting

1999 - Government abandons Lusaka peace accord with Savimbi's UNITA. U.N. ends its peacekeeping mission

2001 - Savimbi says ready to discuss peace

2002

Feb - Savimbi killed by government troops

Apr - Government and UNITA sign formal ceasefire in Luanda

2003 - U.N. mission overseeing the peace process winds up

2004

Apr - Government begins crackdown on illegal mining, in which an estimated 300,000 foreign illegal diamond miners are expelled

2005 - Outbreak of the rare Marburg virus kills 329 people, most of them in northern Uige Province

2006

Jun - More than 1,800 people die in cholera epidemic

Aug - The government signs a peace deal with a separatist group in the northern enclave of Cabinda

Oct - The U.N. refugee agency begins "final repatriation" of 60,000 Angolan refugees from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo

Dec - Presidential elections, originally scheduled for 2006, postponed until 2009

2007

Mar - Angolan refugee repatriation programme - which involved the organised repatriation of almost 140,000 people, many of them by charter aircraft - officially ends

2008

Sep - Parliamentary elections, the first national poll in 16 years. Dos Santos' ruling MPLA party wins landslide victory