1948-1957 - Civil war kills 250,000 to 300,000 people

1949 - Galeras volcano kills 1,000 people

1958 - Civil war ended by a pact between rival political parties - Conservatives and Liberals - to alternate power

1964 - Left-wing guerrilla organisation Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) forms

1965 - National Liberation Army (ELN) formed by radical priests and students

1967 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez publishes epic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, one of the seminal works of Latin American magical realism

1971 - Another left-wing guerrilla organisation, M-19, emerges

1982 - Gabriel Garcia Marquez wins Nobel Prize for Literature

1985 - About 22,000 people die when Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupts

1993 - Pablo Escobar, notorious leader of the infamous Medellín-based drugs cartel, killed trying to escape arrest

1989 - M-19 becomes legal political party

1999 - About 1,200 people killed by earthquake in town of Armenia

1999 - President Andres Pastrana Arango launches Plan Colombia, to eradicate drug production with U.S. financial and military assistance

2002

Presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt taken hostage, later becomes a symbol of political kidnappings

President Alvaro Uribe takes office

2003 - Paramilitaries in United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC) start demobilising

2004 - Law changed to permit presidential re-election

2005

Jul - Justice and Peace Law comes into force, providing for demobilisation of combatants, help for them to make the transition to civilian life, and compensation for victims of war crimes

Dec - Exploratory peace talks in Havana between the ELN and the government

2006

Feb - More ELN-government talks, but don't agree anything except to talk again

Apr - Last of AUC hand in arms

May - Uribe re-elected

Nov - More ELN-government talks in Havana

Nov - Scandal erupts close to President Pastrana when eight lawmakers and a former security police chief arrested on charges they colluded with paramilitaries

2007

July - Government releases dozens of jailed FARC prisoners, hoping it will lead to hostage releases. FARC continues to say it will only free hostages if government pulls back troops and establishes a demilitarised zone

Massive protests in Bogota against kidnappings and conflict

2008

Jan - FARC rebels free two women hostages after mediation by Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, raising hopes for dozens of other captives

Feb - FARC frees four more hostages after Venezuelan mediation

Mar - Short-lived diplomatic crisis between Colombia and its regional neighbours - Ecuador and Venezuela in particular - after Colombian raid on Ecuadorean territory which kills FARC's number two man, Raul Reyes. Rebels say Reyes had been influential in mediation to free more hostages

Jul - Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages freed by Colombian troops