Around 1461 - Portuguese explorers establish contacts with region, dubbing it the Grain Coast.

1663 - British build trading posts on the Grain Coast, which the Dutch destroy a year later. No further reports of Europeans settling for almost 200 years.

1820 - Freed slaves from the United States begin settling in Liberia.

1847 - Liberia becomes the first African republic. For over 130 years, the country is a one-party state dominated by Americo-Liberian descendents of the original settlers.

1955 - President William Tubman cracks down on political freedoms, in reaction to an assassination attempt.

1980 - Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, from the Krahn ethnic group, seizes power. President William Tolbert is killed. Members of the Krahn tribe go on to dominate military and political life, causing friction with other ethnic groups.

1985 - Doe's National Democratic Party of Liberia (NDPL) declared victorious in elections, although observers say polls are fraught with fraud and vote-rigging. The economy and living standards decline as human rights abuses increase.

1989

Dec - Rebels led by Doe's former procurement chief, Charles Taylor, invade Liberia from Ivory Coast. Taylor and his National Patriotic Front (NPF) win support from Liberians weary of Doe's oppressive government. The 13-year civil war that ensues is one of the bloodiest conflicts in African history.

1990 - The National Patriotic front of Liberia (NPFL) led by Prince Johnson, a former member of Taylor's NPF, breaks away and captures Doe, torturing and killing him.

Oct - An Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) is created in Gambia under the auspices of ECOWAS with Dr. Amos C. Sawyer as president. Over the next year and a half, several factions emerge in the civil war and are absorbed in the new transitional government. Taylor eventually agrees to the formation of a five-man transitional government. Fighting continues.

1997 - Taylor and his National Patriotic Party win special elections by a large majority. Over the next six years, little is invested in the country's infrastructure and potable water and electricity is unavailable to most people. Taylor's followers are accused of atrocities. Taylor supports the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone, which is accused of widespread rape, amputations and the use of child soldiers.

2003 - In Ghana, ECOWAS spurs peace talks among Liberia's government, civil society, and rebel groups under the names of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL). Both represent parts of factions that fought Taylor during Liberia's 1989-1996 civil war. The government, LURD, and MODEL sign a cease-fire, which all three break repeatedly.

Sierra Leone announces the indictment of Taylor for "bearing the greatest responsibility" for atrocities in Sierra Leone since November 1996.

Nigeria sends peacekeepers as part of an ECOWAS force. The move forces President Taylor to resign and leave for exile in Nigeria. Government, rebels and political parties sign peace agreement that creates a new transitional government.

United Nations paves way for a peacekeeping operation, U.N. Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), with about 15,000 soldiers.

2004 - UNMIL disarms and demobilises over 103,000 ex-combatants.

2005 - Presidential and congressional elections. Former World Bank employee and finance minister Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is elected president in run-off elections with over 59 percent of the vote, becoming Africa's first democratically elected female leader.

2006

Feb - Truth and Reconciliation Commission set up to investigate human rights abuses between 1979 and 2003.

Mar - Johnson-Sirleaf officially requests that Nigeria extradite Charles Taylor but Nigeria says he has disappeared. He is later caught near the border with Cameroon and handed over to the United Nations in Sierra Leone. He faces charges related to Sierra Leone's civil war and not Liberia's. Taylor has been accused of murder and sexual slavery, and of allowing the al-Qaeda network to launder money through the West African diamond trade.

Jun - Netherlands-based International Criminal Court agrees to host Taylor's trial, and Britain agrees to jail him if convicted

The United Nations eases a ban on weapons sales to Liberia so that newly trained police and security forces can be armed. The ban on timber exports is lifted later in the month, but the country's diamond exports - which helped to fuel the conflict - remain under embargo.

Jul - President switches on generator-powered street lights in Monrovia, without electricity since 1990

Oct - The Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins hearings.

2007

May - Diamond export embargo lifted

Jun - Taylor's trial begins but is adjourned after a day following claims by Taylor that he does not have a proper defense.

Sept - The U.N. Security Council extends the mandate of the U.N. Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) for a further year.

2008

Jan - Taylor's trial re-opens and is expected to last until mid-2009.

March - The government conducts the first census since 1984, explaining to the people that it's "for development, not taxes".