The Belgians

1870s - Belgium's King Leopold II starts his colonial project in central Africa

1885 - Leopold announces establishment of the Congo Free State, under his direct control

1892 - Belgians conquer eastern region of Katanga, which had held out against colonialists

1908 - Leopold sells control of Congo to Belgian state, but life for Congo's inhabitants continues much the same

Independence

1960 - Congo gains independence from Belgium after a year of anti-colonial riots. Socialist Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba attempts to steer neutral course between United States and Soviet Union at height of Cold War, but dismissed by President Joseph Kasavubu in September, three months after taking office

1960-1965 - Secessionist movement in eastern Katanga province

1961 - Lumumba murdered in February, three months after being arrested

1965 - Joseph Mobutu seizes power from Kasavubu

1966 - Mobutu nationalises mining and redistributes foreign-country management to a local elite, mostly friends and family. He squanders and embezzles billions of dollars through trade in copper, cobalt, diamonds and coffee

1971 - Mobutu calls himself Mobutu Sese Seko and renames the country Zaire. Becomes the darling of Washington by turning the country into a springboard for operations against Soviet-backed Angola

1974 - Black U.S. boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fight the "rumble in the jungle" in Zaire. Ali, who wins the fight, says he wanted to establish a relationship between African-Americans and Africa

1990 - Mobutu appoints transitional government but holds on to substantial powers

War

1994 - Rwanda's Hutu extremist government orchestrates genocide of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. About 800,000 Hutus - many of them party to the genocide - take refuge with their families in camps in Congo when Tutsi rebels take control of Rwanda

1994 - Nearly 12,000 people die when cholera spreads through huge, squalid refugee camps in Congo, according to U.N. refugee body UNHCR

1996-1997 - Tutsi rebels gain control of swathes of eastern Zaire while Mobutu abroad for medical treatment

1997 - Anti-Mobutu rebels with Rwandan backing seize Kinshasa, and Laurent Kabila installed as president. Country renamed Democratic Republic of Congo

1998 - Kabila tries to gain popularity by whipping up anti-Tutsi sentiment and purging Tutsis from his government. Rwanda is enraged, and along with Uganda backs rebels in an attempt to oust Kabila. They are repelled when the president receives support from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. Rebels remain in control of large parts of eastern Congo's border regions

British advocacy group Global Witness launches campaign against "conflict diamonds". Its initial focus is Angola, but by June 1999 is talking tough on Congo and other countries too

Peace

1999 - After three years of war, ceasefire signed in Lusaka, Zambia

2000 - U.N. Mission for Congo, MONUC, deployed to monitor ceasefire, but with just 5,500 troops and a weak mandate it fails to stop fighting between rebels and government forces

Diamond industry launches the Kimberley process in May to crack down on trade from war zones. In Dec, United Nations gives its backing to a certification system to track the origin of rough diamonds

2001 - Laurent Kabila assassinated by a bodyguard. His son Joseph takes office

2002 - Mount Nyiragongo, a volcano overlooking the eastern town of Goma, devastates city when it erupts in January

2002 - Rwanda and Uganda say they have withdrawn most of their forces from eastern Congo after peace accords in which Congo agrees to disarm and arrest Hutu militias in its territory. Peace deal signed at the end of the year states that rebels and opposition members will be given jobs in a power-sharing interim government

2003 - French troops intervene to protect thousands of civilians in Bunia, Ituri, when rival militias clash over control of the town

Last Ugandan troops pull out. Fighting erupts which U.N. mission fails to contain. French troops are forced to intervene

Allegations of sexual exploitation, child pornography and the rape of babies made against Moroccan peacekeepers with MONUC

2004 - Renewed allegations of sexual exploitation of women and children by peacekeepers around Bunia, Ituri

May/Jun - Renegade commander Laurent Nkunda takes Bukavu, South Kivu. Riots around the country in protest at the U.N.'s failure to act, and international aid agencies come under attack by angry crowds

Jun - Attempted coup in Kinshasa

New Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) opens investigations on Congo

2005

Jan - U.N. enquiry upholds sexual exploitation allegations. MONUC sets up an office to deal with the issue, which operates from February to November. A new unit for conduct and discipline takes over after that

Feb - Nine Bangladeshi U.N. peacekeepers killed in an ambush by ethnic Lendu militias in Ituri

May - Parliament approves new constitution

Sep - Uganda threatens to invade in pursuit of rebels from the Lord's Rebel Army (LRA)

Dec - New constitution given public backing in a referendum

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague - the highest U.N. court - finds Uganda guilty of rights abuses and plundering resources in Congo between 1998 and 2003, and says compensation due

Late 2005/early 2006 - Government crackdown on Mai Mai militias in Katanga - who had displaced thousands - forces thousands more civilians to flee

2006

Jan - Eight Guatemalan peacekeepers killed while hunting down LRA in Garamba National Park in the northeastern province of Orientale

Feb - ICJ rules it has no jurisdiction to rule on Congo's application of rights abuses by Rwanda during the 1998-2003 war, since Rwanda hasn't accepted U.N. conventions on torture

New constitution and national flag officially adopted

MONUC threatens to pull out of joint operations in the east unless Congolese army ends human rights violations

Apr - Slow candidate registration, political wrangling and continued fighting by militia in Kivus and Katanga delay polls. Main opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) decides to boycott elections, claiming they will not be free and fair

Jul - First round of presidential elections. President Kabila receives nearly 45 percent of the vote, with his main rival, Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, winning around 20 percent

Aug - At least 16 killed in gunfire exchanges between supporters of Kabila and Bemba

Oct - Second round of presidential elections, with about 58 percent to Kabila and 42 percent to Bemba. Bemba files legal challenge, but Kabila's victory upheld

Dec - Kabila sworn in as president

2007

Jan - ICC says it has enough evidence to prosecute Ituri militia leader Thomas Lubanga for war crimes, accusing him of recruiting child soldiers

More than 100 civilians dead during military crackdown on Bundu dia Kongo (BDK) in western Bas-Congo province, as opposition supporters protest alleged fraud in local election

Feb - New government named

Renegade leader Nkunda starts integrating troops into the national army, on condition they can stay in North Kivu province

Mar - Fighting in Kinshasa between government troops and armed loyalists of opposition leader Bemba

May - Massacres in South Kivu by "rastas" from the Hutu-dominated Rwandan rebel group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR)

Aug - Army suspends attacks by Nkunda in a bid to offset rising ethnic tension. Nkunda turns against government forces again

2008

Jan - Government, Nkunda and other rebels sign peace deal

Mar - Dozens killed in west as government cracks down again on BDK, which wants to revive the pre-colonial Kongo kingdom

Jul - ICC judges suspend Lubanga's trial and order his release, pending appeal, because prosecution withheld from defence team some evidence that the United Nations wants to keep confidential to protect its sources

ICC proceedings start against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo, two warlords from the other side of the Ituri conflict

Aug - Tens of thousands displaced in North Kivu as Nkunda's rebels fight Congolese forces again, leaving Jan peace deal in tatters. Army and Mai Mai rebels clash in North Kivu

Sep - Heavy fighting between army and Nkunda's National Congress of the Defence of the People (CNDP) continues. U.N. reports 100,000 displaced since late Aug

Octogenarian Antoine Gizenga quits prime minister's post

Oct - Nkunda's rebels advance to edge of North Kivu capital Goma. Army abandons positions near Goma, looting and raping civilians. Massive displacement occurs. Displacement camps in Rutshuru razed. U.N. says FDLR and other Rwandan militia fighting with army

LRA continue attacks in Ituri. U.N. says 50,000 displaced since mid-Sep. New militia FPJ attacks military bases near Bunia

Nov - Nkunda declares ceasefire, but continues to consolidate control in north Rutshuru, triggering further displacement

Dec - Rwandan and Congolese governments agree to launch joint operations against Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels in Congo

Uganda's army, backed by Congolese and South Sudanese troops, attacks LRA bases in Orientale Province. LRA retaliates by looting local villages, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands

2009

Jan - Nkunda ousted by Bosco Ntaganda as CNDP head, and arrested in Rwanda. Ntaganda agrees to abandon CNDP's four-year insurgency and reintegrate with the army. The largest pro-government militia in the region promises to do the same

Rwandan soldiers enter eastern Congo for joint campaign with Congo against Hutu FDLR rebels

Feb - Rwanda-Congo offensive ends and Rwandan troops begin withdrawal. CNDP and PARECO Mai Mai militia announce transformation to political parties

LRA attacks against civilians continue

Non governmental organisations say U.N. peacekeepers failing to defend civilians in east and northeast

Mar - Ugandan troops withdraw from northeast

FDLR reprisal attacks on civilians in North Kivu increase, following withdrawal of Rwandan troops

Apr - U.N. and Congo army plan to expand anti-FDLR operations to South Kivu

18 eastern rebel and Mai Mai groups sign peace deal

Security in Ituri worsens, with clashes involving FPRI and FPCJ near Bunia

May - Fresh military offensive against FDLR, with fears on impact on civilians. Twelve rebel groups in South Kivu withdraw from demobilisation programme, citing lack of consultation over the new military offensive and delays over prisoner release

Amnesty bill passed for militias in North and South Kivu, excluding war crimes, foreign troops and Nkunda

Human Rights Watch accuses Congo's army of war crimes against civilians in North Kivu, charges the government rejects as "lies"

Jun - UNHCR appeals for $38m in emergency aid for one million people displaced following anti-FDLR operations in January and May