1960 - Fulbert Youlou becomes the first president of Republic of Congo on independence from France.

1963 - Popular uprising leads to the military briefly taking charge and installing Alphonse Massamba-Debat as president.

1968 - Military coup topples the government and puts Captain Marien Ngouabi in power. He launches the National Revolutionary Council and declares Congo to be Africa's first people's republic.

1977 - Ngouabi is assassinated. A military committee installs Colonel Joachim Yhomby-Opango as interim head of state.

1979 - National Revolutionary Council removes Opango and installs Colonel Denis Sassou-Nguesso, vice president and defence minister, as interim president.

1992 - Sassou-Nguesso ends one-party Marxist rule by holding the first multi-party elections - which he loses to Pascal Lissouba, a former prime minister. Lissouba assembles his "Cocoyes" militia and the two opposition leaders, Sassou-Nguesso and Kolelas, head the "Cobra" and "Ninja" militias respectively.

1993 - Lissouba, having dissolved parliament in late 1992, holds new elections. Disputes over the results lead to violent conflict.

1994 - All parties accept the decisions of an international board of arbiters, and major insurrection is avoided.

1997 - In the lead-up to presidential elections, tension mounts between Lissouba and Sassou-Nguesso, leading to a four-month conflict that destroys much of the capital, Brazzaville. It ends when Sassou-Nguesso, helped by Angolan troops, wins control of Brazzaville, and the country's seaport city, Pointe Noire. Sassou-Nguesso declares himself president.

1998 - Despite reconciliation efforts after the 1997 civil war, conflict erupts again between government forces and the two opposition militias. This new violence causes great destruction and loss of life in southern Brazzaville and in the Pool, Bouenza, and Niari regions. Hundreds of thousands of people are displaced.

Several international donors suspend all non-humanitarian aid because of human rights abuses and accusations by foreign observers of "ethnic cleansing".

1999 - The government and some rebel groups sign a peace agreement. The Cocoyes are successfully demobilised and reintegrated.

2001 - The two opposition leaders, Kolelas and Lissouba, refuse to agree to a national peace dialogue and are exiled, then convicted in absentia of war crimes.

2002 - A new constitution is adopted. Sassou-Nguesso is elected in multi-party elections. After a breakdown in negotiations on disarmament, conflict breaks out again between the Ninjas, represented by the National Resistance Council, and the government. Around 100,000 mainly Lari people flee fighting in the Pool region.

2003 - A ceasefire is agreed between the government and the Ninjas' National Resistance Council.

2004 - The Government rejects the National Resistance Council's demands to allow opposition leaders to enter the country, to withdraw government troops from Pool region and to reintegrate rebels into civilian life.

2005

May - Pastor Ntoumi, head of the Ninja militia, announces that his fighters will disarm and his group will become a legitimate political party.

Oct - Kolelas returns to Congo and is granted an amnesty by Sassou-Nguesso.

2006

Jan - The World Bank and the government sign an agreement for a $17-million grant to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate 30,000 former combatants.

Insecurity causes both Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Committee of the Red Cross to withdraw from some projects.

Mar - The government awards a contract to rebuild 72 kilometres of road from Brazzaville to Kinkala, the main town in the Pool region.

Dec - U.N. agencies and non governmental organisations issue a joint appeal for $28 million to help vulnerable groups in 2007.

2007

Jan - The government says a French court decision to reopen an investigation into an alleged massacre of refugees who vanished in 1999 after returning to the capital is a "grave affront to its sovereignty". A Congolese tribunal in 2005 acquitted 15 suspects, including several army generals, of charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Frederic Bintsangou, alias Pastor Ntoumi, leader of the National Resistance Council announces he wants to transform his armed movement into a political party.

Feb - An outbreak of cholera reaches the capital.

The U.N. appeals for fresh funds to repatriate Congolese refugees, including thousands still in the Republic of Congo.