1918 - Towards the end of World War I, Belarus proclaims its independence as the Belarussian National Republic. But, with the end of the war, these aspirations are short-lived. The Red Army invades.

1919 - The Belarussian Soviet Socialist Republic is proclaimed.

1921 - The Treaty of Riga divides Belarus between Poland and Soviet Russia.

1922 - The Belarussian SSR becomes founding member of the USSR.

Stalin's purges

1930s - Belarus suffers from the purges against intellectuals and political opponents ordered by Stalin. More than one-hundred thousand people are executed in Belarus, thousands more sent to labour camps in Siberia.

1941 - Nazi Germany invades during the course of World War II. More than one million people are killed during the occupation, including many Jews. The capital, Minsk, is severely damaged.

1944 - The Soviet Red Army drives the Germans out of Belarus.

1945 - At the end of the war, much of western Belarus - previously belonging to Poland - is amalgamated into the Soviet Republic.

1960s - A policy of 'Russification' is pushed through.

1986 - Belarus is heavily affected by the fall-out from the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl in neighbouring Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people receive high radiation doses. Around 20% of agricultural land is contaminated and rendered unusable.

1988 - Belarussian Popular Front formed as part of nationalist revival prompted by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of 'openness'. Details emerge of the full extent of the executions during the Stalin period.

1990 - Belarussian becomes the official state language.

1991 - Belarus declares its independence as the Soviet Union breaks up. Minsk becomes the headquarters of the successor to the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Lukashenko era

1994 - Alexander Lukashenko becomes president. He introduces policies designed to strengthen ties with Russia.

1995 - Friendship and cooperation pact signed with Russia. National referenda result in a new flag almost identical to that of the former Soviet republic, and the restoration of Russian as an official language. The president's powers are also widened. There are protests on the streets, but these are broken up.

1996 - An agreement on economic union is signed with Russia. Lukashenko increases his powers again, extending his term in office.

1997 - Protesters against Lukashenko sign a pro-democracy manifesto 'Charter '97'. Belarus' observer status in the Council of Europe is suspended. Belarus and Russia ratify their union treaty.

1998 - The Belarus rouble sees its value halved. Food rationing is imposed. Belarus signs an accord with Russia, which would see their currencies and tax systems merge.

2000 October - Parliamentary elections are criticised by election observers who say they are not free and fair. Turnout in some constituencies is so low that a re-run will be necessary.

2000 November - President Lukashenko and Russia's President Putin agree on the introduction of a single currency by 2008.

2001 March - Parliamentary elections are re-run in thirteen constituencies where voter turnout in October 2000 was too low. Belarus officials declare the votes valid. Thousands demonstrate in Minsk against Lukashenko.

Re-election

2001 September - Lukashenko re-elected to serve second term. Opposition and Western observers say elections were unfair and undemocratic.

2002 August - Lukashenko rejects Russian proposals for new form of union under Russian constitution with single government and single parliament.

2002 November - US, 14 EU states impose travel ban on Lukashenko and several government ministers over poor human rights record and after OSCE officials are told to leave.

2003 April - US, EU lift travel ban on president and ministers after OSCE readmitted. But they remain critical of country's human rights record.

2004 April - Council of Europe condemns human rights abuses after report accuses authorities of blocking investigation into the fate of four men with opposition links who disappeared in Minsk in 1999 and 2000. EU imposes travel restrictions on number of senior officials.

2004 October - Referendum backs change allowing president to serve more than previous limit of two terms. Opposition parties fail to win a single seat in parliamentary elections held at same time. Western observers say vote is neither free nor fair.

Street protests ensue. Demonstrators clash with police and dozens are arrested.

2004 November - EU extends travel restrictions on senior officials. US imposes sanctions.

2004 December - Opposition politician Mikhail Marinich jailed for allegedly stealing office equipment. He declares the charge to be politically motivated.

2005 August - Diplomatic row with Poland over treatment of ethnic Poles accused of stirring up unrest in a bid to overthrow President Lukashenko.

Poll protests

2005 December - As March elections approach, parliament approves bill setting out tough penalties for those found guilty of inciting demonstrations or distributing information regarded as harmful to national interests.

2006 February/March - Dozens arrested at opposition demonstrations in Minsk as election date draws near.

2006 March - President Lukashenko declared winner by landslide in elections condemned as unfair by Western observers.

Opposition arrests reported as protesters in capital demand fresh vote.

2006 April - EU imposes visa ban on President Lukashenko and numerous ministers and officials.

Defeated presidential election candidate Alexander Milinkevich jailed for 15 days after attending rally to mark anniversary of Chernobyl disaster in neighbouring Ukraine.

2006 July - Defeated presidential election candidate Alexander Kozulin convicted of hooliganism and incitement to mass disorder. He is jailed for five and a half years.

2006 November - Youth opposition activist Dmitriy Dashkevich jailed for 18 months for membership of an unregistered organization.

Gas and oil row

2006 December - After tense negotiations during which Moscow threatened to cut supplies, a new gas deal is signed with Russia which more than doubles the price and phases in further increases over four years.

2007 January - Russia cuts the supply along an oil export pipeline to Europe amid a row with Belarus over taxation and allegations of siphoning. The dispute ends after Russia agrees to cut the oil duty it will charge Belarus.

2007 March - Police clash with protesters in Minsk as thousands of opposition supporters hold rally calling for an end to President Lukashenko's rule.

Human rights concerns

2007 May - Belarus fails in its bid to win a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, a result hailed by rights groups as lending credibility to the council.

2007 August - Russia says it will almost halve gas supplies to Belarus over unpaid debt.

2007 October - President Lukashenko says that Belarus will have to build a nuclear power station in order to meet its energy needs.

2007 December - President Lukashenko says he is ready to host Russian missiles if the US sets up bases in Poland and the Czech Republic.

2008 March - US Ambassador Karen Stewart leaves country indefinitely after Belarus asks her to leave. Belarus withdrew its own ambassador from Washington the previous week in a row over US sanctions. US denies Belarussian accusations that US diplomats recruited citizens as spies.

2008 April - Belarus refuses to release former presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin, imprisoned on charges of organising protests against the 2006 election. The US and European Union have made release of political prisoners a condition for improving relations.

2008 May - Belarus expels 11 US diplomats in row over US criticism of Belarus' human rights record.

Media curbs

2008 June - International tender launched for nuclear power plant.

Parliament passes new media law that independent journalists say will restrict online reporting and private media funding ahead of the autumn parliamentary elections.

2008 August - Former opposition presidential candidate Alexander Kozulin and two other dissidents freed from prison.

2008 September - Government candidates win all 110 seats in parliamentary polls; European observers say the vote fell short of international standards but note improvements since last election.

US lifts some of its sanctions after the recent release of dissidents.

2008 October - EU lifts its travel ban on President Alexander Lukashenko in an attempt to encourage democratic reform.

2009 April - President Lukashenko visits the Vatican in his first official visit to Western Europe since 1995.

2009 May - President Lukashenko does not accept EU invitation to attend "Eastern Partnership" summit with six former Soviet states in Prague.

Tensions with Russia

2009 June - Russia imposes ban on Belarussian dairy products, ostensibly on health grounds. Belarus retaliates by installing a highly symbolic customs post on the two countries' joint border. Both measures are later reversed.

2010 January - Belarus threatens to cut electricity supply to Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad in wake of unresolved dispute over Russian oil supplies to Belarus. The two sides eventually reach a compromise over the amount of duty-free oil Russia will supply to Belarus.

2010 June - President Lukashenko orders the shutdown of transit of Russian gas to Europe, escalating a new "gas war" after Moscow slashes supplies to Minsk in a debt dispute. Russia's Gazprom state gas company later resumes supplies after Belarus pays the outstanding debt.

2010 July - Belarus signs up for customs union with Russia and Kazakhstan despite objections to continued Russian duty on oil and gas exports.

2010 September - European Union Foreign Affairs chief Catherine Ashton calls for probe into death of Oleg Bebenin, founder of opposition website Charter '97, who was found hanged.

2010 December - Presidential elections. President Lukashenko declared winner. Opposition and western observers allege vote rigging. Mass protests in Minsk are broken up by force, with 600 arrests.

International sanctions

2011 January - President Lukashenko is inaugurated for a fourth term in office. The EU reinstates a travel ban on him and freezes his assets, while the US imposes stricter financial controls and widens its travel bans on senior officials.

Belarus threatens the EU with retaliation over the sanctions and pushes ahead with plans to put more than 30 political activists, including four opposition leaders, on trial over the December protests.

2011 April - Explosion hits a busy metro station in Minsk, killing 11. President Lukashenko alleges a plot by "fifth columnists" to destabilize the country. Two suspects are arrested, and prosecutors say they confessed to the attacks.

2011 May - Opposition leader Andrei Sannikov is sentenced to five years in prison for organising protests over the December elections. His wife, the journalist Irina Khalip, receives a suspended prison sentence for "rioting".

Belarus cuts the official value of its rouble currency against the dollar by 36%, leaving it still less than half of the freely-traded interbank rate. This follows its most serious balance of payments crisis since independence drains its hard currency reserves.

Bailouts

2011 June - Belarus asks the IMF for an emergency loan of up to $8bn over the balance of payments crisis. The government raises its main interest rate from 14% to 16% and freezes prices on a number of staple foods. Panic buying of basic goods ensues.

Russia halves electricity supplies to Belarus over unpaid bills and in an effort to persuade the government to privatise lucrative assets. Belarus seeks a Russian-led $1.2bn bailout, which is conditional on reforms.

2011 July - Hundreds are beaten, manhandled and arrested after a month of nationwide anti-government protests.

2011 August - Royal Bank of Scotland ceases selling Belarusian government bonds after a campaign by human rights groups. RBS cites international sanctions, the deteriorating political situation and Belarus's tardy implementation of a IMF programme.

2011 September - The rouble falls sharply after the government allows a limited flotation in its latest bid to ease the financial crisis.

2011 November - Prominent human rights activist Ales Belyatski is found guilty of tax evasion and sentenced to four and a half years in prison. The EU says the case is politically motivated and calls for Mr Belyatski's immediate release.

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6th-7th centuries: Penetration of Slavs into the territory of future Belarus, already settled by Baltic tribes

8th-9th centures: Massive settlements of East Slavic tribes (Kryvichans, Drehovichans, and Radsimichans) on the territory of Belarus and their assimilation of Balts

862: First mention of Polacak (Polotsk) in the chronicle Tale of the Bygone Years

10th century: The city of Polacak (Polotsk) in Northern Belarus becomes the predominant center of power on Belarusan territory, competing with Novgorod and Kiev

980: First mention of the city Turau in a chronicle

988: Christianization of Kiev by Prince Vladimir (Volodymyr)

1044-1066: Erection in Polacak of St. Sophia Cathedral to match similar buildings in Novgorod and Kiev, as a symbol of independent power

Boris and Gleb Orthodox Church Grodno, XII c.

12th century: Break-up of the Polacak principality into several appanages, which war among themselves and against Kiev

1120-1173: Life of St. Euphrosyne , granddaughter of Prince Usiaslau

ca.1130-ca.1182: Life of St. Kiryla (Cyril), bishop of Turau

1201: German missionaries found the city of Riga, Latvia's capital today

1214: Polacak loses to the Knights of the Sword its western vassal cities on the banks of Dvina

1228: Polish Prince Konrad of Masovia invites to his realm the German Christian warriors known as the Knights of the Cross, who make constant military incursions into Lithuanian, Belarusan, and Muscovite lands

1237: Merger of the Knights of the Sword and the Knights of the Cross into one Teutonic Order

1240: Destruction of Kiev by the Mongols

1240-1263: Rule of Mindouh (Mindaugas), who consolidates east Lithuanian and west Belarusan territories into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) and Rus', with a capital in Navahradak

Bela Vezha - White Tower, XIII c.

1300: Dante and Giotto mark dawn of the Renaissance

1315-1341: Rule of Grand Duke Hedymin (Gediminas), who transfers the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Rus' to Vilnia (Vilius)in 1323

1341-1377: Rule of Grand Duke Alhierd (Algirdas), who expands eastward the territory of his duchy, thereby clashing with neighboring Muscovy

1385: Grand Duke Jahaila (Jogailo, Jagiello; baptized Wladyslaw) concludes a personal union with Poland by marrying the Polish queen and promising to Catholicize Lithuania

1387, 1390, 1391: Self-government bestowed on the cities of Vilnia, Bierascie(Brest), and Hrodna (Grodno), respectively

1392: Grand Duke Vitaut recognized by king Jahaila as the independent ruler of the Grand Duchy

1410: The great Battle of Grunwald, during which the united armies of Poland and the Grand Duchy crush the Germans of the Teutonic Order

1432,1434,1447: Royal charters establish equality of feudal lords of both Catholic and Orthodox confessions

1468: King Kazimir's Code of Laws(Statut Kazimira), the first code of criminal and procedural laws of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (written in Belarusan) in which punishment is individualized

1480: Muscovy free of the Tatar dependency

1492: Columbus reaches America

1498,1499: Self-government privilege granted to Polacak and Miensk

1500: Beginning of defensive wars of the Gand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus', and Samogitia against Muscovy (Moscow)

Early 16th century: First Belarusan printing shop founded in Vilnia

1517: Luther's Ninety-Five Theses precipitate the Protestant Reformation

1517-1519: Francisak Skaryna of Polacak translates and publishes the Bible in the Belarusan vernacular in Prague

Front Page of Skaryna's Bible

1529: Adoption by the Diet Of the Great Duchy of the first code of laws, the "Statute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania," written in Belarusan

1560s: Wave of conversion of Belarusan gentry to Calvinism

1563: Polacak occupied by Russian army

1569: Political union of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitia with Poland establishing the Commonwealth of Poland. Arrival of the first Jesuits in Vilnia; start of the Counter-Reformation in the Grand Duchy

Jesuit Church in Grodno, XVII-XVIII cc.

1579: Polacak taken back from Muscovites by the army of King Stefan Batory; The Vil'na University is founded.

1581: Establishment of the Tribunal of the GDL, an appellate court that fortified the rights of the gentry

1607: Founding of Jamestown in Virginia, first of the thirteen English colonies in America

1603-1613: Muscovy's "Time of Troubles," when a Polish king of Swedish lineage, Sigismund III, tries to be accepted as Russia's tsar

1613: Election of the first Romanov tsar in Russia

1632-1634: War of the Commonwealth with Muscovy

1654: Bohdan Khmelnitsky unites Ukraine with Russia

1654-1667: War of the Commonwealth with Russia; loss of Smolensk to Muscovy

1686: Russo-Polish "Eternal Peace": Russia retains Smolensk, Chernigov, and Kiev

1696: By a decision of the Warsaw General Confederation, the Rus'ian (Old Belarusan or Old Slavic) language is replaced by Polish in official documents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Latin alphabet replaces C yrillic in popular usage

1772, 1793, 1795: Three partitions of the Polish Commonwealth among Russia, Prussia, and Austria. All of Belarus is incorporated into the Russian Empire, with the exception of a small northwestern corner, taken by Prussia. 1776: Most Belarusan cities and towns are deprived of their Magdeburg Statutes of self-government. 1789: Onset of French Revolution. American Constitution adopted.

1791: The Constitution of May 3 merges the Polish Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus', and Samogitia into a unitary state.

1794: Anti-Russian uprising led by Tadeush Kosciuszko/P>

1803: The Vilnia Imperial University is founded and becomes a hotbed of Polish, Belarusan, and Lithuanian youth movements

1812: Napoleon's march into Russia

1832: Vilnia Imperial University closed down as part of the measures taken to thwart the insurrection of 1830-1831

1861: Abolition of serfdom in Russia

Typical Village of XIX c.1863-1864: Massive anti-tsarist uprising in Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania led in Belarus by Kastus' Kalinouski

1864-1876: Opening of teacher's seminaries in Maladecna, Niasviz , Svislach, and Polacak

1864-1915: The Vilnia Archeological Commission publishes forty-nine volumes of documents pertaining to Belarusan history

1867: Russia sells Alaska to the United States

1870: Publication of The Dictionary Of the Belarusan Language by Ivan Nasovich

1902: Founding of the Belarusan Revolutionary Hramada, renamed in the following year as the Belarusan Socialist Hramada, which spearheaded the establishment of a Belarusan political state

1917: In March, the Russian Revolution causes Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate. In November, Lenin's Bolsheviks seize power. In December, the First All-Belarusan Congress in Miensk proclaims a republican government in Belarus and is disbanded by Bolsheviks

1918: On March 9, the Executive Committee of the Council of the First All-Belarusan Congress declares Belarus a democratic Republic

1919-1921: The Russo-Polish War results in the partitioning of Belarus between the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and Poland

1927: Massive arests of the leaders of the Belarusan Peasant-and-Workers' Hramada are made by Polish authorities

1928: The Institute of Belarusan Culture is renamed the Belarusan Academy of Sciences, with Usievalad Ihnatouski as president

1936: Closure by the Polish authorities of the Belarusan Institute of Economy and Culture and the Belarusan School Society in Vilnia

1937-1941: Operation of Soviet death camp in Kuropaty near Miensk, where up to 250,000 civil victims may have been executed as a result of Stalinist genocide

1939: On September 1, Germany attacks Poland and World War II begins

On September 17, Red Army moves into West Belarus and West Ukraine

On October 10, Moscow transfers Vilnia from the Belarusan SSR to the Lithuanian SSR

1941-1944: The German occupation of Belarus results in the deaths of 2.2 million people, the destruction of 209 cities and townships, and 9,200 villages, and uncounted material losses

1944: At the Moscow conference (October 9-22), the Polish delegation agrees to accept the Curzon Line as Poland's eastern frontier

1945: On April 25, delegates from Belarus and Ukraine are invited to the San Francisco Conference. Recognized for their role in the war effort, both countries become members of the United Nations

1953: Stalin dies

Belarusan Giant - BelAZ

1986: On April 26, our biggiest tragedy - The Chernobyl explosion. Seventy percent of the fallout covers southeastern Belarus with radioactive dust. It will stay there for thousands of years

1991: On August 25, Belarus declares independence

On December 8, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine form the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Soviet Union comes to a virtual end. And that is when I'm taking her from.