RWAF.ORG - The Baobab

1830s - Ndebele people fleeing Zulu violence and Boer migration in present-day South Africa move north and settle in what becomes known as Matabeleland.
1830-1890s - Hunters, traders and missionaries explore the region from the south. They include Cecil John Rhodes.
1889 - Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSA) gains a British mandate to colonise what becomes Southern Rhodesia.
1890 - Pioneer column arrives from south at site of future capital Harare.
1893 - Ndebele uprising against BSA rule is crushed.
1922 - BSA administration ends, the country opts for self-government.
1953 - Britain creates the Central African Federation, made up of Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi).
1960s - Emergence of nationalist groups - the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu).
1963 - Federation breaks up when Zambia and Malawi gain independence.
1964 - Ian Smith of the Rhodesian Front (RF) becomes prime minister, tries to persuade Britain to grant independence.
1965 - Smith unilaterally declares independence, sparking international outrage and economic sanctions.
1972 - Guerrilla war intensifies, with rivals Zanu and Zapu operating out of Zambia and Mozambique.
1978 - Smith yields to pressure for negotiated settlement. Elections for transitional legislature boycotted by Patriotic Front made up of Zanu and Zapu. New government of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, fails to gain international recognition.
1979 - British-brokered all-party talks at Lancaster House in London lead to a peace agreement and new constitution, which guarantees minority rights.
1980 - Veteran pro-independence leader Robert Mugabe and his Zanu party win British-supervised independence elections. Mugabe is named prime minister and includes Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo in his cabinet.
1982 - Mugabe sacks Nkomo, accusing him of preparing to overthrow the government. North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade deployed to crush rebellion by pro-Nkomo ex-guerrillas in Midlands and Matabeleland provinces. Government forces are accused of killing thousands of civilians over next few years.
1987 - Mugabe, Nkomo merge their parties to form Zanu-PF, ending the violence in southern areas.
1987 - Mugabe changes constitution, becomes executive president.
1991 - The Commonwealth adopts the Harare Declaration at its summit in Zimbabwe, reaffirming its aims of fostering international peace and security, democracy, freedom of the individual and equal rights for all.
1998 - Economic crisis accompanied by riots and strikes.
1999 - Economic crisis persists, Zimbabwe's military involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo civil war becomes increasingly unpopular. Formation of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
2000 February - Squatters seize hundreds of farms in an ongoing and violent campaign. Mugabe suffers defeat in referendum on draft constitution.
2000 June - Parliamentary elections: Zanu-PF narrowly fights off a challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai, but loses its power to change the constitution.
2001 May - Defence Minister Moven Mahachi killed in a car crash - the second minister to die in that way in a month.
2001 July - Finance Minister Simba Makoni publicly acknowledges economic crisis, saying Zimbabwe's foreign reserves have run out and warning the country faces serious food shortages. Most western donors, including the World Bank and the IMF, have cut aid because of Mugabe's land seizure programme.
2001 October - Visiting Commonwealth ministers say the government has done little to honour commitments to end the crisis over the seizure of land.
2002 February - Parliament passes a law limiting media freedom. The European Union imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe and pulls out its election observers after the EU team leader is expelled.
2002 March - Mugabe re-elected in presidential elections condemned as seriously flawed by the opposition and foreign observers. Commonwealth suspends Zimbabwe from its councils for a year after concluding that elections were marred by high levels of violence.
2002 April - State of disaster declared as worsening food shortages threaten famine. Government blames drought, the UN's World Food Programme says disruption to agriculture is a contributing factor.
2002 June - 45-day countdown for some 2,900 farmers to leave their land begins, under terms of a land-acquisition law passed in May.
2002 September - Commonwealth committee - including leaders of South Africa, Nigeria and Australia - fails to agree on further sanctions against President Mugabe.
2002 November - Agriculture Minister Joseph Made says the land-grab is over. He says the government has seized 35m acres of land.
2003 March - Widely-observed general strike is followed by the arrests - and reported beatings - of hundreds of people. A BBC correspondent says the evidence points to a crackdown of "unprecedented brutality".
2003 June - Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai is arrested twice, amid a week of opposition protests. He is charged with treason, adding to an existing treason charge from 2002 over an alleged plot to kill President Mugabe.
2003 November - Canaan Banana, Zimbabwe's first black president, dies aged 67.
2003 December - Zimbabwe pulls out of Commonwealth after organisation decides to extend suspension of country indefinitely