African Diaries

Bito dynasties of Buganda, Bunyoro and Ankole founded by Nilotic-speaking immigrants from present-day southeastern Sudan.

Buganda begins to expand at the expense of Bunyoro.

Buganda controls territory bordering Lake Victoria from the Victoria Nile to the Kagera river.

Muslim traders from the Indian Ocean coast exchange firearms, cloth and beads for the ivory and slaves of Buganda.

British explorer John Hanning Speke becomes the first European to visit Buganda.

Bugandan King Mutesa I allows Christian missionaries to enter his realm.

Members of the British Missionary Society arrive in Buganda.

Members of the French Roman Catholic White Fathers arrive.

Britain and Germany sign treaty giving Britain rights to what was to become Uganda.

Imperial British East Africa Company agent Frederick Lugard extends the company's control to southern Uganda and helps the Protestant missionaries to prevail over their Catholic counterparts in Buganda.

Uganda becomes a British protectorate.

Britain signs agreement with Buganda giving it autonomy and turning it into a constitutional monarchy controlled mainly by Protestant chiefs.

The Eastern province of Uganda transferred to the Kenya.

Commercial cultivation of cotton begins.

Uganda given a legislative council, but its first African member not admitted till 1945.

Uganda given internal self-government.

Uganda becomes independent with Obote as prime minister and with Buganda enjoying considerable autonomy.

Uganda becomes a republic with Buganda's King Mutesa as president.

Milton Obote ends Buganda's autonomy and promotes himself to the presidency.

New constitution vests considerable power in the president.

Milton Obote toppled in coup led by Army chief Idi Amin.

Amin orders Asians who were not Ugandan citizens - around 60,000 people - to leave the country.

Uganda engages in border clashes with Tanzania.

Idi Amin declares himself president for life and claims parts of Kenya.

Uganda invades Tanzania with a view to annexing Kagera region.

Tanzania invades Uganda, unifying the various anti-Amin forces under the Uganda National Liberation Front and forcing Amin to flee the country; Yusufu Lule installed as president, but is quickly replaced by Godfrey Binaisa.

Binaisa overthrown by the army. Milton Obote becomes president after elections.

Obote deposed in military coup and is replaced by Tito Okello.

National Resistance Army rebels take Kampala and install Yoweri Museveni as president.

Museveni restores the traditional kings, including the king of Buganda, but without political power.

New constitution legalises political parties but maintains the ban on political activity.

Museveni returned to office in Uganda's first direct presidential election.

Ugandan troops help depose Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, who is replaced by Laurent Kabila.

Ugandan troops intervene in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the side of rebels seeking to overthrow Kabila.

Ugandans vote to reject multi-party politics in favour of continuing Museveni's "no-party" system.

January - East African Community (EAC) inaugurated in Arusha, Tanzania, laying groundwork for common East African passport, flag, economic and monetary integration. Members are Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

March - Uganda classifies Rwanda, its former ally in the civil war in DR Congo, as a hostile nation because of fighting in 2000 between the two countries' armies in DR Congo. Museveni wins another term in office, beating his rival Kizza Besigye by 69% to 28%. Campaign against rebels.

March - Sudan, Uganda sign agreement aimed at containing Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), active along common border.

October - Army evacuates more than 400,000 civilians caught up in fight against cult-like LRA which continues its brutal attacks on villages.

December - Peace deal signed with Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) rebels after more than five years of negotiations.

May - Uganda pulls out last of its troops from eastern DR Congo. Tens of thousands of DR Congo civilians seek asylum in Uganda.

February - LRA rebels slaughter more than 200 people at a camp for displaced people in the north.

December - Government and LRA rebels hold their first face-to-face talks, but there is no breakthrough in ending the insurgency.

April - Uganda rejects accusations made by DR Congo at the International Court in The Hague. DR Congo says Uganda invaded its territory in 1999, killing citizens and looting.

Multi-party politics

July - Parliament approves a constitutional amendment which scraps presidential term limits.

Voters in a referendum overwhelmingly back a return to multi-party politics.

October - International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for five LRA commanders, including leader Joseph Kony.

November - Main opposition leader Kizza Besigye is imprisoned shortly after returning from exile after a trial in a military court on various charges including treason and illegal possession of firearms. Supporters say the trial was politically motivated, and take to the streets. Mr Besigye is released on bail in January 2006, just ahead of presidential elections.

December - International Court in The Hague rules that Uganda must compensate DR Congo for rights abuses and the plundering of resources in the five years leading to 2003.

February - President Museveni wins multi-party elections, taking 59% of the vote against the 37% share of his rival, Kizza Besigye. EU observers highlight intimidation of Mr Besigye and official media bias as problems.

August - The government and the LRA sign a truce aimed at ending their long-running conflict. Subsequent peace talks are marred by regular walk-outs.

November - Government rejects a United Nations report accusing the army of using indiscriminate and excessive force in its campaign to disarm tribal warriors in the lawless northeastern region of Karamoja.

March - Ugandan peacekeepers deploy in Somalia as part of an African Union mission to help stabilise the country.

The UN World Food Programme says it will have to halve food handouts to more than 1 million people displaced by war in the north.

April - Protests over a rain forest explode into racial violence in Kampala, forcing police to protect Asian businesses and a Hindu temple. An Asian man and two other people are killed.

July - Lord's Resistance Army says lack of funds for foreign travel and to reach commanders in remote hideouts will delay peace talks.

August - Uganda and DRCongo agree to try defuse a border dispute.

September - State of emergency imposed after severe floods cause widespread devastation.

February - Government and the Lord's Resistance Army sign what is meant to be a permanent ceasefire at talks in Juba, Sudan.

November - The leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, again fails to turn up for the signing of a peace agreement. Ugandan, South Sudanese and DR Congo armies launch offensive against LRA bases.

January - Lord's Resistance Army appeals for ceasefire in face of continuing offensive by regional countries.

The UK oil explorer Heritage Oil says it has made a major oil find in Uganda.

March - Ugandan army begins to withdraw from DR Congo, where it had pursued Lord's Resistance Army rebels.

October - Somali Islamists threaten to target Uganda and Burundi after action by African peacekeepers in Somalia kills several civilians.

December - Parliament votes to ban female circumcision. Anyone convicted of the practice will face 10 years in jail or a life sentence if a victim dies.

January - President Museveni distances himself from the anti-homosexuality Bill, saying the ruling party MP who proposed the bill did so as an individual. The European Union and United States had condemned the bill.

The Ugandan army says it killed Bok Abudema, a senior commander of the Lord's Resistance Army armed group, in the Central African Republic.

February - Heritage Oil sells its assets in Uganda to the UK firm Tullow Oil after Italian energy company Eni dropped out of the bidding.

June - Public prosecutor opens corruption investigation against Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya, Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and several other ministers and officials over the alleged theft of $25m.

June-August - Operation Rwenzori against ADF-NALU rebels striving for an Islamic state in Uganda prompts 90,000 to flee in North Kivu province of neighbouring DR Congo.

Blasts

July - Two bomb attacks on people watching World Cup final at a restaurant and a rugby club in Kampala kill at least 74 people. The Somali Islamist group Al-Shabab says it was behind the blasts.

August - National Resistance Movement primary elections for parliamentary and local candidates suspended amid irregularities, violence.

October - UN report into killing of Hutus in DR Congo between 1993 and 2003 says they may constitute "crimes of genocide". It implicates Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Zimbabwe and Angola. Constitutional Court quashes treason charges against opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

February - Museveni wins his fourth presidential election. Challenger Kizza Besigye alleges vote-rigging and dismisses the result as a sham.

April - Kizza Besigye arrested several times over ''walk-to-work'' protests against rising prices.

July - US deploys special forces personnel to help Uganda combat LRA rebels.

September - Court orders release of LRA commander Thomas Kwoyelo, saying he should be given the amnesty on offer from the government.

May - Ugandan Army captures senior LRA commander Caesar Achellam in a clash in the Central African Republic, one of the nearby states in which the remaining band of LRA troops operates. Uganda says this is a major breakthrough, billing Achellam as a top LRA strategist. Tens of thousands of refugees cross into Uganda, fleeing fighting in DR Congo.

July - UN accuses Uganda of sending troops into DR Congo to fight alongside the M23 rebel movement, a charge Uganda denies.

November - Uganda announces its intention to withdraw from UN-backed international peacekeeping missions in response to UN accusations that Uganda is arming Congolese rebels.

Britain and other European countries halt aid channelled through the Ugandan government amid a scandal involving the alleged theft of donor funds.

February - Eleven countries, including Uganda, sign a UN-mediated agreement pledging not to interfere in DR Congo.

March - Uganda is grouped among the worst offenders in the illegal ivory trade at a meeting of CITES, the body regulating wildlife trade.

May - Government temporarily shuts two newspapers after they published a letter suggesting President Museveni was grooming his son for power.

November - Kampala Council ousts opposition Democratic Party Mayor Erias Lukwago over allegations of incompetence and abuse of office. The Democratic Party accuses the government of engineering the ouster of the opposition's most prominent elected representative.

December - Parliament passes controversial anti-gay bill that increases the punishment for homosexual acts to include life imprisonment.

February - President Museveni signs tough new anti-gay bill into law, drawing criticism from around the world. The World Bank postpones a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over the move, saying it needs to be sure that the healthcare projects the loan was destined to support would not be adversely affected by the new law.