Endgame

1652 - Jan van Riebeeck, representing the Dutch East India Company, founds the Cape Colony at Table Bay.

1795 - British forces seize Cape Colony from the Netherlands. Territory is returned to the Dutch in 1803; ceded to the British in 1806.

1816-1826 - Shaka Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire, creates a formidable fighting force.

1835-1840 - Boers leave Cape Colony in the 'Great Trek' and found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

1852 - British grant limited self-government to the Transvaal.

1856 - Natal separates from the Cape Colony.

Late 1850s - Boers proclaim the Transvaal a republic.

1867 - Diamonds discovered at Kimberley in the Northern Cape.

1877 - Britain annexes the Transvaal.

1879 - British defeat the Zulus in Natal.

1880-81 - Boers rebel against the British, sparking the first Anglo-Boer War. Conflict ends with a negotiated peace. Transvaal is restored as a republic.

Mid 1880s - Gold is discovered in the Transvaal, triggering the gold rush.

1899 - British troops gather on the Transvaal border and ignore an ultimatum to disperse. The second Anglo-Boer War begins.

1902 - Treaty of Vereeniging ends the second Anglo-Boer War. The Transvaal and Orange Free State are made self-governing colonies of the British Empire.

1910 - Formation of Union of South Africa by former British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the Boer republics of Transvaal, and Orange Free State.

1912 - Native National Congress founded, later renamed the African National Congress (ANC).

1913 - Land Act introduced to prevent black people, except those living in Cape Province, from buying land outside reserves.

1914 - National Party founded, speaks in part for Afrikaners impoverished by scorched earth policy of the British in the Anglo-Boer War and dislodged from the land by the development of capitalist farming.

1918 - Secret Broederbond (brotherhood) established to advance the Afrikaner cause.

1919 - South West Africa (Namibia) comes under South African administration.

1948 - Policy of apartheid (separateness) adopted when National Party (NP) takes power.

1950 - Population classified by race. Group Areas Act passed to segregate black people and white people. Communist Party banned. ANC responds with campaign of civil disobedience, led by Nelson Mandela.

1960 - Seventy black demonstrators killed at Sharpeville. ANC banned.

1960s - International pressure against government begins, South Africa excluded from Olympic Games.

1961 - South Africa declared a republic, leaves the Commonwealth. Mandela heads ANC's new military wing, which launches sabotage campaign.

1964 - ANC leader Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment.

1966 September Assassination of National Party Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, considered to be the primary architect of apartheid.

1970s - More than 3 million people forcibly resettled in black 'homelands'.

1976 - More than 600 killed in clashes between black protesters and security forces during uprising started in Soweto.

1977: Black Consciousness Movement leader Steve Biko dies in custody.

1984-89 - Township revolt, state of emergency declared.

1989 - FW de Klerk replaces PW Botha as president, meets Mandela. Public facilities desegregated. Many ANC activists freed.

1990 - ANC unbanned, Mandela released after 27 years in prison. Namibia becomes independent.

1990: Mandela's first speech as a free man.

1991 - Start of multi-party talks. De Klerk repeals remaining apartheid laws, international sanctions lifted. Major fighting between ANC and Zulu Inkatha movement.

1993 - Agreement on interim constitution.

1994 April - ANC wins first non-racial elections. Mandela become president, Government of National Unity formed, Commonwealth membership restored, remaining sanctions lifted. South Africa takes seat in UN General Assembly after 20-year absence.

27 April 1994 - ANC wins first democratic general election with a 62% majority.

10 May 1994 - Mandela is sworn in as South African President. The Government of National Unity was established, its cabinet made up of 12 ANC representatives, 6 from the National Party, and 3 from the Inkatha Freedom Party. Thabo Mbeki and Frederik Willem de Klerk were made deputy presidents.

1997 May - FW de Klerk issued the following public apology for apartheid "I apologise in my capacity as leader of the NP to the millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination."

1998 - Truth and Reconciliation Commission report chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu brands apartheid a crime against humanity and also finds the ANC accountable for human rights abuses.

1999 - ANC wins second democratic election with almost 66% of the vote. Middle class Xhosa intellectual and ANC stalwart Mr Thabo Mbeki is sworn in as president. Sharp decline of the NP (then the New National Party – NNP) causes it to be replaced by the Democratic Party as the official opposition in Parliament.

2004 - Ruling ANC wins landslide election victory, gaining nearly 70% of votes. Thabo Mbeki begins a second term as president.

2005 March - Investigators exhume the first bodies in a Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation into the fates of hundreds of people who disappeared in the apartheid era.

2005 June - President Mbeki sacks his deputy, Jacob Zuma, in the aftermath of a corruption case.

2006 May - Former deputy president Jacob Zuma is acquitted of rape charges by the High Court in Johannesburg. He is reinstated as deputy leader of the governing African National Congress.

2006 September - Corruption charges against former deputy president Zuma are dismissed, boosting his bid for the presidency.

2007 December - Zuma is elected chairman of the ANC, placing him in a strong position to become the next president. Prosecutors bring new corruption charges against him.

2008 September - A judge throws out a corruption case against ruling ANC party chief Jacob Zuma, opening the way for him to stand as the country's president in 2009. President Mbeki resigns over allegations that he interfered in the corruption case against Mr Zuma. ANC deputy leader Kgalema Motlanthe is chosen by parliament as president.

2008 December - A new political party is launched, The Congress of the People - or Cope - is made up largely of defectors from the ANC and is headed by former defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota.

2009 January - Appeals court rules that state prosecutors can resurrect their corruption case against ANC leader Jacob Zuma, opening the way for Mr Zuma's trial to be resumed, just months before general elections. Mr Zuma says he will appeal.

7 April 2009 The Durban High Court confirms the withdrawal of charges against Mr Zuma, but explains that this is not the same as an acquittal.

22 April 2009 - ANC wins elections with 66% of the vote. Jacob Zuma becomes new populist President of South Africa and his supporters dance in the streets, as South Africa slips into its first recession in 17 years.