966 - the Vatican recognized Mieszko I as the leader of a Christian state, and Poland was a kingdom until the first partition of 1772.
1772 - By the first partition Poland lost almost one-third of its territory. Russia received the largest land in the northeast, Austria took the densely populated Little Poland (renamed Galicia ). Prussia annexed Eastern Pomerania, without Gdansk.
1791 - On May 3, Poland including Lithuania became an independent country with its first written constitution.
1793 - Russia and Prussia began the second partition and defeated the armies of Ko sciuszko.
1795 - By the third partition Russia annexed 62 percent of Poland's area and 45 percent of the population, Prussia 20 percent of the area and 23 percent of the population, and Austria 18 and 32 percent, and the name "Poland" disappeared from Europe.
1815 - The Congress of Vienna restored the Kingdom of Poland under the rule of Russia.
1830 - A Polish revolt was suppressed by Russia.
1918 - Independent Polish state created after the end of World War I. Marshal Jozef Pilsudski becomes head of state.
1920 - Soviet Red Army offensive repulsed.
1926 - Pilsudski stages a military coup. There follow nine years of autocratic rule.
1932 - Poland concludes non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
1934 - Poland signs similar 10-year pact with Nazi Germany.
1935 - Pilsudski dies. The military regime continues.
1941 - Germans start to build concentration camps in Poland. Their names - Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek - become synonymous with the Holocaust.
1943 - Warsaw ghetto uprising against German attempts to transport the remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps. Resistance lasts nearly four weeks before the ghetto is burned down. The Germans announce the capture of more than 50,000 Jews.
1944 - Polish resistance forces take control of Warsaw in August. The Germans recapture the city in October and burn it to the ground.
1945 - Soviet forces capture Warsaw in January. All German forces are driven from Poland by March. Poland's borders are set by the postwar Potsdam conference; Poland loses territory to the Soviet Union but gains some from Germany.
1947 - Poland becomes a Communist People's Republic. The elections are denounced by the US as undemocratic.
1955 - Poland joins the Warsaw Pact defence organisation.
1956 - More than 50 people killed in rioting in Poznan over demands for greater freedom.
1970 - Food price riots in Gdansk. The protests are suppressed, hundreds are killed. Edward Gierek becomes party leader.
1970s - Poland enjoys economic prosperity based on foreign loans. Successive US presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter visit Poland.
1978 - Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, elected Pope.
1980 - Disturbances at the shipyard in Gdansk lead to the emergence of the Solidarity trade union under Lech Walesa.
1981 - Martial law imposed. Many of Solidarity's leaders, including Walesa, are imprisoned.
1983 - Martial law lifted.
1989 - Round-table talks between Solidarity, the Communists and the church. Partially free elections see widespread success for Solidarity, which helps form coalition government.
1990 - Walesa elected president of Poland. Market reforms, including large-scale privatisation, are launched.
1992 - Soviet troops start to leave Poland.
1993 - Reformed Communists enter coalition government. They pledge to continue market reforms.
1994 - Poland joins Nato's Partnership for Peace programme.
1995 - Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist, narrowly beats Lech Walesa to become president.
1997 - Polish parliament adopts a new constitution. General election is won by the Solidarity grouping AWS. Jerzy Buzek forms a coalition government.
1998 - The EU opens talks on Polish membership.
1999 - Poland joins Nato.
2000 - Aleksander Kwasniewski re-elected as president.
2001 - Poland permits citizens to apply to see the files kept on them by the secret police during the communist era.
2001 October - New coalition between the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Peasants' Party forms government with SLD leader Leszek Miller as prime minister.
2002 December - EU summit in Copenhagen formally invites Poland to join in 2004.
2003 March - Polish Peasant's Party ejected from ruling coalition over failure to vote with government on tax. Leszek Miller carries on as PM in minority government.
2003 June - Poles vote in referendum in favour of joining EU.
2004 May - Poland is one of 10 new states to join the EU.
2004 June - Prime Minister Marek Belka wins a second confidence vote in parliament, avoiding early elections.
2005 April - Poland mourns the death of Polish-born Pope John Paul II, a former Cardinal of Krakow.
