Iraq
1535 - Iraq became part of the Ottoman empire until 1918.
1908 - The Young Turk revolution in Istambul sought to modernize the Ottoman empire, and provoked the rise of an Islamic nationalist movement in Iraq.
1914 - Turkey allied with Germany in the Great War, and British forces landed at Bahrain in Nov. and advanced north into Iraq to protect oil lines from Iran and to protect British interests in the "Fertile Crescent" from Egypt to India.
1917 - British forces captured Baghdad, and reached Mosul by the end of the war in November 1918.
1919 - Prince Feisal, son of King Hussein who had led the Arab Revolt during the war against the Turks, went to Paris for the Peace Conference seeking Arab independence, but was disappointed in the Article 22 of the final treaty that created the mandate system for the Middle East and other colonial regions.
1920 - April 25, Iraq became a British mandate, but nationalist groups in Iraq opposed British rule and began the "Great Iraqi Revolution" that was suppressed with force by the British army and air force led by Percy Cox.
1921 - August 23, the British chose Feisal to become Iraq's first king, and sought to build a provisional government and native army in Iraq with Sunni officials.
1922 - The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty affirmed the authority of Feisal and British officials in Iraq for the next 20 years. Percy Cox redrew the boundaries of Iraq and Kuwait.
1923 - The British opposed Ataturk's attempts to take over Kurdish territory in the north, and formally incorporated Mosul and the Kurds into Iraq.
1925 - The British-controlled Turkish Petroleum Company in Mosul was reorganized as the Iraq Petroleum Company, but remained in the hands of the British.
1927 - British discovered large oil deposits at Kirkuk.
1929 - The new Labour government in Britain agreed to negotiate a treaty with Iraqi nationalists to grant independence.
1932 - October 3, Iraq became an independent state and was admitted to the League of Nations.
1936 - Gen. Bakr led military coup supported by tribes who opposed the Sunni government.
1941 - British forces re-occupied Iraq until the end of the war - Iraq in WWII
1945 - Iraq joined the Arab League.
1955 - Iraq joined the anti-communist Baghdad pact with Iran and Turkey and Pakistan.
1958 - July 14, the monarchy was overthrown in a military coup led by Brig Abd-al-Karim Qasim and Col Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif. Iraq was declared a republic and Qasim became prime minister.
1963 8 February - Qasim is ousted in a coup led by the Arab Socialist Baath Party (ASBP). Arif becomes president.
1963 18 November - The Baathist government is overthrown by Arif and a group of officers.
1972 - Iraq nationalises the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC).
1979 - President Al-Bakr resigns and is succeeded by Vice-President Saddam Hussein.
1980 - Iran-Iraqi war until 1988.
1990 - Iraq invaded Kuwait.
1991 - The Gulf War started Jan. 16 when the coalition forces began bombing Iraq in Operation Desert Storm.
1991 - Gulf War ceasefire March 3.
2003 - In March, U.S. military forces invaded Iraq. In Dec. Saddam Hussein was captured in Tikrit.
2005 - Study in July by the Iraq Body Count organisation estimates that nearly 25,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the 2003 US-led invasion.
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