62 AD - Roman Empire crowned Tiridates king of Armenia
306 - Armenia accepted Christianity as its state religion. Tiridates III ( 238-314) was the first ruler to officially Christianize his people.
653 - The Byzantine Empire ceded Armenia to the Arabs. In 806, the Arabs established the Bagratid family as governors, and kings.
1080 - After invasions from the east by the Seljuk Turks, the independent kingdom of Armenia collapsed. During the era of the crusades, the the kingdom of Lesser Armenia, formed in Cilicia, helped the Christian knights until the kingdom was defeated by the Mamluk Turks in 1375.
1550 - The Ottoman Turks conquered the region and divided Caucasian Armenia with the Persians.
1828 - Russia defeated Persia and annexed much of Transcaucasia, bringing many Armenians into the Russian empire while leaving many others in the Ottoman empire.
1878 - Armenian delegates attended Bismarck's Congress of Berlin, where European powers negotiated the spoils of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Although recognition of independence was refused, he "Armenian question" would become an issue in European diplomacy.
1890 - The immigration of Kurds and Muslims into eastern Anatolia made the Armenian population an increasingly endangered minority.
1915 - Between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or deported from their homeland in Anatolia to present-day Syria. The Ottoman government had suspected them of harbouring pro-Russian sympathies.
1916 - Armenia was conquered by Russia, joined alliance with Georgia and Azerbaijan.
1918 - Armenia became an independent republic.
1920 - Armenia was invaded by Turkey and Bolshevik Russia. An agreement with the Bolsheviks led to Armenia proclaiming itself a socialist republic. Yerevan became capital of Armenian republic.
1922 - Armenia was incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR.
1935 - Armenians suffered under Stalin's purges, but the country also industrialized.
1988 - Encouraged by the Russian policy of openness, Armenians began to campaign for Nagorno-Karabakh, a region with a predominantly Armenian population in the neighbouring Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, to be united with Armenia.
1988 - Earthquake in northern Armenia killed 25,000 and lefthundreds of thousands homeless in December,
1989 - Conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh began and continued for five years. Many Azeri citizens were forced to flee their homes.
1990 - Armenian nationalists won parliamentary elections, declared Independence, but ignored by Moscow.
1991 - A referendum in September voted 94% for secession from the Soviet Union. In October, Levon Ter-Petrossian was elected president. In December, Armenia joined the Commonwealth of Independent States, the successor to the Soviet Union. Armenia was recognised as independent by the US.
1992 - Armenia joined the United Nations. A trade and energy embargo was imposed by Azerbaijan. The conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh continued.
1994 Armenia & Nagorno-Karabakh
1994 - Demonstrations began in Yerevan over shortages of food and energy. A Russian-brokered ceasefire ends the Nagorno-Karabakh fighting. The region became a self-proclaimed republic, with ethnic Armenian forces in control of Azerbaijani territory surrounding Karabakh.
1995 - The government launched privatization and price liberalization programme. Parliamentary elections returned the ruling party. The powers of the president were widened.
1996 - Ter-Petrossian was re-elected president. Tanks were deployed on the streets of Yerevan to quell protests over alleged electoral fraud.
1998 - Ter-Petrossian resigned over opposition to his efforts to find a compromise with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Nationalist Robert Kocharyan was elected president.
1999 - Gunmen opened fire in the Armenian parliament. The prime minister, parliamentary speaker and six other officials were killed. The gunmen accused the government of leading Armenia into political and economic ruin.
2001 - In January, Armenia became a full member of Council of Europe. France ignored Turkish objections and introduced a law stating that Ottoman Turks committed genocide against Armenians in 1915.
2003 - In March, President Robert Kocharyan won further term in second round of presidential elections. In May, European observers found parliamentary elections in which pro-presidential candidates won majority of seats fell short of international standards.
2004 - In April, thousands of opposition supporters marched against president.
2005 - In November, referendum voted in favor of proposed constitutional amendments. Opposition protested, declaring the vote to have been rigged.
2006 - In January, supply of gas severely disrupted after explosions in Russia damage pipeline to Armenia via Georgia. In Oct, a Russian blockade of Georgia disrupted the majority of Armenian trade with Russia through Georgia. Turkey and Azerbaijan have closed their borders to trade with Armenia in protest of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The economy of Armenia already is one of the poorest in Europe, with the average worker in this land-locked country of 3.3 million earning only $3 per day.
