3 November 2014
Source BBC
1947 – British colonial rule over India ends. A largely Muslim state comprising East and West Pakistan is established, either side of India. The two provinces are separated from each other by more than 1,500 km of Indian territory.
Indian military support during the the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 helped East Pakistan break away to form Bangladesh
1949 – The Awami League is established to campaign for East Pakistan’s autonomy from West Pakistan.
1970 – The Awami League, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, wins an overwhelming election victory in East Pakistan. The government in West Pakistan refuses to recognise the results, leading to rioting. Cyclone hits East Pakistan – up to 500,000 people are killed.
Independence
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was at the forefront of the struggle for independence from Pakistan
1971 – Sheikh Mujib arrested and taken to West Pakistan. In exile, Awami League leaders proclaim the independence of the province of East Pakistan on 26th March. The new country is called Bangladesh. Just under 10 million Bangladeshis flee to India as troops from West Pakistan are defeated with Indian assistance.
1972 – Sheikh Mujib returns, becomes prime minister. He begins a programme of nationalising key industries in an attempt to improve living standards, but with little success.
1974 – Severe floods devastate much of the grain crop, leading to an estimated 28,000 deaths. A national state of emergency is declared as political unrest grows.
1975 – Sheikh Mujib becomes president of Bangladesh. The political situation worsens. He is assassinated in a military coup in August. Martial law is imposed.
Ziaur Rahman, pictured with Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was assassinated in 1981
1976 – The military ban trade unions.
1977 – General Ziaur Rahman assumes the presidency. Islam is adopted in the constitution.
1979 – Martial law is lifted following elections, which Zia’s Bangladesh National Party (BNP) wins.
1981 – Zia is assassinated during abortive military coup. He is succeeded by Abdus Sattar.
The Ershad era
1982 – General Ershad assumes power in army coup. He suspends the constitution and political parties.
1983 – Limited political activity is permitted. Ershad becomes president.
Hussain Muhammad Ershad seized power. He later stepped down following popular protests
1986 – Parliamentary and presidential elections. Ershad elected to a five-year term. He lifts martial law and reinstates the constitution.
1987 – State of emergency declared after opposition demonstrations and strikes.
1988 – Islam becomes state religion. Floods cover up to three-quarters of the country. Tens of millions are made homeless.
1990 – Ershad steps down following mass protests.
1991 – Ershad convicted and jailed for corruption and illegal possession of weapons. Begum Khaleda Zia, widow of President Zia Rahman, becomes prime minister. Constitution is changed to render the position of president ceremonial. The prime minister now has primary executive power. Cyclonic tidal wave kills up to 138,000.
Awami League returns
1996 – Two sets of elections eventually see the Awami League win power, with Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, becoming prime minister.
1997 – Ershad is released from prison. The opposition BNP begins campaign of strikes against the government.
1998 – Two-thirds of the country devastated by the worst floods ever. Fifteen former army officers sentenced to death for involvement in assassination of President Mujib in 1975.
Garment exports are a mainstay of the economy
2000 September – Sheikh Hasina criticises military regimes in a UN speech, prompting Pakistani leader General Musharraf to cancel talks with her. Relations strained further by row over leaked Pakistani report on 1971 war of independence.
2000 December – Bangladesh expels Pakistani diplomat for comments on the 1971 war. The diplomat had put the number of dead at 26,000, whereas Bangladesh says nearly three million were killed.
2001 April – Seven killed in bomb blast at a Bengali New Year concert in Dhaka. Sixteen Indian and three Bangladeshi soldiers killed in their worst border clashes.
Dhaka: The capital is one of the world’s most densely-populated cities
2001 April – High Court confirms death sentences on 12 ex-army officers for killing Mujib. Only four are in custody.
2001 June – Bomb kills 10 at Sunday mass at a Roman Catholic church in Baniarchar town. Bomb at Awami league office near Dhaka kills 22. Parliament approves bill providing protection for Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana, who feared that the killers of their father Mujib were out to get them too.
2001 July – Hasina steps down, hands power to caretaker authority, becoming the first prime minister in the country’s history to complete a five-year term.
Coalition government
2001 September – At least eight people are killed and hundreds injured as two bombs explode at an election rally in south-western Bangladesh.
2001 October – Hasina loses at polls to Khaleda Zia’s Nationalist Party and its three coalition partners.
2001 November – Law repealed which guaranteed lifelong security to former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and sister Sheikh Rehana.
2002 March – Government introduces law making acid attacks punishable by death amid public anger over escalating violence against women.
Islam was made the state religion in 1988
2002 May – Government orders tightening of safety standards after up to 500 people die when a river ferry goes down in a storm.
2002 June – President Chowdhury resigns after ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) accuses him of taking an anti-party line.
2002 July – Pakistani President Musharraf visits; expresses regret over excesses carried out by Pakistan during 1971 war of independence.
2002 September – Iajuddin Ahmed sworn in as president.
2002 December – Simultaneous bomb blasts in cinemas in a town north of Dhaka kill 17 and injure hundreds.
2004 Opposition calls 21 general strikes over the course of the year as part of a campaign to oust the government.
2004 May – Parliament amends constitution to reserve 45 seats for female MPs.
Bomb attack on Muslim shrine in north-eastern town of Sylhet kills two and injures UK high commissioner and 50 others.
2004 July onwards – Worst flooding in six years leaves nearly 800 people dead, millions homeless or stranded, and an estimated 20m in need of food aid. September’s floods in Dhaka are said to be the worst in decades.
2004 August – Grenade attack on opposition Awami League rally in Dhaka kills 22 people. Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina survives the attack.
2005 January – Prominent Awami League politician Shah AMS Kibria is killed in a grenade attack at a political rally. The party calls a general strike in protest.
Bomb attacks
2005 17 August – Around 350 small bombs go off in towns and cities nationwide. Two people are killed and more than 100 are injured. A banned Islamic group claims responsibility.
2005 November – Spate of bombings, blamed on Islamic militants, hits Chittagong and Gazipur.
2006 February – Opposition Awami League ends year-long parliamentary boycott.
Political crisis
Political antagonism spilled over into the streets in 2006
2006 October – Violent protests over government’s choice of a caretaker administration to take over when Premier Zia completes her term at the end of the month. President Ahmed steps in and assumes caretaker role for period leading to elections due in January 2007.
2006 November – A 14-party opposition alliance led by the Awami League campaigns for controversial election officials to be removed. Chief election commissioner MA Aziz steps aside.
2006 December – Election date set at 22 January. Awami alliance says it will boycott the polls. Awami leader Sheikh Hasina accuses President Ahmed of favouring her rival. Blockade aimed at derailing parliamentary elections paralyses much of the country.
2007 January – A state of emergency is declared amid violence in the election run-up. President Ahmed postpones the poll. Fakhruddin Ahmed heads a caretaker administration.
2007 March – Six Islamist militants convicted of countrywide bomb attacks in 2005 are hanged. They include the leaders of Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen.
2007 April – Sheikh Hasina is charged with murder. Begum Khaleda Zia is under virtual house arrest. Several other politicians are held in an anti-corruption drive.
2007 August – Government imposes a curfew on Dhaka and five other cities amid violent clashes between police and students demanding an end to emergency rule.
2007 November – Cyclone Sidr kills thousands.
2008 June – Sheikh Hasina is temporarily freed to get medical treatment in the US.
2008 August – Local elections take place, seen as a big step towards restoring democracy. Candidates backed by the Awami League party perform strongly.
2008 November – The authorities say general elections will be held on 18 December. Sheikh Hasina returns to lead her party in the poll.
Awami League win
2008 December – General elections: Awami League captures more than 250 of 300 seats in parliament. Sheikh Hasina is sworn in as prime minister in January.
2009 February – Around 74 people, mainly army officers, are killed in a mutiny in Dhaka by border guards unhappy with pay and conditions. Police arrest some 700 guards. A further 1,000 guards are detained in May.
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Bangladesh at 40
Mr Sayedee became the first suspect charged by a tribunal probing the 1971 independence struggle
2009 June – In a ruling on the decades-old dispute between two main political parties, the High Court decides that it was the father of PM Sheikh Hasina, and not late husband of her arch-rival Khaleda Zia, who proclaimed independence from Pakistan in 1971.
2009 October – The government bans the local branch of the global Islamist organisation Hizb-ut Tahrir, saying it poses a threat to peace.
2010 January – Five former army officers are executed for the 1975 murder of founding PM Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
2011 June – Constitutional change scraps provision for a neutral caretaker government to oversee elections.
2012 January – Army says it has foiled a coup planned by “fanatical officers”.
2012 May-June – Key figures from the main Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, including leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, are charged with war crimes by a government tribunal investigating alleged collaboration with Pakistan during the 1971 independence struggle. Jaamat-e Islami supporters clash with police repeatedly in following months in protest at the trial.
2012 October – Muslim rioters attack Buddhist villages and shrines in south-east Bangladesh after an image said to show a burnt Koran was posted on Facebook. The government denounces the attacks as “premeditated and deliberate acts of communal violence against a minority”.
2013 January – War crimes tribunal sentences prominent Muslim cleric Abul Kalam Azad to death for crimes against humanity during the 1971 independence war. He was tried in absentia, as he had fled abroad.
2013 April – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina vetoes Islamist bill to outlaw criticism of Islam.
Parliament elects Abdul Hamid as Bangladesh’s new president, following the death in March of Zillur Rahman.
2013 May – European retailers promise to sign an accord to improve safety conditions in factories after a garment factory building collapsed in April, killing more than 1,100 people. Worker protests close hundreds of factories and extract a government pledge to raise the minimum wage and make it easier to form unions.
2013 July – At least two people are killed as police clash with thousands of protesters after the conviction of Ghulam Azam, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence. Ghulam Azam dies in October 2014.
2013 November – Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami supporters clash with police in protests at the government’s refusal to make way for a caretaker administration to oversee parliamentary elections in January, as is the usual custom.
2013 December – Supreme Court upholds death sentence on Islamist leader Abdul Kader Mullah of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, who was convicted in February of crimes against humanity during the 1971 war of independence.
2014 January – Opposition BNP boycotts parliamentary elections, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returnde for third term in office.
2014 March – Khaleda Zia and other BNP opposition leaders sent for trial in April on corruption charges over alleged embezzlement of charitable funds.
2014 October – Jamaat-e-Islami Leader Motiur Rahman Nizami and another leading figure, Mir Quasem Ali, are latest party officials to be found guilty of war crimes committed during independence war in 1971. Both face death sentences, and another death sentence is upheld on senior party official Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, who was sentenced in May 2013. Critics say government using tribunal to target opponents.
