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A chronology of key events: 1918 1 October - Arab troops led by Emir Faysal, and supported by British forces, capture Damascus, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule.
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Damascus: Syria's capital has a long history
64 BC: Conquered by Romans
635 AD: Conquered by Muslim Arabs
1516: Becomes Ottoman outpost
1919: Becomes capital of Syria
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1919 - Emir Faysal backs Arab self-rule at the Versailles peace conference, following the defeat of Germany and the Ottoman Empire in World War I. 1919 June - Elections for a Syrian National Congress are held. The new assembly includes delegates from Palestine. 1920 8 March - The National Congress proclaims Emir Faysal king of Syria "in its natural boundaries" from the Taurus mountains in Turkey to the Sinai desert in Egypt. French control 1920 June - San Remo conference splits up Faysal's newly-created Arab kingdom by placing Syria-Lebanon under a French mandate, and Palestine under British control. 1920 July - French forces occupy Damascus, forcing Faysal to flee abroad. 1920 August - France proclaims a new state of Greater Lebanon. 1922 - Syria is divided into three autonomous regions by the French, with separate areas for the Alawis on the coast and the Druze in the south. Uprising 1925-6 - Nationalist agitation against French rule develops into a national uprising. French forces bombard Damascus. 1928 - Elections held for a constituent assembly, which drafts a constitution for Syria. French High Commissioner rejects the proposals, sparking nationalist protests.
Great Mosque in Damascus, earliest surviving stone mosque
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1936 - France agrees to Syrian independence in principle but signs an agreement maintaining French military and economic dominance. 1940 - World War II: Syria comes under the control of the Axis powers after France falls to German forces. 1941 - British and Free French troops occupy Syria. General De Gaulle promises to end the French mandate. 1945 - Protests over the slow pace of French withdrawal. 1946 - Last French troops leave Syria. Baath Party founded 1947 - Michel Aflaq and Salah-al-Din al-Bitar found the Arab Socialist Baath Party.
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Hafez al-Assad brought stability, but did so through repression
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1949 - Army officer Adib al-Shishakhli seizes power in the third military coup in the space of a year. 1952 - Al-Shishakli dissolves all political parties. 1954 - Army officers lead a coup against Al-Shishakli, but return a civilian government to power. 1955 - Veteran nationalist Shukri al-Quwatli is elected president. Syria seeks closer ties with Egypt. United Arab Republic 1958 27 February - Syria and Egypt join the United Arab Republic (UAR). Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser heads the new state. He orders the dissolution of Syrian political parties, to the dismay of the Baath party, which had campaigned for union. 1961 28 September - Discontent with Egyptian domination of the UAR prompts a group of Syrian army officers to seize power in Damascus and dissolve the union. 1963 8 March - Army officers seize power. A Baathist cabinet is appointed and Amin al-Hafez becomes president. Rise of Assad 1966 February - Salah Jadid leads an internal coup against the civilian Baath leadership, overthrowing Amin al-Hafez and arresting Salah al-Din al-Bitar and Michel Aflaq. Hafez al-Assad becomes defence minister.
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Israel occupied the Golan Heights in 1967
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1967 June - Israeli forces seize the Golan Heights from Syria and destroy much of Syria's air force. 1970 November - Hafez al-Assad overthrows president Nur al-Din al-Atasi and imprisons Salah Jadid. 1971 March - Assad is elected president for a seven-year term in a plebiscite. 1973 - Rioting breaks out after Assad drops the constitutional requirement that the president must be a Muslim. He is accused of heading an atheist regime. The riots are suppressed by the army. War with Israel 1973 6 October - Syria and Egypt go to war with Israel but fail to retake the Golan Heights seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. 1974 May - Syria and Israel sign a disengagement agreement. 1975 February - Assad says he's prepared to make peace with Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land. 1976 June - Syrian army intervenes in the Lebanese civil war to ensure that the status quo is maintained, and the Maronites remain in power. 1978 - In response to the Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, Assad sets out to gain strategic parity with Israel. Riots 1980 - After the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Muslim groups instigate uprisings and riots in Aleppo, Homs and Hama. Assad begins to stress Syria's adherence to Islam. 1980 - Muslim Brotherhood member tries to assassinate Assad. 1980 September - Start of Iran-Iraq war. Syria backs Iran, in keeping with the traditional rivalry between Baathist leaderships in Iraq and Syria. 1981 December - Israel annexes the Golan Heights. Uprising in Hama 1982 February - Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama. The revolt is suppressed by the military.
Life in Damascus revolves around the city's markets
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1982 June - Israel invades Lebanon and attacks the Syrian army, forcing it to withdraw from several areas. Israel attacks the PLO base in Beirut. 1983 May - Lebanon and Israel announce the end of hostilities. Syrian forces remain in Lebanon. 1983 July - Mufti of Jerusalem issues a fatwa calling for Assad to be killed because of his hostile treatment of the PLO. 1983 - Assad suffers a heart attack, according to reports denied by authorities. Assad's brother Rifaat apparently prepares to take power. 1984 Rifaat is promoted to the post of vice-president. Return to Lebanon 1987 February - Assad sends troops into Lebanon for a second time to enforce a ceasefire in Beirut. 1990 - Iraq invades Kuwait; Syria joins the US-led coalition against Iraq. This leads to improved relations with Egypt and the US. 1991 October - Syria participates in the Middle East peace conference in Madrid and holds talks with Israel. 1994 - Assad's son Basil, who was likely to succeed his father, is killed in a car accident. Rifaat sacked 1998 - Assad's brother Rifaat is "relieved of his post" as vice-president. 1999 December - Talks with Israel over the Golan Heights begin in the US. 2000 January - Syrian-Israeli talks are indefinitely postponed. Assad succession 2000 June - Assad dies and is succeeded by his son, Bashar. 2000 November - Bashar orders the release of 600 political prisoners. 2001 April - Outlawed Muslim Brotherhood says it will resume political activity, 20 years after its leaders were forced to flee. 2001 5 May - Pope John Paul II pays historic visit. Beirut pull-out 2001 June - Syrian troops evacuate Beirut, redeploy in other parts of Lebanon, following pressure from Lebanese critics of Syria's presence.
Death of veteran leader led to his son's smooth ascent to presidency
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2001 September - Detention of MPs and other pro-reform activists, crushing hopes of a break with the authoritarian past of Hafez al-Assad. 2001 November - British PM Tony Blair visits to try shore up support for the campaign against terror. He and President Assad fail to agree on a definition of terrorism. 2001 November - More than 100 dissidents amnestied. Campaigners say hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail. Tensions with US 2002 May - Senior US official includes Syria in a list of states that make-up an "axis of evil", first listed by President Bush in January. Undersecretary for State John Bolton says Damascus is acquiring weapons of mass destruction. 2003 April - US threatens sanctions if Damascus fails to take what Washington calls the right decisions. Syria denies US allegations that it is developing chemical weapons and helping fugitive Iraqis. 2003 September - President Assad appoints Mohammed Naji al-Otari as PM.
Diners survey the sprawl of the capital, Damascus
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2003 October - Israeli air strike against alleged Palestinian militant camp near Damascus. Syria says action is "military aggression". 2004 January - President Assad visits Turkey, the first Syrian leader to do so. The trip marks the end of decades of frosty relations. 2004 March - At least 25 killed in clashes between members of the Kurdish minority, police and Arabs in the north-east. 2004 May - US imposes economic sanctions on Syria over what it calls its support for terrorism and failure to stop militants entering Iraq. 2004 September - UN Security Council resolution calls for all foreign forces to leave Lebanon. 2004 December - Authorities say they have amnestied 112 political prisoners. Pressure over Lebanon
Lebanese protesters urge Syrian forces to quit
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2005 February-March - Tensions with the US escalate after the killing of former Lebanese PM Hariri in Beirut. Washington cites Syrian influence in Lebanon. Damascus is urged to withdraw its forces from Lebanon. 2005 April - Syria says it has withdrawn all of its military forces from Lebanon. 2005 October - Interior minister and Syria's former head of intelligence in Lebanon, Ghazi Kanaan, commits suicide, officials say. UN inquiry into assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri implicates senior Syrian officials.
Refugees cross into Syria to escape Israel's bombardment of Lebanon
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2005 December - Exiled former vice president, Abdul Halim Khaddam, alleges that Syrian leaders threatened former Lebanese PM Hariri before his assassination. 2006 February - Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus are set on fire during a demonstration against cartoons in a Danish newspaper satirising the Prophet Muhammad. 2006 July - Thousands of people flee into Syria to escape Israel's bombardment of Lebanon. 2006 September - Attack on the US embassy in Damascus. Four gunmen open fire and throw grenades but fail to detonate a car bomb. Three of them are killed, one is captured. Diplomatic overtures 2006 November - Iraq and Syria restore diplomatic relations after nearly a quarter century. 2006 December - Aid agencies say they are struggling to cope with the growing numbers of Iraqis fleeing into Syria to escape the violence. 2006 December - The Iraq Study Group report making recommendations to the US government says neighbours should form a support group to reinforce security and national reconciliation in Iraq. Syria welcomes the chance to participate. 2007 March - European Union reopens dialogue with Syria. 2007 April - US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi meets President Assad in Damascus. She is the highest-placed US politician to visit Syria in recent years. 2007 April - Parliamentary elections. 2007 May - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meets Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, the first contact at this level between the two countries in two years. 2007 May - Leading dissident Kamal Labwani and prominent political writer Michel Kilo are sentenced to a long jail terms, only weeks after human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni is jailed. Al-Assad endorsed as president for a second seven-year term. Israeli strike
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MYSTERY SITE
Israeli forces destroyed what they claim was a nuclear facility under construction. Syria says it was an unused military facility
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2007 September - Israel carries out an aerial strike against a military site in northern Syria. 2007 October - Syria imposes tough visa restrictions on Iraqis, saying it can't cope with the influx of refugees. 2008 January - Diplomatic row between Damascus and Paris over Lebanon's quest for a consensus president. 2008 March - Syria hosts Arab League summit. Many pro-Western states send lower-level delegations in protest at Syria's stance on Lebanon. 2008 April - The US accuses North Korea of helping Syria build a secret nuclear reactor. The site was bombed by Israel in 2007. 2008 May - President Assad announces a 25% pay rise for public sector workers to offset effects of rising food and heating oil prices. International acceptance 2008 July - President Assad meets French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. The visit signals the end of the diplomatic isolation by the West that followed the assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri in 2005. While in Paris, President Assad also meets the recently-elected Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman. The two men agree to work towards the establishing of full diplomatic relations between their countries. 2008 September - Damascus hosts four-way summit between Syria, France, Turkey and Qatar, in a bid to boost efforts towards Middle East peace. Explosion kills 17 on the outskirts of Damascus, the most deadly attack in Syria in several years. Government blames Islamist militants. 2008 October - Syria establishes diplomatic relations with Lebanon for first time since both countries established independence in 1940s. 2009 March - Jeffrey Feltman, acting assistant US secretary of state for the Near East, visits Damascus with White House national security aide Daniel Shapiro in first high-level US diplomatic mission for nearly four years. Met Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Trading launches on Syria's stock exchange in sign of gradual liberalisation of state-controlled economy. 2009 April - A key suspect in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was arrested in Dubai. Mohammed Zuhair al-Siddiq, a former Syrian intelligence officer, was a witness to Hariri's killing, and later an international arrest warrant was issued for him. 2009 May - Syrian writer and pro-democracy campaigner Michel Kilo was released from prison after serving a three-year sentence. He was convicted of weakening national sentiment and encouraging sectarian strife after he joined calls for Syria to recognise Lebanon's independence. 2009 June - The UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said traces of undeclared man-made uranium were found at a second site in Syria - a reactor in Damascus. The IAEA was investigating US claims that a Syrian site destroyed in a 2007 Israeli raid was a nuclear reactor that was not yet operational. 2009 July - US special envoy George Mitchell visits Syria for talks with President Assad for talks on Middle East peace. 2009 August - Iraq and Syria recall their envoys in a deepening rift over charges of responsibility for a string of deadly bomb attacks in Baghdad.
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