A chronology of key events:
1936-39 - Spanish Civil War: more than 350,000 Spaniards killed.
1939 - General Franco leads Nationalists to victory. Republicans are executed, jailed or exiled.
General Franco's dictatorship spanned nearly four decades 2005: Spanish Mass marks Franco death
1946-50 - Franco regime ostracised by United Nations; many countries cut off diplomatic relations.
1955 - Spain admitted to UN.
1959 - Eta is founded with the aim of creating an independent homeland in Spain's Basque region. The full name of the organisation - Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna - means Basque Fatherland and Freedom.
1961 - Eta's violent campaign begins with an attempt to derail a train transporting politicians.
1968 - West African colony of Spanish Guinea is granted independence as Equatorial Guinea.
1973 December - Basque nationalists assassinate Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco in Madrid in retaliation for the government's execution of Basque militants.
Move to democracy
1975 20 November - Franco dies. Succeeded as head of state by King Juan Carlos. With Juan Carlos on the throne, Spain makes transition from dictatorship to democracy.
King Juan Carlos supported moves toward democracy
1977 June - First democratic elections in four decades.
1978 - New constitution confirms Spain as a parliamentary monarchy. Eta's political wing, Herri Batasuna, is founded.
1980 - 118 people are killed in Eta's bloodiest year so far.
1981 February - Failed military coup.
1982 - Coup plot by right-wing extremists discovered.
Socialist government wins sizeable majority.
Spain joins Nato.
1986 - Spain joins the EEC.
1992 - Summer Olympic Games held in Barcelona. Seville hosts Expo 92. Celebrations mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to America.
Aznar years
1995 - Leader of opposition Popular Party Jose Maria Aznar survives a car bomb blast.
Flamenco music and dance, said to have Andalusian roots
1996 March - Jose Maria Aznar becomes PM following a stability deal with moderate Catalan and Basque nationalists who hold the balance of power after a general election in which his Popular Party emerges as the winner but fails to win an outright majority.
1997 July - Eta, demanding that Basque prisoners be transferred closer to home, kidnaps and kills Basque councillor Miguel Angel Blanco. Killing sparks national outrage and brings an estimated 6 million Spaniards onto the streets.
1997 December - 23 leaders of Herri Batasuna jailed for seven years for collaborating with Eta - the first time any members of the party have been jailed as a result of Eta links.
1998 April - Crops destroyed and wildlife wiped out when an iron pyrite mine reservoir belonging to a Canadian-Swedish company bursts its banks causing toxic waste spillage. Waterways feeding Europe's largest wildlife reserve, the Donana national park, are severely contaminated.
1998 September - Eta announces its first indefinite ceasefire since its campaign of violence began.
Eta's campaign for a sovereign Basque state has cost many lives Eta: Key events
1999 November - Eta ends its ceasefire, blaming lack of progress in talks with the Spanish government.
2000 - Madrid car bombs mark return to violence.
Aznar's Popular Party (PP) wins landslide in general elections.
Relations with Britain strained after British nuclear submarine HMS Tireless docks for repairs in Gibraltar despite protests from environmentalists.
2001 Parliament grants political recognition to Republican guerrillas - known as the maquis - who continued resisting the nationalist dictator, General Francisco Franco, after the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939.
2002 January - Peseta replaced by Euro.
2002 June - Eta suspected of being behind bomb blasts in several tourist resorts as EU summit held in Seville.
Tourism transformed Spain's economy and coastline 2004: How the Costa Brava changed the world
The summit is also marked by a general strike by nearly a million people protesting at government moves to cut employment benefits.
2002 July - Morocco sends troops to counter alleged illegal activities on disputed rocky outcrop of Perejil off Moroccan coast. Spain sends forces to eject them and gunboats to guard its enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Spain pulls troops out after Spanish, Moroccan foreign ministers agree to restore status quo, leaving Perejil unoccupied.
2002 August - A court suspends the radical Basque separatist party Batasuna for three years because of its suspected links with Eta.
2002 November - North-west coastline suffers ecological disaster after oil tanker Prestige breaks up and sinks about 130 miles out to sea.
2003 March - Indefinite ban imposed on Basque separatist Batasuna party.
2003 May - 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from duty in Afghanistan are killed when their chartered Ukrainian plane crashes in Turkey.
Madrid attacks
2004 March - 191 people killed in explosions on packed rush-hour trains in Madrid in near-simultaneous pre-election attacks. An Islamic group with links to al-Qaeda is later blamed.
Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi shattered traditional concepts 2002: Barcelona builds on Gaudi
With Spain still in mourning, the Socialists under Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defy earlier opinion polls and win a general election.
2004 April - Mr Zapatero is sworn in as prime minister; he orders Spanish troops to be withdrawn from Iraq. The last troops leave in May.
2005 February - Car bomb explodes in Madrid, injuring about 40 people. Eta is believed to be behind the attack.
Spain begins the process of granting legal amnesty for up to 800,000 undocumented immigrants.
2005 February - Voters approve the EU constitution in a referendum.
2005 May - Government offers peace talks with Eta if the group disarms.
2005 June - Parliament defies Roman Catholic Church by legalising gay marriage and granting homosexual couples same adoption and inheritance rights as heterosexual ones.
Canary Islands: A staging point for thousands of African migrants 2006: Stemming the immigration wave
2005 September-October - At least 11 die and many more are injured in a series of mass attempts by African migrants to enter the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta from Morocco in a bid to reach Spain. Spain reviews decision to deport those who do get through back to Morocco after expressions of international concern.
2006 January - Lt Gen Jose Mena Aguado sacked as head of army ground forces after suggesting that the military might take action in Catalonia if the region gains too much autonomy.
Eta ceasefire
2006 March - Eta declares a ceasefire. In June, Prime Minister Zapatero says the government will hold peace talks with the group.
2006 June - Voters in Catalonia back proposals to give the region greater autonomy as well as the status of a nation within Spain.
2006 August-September - Spain tries to rally international support over illegal immigration from Africa. Canary Islands officials say more than 22,000 immigrants have arrived on the islands since the start of the year and hundreds have died while attempting the sea crossing.
2006 December - Prime Minister Zapatero suspends moves to seek dialogue with Eta after a car bomb attack at a Madrid airport.
2007 February - Trial begins of 29 suspects charged with involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings.
2007 June - Eta calls off ceasefire.
2007 August - Eta blamed for Basque country car bomb.
2007 September - Leading Eta bomb maker arrested near Toulouse, France.
2007 October - Several people are found guilty and given jail sentences for the Madrid train bombings in 2004.
Franco era denounced
2007 November - Parliament passes a bill formally denouncing Franco's rule and ordering the removal of all Franco-era statues and symbols from streets and buildings.
King Juan Carlos visits the Spanish-held enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, angering Morocco which demands the return of the territories.
2008 March - Parliamentary elections. The ruling Socialist Workers' Party wins re-election with an increased margin, but falls short of an absolute majority.
2008 April - Prime Minister Zapatero unveils new cabinet, which for the first time includes more women than men.
2009 January - Spanish economy enters recession for first time since 1993.
2009 March - Unemployment rate hits 17.4%, with over 4 million people out of work.
2009 May - The parliament of the Basque region votes in the first non-Nationalist regional government in more than 30 years, under Socialist leadership, following elections in March.
The government unveils plans to liberalise Spain's relatively restrictive abortion laws; the conservative opposition People's Party says it will challenge the move in court.
2009 July - Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos visits Gibraltar - the first visit by a Spanish minister in 300 years.
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