Timeline: Jordan

A chronology of key events:

1948 - State of Israel created in British-mandate Palestine. Thousands of Palestinians flee Arab-Israeli fighting to West Bank and Jordan.

Petra: Ancient capital of Nabatean kingdom

• Fabled "rose-red city" was rediscovered in 1812
• Valley is enclosed by sandstone cliffs

In pictures

1950 - Jordan annexes West Bank.

1951 20 July - King Abdullah assassinated by Palestinian gunman angry at his apparent collusion with Israel in the carve-up of Palestine.

1952 11 August - Hussein proclaimed king after his father, Talal, is declared mentally unfit to rule.

1957 - British troops complete their withdrawal from Jordan.

1967 - Israel takes control of Jerusalem and West Bank during Six-Day War, major influx of refugees into Jordan.

1970 - Major clashes break out between government forces and Palestinian guerrillas resulting in thousands of casualties in civil war remembered as Black September.

1972 - Attempted military coup thwarted.

1974 - King Hussein recognises PLO as sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people.

1986 - Hussein severs political links with the PLO and orders its main offices to shut.

Hussein backs uprising

1988 - Hussein publicly backs the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli rule.

King Hussein ruled Jordan for 46 years

• Enthroned in 1953
• Married four times, fathered 11 children
• Died 7 February 1999

1999: Special report - Death of a king

1989

- Rioting in several cities over price increases.

1989 - First general election since 1967, contested only by independent candidates because of the ban on political parties in 1963.

1990 - Jordan comes under severe economic and diplomatic strain as a result of the Gulf crisis following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Peace deal signed

1994 - Jordan signs peace treaty with Israel, ending 46-year official state of war.

1996 - Food price riots after subsidies removed under economic plan supervised by the International Monetary Fund.

1997 - Parliamentary elections boycotted by several parties, associations and leading figures.

1998 - King Hussein treated for lymphatic cancer in United States.

1999 January - After six months of treatment King Hussein returns home to a rousing welcome, but flies back to the US soon after for further treatment.

King Hussein dies

1999 February - King Hussein returns home and is put on a life support machine. He is pronounced dead on 7 February. More than 50 heads of state attend his funeral.

Amman is one of world's oldest continuously inhabited cities

• Population: 1.3 million
• Built on seven hills
• Known in ancient times as Rabbath-Ammon and Philadephia

1999

7 February - Crown Prince Abdullah ibn al-Hussein is sworn in as king.

2000 September - A military court sentences six men to death for plotting attacks against Israeli and US targets.

2001 March - King Abdullah and presidents Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt inaugurate a $300m (£207m) electricity line linking the grids of the three countries.

2002 January - Riots erupt in the southern town of Maan, the worst public disturbances in more than three years, following the death of a youth in custody.

2002 August - Spat with Qatar over a programme on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV which Jordan says insulted its royal family. Jordan shuts down Al-Jazeera's office in Amman and recalls its ambassador in Qatar.

2002 September - Jordan and Israel agree on a plan to pipe water from the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea. The project, costing $800m, is the two nations' biggest joint venture to date.

2002 October - Senior US diplomat Laurence Foley is gunned down outside his home in Amman, in the first assassination of a Western diplomat in Jordan. Scores of political activists are rounded up.

2003 June - First parliamentary elections under King Abdullah II. Independent candidates loyal to the king win two-thirds of the seats.

2003 August - Bomb attack on Jordan's embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills 11 people, injures more than 50.

2003 September - Jordan's Central Bank retracts its decision to freeze accounts belonging to leaders of Hamas.

2003 October - A new cabinet is appointed following the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb. Faisal al-Fayez is appointed prime minister. The king also appoints the three female ministers.

2004 February - Jordan's King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launch the Wahdah Dam project at a ceremony on the River Yarmuk.

Terror

2004 April - Eight Islamic militants are sentenced to death for killing a US government official in 2002.

Authorities seize cars filled with explosives and arrest several suspects said to be linked to al-Qaeda and planning chemical bomb attack on intelligence services HQ in Amman.

2005 March - Jordan returns its ambassador to Israel after a four-year absence. Amman recalled its envoy in 2000 after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.

2005 April - A new cabinet is sworn in, led by Prime Minister Adnan Badran, after the previous government resigns amid reports of the king's unhappiness over the pace of reforms.

2005 August - Three missiles are fired from the port of Aqaba. Two of them miss a US naval vessel; a third one lands in Israel. A Jordanian soldier is killed.

2005 November - 56 people are killed in explosions, said to be the work of suicide bombers, at three international hotels in Amman. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claims responsibility. Most of the victims are Jordanians. A day of mourning is declared.

2006 8 June - Iraq's prime minister announces that Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been killed in an air strike.

2006 August - King Abdullah criticises the United States and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon.

2006 September - A gunman opens fire on tourists at the Roman amphitheatre in Amman, killing a British man.

2007 July - First local elections since 1999. The main opposition party, the Islamist Action Front, withdraws after accusing the government of vote-rigging.

2007 November - Parliamentary elections strengthen position of tribal leaders and other pro-government candidates. Fortunes of the opposition Islamic Action Front decline. Political moderate Nader Dahabi appointed prime minister.

2008 August - King Abdullah visits Iraq. He is the first Arab leader to visit the country since the US invasion in 2003.

2009 July - Military tribunal sentences an Al-Qaeda militant to death for his involvement in the 2003 killing of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman.