Timeline: Tunisia

A chronology of key events:

circa 1100 BC - Phoenicians settle the north African coast. The city of Carthage, near the site of present-day Tunis, becomes a naval power.

Traditional Tunisian wedding procession

146 BC - Carthage falls to the Romans.

439 AD - Vandals invade; Roman buildings and artefacts are destroyed.

600s - Arabs conquer the territory of present-day Tunisia.

909 - Berbers wrest the region from the Arabs.

Ottoman Empire

1600s - Tunisia becomes part of the Turkish Ottoman empire, but has a high degree of autonomy.

1800s - French and Turkish designs on Tunisia force it to tread a careful path.

1881 - French troops occupy Tunis. France controls economic and foreign affairs; Tunisia is a French protectorate from 1883.

1934 - Habib Bourguiba founds the pro-independence Neo-Dustour Party

1942 - World War II: German troops arrive to resist allied forces in Algeria. Allied forces drive German, Italian troops out in 1943.

Independence

1956 20 March - Tunisia becomes independent with Bourguiba as prime minister.

Great Mosque at Kairouan, one of Islam's holy cities

1957 - The monarchy is abolished and Tunisia becomes a republic.

1961 - Tunisia says French forces must leave their base in Bizerte. Fighting breaks out. France pulls out of Bizerte in 1963, after long-running talks.

1981 - First multi-party parliamentary elections since independence. President Bourguiba's party wins by a landslide.

1985 - Israel raids Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) HQ in Tunis; 60 people are killed. The raid is in response to the killing by the PLO of three Israeli tourists in Cyprus.

1987 - Bloodless palace coup: Prime Minister Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has President Bourguiba declared mentally unfit to rule and takes power himself.

Ben Ali election win

Habib Bourguiba: 'Supreme Warrior' led independence fight 2000: Obituary - Habib Bourguiba BBC's Nick Pelham on Bourguiba's funeral

1989 - Ben Ali wins presidential elections. He goes on to be re-elected four more times, the last time in 2009.

1999 - First multi-party presidential elections; Ben Ali wins a third term.

2000 April - Habib Bourguiba, the founding father of independent Tunisia, dies.

2002 April - 19 people - 11 of them German tourists - are killed in a bomb explosion at a synagogue in the resort of Djerba; Al-Qaeda claims responsibility.

2002 May - President Ben Ali wins a referendum on constitutional changes, paving the way for his fourth term.

2002 September - Jailed leader of Communist Workers' Party, Hamma Hammami, is freed on health grounds. He had been accused of being in an illegal organisation and of inciting rebellion.

Well-preserved Roman ruins at Dougga

2004 October - President Ben Ali wins a fourth term with 94% of the vote.

2005 July - Parliament introduces an upper house - the Chamber of Councillors - which is dominated by the ruling party.

2005 November - Tunisia hosts a UN conference on the global information society. Authorities deny that police have harassed journalists and other delegates.

2006 - October - Authorities launch a campaign against the Islamic headscarves worn by some women.

Tunisia moves to close its embassy in Qatar in protest at alleged bias by the Qatar-based al-Jazeera TV channel. The channel broadcast remarks by veteran Tunisian dissident Moncef Marzouki in which he called for peaceful resistance to the Tunisian government.

2006 December - The Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), the main opposition party, elects a woman as leader - a first for Tunisia. She is May Eljeribi.

A policeman stands guard after a clash between militants and security forces in early 2007

2007 January - Islamist militants and security forces clash in Tunis. Twelve people are killed. Interior Minister Rafik Belhadj Kacem says the Salafist militants had come from Algeria.

2009 February - French court sentences German convert to Islam to 18 years over attack on Djerba synagogue in 2002. Walid Nouar, brother of suicide bomber, got 12 years for his part in al-Qaeda attack.

2009 July - Police charge nine men, including two air-force officers, with plotting to kill US servicemen during joint military exercises.

2009 October - President Ben Ali wins a fifth term in office.

2009 November - Taoufik Ben Brik, a journalist critical of the president, is jailed for assault. Rights groups say the case is politically motivated.

2010 July - Appeals court upholds prison sentence imposed on journalist Fahem Boukadous over his coverage of violent protests.

2010 December - Protests break out over unemployment and political restrictions, and spread nationwide.

2011 January - Protests continue, with demonstrators saying police killed at least 50 people in attempting to suppress dissent.

President Ben Ali goes into exile. Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi announces national unity government.

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