Timeline:New Tunisian government in trouble after Ben Ali ouster

1956 - Tunisia achieves independence from France. Habib Bourguiba, architect of modern Tunisia, becomes prime minister.

1957 - Bourguiba becomes president when the traditional ruler, Bey Lamine, is deposed and the monarchy abolished.

1975 - Bourguiba, the "Supreme Fighter," becomes president-for-life.

November 1987 - Prime Minister Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali declares himself president of Tunisia, stating Bourguiba's advancing age and state of health makes him incapable of governing.

February 1988 - Ben Ali, in a symbolic break with the 31-year rule of his predecessor, renames the political party which has governed Tunisia since independence.

-- The Destourian Socialist Party, which holds all 125 seats in parliament, is to be called the Constitutional Democratic Assembly.

1989 - Ben Ali wins presidential elections, and is re-elected in 1994.

-- The six opposition parties each win an average of 1 percent of the vote and enter parliament for the first time since independence, after a change to the electoral code.

October 1999 - Ben Ali wins presidential election. Two moderate opponents are allowed to stand against Ben Ali in a symbolic challenge.

April 2000 - Bourguiba dies.

May 2002 - Referendum approves amendments to the constitution that opponents say allows Ben Ali, in power for 15 years, to rule for life.

-- Opposition leaders and human rights activists, who say the government tolerates no dissent, call the vote a sham.

-- Ben Ali is re-elected in 2004.

October 2009 - Ben Ali wins a fifth term with 89.62 percent of the vote in a presidential election. Ben Ali rejects allegations the vote is unfair and says anyone spreading lies to damage the country's image will be prosecuted.

December 2010 - Mohamed Bouazizi sets fire to himself in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, protesting at the confiscation by police of his fruit and vegetable cart, sparking violent protests. He dies later.

-- The incident is embraced by jobless graduates, unionists and human right activists, as anti-government protests spread to other towns including the capital, Tunis.

January 2011 - Ben Ali flees on January 14 to Saudi Arabia following a month of protests in which at least 100 die.

-- Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi appoints opposition figures to a new coalition government on January 17, aiming to establish political stability after protests.

-- Ghannouchi says he is committed to releasing all political prisoners, and that anyone with great wealth or suspected of corruption will face investigation.

January 18 - Opposition leader Mustafa Ben Jaafar resigns from the new national unity government in protest over the presence of ministers from the party of Ben Ali.

-- Police in Tunis use teargas to break up a protest by opposition party supporters and trade unionists who labeled the new government a "sham."