1960 June - Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as Prime Minister and Joseph Kasavubu as President.
1961 February - Lumumba murdered, reportedly with US and Belgian complicity.
1965 - Kasavubu and Tshombe ousted in a coup led by Joseph Mobutu who renames the country Zaire.
1996-97 - Tutsi rebels capture much of eastern Zaire while Mobutu is abroad.
1997 May - Anti-Mobutu rebels, aided principally by Rwanda, capture Kinshasa. Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo as Laurent-Desire Kabila is installed as President.
2001 January - President Laurent Kabila is shot dead by a bodyguard. Joseph Kabila succeeds his father.
2001 May – The UN Refugee Agency says the war in the east killed 2.5 million people. Warring parties accused of plundering minerals.
2007 May - UN investigates claims of gold and arms trafficking by UN peacekeepers in Ituri region.
2009 November - Germany arrests two alleged FDLR leaders on suspicion of war crimes.
2009 December - UN extends mandate of MONUC for five months.
2010 July-August - Mass rape reported in North Kivu Province.
2011 February - Court sentences Lt-Col Kibibi Mutware to 20 years for mass rape in eastern Congo.
2011May - Rwandan Hutu rebel, Ignace Murwanashyaka goes on trial in Germany for alleged crimes against humanity in DRC.
2011 June - Gunmen carry out mass rape of 170 women near the eastern town of Fizi, North Kivu Province.
2011 July - Col Nyiragire Kulimushi, accused of ordering the mass rape of women in eastern DR Congo, surrenders to authorities.
2011 November – President Joseph Kabila wins another term.
2012 July - Rebel forces advance towards main eastern city of Goma.
2012 July Warlord Thomas Lubanga is convicted by the ICC for using child soldiers between 2002 and 2003.
Source: BBC
