1823: Egypt's Muhammad Ali conquers the Sudan.
1832: City of Khartoum founded.
1898-1956: British Protectorate over the Sudan.
1955: Outbreak of civil war between Muslim north and Christian and animist south.
1956: Independence from Great Britain.
1969, May 25: Col. Jaafar al-Nimeiri seizes power.
1983: President Nimeiri declares sharia law.
1985, January 18: Muslim mystic Mahmoud Muhammad Taha is hanged.
1985, April 6: President Nimeiri ousted in military coup.
1986, June: Sadiq al-Mahdi forms coalition government.
1989, July: Military coup, General Omar Hasan al-Bashir assumes power in a coup ousting al-Mahdi.
1998, August: U.S. missile attack on Khartoum (following attacks on U.S. embassies by al-Qaeda).
1999: Bashir dismisses his Islamist advisor Hasan al-Turabi.
2005, January 9: Final peace treaty and government sharing agreement between north and south.
2005, July 30: Death of John Garang.
2006, September: Newspaper editor beheaded.
2007, November: British teacher sentenced for insulting Islam.