1471 The first Europeans arrived in the area of what became known as Ghana, and the Portuguese wanting to hold on to the area for themselves built Elmina Castle.
By 1482 The Portuguese set up trading settlements in the area.
During the 1500 to1800’s the whole country was ravaged and terrorised by slave traders and tribal wars that lead to the formation of the Gold Coast state.
During 1817 to 1821 two ambassadors were sent to Kumasi to discuss peace terms with King Osei Bonsu, however they failed.
Much of the modern nation of Ghana was dominated from the late 17th through the late 19th century by a state known as Asante. Asante was the largest and most powerful of a series of states formed in the forest region of southern Ghana by people known as the Akan. Among the factors leading the Akan to form states, perhaps the most important was that they were rich in gold.
During 1823 to 1824 In Asante Sir Charles Macarthy and his Fante allies supported the Denkyiras. However Sir Charles was killed in1826, and the Asantes were defeated in the Battle of Kantamanto fought near Dodowa.
1831 George Maclean signed atreaty with the Asantes after paying 600 ounces of Gold. Later two of the Asante Princes were sent to Britain. However, they returned after 6 years in 1842.
1843 to 44 The British government signed the Bond of 1844 with the Fante chiefs.
1863 The Battle of Bobikuma took place and Britain was defeated.
1864 Britain lost another war ??.
1873 to 1877 Kofi Karikari invaded the southern and coastal areas. Major General Sir Garnet Woseley along with a British expedition force defeated the Asantes. A Treaty of Fomena was signed in 1874. Asante was also forced to recognise the Independence of all other states south of the Pra River.
1873 to 1874 saw the last Asante invasion of the coast and the British captured Kumasi.
1874 The British took control and proclaimed the coastal area as a crown colony.
Originally the colony was only a 100 km wide strip along the coast, but the British were still seeking control of the Asante kingdom and their wealth of gold. The British attacked again and burned down the Capital of Kumasi. The Kings palace was found empty, but the British stole all the valuables they could find.
1878 Cocoa was introduced to Ghana.
1888 Nana Agyeman Prempeh the Ist ascended to the throne of the Asante Kingdom.
1896 An Anglo-Asante war lead to the exile of Asantehene and to the British protectorate over Asante. Later British troops marched to Kumasi, led by Sir Francis Scott. There the king was exiled at first to the Elmina Castle, and then to Sierra Leone and later to Seychels.
1900 The first Africans were appointed to the colony's Legislative Council. Arnold Hodgson went to ask for the golden stool that the King sat upon while ruling his people and the Asantes were infuriated, that lead to many attacks.
1902 The Northern Territories proclaimed a British protectorate and Yaa Asantewaa, the queen mother of Edwiso (Ejisu) led an attack on the British Fort in Kumasi.
9th September 1909 Kwame Nkrumah, communist and premier of the Gold Coast and
president of Ghana (1960-66), was born in the village Nkroful.
1914 to18 During the First World War a Gold Coast Regiment served with distinction in East Africa.
1918 After the First World War the German areas in the East of the country came under British control Nationalist movements began to rise in the region.
1919 After the First World War German Togoland became a mandate under the Gold Coast administration.
1924 Nana Agyemang Prempeh the 1st returned. However he later died in 1931.
1925 The first legislative council elections took place.
1925 The Constitution of 1925, called for six chiefs to be elected to Legislative Council. The Guggisburg Constitution.
1935 Prempeh II Asante Confideracy Council.
1939 to 45 During the Second World War Gold Coast African forces served in Ethiopia and Burma under the British.
1945 A conference was held in Manchester to promote Pan African ideas. This was attended by Nkrumah of Ghana, Azikwe of Nigeria and Wallace Johnson of Sierra Leone. The Indian and Pakistani independence catalyst was desire.
1946 The colonial powers were weakened after the Second World War. USA and the USSR pressured for African independence. Ghana's Legislative Council got a majority of black Africans, when the British little by little gave in to the pressure for African political representation. Although the rule of the colony was still entirely within the hands of the British.
Sir Alan Burns constitution of 1946 provided a new legislative council that was made up of the Governor as the President, 6 government officials, 6 nominated members and 18 elected members.
The executive council was not responsible to the legislative council. They were only in advisory capacity, and the governor did not have to take notice.
These forces made Dr J.B. Danquah to form the United Gold Coast Conversion (UGCC) in 1947. Nkrumah was invited to be the General Secretary to this party. Other officers were George Grant (Paa Grant), Akuffo Addo, William Ofori Atta, Obetsebi Lamptey, Ako Agyei, and J Tsiboe. Their aim was Independence for Ghana. They rejected the Burns constitution.
1947 United Gold Coast Convention was founded.
June 1947 Jerry Rawlings was born.
1948 Nii Kwabena Bone II an Accra chief organised the boycott of the Europe and Syrian and Lebanese goods.
28th Feb 1948 Ex-servicemen marched on Christianborg Castle to hand a petition to the governor about their poor conditions. The order was given to open fire and 3 people were killed. The UGCC was held responsible and its officers were detained. (The dead were sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey). The six detained were Kwame Nkrumah, Obetsebi Lamptey, Ako Adjei, Ofori-Atta, Dr Danquah and Akuffo Addo. Mr Aiken Watson was appointed by the British Government to look into the disturbances. He recommended a new constitution. Mr J Cousey headed this committee.
Later Riots broke out in Accra when Police fired at an anti-colonial demonstration, and 29 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
1949 Kwame Nkrumah broke with the United Gold Coast Convention and formed the Convention People's Party (CPP) with the slogan of 'Self Government Now', leading to Internal troubles in UGCC.
1951 A new constitution lead to general elections. The Convention People's Party won two-thirds of a majority, in there first General election. While the CPP won 34 seats, the UGCC won 3. Kwame Nkrumah who was in prison for positive action, won the seat in central Accra, and was released to become the leader of Govt business, and Prime Minister on 21 March 1952.
1954 A new constitution granted broad powers to Nkrumah's government, made up of 104 elected representatives. CPP 72 seats, Northern People's Party (NPP) 15, Independents 11, and others 6. The NLM (National Liberation Movement ) was formed by linguist Baffour Akoto. Its leader was J B Danquah, and Dr K.A. Bussia as a member. This group wanted a federal government.
1956 Plebiscite in British Togoland called for a union with Gold Coast. There was another election. The CPP won 72 of the 104 seats. The NLM and its allies won the remaining seats and so became the parliamentary opposition. The former British Mandated of Togoland also voted to join the Gold Coast / Ghana.
Convention People's Party won 68 percent of seats in legislature and passed an independence motion, which the British Parliament approved.
6th March 1957 The former British Colony of the Gold Coast and Togoland were renamed and became known as Ghana. Kwame Nkrumah became the countries new and first prime minister. Ghana was the first of the colonies in sub-Saharan Africa to gain its independence. While Africa and the rest of the world followed the creation of the new state with high anticipations. The situation in Ghana inspired nationalist movements all over the continent. The economy seemed to be good and promising as Ghana was rich with gemstones, forests and crops. Ghana was also the leading cocoa exporter in the world and produced one tenth of the world's gold. While 25% of the population was literate (which is high compared to other colonies at the time) and many had obtained an education.
1958 Kwame Nkrumah, head of Ghana, had a law passed allowing him to jail anyone suspected of subversive intentions.
1958 Entrenched protection clauses of the constitution were repealed, while regional assemblies were abolished. The Preventive Detention Act was also passed.
1st July 1960 Ghana proclaimed a republic, and Kwame Nkrumah elected himself as president.
1st March 1961 US President Kennedy established the Peace Corps. The first volunteers were sent to Ghana.
1962 Foreign investors and industry were forced by law to re-invest at least 60 percent of their profit within Ghana.
1964 Ghana declared a one-party state and the completion of the Akosombo Dam.
24th Feb 1966 While Nkrumah was on an official visit to meet chairman Mao in Beijing China, the army staged a widely popular coup (without blood-shed), that was made up of British-trained officers. The National Liberation Council (NLC), led by General Joseph Ankrah, came to power. All Russian and Chinese technicians were expelled from the country. Nkrumah was granted asylum by his personal friend President Sékou Touré in Guinea. In the following days and weeks all Nkrumah statues in Accra are taken down by the crowds.
April 1969 General Ankrah was replaced by Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa, and a new constitution was introduced while a ban on party politics was lifted the following month.
August 1969 an election for a new National Assembly was held, and the Progress Party (PP) won, and was led by Dr Kofi Busia, who was subsequently appointed Prime Minister of the country. The PP government took office in October.
January 1972 Dr Kofi Busia was ousted in a military coup led by Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Cheampong. This brought the National Redemption Council to power.
1974 Shirley Temple (US early film Actress) was appointed US ambassador to Ghana. She served until 1976
5th July 1978 Acheampong was forced to resign by fellow officers, and General Frederick Akuffo took over.
1978 A referendum was held in favour of a union government.
15th May 1979 General Frederick Akuffo was deposed in coup led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Acheampong and Akuffo was tried and executed on charges of corruption.
4th June 1979 Junior officers staged Ghana's first violent coup. An Armed Forces Revolutionary council was formed under Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings.
September 1979 Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings handed over power to an elected president, Hilla Limann.
July 1979 Hilla Limann was elected president.
1979 The ban on party politics was lifted and 16 new political parties were subsequently registered.
31st December 1981 Hilla Limann was ousted in a military coup led by Rawlings after two years of weak government and economic stagnation. A Provisional National Defence Council was established with Rawlings as chairman.
1983 Rawlings adopted conservative economic policies, abolishing subsidies and price controls, privatising many state enterprises and devaluing the currency.
1983 The first phase of Economic Recovery Program was introduced with World Bank and International Monetary Fund support. Rawlings adopted conservative economic policies, abolishing subsidies and price controls, privatising many state enterprises and devaluing the currency.
1985 National Commission for Democracy, was established to plan the democratisation of Ghana's political system, officially inaugurated back in January.
1985 An American CIA clerk in Ghana Sharon Scranage pleaded guilty to disclosing the names of US agents to her Ghanaian boyfriend. She was prosecuted under a 1982 federal law called the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.
1985 The Nobistor Affair a planned coup lead by Godfrey Osei and a group of mercenaries failed to take place, coming unstuck before they reached the Ghanaian coast. The mercenaries boat having left Spain was stopped and searched in the Canary Islands after a tip off. The crew was arrested for importing arms. Osei fled to America before he was captured. However, he was not defeated and immediately set about work on another plan to topple Rawlings.
1986 The Nobistor Affair (Chapter Two) was another coup to oust Rawlings, However this second attempt also failed, as most of the mercenaries ended up in a Brazilian jail.
December 1988 and Elections for new district assemblies began that continued through to February 1989.
1990 Various organisations called for a return to civilian government and multiparty politics, among them the Movement for Freedom and Justice, that was founded in August.
May 1991 The Provisional National Defence Council announced its acceptance, of multipartyism in Ghana.
June 1991 A deadline was set for the creation of the Consultative Assembly to discuss the nation's new constitution.
April 1992 A National referendum approved a draft of a new democratic constitution. Formation and registration of political parties became legal in May.
3rd November 1992 Jerry Rawlings was elected president.
29th December 1992 Parliamentary elections was boycotted by major opposition parties, resulting in a landslide victory for National Democratic Congress.
4th January 1993 Ghana's Fourth Republic inauguration took place with the swearing in of Rawlings as the president.
1994 One thousand people were killed and a further 150,000 were displaced in the Northern Region of Ghana following ethnic clashes between the Konkomba and the Nanumba people over land ownership.
June 1994 Seven ethnic groups involved in violence in Northern Region signed a peace agreement.
8th March 1995 President Rawlings made an official visit to the United States. The first such visit by a Ghanaian head of state in more than thirty years. While back home the Government imposed a curfew in Northern Region as renewed ethnic violence resulted in a further 100 deaths.
1996 Jerry Rawlings was re-elected president for a second and last term in office
7th December 2000 Presidential and Parliamentary elections took place. The opposition leader John Kufuor wass reported to have polled 48.4% of the vote, although it was not enough to win during the first round. John Atta Mills scored 44.8% with the five other parties scooping the remaining votes between them. In parallel parliamentary elections, the NPP achieved a majority taking 99 seats. NDC took 92, PNC 3, Convention People's Party 1, independents 4. The Presidential run-off between Kufuor and Mills took place on 28 December 2000. Kufuor won taking 57% of the votes cast.
7th January 2001 Kufuor was Sworn in as the new president.
26th February 2001 Petrol prices rose by 60% following the government's decision to remove fuel subsidies.
April 2001 Ghana accepted debt relief under a scheme designed by the World Bank and the IMF.
26th May 2001 126 people were killed at the Accra Sports stadium during a soccer match. An Inquiry blamed the police for overreacting to crowd trouble.
June 2001 Government scraped a public holiday to celebrate Rawling's earlier military coups in an effort to wipe out the legacy of his rule. Thousands marched in Accra to protest against a statement made by Rawlings that the army could turn against the government.
June 2001 Deadly Floods hit Accra causing 10 deaths and forcing 100,000 to flee their homes.
April 2002 A State of Emergency was declared in the north after a tribal chief and more than 30 others were killed in tribal violence. The State of Emergency was lifted in August 2004.
2002 May President Kufuor inaugurated a reconciliation commission to look into human rights violations during military rule.
October 2003 The government approved a merger of two gold-mining firms, creating a new gold-mining giant.
February 2004 Former President Jerry Rawlings testified at a commission investigating human rights offences during the early years of his rule.
October 2004 A group of current and former military personnel were detained on suspicion of planning to destabilise the government ahead of elections.
December 2004 Presidential elections were held and incumbent John Kufuor won a second term.
April-May 2005 Thousands of Togolese refugees arrived, fleeing political violence in their home country.
April 2006 A boat capsizes on Lake Volta reservoir, more than 100 passengers were drowned.
June 2006 Visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised to lend Ghana about $66m to fund development projects. He was on an African tour aimed at opening new export markets for China's booming economy and at securing energy and mineral supplies.
March 2007 Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence from Britain.
June 2007 A major off-shore oil discovery was announced. President Kufuor reported that oil would turn Ghana into an "African tiger".
September 2007 The worst floods for more than 30 years cause widespread devastation, destroying much of the annual harvest.
December 2007 President Kufuor said off shore oil reserves totaled 3 billion barrels.
December 2008 John Atta Mills was elected president.
July 2009 US President Barack Obama visited the country, and Ghana secured a $600m three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
October 2009 Controversy over the sale of the national communications network Ghana Telecom, allegedly for less that it was worth.
