1500 The Bito dynasties of Buganda, Bunyoro and Ankole were founded by Nilotic-speaking immigrants from present day south-eastern Sudan.
1700 Buganda began to expand at the expense of Bunyoro.
By 1800 Buganda controlled the territory bordering Lake Victoria from the Victoria Nile to the Kagera river.
1840s Muslim traders from the Indian Ocean coast exchanged firearms, cloth and beads for the ivory and slaves of Buganda.
1862 British explorer John Hanning Speke became the first European to visit Buganda.
15th February 1863 Samuel and Florence Baker met up with John Speke and James Grant at the frontier village of Gondokoro (southern Sudan). Speke and Grant reported they had found the Nile’s headwaters at a lake they named Victoria.
14th March 1864 Samuel and Florence Baker arrived at Lake Luta N’Zige and named it Lake Albert. Discovering that the Nile entered the lake via a 130 foot waterfall that they named Murchison Falls after the president of the British Royal Geographical Society.
1870s The search for the source of the Nile found the people of this region to be friendly and this led to Protestant missionaries from England (first of which was Alexander MacKay) and Catholic missionaries from France to begin work in Uganda.
1875 Bugandan King Mutesa I allowed Christian missionaries to enter his realm.
1877 Members of the British Missionary Society arrived in Buganda.
1879 Members of the French Roman Catholic White Fathers arrived in the area.
1888 The beginning of a four year period of a three-way struggle between the Protestant, Catholic, and Muslims within Uganda which the Protestants went on to win.
1890 A treaty was signed by Britain and Germany giving Britain rights over what was to become Uganda.
25th January 1892 In Buganda the Battle of Mengo took place. Catholics had advanced against Anglicans armed with machine guns just outside what is now known as Kampala.
Imperial British East Africa Company agent Frederick Lugard extended the company's control in southern Uganda and helped the Protestant missionaries defeat their Catholic counterparts, who had been competing with them in Buganda.
1893 The British Union Jack flag was raised over the Kingdom of Buganda. The British mistakenly drop the letter "B" from the name and announced that ‘Uganda’ was their newest addition to the British Empire.
11th April 1894 Uganda was declared a British protectorate mainly to protect the source of the Nile. Winston Churchill later subsequently visited the area and called it "The Pearl of Africa." The town of Entebbe was the capital of the protectorate until 1962.
1900 Britain signed agreements with Buganda giving it autonomy and turning it into a constitutional monarchy controlled mainly by Protestant chiefs.
1902 The Eastern province of Uganda was transferred to Kenya.
1904 The Commercial cultivation of cotton began.
1921 Uganda was granted a legislative council, however its first African member was not admitted until
1945.
1954 The Introduction of hydroelectric power with construction of the Ownes Falls Dam at present day Jinji, where Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile.
1958 Uganda was granted internal self-government.
1st March 1962 Uganda began self-government, with Benedicto Kiwanuka as its prime minister
9th October 1962 Uganda gained its independence after nearly 70 years of British rule. Milton Obote became the first prime minister. While neighbouring Buganda also enjoyed considerable autonomy.
25th October 1962 Uganda was admitted as a member State to the United Nations.
1963 Prime Minister Milton Obote abolished Uganda's status as a Commonwealth and declared the country a republic. He replaced the post of Governor-General with a figurehead Presidency. Edward Mutesa king of the Buganda region was elected president in rigged elections.
1966 Milton Obote ended Buganda's autonomy.
2nd March 1966 The deteriorating relationship between Obote and Mutesa came to an abrupt end. Obote sent a force, led by his newly appointed army commander Idi Amin, to attack the kabaka's palace. Where it was set on fire and Mutesa fled Obote’s army and settled in London where his son, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi was enrolled in boarding school.
Obote immediately introduced a new constitution. This abolished the hereditary kingdoms, ended the nation's federal structure and provided for an executive president, a post taken by Obote himself in addition to his role as prime minister. With the help of the army and police he terrorised any remaining political opponents.
8th September 1967 A New constitution came into effect which made Uganda a republic. It also gave considerable power to the president and divided Buganda into four districts.
25th January 1971 A former private in the Ugandan army, Idi Amin, seized power in a military coup overthrowing Milton Obote, who at the time was out of the country. Eventually Amin declared himself President for life. Slowly but surely, Uganda slipped into an abyss as Amin expelled the Asian population, many of whom had been born in Uganda, and killed anyone and everyone who opposes him or who was even perceived as a threat. Estimates of over 300,000 people, mostly Christians were killed. Obote settled just over the border from Uganda in neighbouring Tanzania, where he maintained a small army of Ugandan exiles under the command of Tito Okello.
4th August 1972 Idi Amin began a three month long process to expel from Uganda 60,000 Asians holding British passports. Many left almost everything they owned behind to be pilfered by Amin's henchmen and handpicked supporters. People without one days experience in running a business were made business owners by Amin. Their lack of experience and understanding in business only lead to further decline of the economy of Uganda.
17th September 1972 It was announced in Uganda that Tanzanian forces (later reported to be Ugandan exiles who opposed Idi Amin's government) had crossed the border and captured three Ugandan towns before being pushed back by Amin's troops.
18th December 1972 Idi Amin nationalised forty one foreign owned farms and tea estates, of which thirty-four were British. This eventually led to the expulsion of all foreign business interests from Uganda, the effects of which are still being felt today.
1972-73 Uganda engaged in border clashes with Tanzania.
1976 Idi Amin declared himself president for life and also claimed parts of Kenya.
27th June 1976 Palestinian extremists hijacked Air France flight 139 in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew on board. The flight eventually landed at Entebbe Airport, as Idi Amin's government were the only country offered them a safe passage.
3rd to 4th July 1976 Operation Jonathan took place. Originally known as OperationThunderbolt, this was the Israeli Commando raid on Entebbe Airport led by Jonathan Netanyahu (the only Commando who was killed and for whom the operation was later renamed) to free Israeli highjack victims from Air France Flight 139. (You may wish to visit www.ugandamission.net, a running daily commentary on the raid by Major Louis Williams of the Israeli Army. It also includes some photographs. If a pop up screen prompts you to download Hebrew characters in order to view the site, just hit "Cancel" as all the text is in English).
27th July 1976 After four years of tension with the government of Idi Amin, Britain broke off diplomatic relations with Uganda. It had been 30 years since the British government had taken such a drastic step against another country.
1978 Uganda invaded Tanzania trying to annexing the Kagera region.
April 1979 Tanzania invaded Uganda, unifying the various anti Amin forces under the Uganda National Liberation Front and forcing Amin to flee the country, Yusufu Lule was installed as president, but was quickly replaced by Godfrey Binaisa.
1980 Binaisa was overthrown by the army. Milton Obote became president after hasty elections.
1985 President Obote was deposed by a military coup and was replaced by Tito Okello.
1985 Former witch doctor Joseph Kony came to prominence as a spiritual leader of some of the rebels in northern Uganda. He eventually formed his own militia, which became known as the Lord’s Resistance Army. This group became increasingly vicious over the next couple of decades. The rebels attack villages, killing adults or mutilating them with machetes, and kidnapping children, whom they turn into soldiers or sex slaves. Kony’s forces often took refuge in neighbouring Sudan, whose government allegedly supported them.
26th January 1986 After years of civil war in which hundreds of thousands were killed, Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army captured the capital Kampala and took power. Under his leadership, Uganda steadily achieved economic growth, the rebuilding of the shattered infrastructure, a free press and judiciary, and peace in most part of the country.
1989 Joseph Kony began to lead an armed struggle in the north against the Museveni government which had alienated many in that area. Kony's group was known as the "LRA" (Lord's Resistance Army) but his brutality eventually led to the loss of local support.
1993 Yoweri Museveni restored the traditional kings, including the king of Buganda, but without giving them political power.
1995 A new constitution legalised political parties, but maintained the ban on all political activity.
1996 Yoweri Museveni returned to office in Uganda's first direct presidential elections.
1997 Ugandan troops helped depose Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, who was replaced by Laurent Kabila.
1998 Ugandan troops intervened in the Democratic Republic of Congo on the side of rebels seeking to overthrow the president Kabila.
2000 Ugandans voted to reject multi-party politics in favour of continuing Museveni's "no-party" system.
March 2001 Uganda classified Rwanda its former ally in the civil war in DR Congo, as a hostile nation because of fighting in 2000 between the two countries' armies in DR Congo.
March 2002 Sudan, Uganda signed an agreement aimed at containing Ugandan rebel group, Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), active along their common border. LRA wanted to run Uganda along lines of the biblical Ten Commandments. Led by "prophet" Joseph Kony they have kidnapped thousands of children and displaced many civilians.
October 2002 The Army evacuated more than 400,000 civilians caught up in fight against LRA which continued its brutal attacks on villages.
December 2002 A peace deal was signed with Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) rebels after more than five years of negotiations.
May 2003 Uganda pulled out the last of its troops from eastern DR Congo. Tens of thousands of DR Congo civilians also claimed asylum in Uganda.
August 2003 Former dictator Idi Amin died in a hospital in Saudi Arabia.
February 2004 LRA rebels slaughtered more than 200 people at a camp for displaced people in the north.
April 2005 Uganda rejected accusations made by DR Congo at the International Court in The Hague. DR Congo said Uganda had invaded its territory in 1999, killing citizens and looting.
October 2005 International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for five LRA commanders, including LRA leader Joseph Kony.
November 2005 Main opposition leader Kizza Besigye was imprisoned shortly after returning home from exile. He was charged by a military court with terrorism and illegal possession of firearms. He was later released on bail in January 2006.
December 2005 The International Court in The Hague ruled that Uganda must compensate DR Congo for Human rights abuses and the plundering of resources during the five years leading up to 2003.
July 2006 Peace talks between the government and the LRA began in southern Sudan.
March 2007 A Ugandan peacekeeping force was deployed in Somalia as part of an African Union mission to help stabilise the country.
August 2007 Uganda and DR Congo agreed to try and defuse their border dispute.
2007 The UK oil explorer Heritage Oil reported it has made a major oil find in Uganda.
October 2009 Somali Islamists threatened to target Uganda and Burundi after action by African peacekeepers in Somalia killed several civilians.
February 2010 Heritage Oil sold its assets in Uganda to the UK firm Tullow Oil after the Italian Energy Company Eni dropped out of the bidding.
June 2010 Public prosecutor opened corruption investigation against Vice-President Gilbert Bukenya, Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa and several other high ranking ministers and officials over the alleged theft of $25m.
Troops stepped up border security patrols following apparent resurgence in DR Congo of ADF - NALU rebels striving for an Islamic state in Uganda.
Source
bbc.co.uk
hartford-hwp.com
ugandamission.net
desmoinesregister.com
historyworld.net
africanhistory.about.com
Further articles of interest
..
