15,000 years ago
The walls of Altamira, an extensive cave in Spain, are decorated with paintings and engraved images of horses, deer and above all bison

2000 BC Beehive tombs in Spain
The cemetery at Los Millares in Spain contains more than 100 beehive tombs

1300 BC
Mycenaean merchants trade as far west as Spain and have links with neolithic societies far away in the interior of Europe

500 BC Celts move into western Europe
The Celts, moving west from central Europe, settle in France and northern Spain

240 BC Spanish metals worth fighting for
Spain, with its mines of gold, silver and copper, is a hotly disputed region between Carthage and Rome

228 BC Hamilcar Barca in Spain
Hamilcar Barca dies fighting in Spain, after establishing a strong Carthaginian presence in the peninusula

225 BC Ebro as boundary
A treaty defines the Ebro river as the Spanish boundary between Carthage and Rome

221 BC Hannibal commands in Spain
Hannibal succeeds to the command of the Carthaginian forces in Spain, on the death of his brother-in-law Hasdrubal

201 BC Spain ceded to Rome
Carthaginian Spain is handed over to Rome to become two new provinces, at the end of the Second Punic War

61 BC Caesar governs southern Spain
Caesar sets off to take up a post as governor of southern Spain, where a series of profitable raids improve his finances

49 BC Caesar drives Pompey's supporters from Italy
Julius Caesar moves fast to drive Pompey's supporters from Italy and to crush forces loyal to him in Spain

46 BC Caesar wins victory at Thapsus
Julius Caesar goes to Africa to confront the remainder of Pompey's forces, and defeats them at Thapsus – but two of Pompey's sons escape to Spain

45 BC Caesar wins victory at Munda
In the final act of his long struggle with supporters of Pompey, Julius Caesar defeats their last survivors at Munda in Spain

69 Year of the four emperors
A rebellion in Spain prompts such chaos that Rome has four emperors within a year, after the suicide of Nero in 68

105 Roman bridge over Tagus
A bridge is built over the river Tagus at Alcántara and stands today as a fine example of Roman technology

406 Vandals move through Gaul into Spain
The Vandals cross the Rhine into Gaul and move into Spain, from which the Visigoths soon push them on into Africa

550 Visigoths rule in Spain
Most of Spain is by now in the hands of the Visigoths, though for a while the Byzantines win back territories in the south

711 Muslims cross into Spain
Muslim Arabs cross from north Africa into Spain and drive the Visigoths from Toledo

718 Visigoths cling on in Asturias
Retreating from the Arab onslaught, the Visigoths establish a kingdom of last resort in the extreme north of Spain, in Asturias

756 Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba
Abd-ar-Rahman, escaping from the massacre of his family in Syria, establishes a new Umayyad dynasty at Cordoba

778 Incident at Roncesvalles
An attack on Charlemagne's army, traditionally at the pass of Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, is later the basis for the Chanson de Roland

800 Jews prosper in Spain and Germany
The Jews prosper in the Muslim and Carolingian empires, forming strong communities in Spain and in Germany

825 Bones of St James
The discovery of the supposed remains of the apostle St James makes Santiago de Compostela a new centre of European pilgrimage

950 Leon allied with Castile
Leon forms a loose alliance with its southern neighbour, Castile, to become the most powerful unit in northern Spain

1000 Arab manual of surgery
The first illustrated manual of surgery is written by Abul Kasim, an Arab physician in Cordoba

1062 Almoravids in Marrakech
Berber tribesmen, the Almoravids, establish a base at Marrakech from which they conquer northwest Africa and move into Spain

1085 Toledo captured by Christians
Toledo is captured from the Muslims by Alfonso VI of Castile, who continues the city's traditions of religious tolerance

1094 El Cid wins a kingdom
Rodrigo Diaz, known as El Cid, drives out the Muslims and wins Valencia

1147 Almohads capture Seville
Seville falls to the Almohads, from north Africa, who make it their Spanish capital

1150 Aragon and Catalonia marry
The merging of Catalonia with Aragon, by marriage, creates a power in northern Spain of comparable strength to Castile

1179 Anti-Muslim alliance in Spain
In a treaty signed at Cazorla, the kings of Castile and Aragon agree on a plan of cooperation against the Muslims

1180 Averroës in Cordoba
In Cordoba the Muslim philosopher Averroës writes commentaries on Aristotle that are influential throughout medieval Europe

1188 Early Spanish parliament
Representatives of the towns in Léon are summoned to one of the earliest known parliaments

1232 Berber kingdom of Granada
The kingdom of Granada is established with a Berber noble, Muhammad I, as the first king

1238 Delights of the Alhambra
Work begins on the Alhambra, the palace fortress of the Muslim kings of Granada

1250 School of translation in Toledo
A school of translation is set up in Toledo, to translate classical Greek texts from the Arabic versions into Latin

1290 Zohar developed in Spain
The classical work of the Kabbalah, the Zohar, is almost certainly the work of the Spanish Kabbalist Moses de Leon

1469 Aragon and Castile marry
The marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella unites the crowns of Aragon and Castile, creating virtually a unified Spain

1480 Torquemada appointed Grand Inquisitor
Tomas de Torquemada, from a family of converted Jews, is appointed Spain's first Grand Inquisitor

1492 Christians take Granada
The army of Ferdinand and Isabella besieges and takes the city of Granada, completing the long reconquest of Spain from the Muslims

1492 Jews expelled from Spain
Torquemada persuades Ferdinand and Isabella to expel from Spain all Jews (about 160,000) who will not convert to Christianity

1492 Muslim Istanbul welcomes Jews
Bayazid II, the Turkish sultan, makes a special point of welcoming in Istanbul the Jews expelled from Spain

1492 Columbus sails west
Christopher Columbus, together with the brothers Martin and Vicente Pinzón, sails west from Palos in Spain

1493 Columbus back in Spain
Columbus returns to Spain, landing at Palos with news of his great discoveries

1493 Pope allots New World
Pope Alexander VI draws a line through the Atlantic, dividing new discoveries between Spain (west) and Portugal (east)

1496 Austria marries Spain
Philip, heir to Austria, marries Joanna, a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the second of the great Habsburg marital alliances

1513 Balboa sees Pacific
Vasco Núñez de Balboa reaches the Pacific coast and claims the ocean for the king of Spain

1516 Spain has Habsburg king
The death of Ferdinand II results in Spain becoming part of the Habsburg empire, under the rule of Charles V (as Charles I of Spain)

1519 Magellan sets off round world
Ferdinand Magellan and a small fleet depart from Seville, attempting to sail round the world

1521 Ignatius inspired to be a saint
Ignatius of Loyola, recovering from a wound received as a soldier at Pamplona, is inspired by reading the lives of the saints

1522 One ship back from world tour
One surviving ship of Magellan's fleet, the Victoria, returns to Sanlucar, in Spain, with Sebastian Cano in command

1525 Muslims in Spain forced to convert
Muslims throughout Spain are ordered to convert to Christianity or to leave the kingdom

1533 Titian is court painter
The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, makes Titian his court painter (an arrangement continued by Philip II)

1542 Spanish laws to protect Indians
New Laws are passed in Spain, in an attempt to protect the Indians on the encomiendas of Spanish America

1547 Spanish rules for draughts
The first book describing the game of draughts, or checkers, is published in Spain

1554 Mary I marries Catholic heir to Spain
Mary I causes grave offence in England by her marriage to the Catholic heir to the king of Spain

1556 Charles V abdicates
Charles V abdicates, handing the Netherlands and Spain to his son Philip and the title of Holy Roman emperor to his brother Ferdinand

1556 Two Habsburg empires
The division by Charles V of his territories means that there are now two Habsburg empires, Austrian and Spanish

1563 Philip begins Escorial
Philip II begins construction of the palace and monastery known as the Escorial

1571 Philippines to be ruled from Mexico
The Philippines and its governor general are placed under the authority of the Spanish governor of New Spain, ruling from Mexico City

1571 Christian galleys overwhelm Turks
Spanish and Venetian galleys defeat the Turks in the battle of Lepanto

1575 Spanish square on battlefields
The armies of Spain develop a powerful version of the ancient phalanx, which becomes known as the Spanish square

1576 Netherlands united against Spain
The Pacification of Ghent unites all the provinces of the Netherlands in opposition to Spain

1577 El Greco moves to Spain
Domenikos Theotokopoulos moves to Spain, where he becomes known as El Greco

1579 Drake plunders in Pacific
Francis Drake seizes a Spanish vessel laden with gold and silver in the Pacific, formerly a safe area for Spain

1580 Spain annexes Portugal
A Spanish army marches into Portugal to claim the crown for the king of Spain, Philip II

1581 Protestant Netherlands reject Spain
In the Oath of Abjuration the northern provinces of the Netherlands formally reject the rule of the Spanish king, Philip II

1585 England supports Dutch rebels
England's queen Elizabeth sends 6000 troops to support the Dutch rebels against Spain

1587 Drake singes king's beard
Francis Drake sails into a crowded Cadiz harbour and destroys some thirty Spanish ships

1588 Spanish Armada defeated
The more nimble English fleet destroys the galleons of the Spanish Armada, introducing a new kind of naval warfare

1605 Don Quixote
Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes publishes the first part of his satirically romantic novel Don Quixote

1609 Moriscos shipped from Spain to Africa
A law is passed expelling the Moriscos from Spain, with the result that some 300,000 are shipped to north Africa

1621 First English newspaper
The first English newspaper (Corante) appears, promising reports 'from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France'

1623 Velazquez is court painter
Diego Velazquez becomes court painter to the king of Spain - a post which he will hold for the remaining thirty-seven years of his life

1648 Spain recognizes independent Netherlands
Spain recognizes the independence of the United Provinces of the Netherlands

1655 Velazquez's Toilet of Venus
Diego Velazquez paints his only surviving female nude, The Toilet of Venus (known as the Rokeby Venus)

1656 Velazquez paints himself in royal role
Velazquez, in Las Meninas, paints himself painting the king and queen of Spain

1668 Spain recognizes independent Portugal
Spain finally accepts the independence of the kingdom of Portugal, after nearly a century of Spanish rule

1697 France acquires Saint-Domingue
In the Treaty of Rijswijk, Spain cedes the western half of Hispaniola to France, which names its new colony Saint-Domingue

1700 French prince inherits Spain
Charles II, the childless king of Spain. leaves all his territories to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of the French king, Louis XIV

1701 War over Spanish crown
The War of the Spanish Succession breaks out between French and Austrian claimants to the Spanish throne

1713 Peace at last on Spanish succession
The treaties signed in Utrecht bring to an end the War of the Spanish Succession

1714 Spanish Netherlands become Austrian
In the aftermath of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Spanish Netherlands are transferred to Austria

1733 France and Spain in family compact
An alliance between the French and Spanish Bourbons is the first of what become known as the Family Compacts

1739 War over captain's ear
Britain declares war on Spain, partly in a mood of indignation over Captain Jenkins' ear

1741 Spain joins the war
Spain, now an ally of France, joins in the war against Austria

1741 Britain joins the war
Britain, already fighting Spain (in the War of Jenkin's Ear), is drawn into the wider conflict as an ally of Austria

1763 Treaty of Paris
A treaty signed in Paris ends the Seven Years' War between Britain, France and Spain

1763 Florida and Canada now British
In the treaty of Paris, Spain cedes Florida to Britain, completing British possession of the entire east coast of north America

1775 Goya designs tapestries
Francisco de Goya begins a series of designs for tapestries to be made in Spain's Royal Tapestry Factory

1776 Four viceroyalties in Spanish America
Spanish America is now administered as four viceroyalties - New Spain, New Granada, New Peru and La Plata

1786 Goya employed by Spanish king
Francisco de Goya is appointed painter to the king of Spain, Charles III

1788 Godoy rules roost
Spain's affairs are controlled by Manuel de Godoy, lover of the queen, Maria Luisa

1789 Goya retained at court
Francisco de Goya is appointed court painter to the new Spanish king, Charles IV

1795 Pinckney's Treaty
A treaty negotiated by US minister Thomas Pinckney provides a temporary resolution of disputes between Spain and the USA

1805 Nelson dies at Trafalgar
Horatio Nelson dies on the deck of the Victory after winning the battle of Trafalgar

1808 Napoleon turns on Spain
A French army under Joachim Murat advances on Madrid, causing the Spanish royal family to flee

1808 Joseph Bonaparte on Spanish throne
Napoleon transfers his brother Joseph Bonaparte from the throne of Naples to that of Spain

1808 Peninsular War begins
The French capture of Madrid provokes a British response and the resulting Peninsular War

1808 Goya depicts French brutality
An uprising in Madrid, brutally put down by the French, is vividly depicted by the Spanish painter Goya

1809 John Moore at Corunna
John Moore dies at Corunna but his army escapes from Spain and gets back to England

1810 Liberals acquire their name
The reforming party in Spain become known as the Liberales, in the first political use of the term Liberal

1810 Spanish Cortes in Cadiz
The Spanish Cortes flees from the renewed French invasion and establishes itself in Cadiz

1812 Spanish Cortes produces liberal constitution
The Spanish Cortes in Cadiz produces a strikingly liberal new constitution for Spain

1813 Victory for Wellington at Vitoria
Wellington defeats Napoleon's brother Joseph at Vitoria, and captures his valuable baggage train

1813 Wellington marches into France
Wellington crosses the Bidassoa river in the north of Spain, bringing an enemy army on to French soil for the first time in twenty years

1814 Ferdinand VII leads backlash in Spain
Ferdinand VII, restored to Spain, imposes a reactionary regime and persecutes his liberal opponents

1819 USA acquires Florida
Spain sells Florida to the USA for $5 million, in return for the waiving of any American claim to Texas

1820 Ferdinand VII imprisoned by liberals
A second liberal revolution in Spain ends with Ferdinand VII a prisoner of the Cortes in Cadiz

1823 Ferdinand VII restored to throne
With the help of an army from France, the Spanish king Ferdinand VII is freed from confinement and restored to his throne

1825 Goya masters lithography
The elderly Francisco de Goya becomes the first great artist to attempt lithography

1833 Carlist war in Spain
Civil war breaks out in Spain between supporters of Ferdinand VII's three-year-old daughter, Isabella II, and of his brother Don Carlos

1839 Preludes in Majorca
Polish composer Frédéric Chopin completes his Preludes under difficult conditions in Majorca

1875 Alfonso XII solves long Spanish feud
The return to Spain of Isabella's son, as Alfonso XII, offers an end to forty years of royal feuding

1878 Ten Years' War ends in Cuba
The Ten Years' War ends in Cuba, with Spain promising extensive reforms including the abolition of slavery

1879 Cave paintings at Altamira
The young daughter of an amateur archaeologist discovers the first known example of prehistoric art, in a cave at Altamira in Spain

1883 Gaudí begins work on Sagrada Familia
Antoni Gaudí begins a life-long commitment to the building of a modern cathedral in Barcelona, El Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia

1884 Spain colonizes Western Sahara
Spain begins to colonize the Western Sahara, subsequently known as the Spanish Sahara

1894 Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque Nationalist Party is founded, beginning more than a century of separatist unrest in northwest Spain

1897 Concentration camps in Cuba
The Spanish governor in Cuba is recalled to Spain, for pioneering the concept of the concentration camp

1898 Philippines declare independence
The Philippines declare independence from the colonial power, Spain, with whom they are at war

1898 Treaty ends Spanish-American War
In the Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, Spain cedes Puerto Rico and Cuba to the USA

1898 Philippines sold to USA
The agreement ending the Spanish-American War includes Spain selling the Philippines to the USA for a payment of $20 million

1900 Danzas españolas
Enrique Granados completes the ten piano pieces forming his Danzas españolas

1903 Pavlov and the conditioned reflex
In a paper to a congress in Madrid, on the 'psychology and psychopathology of animals', Ivan Pavlov announces his discovery of the conditioned reflex

1906 Gaudí's Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudí completes his radical rebuilding of the Casa Batlló in Barcelona

1907 Gains for Catalonia separatists
A separatist party in Spain, Solidaridad Catalana, makes electoral gains in Catalonia

1909 Albéniz completes Iberia
Isaac Albéniz completes his series of 12 piano pieces published under the title Iberia.

1909 Segovia a prodigy on the guitar
15-year-old Andrés Segovia gives his first public performance as a guitarist in Granada

1910 Gaudí's Casa Milá
Antoni Gaudí completes an apartment block, the Casa Milá, in Barcelona

1911 Granados' Goyescas for piano
Spanish composer Enrique Granados completes his Goyescas, seven pieces for piano

1912 France and Spain share Morocco
France and Spain agree that Spain shall become the colonial power in the north of Morocco and France in the south

1913 Limited autonomy for Catalonia
The Spanish government grants a degree of administrative autonomy to four provinces of Catalonia

1914 Gaudí's Park Güell
Antoni Gaudí completes the fanciful Park Güell, a residential project north of Barcelona based on the English concept of the garden city

1914 August 7 Spain is neutral
Spain declares a policy of neutrality in the rapidly developing European war

1916 Goyescas in opera form
The opera Goyescas, by Spanish composer Enrique Granados, has its premiere in New York

1916 Granados is torpedo victim
Enrique Granados, on the last leg of his return from New York, is one of many civilians to die when the Sussex is torpedoed by a U-boat in the English Channel

1916 Nights in the Gardens of Spain
Manuel de Falla completes his piece for piano and orchestra, Nights in the Gardens of Spain

1923 Primo de Rivera seizes power
Military leader Miguel Primo de Rivera takes power in Spain in a military coup

1926 Sagrada Familia incomplete on Gaudí's death
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí dies after being hit by a tram, with his masterpiece the Sagrada Familia unfinished

1928 Un Chien andalou
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali make Un Chien andalou, a surrealist film specifically designed to shock

1928 Lorca's Gypsy Ballads
García Lorca wins fame with his book of poems Gypsy Ballads

1929 Barcelona Chair
Mies van der Rohe designs his famous Barcelona Chair for the German pavilion at the Barcelona World Fair

1931 Dali melts watches
In his painting The Persistence of Memory Salvador Dali provides the disturbing image of watches drooping from the edge of flat surfaces

1932 Death in the Afternoon
Ernest Hemingway, an aficionado of the sport, publishes Death in the Afternoon, a non-fiction account of bullfighting in Spain

1933 Blood Wedding
García Lorca writes his play Blood Wedding while he is director of a company touring in rural Spain

1936 House of Bernarda Alba
García Lorca writes his play The House of Bernarda Alba in the last year of his short life

1936 Military coup by Spanish officers in Morocco
A rebellion by Spanish troops in Morocco is soon led by Francisco Franco and sparks the Spanish Civil War

1936 Lorca executed by Falange militia
In the first month of the Spanish Civil War the playwright García Lorca is arrested and shot by rebel Falange militia

1936 Franco is elected Nationalist leader
Francisco Franco is elected head of state of the insurgent Nationalist Spain, at this time controlling only a fraction of the country

1936 First International Brigade reaches Madrid
The first volunteers in the International Brigade arrive in Spain to fight for the Republican cause in the civil war

1936 Balenciaga moves to Paris
The Spanish Civil War causes the Basque designer Cristobal Balenciaga to move his business to Paris, capital of the fashion world

1936 Capa covers Spanish Civil War
Hungarian photographer Robert Capa achieves an unprecedented immediacy in his coverage of the Spanish Civil War

1937 Franco leads enlarged Falange
The Nationalist leader in Spain, Francisco Franco, merges Falange with other right-wing parties to form the Movimento

1937 Guernica is bombed
German planes bomb the Basque capital, Guernica, in support of the Nationalists in the Spanish Civil War

1937 Guernica on show in Paris
Pablo Picasso's massive painting Guernica is exhibited in the Spanish pavilion at the World Fair in Paris

1938 Homage to Catalonia
In Homage to Catalonia George Orwell describes his experiences fighting for the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War

1939 Spanish Civil War ends
Madrid falls to the Nationalist forces, bringing the Spanish Civil War to an end and Franco to power

1939 Concierto de Aranjuez
Joaquin Rodrigo's concerto for guitar and orchestra, the Concierto de Aranjuez, has its first performance in Barcelona

1939 September 1 Spain and Portugal neutral
Spain and Portugal declare that they will maintain their neutrality in the European war that now seems inevitable

1951 Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross
In Christ of St John of the Cross Salvador Dali paints an image of the crucified Christ seeming to fly on his cross

1957 The 'sack' conceals and titillates
Spanish-born Paris designer Cristóbal Balenciaga produces an ostensibly shapeless garment, the 'sack', that greatly excites the world of fashion

1959 ETA is formed in Spain
ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) is formed in Spain as a guerrilla organization to win Basque independence

1960 Placido Domingo's first major role
20-year-old Spanish tenor Placido Domingo sings his first major role, as Alfredo in La Traviata in the Mexican city of Monterrey

1963 Katanga bid fails
Moise Tshombe's rebel regime in Katanga crumbles, and he flees to Spain

1967 Belle de Jour
Luis Buñuel directs Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, a film about a bored housewife who takes a day job as a prostitute

1971 Casals' Hymn to the United Nations
95-year-old Spanish cellist Pablo Casals conducts in New York his Hymn to the United Nations

1972 Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Spanish director Luis Buñuel satirizes social conventions in his film Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

1975 Juan Carlos king of Spain
Franco dies and is succeeded as Spanish head of state by Juan Carlos, heir to the Bourbon throne

1976 Ballesteros is number one
19-year-old Spanish golfer Severiano Ballesteros ends the year as number one in Europe

1981 Military coup fails in Spain
Rebels storm the Spanish parliament in Madrid and briefly hold the members hostage, in a military coup that fails

1982 Maradona sold for record fee
Argentinian footballer Diego Maradona is sold to Barcelona for a new record fee of £5 million, almost double the highest previous figure

1997 Guggenheim in Bilbao
Frank Gehry wins world-wide attention with his design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

2004 Terrorist attacks on Madrid trains
Bombs explode simultaneously on several commuter trains in Madrid during the morning rush hour, killing 190 people

2006 ETA declares ceasefire
The terrorist organization ETA declares what it says will be a permanent ceasefire in its campaign for Basque independence

2010  July 11
Spain beats the Netherlands 1-0 in the final of the FIFA World Cup in the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg

2011  July
The funding crisis in the Eurozone extends to fears of potential government default in the large economies of Spain and Italy