1000 Caribs move into Caribbean
Man-eating Caribs move into the islands around the sea named after them - the Caribbean

1492 World's first globe lacks America
The world's first globe is published by Martin Behaim without showing America, in the very year of Columbus' voyage

1492 Columbus lands in the Bahamas
After sailing for five weeks from the Canaries, Columbus and the Pinzón brothers step ashore in the Bahamas

1492 Columbus reaches Cuba
Columbus and his fellow explorers make landfall on the largest of the Caribbean islands, Cuba

1496 Santo Domingo first Spanish colony
Diego Columbus, brother of the explorer, establishes the first secure Spanish colony at Santo Domingo

1515 Spaniards conquer Cuba
The Spanish complete the conquest of Cuba and establish the town of Havana

1609 British castaways on Bermuda
Castaways from an English vessel reach Bermuda, which becomes the first British island in the new world

1627 Barbados early British colony
A British colony is founded in Barbados and within fifteen years has 18,000 settlers

1655 British in Jamaica
The British, settling in Jamaica, soon turn the island into the major slave market of the West Indies

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

1761 Harrison's chronometer is accurate
John Harrison's fourth chronometer is only five seconds out at the end of a test journey from England to Jamaica

1793 Toussaint L'Ouverture invades his home territory
Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave, joins a Spanish force invading the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti)

1800 Toussaint l'Ouverture rules Saint-Domingue
Toussaint L'Ouverture emerges as the leader of Saint-Domingue, ruling without French colonial control

1801 Toussaint L'Ouverture rules Santo Domingo
Toussaint L'Ouverture invades the neighbouring Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, and becomes ruler of of the whole island of Hispaniola

1801 France recovers Saint-Domingue
A powerful French force arrives in Saint-Domingue and recovers control of the colony, offering generous terms to the native leaders

1802 Toussaint L'Ouverture captured by French
Toussaint L'Ouverture is treacherously arrested and sent to France, where he dies in prison

1804 Haiti asserts independence
The independence of Haiti from France is proclaimed by a new black ruler calling himself the emperor Jacques I

1815 Spanish back once again in Bogotá
The Spanish recover Bogotá yet again and Bolívar flees into exile in Jamaica

1844 Dominican Republic claims independence
The other half of Hispaniola joins Haiti in declaring independence, as the Dominican Republic

1855 Mary Seacole cares for sick in Crimea
Jamaican-born nurse Mary Seacole sets up her own 'British Hotel' in the Crimea to provide food and nursing for soldiers in need

1868 Ten Years' War begins in Cuba
An uprising against Spanish rule in Cuba sparks off a Ten Years' War

1868 Grito de Lares 1868
An armed uprising against Spanish rule takes place in the town of Lares in Puerto Rico, becoming known as the Grito de Lares ('Cry of Lares')

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

1882 Heureaux controls Dominican Republic
Ulises Heureaux becomes dictator of the Dominican Republic and retains power until assassinated in 1899

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

1898 Maine blown up in Havana
The US battleship Maine is blown up in Havana harbour, sparking off the Spanish-American War

1898 Roosevelt with Rough Riders in Cuba
Theodore Roosevelt fights against the Spanish in Cuba with a volunteer regiment of cavalry, the Rough Riders

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

1900 New rights for Puerto Ricans
Puerto Ricans are granted limited democracy in a bill of rigfhts introduced after two years of US military occupation

1902 Cuba is independent
Cuba becomes independent after three years of US military rule, with certain restrictions imposed by the Platt Amendment of 1901

1903 US naval base in Cuba
Cuba is forced to accept a permanent US military presence in Guantanamo Bay

1912 US marines in Cuba
President Taft sends US marines to Cuba because of political unrest in the island

1915 US takes over in Haiti
Woodrow Wilson sends US marines to take control in Haiti after a spate of political assassinations

1916 Haiti is US protectorate
Haiti becomes a US protectorate, under the terms of a treaty signed in the previous year

1916 US marines in Dominican Republic
Woodrow Wilson sends the marines to maintain order when the Dominican Republic slips towards civil war

1917 Democracy in Puerto Rico
The Jones Act gives Puerto Ricans US citizenship and a popularly elected Senate and House of Representatives

1928 Jean Rhys's first novel
Caribbean-born author Jean Rhys publishes her first novel, Postures, based on her affair with the writer Ford Madox Ford

1930 Coup in Dominican Republic
Rafael Trujillo establishes a dictatorship in the Dominican Republic that will last for 30 years

1930 Steel bands in Trinidad
The steel-band tradition begins to develop in Trinidad, with adapted metal objects taking the place of traditional skin drums

1930 Rastafarian origins in Jamaica
The Rastafarian cult evolves in Jamaica, viewing Ras Tafari, the emperor of Ethiopia, as the black Messiah

1933 Batista takes power in Cuba
Fulgencio Batista, as army chief of staff, begins a long career running the affairs of Cuba

1934 US pulls out of Haiti
The US military government is finally withdrawn from Haiti after nineteen years

1948 UK advertises for Jamaican immigrants
The British government advertises in Jamaica for people to come and work in Britain

1948 Immigrants to UK on Empire Windrush
The first West Indian immigrants to Britain arive from Jamaica on the Empire Windrush

1952 The Old Man and the Sea
Ernest Hemingway publishes The Old Man and the Sea, about an epic struggle between an aged Cuban fisherman and a gigantic marlin

1956 Castro launches guerrilla war in Cuba
Communist activist Fidel Castro returns from Mexico to Cuba to organize guerrilla warfare against the Batista regime

1957 Sobers 365 not out
Barbadian cricketer Garfield Sobers, playing in Kingston, Jamaica, against Pakistan, makes a record Test score of 365 not out

1957 Duvallier is president of Haiti
A country doctor, François Duvalier, is elected president of Haiti on a massive popular vote

1958 Batista flees from Cuba
Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees from Cuba, leaving Havana open to Fidel Castro and his victorious guerrillas

1959 Castro rules Cuba
Fidel Castro begins more than four decades of authoritarian rule in Cuba

1959 Trinidad Theatre Workshop
West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott founds the Trinidad Theatre Workshop

1961 Bay of Pigs
An invasion force of about 1500 Cuban exiles comes ashore in Cuba's Bay of Pigs in an attempt to topple the Castro regime

1961 Cuban exiles captured
Two days after landing in the Bay of Pigs, 114 Cuban exiles are dead and about 1300 have been captured

1961 A House for Mr Biswas
Caribbean novelist V.S. Naipaul features his Trinidad family in A House for Mr Biswas

1961 Trujillo assassinated
Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic for the past 30 years, is killed by a machine-gun attack on his car

1962 Missile bases in Cuba ring alarm bells
US intelligence reveals nuclear missile bases under construction in Cuba, causing an international crisis

1962 US navy deployed round Cuba
President Kennedy sends the US navy to prevent delivery of Soviet missiles to Cuba

1962 Cuban missile crisis solved
A deal between President Kennedy and Soviet premier Khrushchev defuses the Cuban missile crisis

1962 Bay of Pigs prisoners sent back to USA
Fidel Castro releases, for $53 million in food and medicine, the Cuban exiles taken prisoner in the Bay of Pigs fiasco

1963 Marley and the Wailers
Bob Marley and five others form a band, the Wailers, that will for the first time give Jamaican music a global following

1964 Papa Doc president for life
Papa Doc Duvalier, ruling through the brutal Tontons Macoutes, makes himself president of Haiti for life

1965 US marines in Dominican Republic
US marines intervene in civil war in the Dominican Republic to prevent a communist takeover

1966 Balaguer president of Dominican Republic
Joaquin Balaguer, a close associate of Trujillo, is elected president of the Dominican Republic

1971 Baby Doc follows Papa
The 19-year-old Jean Claude Duvalier, succeeding his father as president of Haiti, becomes known as Baby Doc

1983 US marines sent to Grenada
President Reagan sends US marines to Grenada after the execution of the island's prime minister, Maurice Bishop

1985 Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John
Antiguan author Jamaica Kincaid publishes her first novel, Annie John

1986 Duvallier tyranny ends in Haiti
Baby Doc Duvalier escapes from Haiti in a US airforce jet and goes into exile in France

1990 Aristide is president
A Catholic priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is elected president of Haiti and begins a programme of reform

1990 Walcott's Omeros
West Indian author Derek Walcott publishes Omeros, an epic poem of the Caribbean

1991 Aristide flees from Haiti
A military coup in Haiti ousts the reforming president Jean-Bertrand Aristide

1994 Lara's 501 not out
Trinidadian cricketer Brian Lara sets a new world record, scoring 501 not out when playing for Warwickshire against Durham

1994 Aristide back in Haiti
The return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti, under UN protection, leads to a period of relative calm unusual in the republic

2002 Guantanamo Bay
The US holds suspected al-Qaeda terrorists indefinitely, and without legal rights, in Guantanamo Bay, an American enclave in Cuba

2004 Aristide ousted again in Haiti
For the second time president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is forced to flee from Haiti, after losing control to opposition rebels

2006 Guantanamo Bay courts illegal
The US Supreme Court rules that the military courts set up to try detainees in Guantanamo Bay are illegal

2008 Castro resigns as Cuba's president
After 49 years as president of Cuba, Fidel Castro resigns for reasons of ill health

2008 Raúl Castro follows his brother as Cuba's president
The National Assembly elects Fidel Castro's brother Raúl to succeed him as president of Cuba

2008 Hanna devastates Haiti
Hurricane Hanna causes more than 500 deaths in Haiti before moving on west to the United States (where it kills 7)

2009   January 22
One of President Obama's first acts in office is to sign an order that the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is to be closed within a year (a promise that fails to be fulfilled)

2010  January 12
Haiti is devastated by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, causing more than 230,000 deaths

2010  July 15
BP announces that a newly fitted cap has finally stopped the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

2010  August 3
US Federal estimates are that more than 200 million gallons of oil have spilled into the sea from the Deepwater Horizon disaster (the Exxon Valdez figure was 11 million)

2012 October 30
Superstorm Sandy, after devastating much of the Caribbean, reaches the east coast of the USA, killing more than 100 people