508 BC Cleisthenes reforms Athens
Cleisthenes, brought to power by popular support, puts into effect a major programme of political reform in Athens

487 BC Athenians invent ostracism
Ostracism is introduced in Athens as a way of getting rid of unpopular politicians

462 BC Pericles leads democratic Athens
With the army away, Pericles introduces full democracy for all Athenian citizens, enabling them to vote and participate in the administration of the state

139 BC Secret ballot in Rome
A secret ballot is instituted for Roman citizens, who mark their vote on a tablet and place it in an urn

726 Venetians elect doge
The Venetians for the first time elect their own doge, acting independently of the Byzantine governor in Ravenna

850 Scandinavia's thing
Communal gatherings, the thing and the larger althing, are the distant origins of Scandivian parliaments

930 Iceland establishes commonwealth
An althing of chieftains establishes the commonwealth of Iceland, which will survive for more than three centuries

1000 Population baptized in Iceland
Iceland's parliament, the althing, passes a resolution that everyone on the island is to be baptized

1100 Communes in northern Italy
Many of the towns of northern Italy acquire virtual independence as self-governing communes

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

1200 Flemish communes
Flemish towns begin to acquire municipal independence, as communes, following the earlier Italian trend

1250 Permanent parliament in Paris
France becomes the first kingdom to establish a permanent parliament when Louis IX reserves a chamber in his palace for quarterly sessions

1294 Swiss democratic assembly
The first open-air democratic assembly, later characteristic of the Swiss cantons, is held in Schwyz

1295 Model Parliament in Westminster Hall
The parliament summoned by Edward I in Westminster Hall is later seen as a 'model' for the breadth of its representation

1297 First Irish parliament
The English government in Dublin calls a parliament on the lines of England's recent Model Parliament

1302 Estates-general in Paris
The estates-general of France gather for the first time, in Notre Dame, to consider the king's relationship with the pope

1320 Schwyz leads Swiss confederation
The leading role of Schwyz in the victory at Morgarten causes the independent cantons to become informally known as the Swiss confederation

1347 Cola di Rienzo tribune in Rome
Cola di Rienzo, appointed tribune of the people, enjoys a few months of dictatorial powers in Rome before the citizens tire of him

1450 Peasants in parliament in Sweden
The Swedish Riksdag includes peasants as a fourth estate, alongside clergy, nobles and burghers

1463 States General meet in Bruges
The assembly brought together in Bruges in 1463 is later seen as the first full gathering of the Netherlands States-General

1493 First Polish parliament
John I Albert summons the first recorded sejm, a parliament representing the whole of Poland

1621 Bradford is governor of Plymouth
William Bradford, one of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower, is elected governor of the new Plymouth Colony

1679 Whigs and Tories call each other names
The rival political parties in Britain find abusive names for each other - Whigs and Tories

1776 Virginia wants independence
The revolutionary convention of Virginia votes for independence from Britain, and instructs its delegates in Philadelphia to propose this motion

1776 American colonies vote for independence
Virginia's motion for independence from Britain is passed at the Continental Congress of the colonies with no opposing vote

1776 Jefferson's Declaration adopted
Thomas Jefferson's text for the Declaration of Independence is accepted by the Congress in Philadelphia

1776 Hancock signs first
John Hancock is the first delegate to sign the Declaration of Independence, formally written out on a large sheet of parchment

1777 US Articles of Confederation
The US Congress agrees the final version of the Articles of Confederation, defining the terms on which states join the Union

1787 Draft for US constitution
Delegates meeting in Philadelphia agree a final draft for a US consitution, to be submitted to the states for ratification

1788 USA acquires constitution
The constitution of the United States is ratified by the states, but it is immediately agreed that amendments will be desirable

1788 Estates general summoned to Versailles
The ministers of Louis XVI reluctantly announce that the estates general will meet in 1789, for the first time since 1614

1791 Bill of Rights in USA
The first ten amendments to the US Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, are ratified by the states

1792 Federalists and Republicans in USA.
The first political parties, Hamilton's Federalists and Jefferson's Republicans, emerge in the USA

1800 Jefferson and Burr in dead heat
Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist Aaron Burr have an identical number of Electoral College votes in the US presidential election

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

1821 Bolívar recovers Venezuela
Bolívar defeats the Spanish at Carabobo and liberates, for the second time, his native city of Caracas

1822 Sucre wins Ecuador
After defeating the Spanish at Pichincha, Antonio José de Sucre enters Quito and liberates Ecuador

1824 Republican party splits in USA
The Republican party in the USA splits into National Republicans and Democratic Republicans

1828 Bigwigs and novices in Chile
Conservative 'bigwigs' and liberal 'novices' emerge as Chile's two main political parties

1828 O'Connell in by-election upset
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell wins a sensational by-election victory to join the Westminster parliament

1828 Suffrage for white males in USA
Adult white males now have the vote in almost all the states of the USA

1828 Andrew Jackson is elected US president
Andrew Jackson, elected president of the USA, introduces the era known as Jacksonian democracy

1831 Seven elect two for Old Sarum
Old Sarum, the most notorious of Britain's rotten boroughs, has just seven voters but returns two members to parliament

1834 Tories adopt new name
The Tories in Britain adopt a reassuring name for an uncertain future – Conservatives

1834 Whigs oppose 'King Andrew'
The opponents of US president Andrew Jackson, mockingly called King Andrew, become known as the Whig party

1835 Democracy in America
Alexis de Tocqueville publishes in French the first two volumes of his extremely influential study Democracy in America

1837 Whigs transform into Liberals
The Whig party in Britain begin referring to themselves as Liberals

1842 O'Connell's monster meetings
Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell pioneers mass political demonstrations, which become known as 'monster meetings'

1852 Louis Napoleon becomes Napoleon III
Louis Napoleon, asking the French people to approve his elevation to emperor as Napoleon III, receives a resounding yes in the plebiscite

1858 Rothschild takes seat on revised oath
Lionel Nathan Rothschild becomes the first Jew to sit in Britain's House of Commons, taking his oath on the Old Testament

1860 Lincoln the Republican candidate
Lincoln becomes the Republican presidential candidate, benefiting from a Democratic party split on the issue of slavery

1861 Liberals win back Mexico City
The Liberals recover Mexico City and elect Benito Juarez as president

1863 Gettysburg Address
President Lincoln, in honouring the Union dead at Gettysburg, captures in three minutes the essence of American democracy

1865 Votes-for-women committee in Manchester
A committee to campaign for women's suffrage is formed in Manchester, the first of many in Britain

1866 14th Amendment to US constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US constitution (not ratified till 1868) assures equal rights as citizens to all born or naturalized in the USA

1867 Working men in British towns get vote
Britain's new Reform Act extends the franchise to working men in British towns

1867 Reconstruction Acts imposed on south
The US Congress passes Reconstruction Acts, dividing the defeated South into military districts and insisting on elections by universal male suffrage

1869 15th Amendment to US Constitution
The Fifteenth Amendment to the US Constitution (ratified in 1870) makes it illegal to deny the right to vote on racial grounds

1870 Pope loses out to king of Italy
As the result of a plebiscite, Rome and the remaining papal states are included in the kingdom of Italy

1872 Secret ballot in Britain
The Ballot Act adds to the British electoral system the essential element of secrecy in voting

1875 Parnell elected to Westminster
Charles Stewart Parnell takes his seat in the House of Commons at Westminster and immediately adds zest to the campaign for Home Rule

1877 Compromise of 1877 in USA
The Compromise of 1877 settles the disputed US presidential election but ends active Republican commitment to the cause of Reconstruction in the southern states

1878 Romania is independent
Romania achieves a new status as an internationally recognized independent nation

1881 Tynwald grants votes for women
The Tynwald in the Isle of Man becomes the first parliament to give women the vote

1886 Unionist theme enters British politics
Those in Britain's Liberal party opposing Home Rule for Ireland become a separate group under the name of Unionists

1891 Populist Party in USA
A new Populist Party, dedicated to democracy and welfare, begins a brief career of considerable political influence in the USA

1892 Labour MP in the commons
Keir Hardie wins the London seat of West Ham, becoming the first Labour member of the House of Commons

1893 Hardie founds Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party, later changing its name to the Labour Party, is founded in Britain by the trade unionist Keir Hardie

1900 Mazaryk's party becomes Progressive
The faction founded in Bohemia by Tomas Masaryk becomes known as the Progressive party

1900 Keir Hardie returns to Commons
Keir Hardie is returned to parliament for Merthyr Tydfil, beginning a long and close link between the Labour party and Wales.

1900 Split healed in Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party, which split after the Parnell divorce case, reunites under the leadership of John Redmond

1900 Lenin edits Iskra
Lenin and comrades launch in Munich a radical newspaper, Iskra ('the spark')

1902 Lenin asks What is to be done?
In his pamphlet What is to be done? Lenin argues for early action to promote revolution

1902 Griffith launches Sinn Fein
Irish politician Arthur Griffith launches Sinn Fein, as an organization campaigning for a strong and independent Ireland

1903 More Bolsheviks than Mensheviks
Lenin's supporters become known as the Bolsheviks ('majority') as opposed to the Mensheviks ('minority') after a split at the party's Second Congress

1903 Pankhurst organizes British suffragettes
Emmeline Pankhurst founds the Women's Social and Political Union to fight for women's political rights in the UK

1905 Louis Botha forms Het Volk
Transvaal politician Louis Botha forms Het Volk ('The People'), a party committed to Afrikaner self-government

1905 Bloody Sunday in St Petersburg
Troops fire on a demonstration in St Petersburg, in the event which becomes known as Bloody Sunday

1905 Wobblies in Chicago
Industrial Workers of the World (with its members later known as Wobblies) is founded in Chicago as a radical union initiative

1905 Strikes and riots in Russia
Strikes and riots sweep across Russia in the wake of St Petersburg's Bloody Sunday

1905 Norwegians vote for independence
More than 360,000 Norwegians vote to end the union with Sweden, with only 184 against

1905 Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party is founded in Belfast to oppose Home Rule

1906 Liberals win convincingly in UK
Henry Campbell-Bannerman leads the Liberals to a massive election victory in the UK on a promised programme of reform

1906 Labour Party wins seats in UK
Britain's Labour Party achieves its first electoral success, winning twenty-nine seats at Westminster

1906 Liberal majority in Russian duma
The Liberals win a majority in election for Russia's new duma and press ahead with proposals for land reform

1906 Gandhi develops passive resistance in Natal
Mahatma Gandhi, confronted by racial discrimination in South Africa, launches a programme of passive resistance (satyagraha)

1906 Muslim League established in India
The All-India Muslim League is set up at a meeting of the Muhammadan Educational Conference in Dhaka

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

1908 Young Turks force reform on sultan
The Young Turks of Salonika organize a successful uprising against the autocracy of the Ottoman sultan

1909 Association for Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded in response to two lynchings in Illinois

1909 Gandhi publishes Hind Swaraj
Mahatma Gandhi, on a visit to India, publishes a pamphlet entitled Hind Swaraj ("Indian Home Rule")

1910 Carson leads Ulster Unionists
Edward Carson, previously a prominent Conservative politician at Westminster, becomes leader of the Ulster Unionist party

1910 Revolution in Mexico
A revolution begins in Mexico that will last ten years before being resolved

1910 Guomindang formed in China
Sun Yatsen and others merge several smaller Chinese political groups into the Guomindang, or Nationalist Party

1911 Zapata in Mexican revolution
Emiliano Zapata leads peasant groups in the Mexican revolution, under the slogan 'Land and Liberty'

1911 Carson promises Unionist defiance
Edward Carson tells a vast crowd in Northern Ireland that they must be ready to defend their Protestant province by force

1911 Revolutionaries capture Wuchang
An uprising in the city of Wuchang is the first major event in the rapidly developing Chinese revolution

1912 Roosevelt seeks Republican nomination
Former president Theodore Roosevelt campaigns against President Taft for the Republican nomination

1912 Pankhurst in and out of jail
UK suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested, released and rearrested twelve times within the year

1912 Bolsheviks become separate party
At a conference in Prague Lenin forms the Bolsheviks into a separate political party with himself as leader

1912 Mussolini active in Italian Socialist party
Benito Mussolini, an active revolutionary Socialist, becomes editor of the party newspaper in Italy

1912 Left-wing success in Reichstag
The Social Democrats become the largest group in Germany's Reichstag

1912 Argentinians get the vote
Electoral reform is introduced in Argentina, with universal male suffrage and a secret ballot

1912 Taft wins Republican nomination
William Howard Taft defeats Theodore Roosevelt at the Republican convention to win the nomination

1912 Bull Moose Party
Theodore Roosevelt's followers form a rival party to the Republicans, soon to be known as the Bull Moose party

1912 Beginnings of ANC in South Africa
The South African National Native Congress (subsequently the ANC, African National Congress) is set up in Cape Province

1912 Unionists sign pledge of civil disobedience
Half a million Unionist men and women in Belfast commit themselves to civil disobedience if Home Rule government is established in Ireland

1913 Volunteer Force to defend Ulster
Unionists in Ulster aim to raise a Volunteer Force of 100,000 men, and begin drilling with dummy wooden rifles

1913 Suffragette death at Derby
A suffragette, Emily Davison, dies after throwing herself under the king's horse in the Derby at Epsom

1913 Dublin raises Irish National Volunteers
The Irish National Volunteers are formed in Dublin, in response to the Protestant equivalent in Ulster

1914 Afrikaner nationalist party
J.B.M. Hertzog founds the National Party in South Africa to represent Afrikaner interests

1914 Suffragette slashes Velázquez masterpiece
A suffragette slashes the Rokeby Venus by Velázquez in London's National Gallery

1914 Curragh mutiny supports Ulster Protestants
British officers stationed at the Curragh in Dublin say they would resign if ordered to quell Protestant resistance in Ulster

1914 Mussolini expelled from Socialist party
Benito Mussolini, advocating Italian entry into the war on the side of the Allies, is expelled from the Socialist party

1915 Gandhi returns to India
Mahatma Gandhi returns to India after more than twenty years in South Africa

1916 Easter Rising in Dublin
The occupation of the General Post Office in Dublin marks the beginning of the Easter Rising

1916 De Valera in Easter Rising
Eamon de Valera comes to prominence as one of the republican leaders in the Easter Rising

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

1917  March 1 Qualified support from Petrograd Soviet
The Petrograd Soviet demands drastic reforms in return for supporting the proposed Provisional Government in Russia

1917 September Extremist parties gain support in Russia
Russian opinion polarizes, with support growing for left-wing Bolsheviks and right-wing Kadets

1917 November 8-12 Bolsheviks suppress opposition
The Bolsheviks attempt to stifle opposition in the run-up to the election for Russia's new Constituent Assembly

1917 December KGB founded
The Cheka (origin of the KGB) is established to suppress political dissent in Russia

1918 Women win vote in UK
British women are at last given the right to vote, but only if aged 30 or over

1918 Wafd is new party in Cairo
Wafd, a national party, is formed in Cairo with the purpose of ending Egypt's enforced link with Britain

1918 First woman elected to House of Commons
Countess Markiewicz, an Irish republican, is elected a member of Britain's House of Commons but refuses to take her seat

1918 Lloyd George wins postwar election
Lloyd George, fighting the British general election as head of a coalition, devastates the Liberal opposition

1919 Erskine Childers joins Sinn Fein
Returning from active service with the Royal Navy, Erskine Childers devotes his energies to Sinn Fein and Irish independence

1919 Mussolini founds Fascist party
Mussolini founds the Fasci di Combattimento, dedicated to opposing the Socialist party

1919 Hitler joins German Workers' party
Adolf Hitler joins the tiny German Workers' party, the members of which share his own virulent anti-semitism

1919 First woman in House of Commons
Nancy Astor, as MP for Plymouth, becomes the first woman to take her seat in Britain's House of Commons

1920 Danish-German border fixed
A plebiscite in Schleswig establishes the border between Denmark and Germany

1920 Women in US win right to vote
The Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees women the right to vote

1920 Communist uprising in Ruhr
A Communist uprising in the Ruhr is suppressed with difficulty by the German army

1921 Massive Sinn Fein election victory
The republican party Sinn Fein is unopposed in southern Ireland's first general election, and so wins every available seat in the Dail

1921 Fascists gain foothold in Italian parliament
Mussolini and 35 of his Fascist colleagues win seats in the Italian parliament

1921 Dáil Eireann revived
The Sinn Fein members of southern Ireland's new parliament assemble on their own, under the name Dáil Eireann (Assembly of Ireland)

1921 Young Kikuyu Association
The Young Kikuyu Association is formed in Kenya, to fight for African rights and the restoration of Kikuyu land

1921 Hitler leads the Nazi party
Adolf Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi party, which now has about 3000 members

1921 Mao Zedong begins political career
Mao Zedong leads a delegation to the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai

1921 Agnes Macphail first woman in Canada's parliament
Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman to sit in Canada's parliament

1922 Collins defeats de Valera
In elections to the Dáil the pro-treaty faction of Collins and Griffith defeats the opposition, led by de Valera

1922 Carlton Club vote brings down Lloyd George
Lloyd George loses his majority in the House of Commons when the Conservatives vote in a Carlton Club meeting to withdraw from his coalitiion

1922 Labour party now official opposition in UK
The Labour party, winning 142 seats and beating the Liberals into third place, becomes for the first time the official UK opposition

1923 Fascists win 65% of Italian vote
With Mussolini already installed as Il Duce, his party wins 65% of the votes in a general election

1923 ANC acquires present name
The African National Congress (ANC) is formed in South Africa by renaming the South African National Native Congress

1923 De Valera declines seat in Dáil
De Valera and his followers do well in elections to the Dáil but decline to take their seats

1923 Woman heads Britain's TUC
Margaret Bondfield is the first woman to be chairman of Britain's Trades Union Congress

1925 Plaid Cymru founded
Plaid Cymru, the 'party of Wales', is founded in a temperance hotel in Pwllheli during the National Eisteddfod

1925 Hindu nationalist party formed
The RSS party, from which the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) derives, is established in India by Keshava Baliram Hedgewar

1925 Miners resist pay cuts
A.J. Cook, leader of Britain's miners, insists 'Not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day'

1926 Fianna Fáil becomes political party
Eamon de Valera's faction, Fianna Fáil (Warriors of Ireland), enters mainstream Irish life as a political party

1927 Sukarno chairman of new party
Achmed Sukarno becomes the first chairman of the new Indonesian Nationalist Party

1927 De Valera returns to Dáil
De Valera and his party, the Fianna Fáil, finally take their seats in the Dáil

1928 Universal suffrage in UK
The age limit for British women to vote is lowered to 21, finally giving them parity with men

1928 Muslim Brotherhood founded in Egypt
Hassan al-Banna, a schoolteacher in Ismailia, founds the Muslim Brotherhood – to campaign for a society based on the Qu'ran with the sharia as its legal system

1929 First woman in Britain's cabinet
Margaret Bondfield becomes the first woman to sit in the British cabinet, as minister of labour

1930 Goebbels in charge of propaganda
Adolf Hitler puts Joseph Goebbels at the head of the Nazi party's propaganda campaign

1930 Nazi election success
The Nazis become the second largest party in the Reichstag, winning 107 seats

1930 Nation of Islam
Wallace D. Fard founds the Nation of Islam as a black separatist movement in the USA

1932 Hitler polls well as presidential candidate
Adolf Hitler stands for election as president of the German republic and wins 36% of the vote

1932 Bonus Army driven out of Washington
Troops using bayonets and tear gas drive out of Washington the Bonus Army, a group of protesting unemployed war veterans

1932 Nazis the most popular party
Winning 230 seats in the election, the Nazis become the largest party in the Reichstag (albeit not with a majority)

1933 Nazi terror in new election campaign
The electoral campaign for a new Reichstag, demanded by Hitler, is conducted with escalating Nazi violence

1933 Germany leaves League of Nations
Adolf Hitler wins massive referendum support for his withdrawal of Germany from the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations

1934 Elijah Muhammad leads Black Muslims
Elijah Muhammad takes control of the Nation of Islam, or Black Muslims, and leads the movement for more than 40 years

1934 Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party, or SNP, is founded to campaign for an independent Scotland

1934 German voters want Hitler as Führer
In a referendum 38 million German voters say yes to Adolf Hitler becoming Führer, Germany's supreme leader

1934 Jinnah heads Muslim League
Mohammed Ali Jinnah becomes president of the Muslim League in India

1935 Saar votes to join Hitler
The people of the rich mining district of the Saar vote to merge with Germany

1935 Gallup polls
George Gallup founds the American Institute of Public Opinion and becomes the pioneer of modern polling techniques

1938  March 9 Austrian chancellor defies Hitler
The Austrian chancellor, Kurt von Schuschnigg, defies Hitler by announcing a referendum on his country's independence

1938  April 24 Germans in Sudetenland demand autonomy
The Sudeten German National Socialist Party demands secession from Czechoslovakia, in keeping with Hitler's plans for the Sudetenland

1938 Voters say yes to Anschluss
Voters in both Germany and Austria give massive approval for Hitler's annexation of Austria

1939 Menzies is Australian prime minister
Robert Menzies, leader of the United Australia Party, becomes Australia's prime minister

1939 September 4 Smuts replaces Hertzog in South Africa
Jan Smuts defeats J.B.M. Hertzog in a vote on neutrality, and takes Hertzog's place as South African premier

1940 October Roosevelt promises USA will stay out of war
President Roosevelt, campaigning for a third term, asssures Americans that he will not send their sons to fight in Europe's war

1940 November 5 Roosevelt wins third term
F.D. Roosevelt wins an unprecedented third US presidential term, albeit it with a considerably reduced share of the vote

1941 Menzies resigns in Australia
Australian prime minister Robert Menzies is forced to resign after losing the confidence of his cabinet

1944 November 7 Roosevelt re-elected for fourth term
President Roosevelt, although seriously ill, is elected for a fourth term with Harry S. Truman as his vice-president

1945  February 11 Stalin promises free elections
Stalin, at Yalta, promises free elections in post-war eastern Europe

1945 July 26 Labour wins UK election
The British electorate dismisses Winston Churchill, giving the Labour party and Clement Attlee a landslide victory

1945 July 26 Attlee replaces Churchill at Potsdam
Winston Churchill, losing the postwar general election in Britain, has to yield his seat at Potsdam in mid-conference to Clement Attlee

1946 Aung San is prime minister of Burma
Aung San's party, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, wins a landslide victory in the Burmese election

1946 Communists do well in Czech election
The Communists become the largest party in Czechoslovakia, winning 38% of the vote in a free election

1947 Communists take control in Poland
An election campaign in Poland, marked by violence and the use of terror, brings a Communist landslide

1947 Muslim defiance of Kashmir ruler
Muslims proclaim an independent state in west Kashmir, defying the wishes of the maharaja

1948 Victory in South Africa for National Party
Daniel Malan becomes South Africa's prime minister after his National Party wins the general election

1949 NATO founded
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is set up by the USA and Canada, together with Britain and other European countries, for purposes of collective security

1951 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution
The Twenty-Second Amendment to the US Constitution prevents anyone being elected for more than two presidential terms

1955 Daley elected Chicago mayor
Richard Daley begins a powerful and often unscrupulous reign of 22 years as mayor of Chicago

1958 French voters approve Fifth Republic
French citizens approve the new constitution proposed by de Gaulle, thus introducing the Fifth Republic

1960 Kaunda leads UNIP
Kenneth Kaunda is elected president of UNIP, a new party fighting for an independent Northern Rhodesia

1960 Quiet Revolution in Quebec
The Quiet Revolution in Quebec begins with the election of Jean Lesage and the Liberals

1960 Kenyatta leads KANU
Kenyatta, still in prison, is elected leader of KANU, a new political party in Kenya

1961 Nkomo founds ZAPU
Joshua Nkomo founds ZAPU, the Zimbabwe African People's Union, in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia

1962 Port Huron Statement
Students for a Democratic Society publish in Michigan The Port Huron Statement, a seminal text of the New Left

1962 Algeria wins independence
A massive yes vote in a referendum is immediately followed by French recognition of Algerian independence

1962 Army prevents Haya presidency
The veteran left-wing politician Victor Haya is elected president of Peru but is thwarted by a coup led by General Ricardo Godoy

1962 Khomeini launches campaign against Shah
Ruhollah Khomeini, a leading ayatollah in Qom, denounces the Shah of Iran and declares a fatwa against his regime

1963 Khomeini arrested
Ayatollah Khomeini is arrested in Qom, and imprisoned for eight months in Tehran, after instigating riots against the Shah

1963 Mugabe and Sithole establish ZANU
Robert Mugabe and Ndabaningi Sithole split from ZAPU to found ZANU, the Zimbabwe African National Union

1966 Plaid Cymru has first MP at Westminster
Plaid Cymru sends its first MP to Westminster when Gwynfor Evans wins a Carmarthen by-election

1967 Freedom of information in USA
Congress passes a Freedom of Information Act, giving the public an important new right in the USA

1968 Robert Kennedy enters presidential race
Robert Kennedy enters the race for the Democratic presidential nomination

1968 Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois is formed in Canada by René Lévesque

1968 Civil rights clash in northern Ireland
The first civil rights march in northern Ireland, in Derry, is halted by the police with batons and water cannon

1970 SDLP founded in northern Ireland
The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) is formed in northern Ireland as a coalition of Catholic nationalists and civil-rights campaigners

1970 Troops sent to East Pakistan
The outgoing Pakistan government, led by Yahya Khan, rejects the election result and sends troops to East Pakistan

1971 New ultra-Unionist party in northern Ireland
Ian Paisley and others in northern Ireland form the Democratic Unionist Party, as the intransigent wing of Ulster Unionism

1972 National Front in France
Jean-Marie Le Pen founds a neo-Fascist party in France, the National Front

1972 Watergate burglary
Five burglars are arrested breaking into the Democratic National Committee HQ at the Watergate office building in Washington

1972 Watergate linked to Nixon
The Washington Post publishes the first report that the Watergate break-in was linked to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign

1972 Whitlam wins Australian election
Gough Whitlam is Australia's prime minister after Labor party victory

1973 Haldeman and Ehrlichman resign
The Watergate scandal claims its first senior victims with the resignation of two of Nixon's closest advisers, Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman

1973 Likud is formed
Likud is formed in Israel as an alliance of right-wing parties

1974 Nixon to hand over tapes
The US Supreme Court orders President Nixon to hand over White House tapes of conversations relevant to Watergate

1974 Congress takes steps to impeach Nixon
The House Judiciary Committee takes the first steps in the process of impeaching President Nixon, citing obstruction of justice

1974 Nixon resigns
Faced by the prospect of impeachment over Watergate, President Nixon resigns

1974 Ford pardons Nixon
President Ford pardons ex-president Nixon for his part in the Watergate affair, thus removing the possibility of criminal charges

1974 SNP polls 30% of Scottish vote
The SNP achieves a surge in Scottish nationalism, winning eleven seats at Westminster on 30% of the Scottish vote

1976 Democracy in Portugal
Portugal adopts a democratic constitution after 43 years of dicatorship

1977 Chirac mayor of Paris
Jacques Chirac, leader of a recently formed neo-Gaullist party, is elected mayor of Paris

1979 Shah flees from Iran
An Islamic revolution forces the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to flee from Iran

1980 Hindu nationalist party becomes BJP
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerges in India from previous Hindu nationalist groups and wins the first of several general ellections in 1996

1980 Walesa heads Solidarity
Lech Walesa is elected chairman of the newly formed Polish trade union movement Solidarnośc (Solidarity)

1981 SDP splinters from Labour party
The SDP hives off from Britain's Labour party – and seven years later merges with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats

1984 Adams heads Sinn Fein
Republican activist Gerry Adams is elected president of Sinn Fein

1985 Civlian rule restored in Brazil
Civilian rule is restored in Brazil after Tancredo Neves and Jose Sarney are elected president and vice-president

1986 Cory Aquino against Marcos
Corazón Aquino, widow of the assassinated Benigno Aquino, stands against Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines presidential election

1987 Mugabe and Nkomo form ZANU-PF
Mugabe and Nkomo merge their two parties as ZANU-PF, making Zimbabwe effectively a one-party state

1988 Liberal Democrats in UK
The Liberals and the SDP merge in Britain to form a single political party, the Liberal Democrats

1988 Aung San Suu Kyi returns to Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi returns to Burma from England, to look after her dying mother

1989 Students occupy Tiananmen Square
Students, teachers and workers gather in large numbers in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to demand democratic reform

1989 Uruguay returns to democracy
Uruguay enjoys the first entirely free election since the years of military dictatorship

1989 Electoral success for Solidarity
Elections in Poland bring Solidarnośc nation-wide success, and the party is soon at the head of a coalition government

1989 Chile returns to democracy
With the fall of Pinochet, Chile returns eagerly to democracy - electing a Christian Democrat, Patricio Aylwin, as president

1989 Dubcek and Václav in Czech government
Alexander Dubcek is Speaker of Parliament and Václav Havel is President in the new democratic government of Czechoslovakia

1990 Ortega loses Nicaraguan election
The Sandinistas lose the Nicaraguan presidential election, with Daniel Ortega beaten into second place by Violeta Chamorro

1990 Democracy in Ivory Coast
The aged president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, wins the Ivory Coast's first democratic elections