October 5th: Two days of rioting after a banned civil rights march in Derry broken up by RUC batons. Many view this incident as the start of the Troubles.
October 9th: Following a student demonstration in Belfast, the People's Democracy (PD) a radical, left-wing student group, is formed.
October 30th: The Taoiseach, Jack Lynch calls for an end to partition to resolve the unrest.
November 4th: The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O'Neill, says there will be no transfer of the North to the Republic without the consent of the NI parliament.
November 22nd: O'Neill announces a five point reform plan which goes some way to easing the Catholic sense of grievance over matters including unfair housing allocation, council elections.
December 9th: O'Neill makes "Ulster at the Crossroads" speech.
January 4th: PD four day march from Belfast to Derry attacked by a loyalist mob at Burntollet bridge, near Derry. Further conflict when marchers arrive in Derry.
July 16th: Samuel Devenny, a taxi-driver from Derry dies from injuries after he was beaten by police in April. He is regarded by some as the first victim of the Troubles, but others claim that Francis McCloskey, a Co Derry man who was found dead lying by the roadside on July 13th, was struck by a police baton.
August 12th: Following serious violence after an Apprentice Boy's parade in Derry, Lynch sends field hospitals to border areas.
September 10th: British army, which arrived in North a month earlier, completes peace line in Belfast.
January 11th: Sinn Féin splits into Officials and Provisionals, mirroring the split in the IRA at the end of 1969.
February 6th: Gunner Robert Curtis becomes the first soldier to die in the Troubles.
August 9th: Internment introduced and more than 300 people lifted in dawn swoops.
December 4th: UVF bomb in McGurk's bar in North Queen Street kills fifteen people.
January 30th: Bloody Sunday: Thirteen men shot dead by the Parachute Regiment following a civil rights march in Derry (another man dies some days later).
February 2nd: British embassy in Dublin burned down.
February 22nd: In an IRA reprisal bomb attack for Bloody Sunday, seven people killed in Aldershot military barracks, home of the 16th Parachute Brigade.
March 24th: British government abolishes Stormont and announces direct rule after the Northern Ireland government refuses to accept losing law-and-order powers to Westminster.
July 21st: Bloody Friday: Nine people killed when IRA sets off 22 bombs in Belfast. UDA retaliates by killing five Catholics.
July 31st: The first meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
November 21st: Agreement reached on setting up power-sharing executive.
May 14th: The power-sharing executive wins an Assembly vote to sanction the Sunningdale Agreement.
May 15th: Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) carries out extensive power cuts in protest at agreement; several factories and Belfast shipyard is closed.
May 17th: In Dublin and Monaghan, 33 people killed in no-warning car bombs. UDA and UVF deny responsibility.
May 28th: Direct rule resumed and UWC calls off its strike the next day.
December 5th: Prevention of Terrorism Act extended to Northern Ireland.
July 31st: Three members of Miami Showband killed in UVF gun attack.
August 12th: A women's march which sparked off the Peace People held in west Belfast after two Maguire children killed.
September 1st: Republic's government declares a state of emergency.
October 5th: Seamus Costello, leader of IRSP, shot dead in Dublin.
February 17th: Twelve people killed in IRA bomb at La Mon House Hotel, Co Down.
February 20th: Eleven Protestants, known as the Shankill Butchers, sentenced to life imprisonment for offenses including nineteen murders.
March 30th: Conservative NI spokesman, Airey Neave, killed in car bomb claimed by INLA.
August 27th: IRA bombers kill 18 soldiers near Warrenpoint, Co Down. Lord Mountbatten of Burma killed by PIRA in an explosion on his boat at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo.
July 2nd: British government publishes document on Northern Ireland devolution which produces no agreement.
April 9th: IRA prisoner, Bobbie Sands, on H-Block hunger strike in support of political status for five weeks, wins Westminster by-election.
May 5th: Sands dies on the 66th day of his fast. Rioting in Belfast, Derry and Dublin. He is the first of ten republican prisoners to die on hunger strike.
December 6th: Seventeen people killed in INLA bombing of Droppin' Well disco in Ballykelly, Co Derry.
May 30th: New Ireland Forum's first meeting in Dublin.
November 21st: Three elders shot dead during service in Darkley Pentecostal Church, Co Armagh. Shooting claimed by Catholic Reaction Force.
October 12th: Four people killed in IRA bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, HQ of the Conservative Party conference, in a bid to kill the party leader, Margaret Thatcher.
February 23rd: SDLP leader, John Hume, meets IRA at a secret venue.
November 15th: British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher and Taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, sign Anglo-Irish Agreement (AIA) at Hillsborough, Co Down.
March 3rd: Unionists hold an extensive Day of Action against the agreement.
June 23rd: NI Assembly dissolved. Police baton-charge 200 loyalist protesters outside Stormont.
May 8th: Eight IRA men shot dead by SAS in Loughgall Co Armagh.
November 8th: Eleven killed by IRA bomb at Enniskillen Remembrance Day ceremony.
January 11th: Hume meets Adams for talks, both denying that an IRA cease-fire is on the agenda.
March 6th: Gibraltar shootings by SAS of three IRA members.
March 16th: Michael Stone attacks Gibraltar victims funerals, killing three people.
March 19th: Two army corporals killed by mob at west Belfast funeral of a Stone victim.
August 20th: Eight British soldiers killed by bomb attack on service bus at Ballygawley, Co Tyrone.
October 19th: British government imposes a broadcasting ban on Sinn Féin members.
September 22nd: Ten killed in IRA bomb at Royal Marines School of Music, Deal, Kent.
October 31st: Northern Secretary of State, Peter Brooke, says talks initiative is on hold after months of trying to activate it.
November 9th: Brooke tells his constituency that Britain has no selfish economic or strategic interest in the North and would accept unification by consent.
January 31st: Northern Secretary, Peter Brooke, says peace talks are "a possibility, not a probability".
February 7th: IRA launches three mortars at 10 Downing Street while British cabinet ministers are in session.
March 25th: DUP, UUP, Alliance Party and SDLP agree a new talks formula.
April 22nd: The UVF and UFF announce a joint ceasefire for the duration of the talks.
April 30th: Bilateral party meetings with Peter Brooke begin, but fail to resolve impasse over venue for North-South talks.
May 25th: The UFF breaches its ceasefire by killing Sinn Féin councilor, Eddie Fullerton, in Co Donegal.
May 30th: Three UDR soldiers killed in IRA lorry bomb in Glenanne, Co Armagh.
June 14th: An Australian diplomat, Sir Ninian Stephen, is named independent chairman for North-South strand of talks.
June 17th: Stormont talks begin and end on July 3rd.
July 5th: Combined Loyalist Military Command ends its ceasefire.
September 16th: Brooke meets local party leaders over four days in an attempt to restart talks, but with a Westminster election looming in November, no progress is made.
January 17th: Eight Protestant workmen die following an IRA bomb in a minibus at Teebane crossroads, Co Tyrone. Brooke shocks the community in Northern Ireland by singing "My Darling Clementine" on the Late, Late Show.
February 4th: Three men shot dead at Sinn Féin office on Falls Road, Belfast, by an off-duty RUC officer who later shoots himself.
February 5th: Loyalist gunmen shoot dead five Catholics at a bookmakers on the Lower Ormeau Road, Belfast.
March 9th: Delegates from North's four main parties meet at Stormont for first plenary meeting of the first strand of new talks.
June 12th: Deadlock on Strand One talks, (internal government of NI) but parties to move on to next stages. Strand Two talks later adjourn for summer with no real sign of any meeting of minds.
August 10th: The Ulster Defense Association (UDA) is banned.
September 2nd: Strand Two talks reconvene and DUP leaders, Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson, walk out a week later but return within three weeks to discuss Articles 2 and 3.
September 23rd: Amid indications that talks are grinding to a halt, a 2,000lb IRA bomb destroys the forensic science laboratories in south Belfast.
November 10th: Unionists withdraw from the talks and Sir Ninian Stephen reports diplomatically that they have not led to accommodation of deep-seated problems.
March 20th: Warrington bomb kills two children and prompts Peace Initiative '93.
April 10th: Hume and Adams meet for talks arranged by a priest, Fr Alex Reid, and later issue a joint statement excluding an internal settlement and asserting the right to "national self-determination" of the Irish people as a whole.
October 7th: Hume gives document containing broad principles of his agreement with Adams to the Tanaiste, Dick Spring and Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds.
October 23rd: Ten people are killed following an IRA bomb at a fish shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast. Gerry Adams later carries the bomber's coffin.
October 30th: Seven people killed in UFF gun attack in a bar in Greysteel, Co Derry. November 28th: The Observer reveals that a channel of communication has existed between the IRA and the British government for years.
December 15th: The Downing Street Declaration published by Reynolds and Major. It includes a commitment that the people of Northern Ireland will decide its future and a demand that the IRA permanently renounces violence.
January 19th: The Irish Government removes the Section 31 broadcasting ban.
June 18th: Six Catholic men shot dead by loyalist paramilitary in a pub in Loughinisland, Co Derry.
August 31st: IRA announces a complete cessation of violence.
September 6th: Reynolds, Hume and Adams shake hands on steps of Government buildings.
October 13th: The Combined Loyalist Military Command calls a ceasefire.
December 9th: First official meeting between Government officials and Sinn Féin. Decommissioning is a major stumbling block.
January 12th: British army ends daytime patrols in Belfast.
June 17th: Sinn Féin pulls out of talks with the Government. Four weeks later Gerry Adams tells party rally the "IRA has not gone away".
November 30th: President Clinton shakes Adams by hand in Falls Road cafe during his visit to Belfast.
December 5th: The head of the International Body on Decommissioning, former US senator George Mitchell, invites submissions on arms decommissioning from all parties.
January 26th: The Mitchell report is published, laying down six principles of non-violence for entry into all-party talks.
February 9th: The IRA cease-fire ends after around 16 months with a one ton bomb in London's Canary Wharf district (left) which kills two people.
May 30th: In the Northern Ireland Forum elections to all-party talks, Sinn Féin polls a record vote.
June 7th: Det Garda Jerry McCabe is shot dead during a post office raid in Adare, Co Limerick, which guards say had the hallmarks of an IRA raid.
June 10th: Sinn Féin are barred from the opening of inter-party talks.
June 15th: A 1.5 ton van bomb rips through Manchester city center.
July 7th: A Catholic taxi-driver, Michael McGoldrick, is shot dead near Lurgan, Co Armagh by the UVF.
July 13th: A 1,200lb car bomb devastates the Killyhevlin Hotel at Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, injuring 40 people following a week of rioting after the RUC forced an Orange march down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown following a standoff. Security sources blame the INLA.
October 7th: Two IRA bombs at British army's Northern Ireland HQ, Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn, Co Antrim, (pictured left) kills one soldier.
April 5th: IRA bomb threats forced the postponement of the Aintree Grand National. A blitz of IRA bomb threats in Britain ensue.
May 1st: Results in the British General Election puts the Labor party leader, Tony Blair, in 10 Downing Street and returns Gerry Adams and party colleague, Martin McGuinness, to Westminster.
May 16th: Blair visits Northern Ireland and gives the go ahead for exploratory contacts between government officials and Sinn Féin.
June 16th: Blair bans further contact between senior civil servants and Sinn Féin following IRA shooting of two RUC men in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
July 6th: Violence erupts in Portadown, and later spreads, after RUC move in early hours to seal off Garvaghy Road for Orange march.
July 20th: Following a request from Gerry Adams, the IRA declares a renewal of its ceasefire.
August 26th: International decommissioning body set up to oversee the hand over of weapons. The coming months are to see no progress on the arms issue.
August 29th: Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mo Mowlam, announces IRA cease-fire has been sufficiently well observed for Sinn Féin to enter talks.
September 9th: Sinn Féin signs up to the Mitchell Principles and enters all party-talks, setting in train the process which culminated yesterday.
September 17th: The Ulster Unionists join the talks. The DUP stays away.
October 13th: Adams and McGuinness meet Blair for the first time at Stormont's Castle buildings.
A newly elected President of all Ireland was elected in. More to come as things develop…… Though a united Ireland is yet in the works, Northern Ireland and the Republic are on their way to seeing that a reality before the new millennium is upon us. With the grace of the Gods, may we truly see this happen.
As the years have gone by the situation has gotten worse not better. Ireland and her people celebrating death as another would a treasured holiday. The senseless killing MUST stop. We all must learn to live together in peace. Give us back our holidays of joy, take the killing, hate, fear, ignorance and anger away. We must replace in our hearts a sense of love for all humankind. Be that person Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Pagan or any other faith the world over.
We must learn to see each other as ALL believers - simply hearing the call of the Gods differently. The killings between the Catholics and Protestants makes even less sense as they are all Christian. Come together in peace, love and tolerance and know the real meaning of LIVING.
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