1480 - Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Dias first European to travel round the southern tip of Africa
1497 July 8 - Vasco da Gama set out on expedidition to India via Africa stopping at Mombasa, Mozambique, Malindi, Kenya, and Quilmana trading centres
1652 - Jan van Riebeeck, representing the Dutch East India Company, founds the Cape Colony at Table Bay and Dutch settlement of South Africa starts
1816 - 1826 Shaka Zulu founds and expands the Zulu empire
1835 - 1840 - The Boers leave Cape Colony and found the Orange Free State and the Transvaal
1858 - Boers proclaim the Transvaal a republic
1867 - Diamonds discovered at Kimberley
1877 - The British and the Boers defeat the Zulus
1880-81 - The Boer War - Boers rebel against the British
1880s - The gold rush
1910 - Formation of Union of South Africa by former British colonies of the Cape and Natal, and the Boer republics of Transvaal, and Orange Free State
1913 - Land Act introduced preventing Blacks from purchasing land
1948 - Policy of apartheid adopted by the National Party (NP)
1950 - Group Areas Act passed to segregate black and white people
1950 - The African National Congress (ANC) led by Nelson Mandela initiates a civil disobedience
1961 - South Africa declared a republic
1964 - Nelson Mandela sentenced to life imprisonment
1970's- 1980's - Civil unrest, sanctions imposed on South Africa, forced resettlement process and Township revolts
1990 - Nelson Mandela released from prison
1991 - De Klerk repeals remaining apartheid laws and international sanctions are lifted