| 1891 | |
| 1891 - | France declares Guinea a colony, separate from Senegal |
| 1898 - | Samory Touré, great grand-father of future president Ahmed Sekou Touré, is defeated by the French army |
| 1906 - | Guinea becomes a constituent territory of French West Africa (AOF) |
| 1952 - | Sekou Touré becomes secretary-general of the Guinean Democratic Party (PDG) |
| October 1958 - | Guinea becomes independent, with Sekou Touré as its first president |
| 1965 - | Sekou Touré breaks off relations with France after accusing the former colonial power of wanting to oust him and establishes close links with the Soviet Union |
| March 1984 - | Sekou Touré dies |
| April 1984 - | Lansana Conté and Diarra Traoré seize power in a military coup. Conté becomes president and Traoré prime minister |
| 1985 - | Traoré, demoted to minister of education, tries to take power but fails |
| 1990 - | Adoption of a constitution that permits the establishment of a civilian government |
| 1993 - | Conté confirmed as president in Guinea’s first multi-party elections |
| 1995 - | Conté's Party of Unity and Progress (PUP) takes 71 seats in the National Assembly |
| 1996 - | Thirty people are killed and the presidential palace is set on fire after a mutiny by soldiers protesting against low pay and poor conditions |
| 1998 - | Conte re-elected for a second five-year term with 56.1 percent of the vote in presidential elections amid opposition accusations of vote rigging |
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| 2000 | |
| June - | Conte's Party of Unity and Progress wins local elections marred by numerous allegations of fraud |
| September - | Alpha Condé, head of the oppositionRally of the Guinean People (RPG) party is given a five-year prison sentence for endangering state security and recruiting foreign mercenaries. He is pardoned in May 2001.
Rebel incursions begin from border areas with Liberia and Sierra Leone. They cause over 1,000 deaths and huge population upheavals. Guinea blames the violence on former Guinean soldiers backed by the governments of Liberia and Burkina Faso and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel movement in Sierra Leone. |
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| 2001 | |
| Rebel incursions peter out as UN peacekeepers extend their control in Sierra Leone and the Liberians for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement, which according to diplomats was backed by Guinea, steps up its attacks in northern Liberia. |
| November - | A referendum on the constitution approves an extension of the presidential mandate from five to seven years. The referendum is boycotted by the opposition, which accuses Conté of wanting to become president for life. According to official figures, the extension was approved by 98.4 per cent of voters. |
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| 2002 | |
| February - | Conté and Liberian President Charles Taylor- meet in Morocco to discuss how to bring peace to the region. |
| March - | As members of the Mano River Union, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia agree on joint measures to secure their borders and clamp down on rebel activity. |
| May - | The main opposition parties form an alliance, the Republican Front for Democratic Change (FRAD). |
| June - | The ruling PUP obtains an absolute majority in the national assembly, winning 85 of 114 seats in parliamentary elections boycotted by the FRAD. |
| September - | The eruption of civil war in Côte d’Ivoire and the intensification of hostilities in Liberia push tens of thousands of refugees and returning migrants into Guinea. The Forest Region is particularly affected. |
| December - | Conté is hospitalised in Morocco where he is treated for severe diabetes. |
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| 2003 | |
| January - | Conté returns to Guinea amid widespread rumours that his health is failing and he is about to die.
The electricity supply in Conakry becomes more erratic, with large areas of the capital cut off for a month, causing serious security problems. |
| May - | The IMF and World Bank announce that Guinea has proved incapable of pushing through the reforms required, leaving doubts about its ability to pay its debts. |
| August - | A peace agreement ends Liberia’s 14-year civil war. LURD takes several ministerial posts in a new transitional government. |
| September - | Conté is unanimously chosen as the PUP candidate in presidential elections scheduled for December. The opposition is torn between holding a dialogue with the government and boycotting the poll. |
| November - | One of the FRAD’s leaders, Jean-Marie Doré, is briefly detained after saying that Conté is too ill to stand as a candidate in the presidential election. |
| December - | Conté is re-elected for a seven-year term - his third successive election victory - at polls boycotted by the main opposition parties. Official returns give him 95.2 percent of the vote. |
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| 2004 | |
| February - | Francois Fall, a former foreign minister and career diplomat with good international contacts, is appointed prime minister to give the government a new reforming face. |
| April - | Fall resigns suddenly as prime minister during an official trip to France, saying all his attempts at political and economic reform have been blocked by the president. He goes into exile. |
| June - | The World Bank suspends disbursements to Guinea because of accumulated debt arrears.
At least two people die in ethnic clashes between Guerzé and Konianké communities in Nzérékoré, the main town in Guinea’s Forest Region. Hundreds are arrested.
The repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees officially ends. Around 2,000 Sierra Leoneans choose to stay on in Guinea.
Riots sparked by rising food prices break out in Conakry. Gangs of youths loot rice trucks. Conté orders rice prices to be subsidised by the state.
Disturbances are reported in the western town of Télimélé . Government offices are ransacked in protest against the non-payment of salaries and the laying-off of teachers.
FRAD calls for a broad-based government of national to rescue Guinea from its crisis.
Guinea resumes talks with the European Union about a resumption of EU aid, cut off in 1998.
The Court of Appeal in Conakry quashes all charges against former prime minister Sidya Touré and three other leaders of his Union of Republican Forces (UFR) opposition party. They were arrested briefly in April for “conspiracy and threatening the life of the head of state”. |
| July - | The government announces "draconian measures" to deal with rising crime levels, saying it will press for the "physical liquidation" of the worst offenders and life sentences for their accomplices. |
| August - | Guinea returns the disputed border village of Yenga to Sierra Leone |
| September - | Twelve civilians arrested shortly before the December 2003 presidential election on suspicion of plotting against the government are released without charge. Several soldiers arrested at the same time remain in custody.
Hundreds of former employees of Guinea’s national railway company demonstrate in Conakry after the Central Bank refuses to honour cheques issued to them for the payment of salary arrears.
Agronomy students at the University of Faranah in central Guinea demonstrate against poor living conditions on campus and rising prices. Security forces crush the protest and the university is closed for several days.
On Independence Day, September 28, the Union of Democratic Forces (UFDG) of Mamadou Bâ calls on Guineans “to stage a democratic uprising”. |
| October - | Official programme to repatriate Liberian refugees begins. A delegation from the European Commission arrives in Conakry for further talks on restoring aid. |
| November - | The IMF publishes a bleak overview of the economic situation. |
| 9 December - | Cellou Dalien Diallo, an economist and veteran minister under Conte, is appointed prime minister, succeeding Francois Fall, who quit eight months earlier. |
| 29 December - | One man dies as police open fire on workers protesting against the non-payment of salaries in the bauxite mining town of Fria, 160 km north of Conakry. |
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| 2005 | |
| 5 January - | Government offers to allow private radio stations to operate as Diallo tries to relaunch a dialogue with the opposition. |
| 10 January - | Teachers begin a nationwide strike to demand a 40-percent pay rise. |
| 17 January - | Teachers end strike after government agrees to some of their pay demands. |
| 19 January - | President Conte escapes unhurt when unidentified gunmen open fire on his motorcade as it drives through a suburb of Conakry. |
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