1,3 mln. years First traces from human occupation in Bulgarian lands – Kozarnika Cave, Belogradchik, NW Bulgaria
6000 - 5000 BC – Neolithic Period. The appearance of: the first permanent settlements (settlement mounds),  agriculture, animal husbandry, clay pot producing
5000 - 3500 BC – Chalcolithic Period. Development of metallurgy, the earliest gold in the world – Varna (second half of V mill. BC)
3300 - 1000 BC – Bronze Age – formation of Thracian community
Mid-5th century BC Thracian State formed, which was to extend over Bulgaria, N Greece, and N Turkey.
4th century BC Phillip II and Alexander the Great of Macedonia, to the SW, waged largely unsuccessful campaigns against the Thracian Empire.
AD 46 Thracians subdued and incorporated within Roman Empire as the province of Moesia Inferior.
3rd-6th centuries Successively invaded from the North and devastated by the Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars.
681 The Bulgars, an originally Turkic group that had merged with earlier Slav settlers, revolted against the Avars and established, south of the Danube River, the first Bulgarian kingdom, with its capital at Pliska.
865 Orthodox Christianity adopted by Knyaz Boris I.
1018 Subjugated by the Byzantines, whose empire had its capital at Constantinople
1185 Second independent Bulgarian Kingdom formed. The end of 13th century Bulgarian State destroyed by Mongol incursions.
1396 Bulgaria became the first European state to be absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman Empire; the imposition of a harsh feudal system and the sacking of monasteries followed.
1859 Bulgarian Catholic Church re-established links with Rome.
1876 Bulgarian nationalist revolt against Ottoman rule crushed brutally by Ottomans, with 15,000 massacred at Plovdiv ("Bulgarian Atrocities").
1878 At the Congress of Berlin, concluding a Russo-Turkish war in which Bulgarian volunteers had fought alongside the Russians, the area south of the Balkans, Eastern Rumelia, remained an Ottoman province, but the area to the north became the autonomous Principality of Bulgaria, with a liberal constitution and Alexander Battenberg as prince.
1885 Eastern Rumelia annexed by the Principality; Serbia defeated in war.
1908 Full independence proclaimed from Turkish rule, with Ferdinand I as tsar (king).
1918 Following defeat in the Second Balkan War (1913) and First World War (1915-1918), King Ferdinand I abdicated and was replaced by his son Boris III.
1919 Bulgarian Agrarian Union government, led by Alexander Stamboliiski, came to power and redistributed land to poor peasants.
1923 Agrarian government overthrown in right-wing coup and Stamboliiski murdered.
1934 Authoritarian government established by King Boris III
1940 Gained South Dobrudja in the Northeast, along the Black Sea, from Romania. Bulgaria became a German ally in the Second World War, but it saved the Jews in its territory and didn't send troops against the Soviet Union.
1943 King Boris III mysteriously died in 1943. A heir of the throne is his 6-year old son – Simeon II. Government of regents.
1944 Soviet invasion of German-occupied Bulgaria.
1946 Monarchy abolished and communist-dominated people's republic proclaimed following plebiscite. The king`s family was expelled from Bulgaria. It settled in Egypt and after that in 1951 in Spain.
1947 Soviet-style constitution established a one-party state; industries and financial institutions nationalized and co-operative farming introduced.
1949 Death of Georgi Dimitrov, the communist government leader; replaced by Vulko Chervenkov.
1954 Election of Todor Zhivkov as Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) general secretary; Bulgaria became a loyal and cautious satellite of the Soviet Union.
1971 Zhivkov became Head of the State Council (president) under new constitution.
1985-89 Haphazard administrative and economic reforms, known as preustroistvo ("restructuring"), introduced under the stimulus of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
1989 Program of enforced "Bulgarianization" resulted in mass exodus of ethnic Turks to Turkey. Zhivkov ousted by foreign minister Petar Mladenov. Opposition parties tolerated.
1990 BCP reformed under the new name of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP). Zhelyu Zhelev of the center-right Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) indirectly elected president. Following mass demonstrations and general strike, BSP government replaced by a coalition.
1991 New liberal-democratic constitution adopted. UDF beat BSP in a general election by a narrow margin; formation of first noncommunist, UDF-minority government.
1992 Zhelev became Bulgaria's first directly elected president. Following industrial unrest, Lyuben Berov became head of a non-party government. Zhivkov sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for corruption whilst in government.
1993 Voucher-based “mass privatization” program launched.
1994 Berov resigned; general election won by BSP.
1995 Zhan Videnov (BSP) became Prime Minister.
1996 Radical economic and industrial reforms imposed. Petar Stoyanov replaced Zhelev as president.
1997 Democratic elections won by the UDF. Ivan Kostov became Prime Minister. His government made quick economic reforms and privatization.
2001 The ex-Bulgarian tsar (king) Simeon II established national movement and won the parliamentary elections. He became Prime Minister. Georgi Purvanov replaced Petar Stoyanov as president.
2004 Bulgaria became a member of NATO.
2007 Bulgaria becomes a member state of EU
2005 Parliamentary elections. The new government is headed by the coalition led by the leader of BSP – Sergei Stanishev.
2009 Parliamentary elections. The new government is headed by the leader of Gerb - Boyko Borisov.
2011 Presidential elections. Georgi Parvanov is replaced by Rosen Plevneliev. 
2016 Presidential election. Rosen Plevneliev is replaced by Rumen Radev