Important Dates in the History of Bangladesh:
1204 – Muslim conquest of Bengal.
14th century – Three city-states emerged in Bengal: Sonargaon, Satgaon and Lakhnauti.
1352 – Shamsuddin Ilyas Shah unites the three city-states to form the Sultanate of Bengal, which dominates the region for much of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries.
17th century – The Mughal Empire rules Bengal.
18th century – The Nawabs of Bengal within the Mughal Empire become de facto independent rulers of the region.
1757 – After the Battle of Plassey, Bengal becomes the first part of the Indian subcontinent to be conquered by the British East India Company.
1947 – British colonial rule of India ends. Two predominantly Muslim states, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, are established on either side of India, separated by more than 1,500 km of Indian territory.
1971 – Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) gains independence after a war with West Pakistan (now Pakistan) in which India supports Bengali nationalists against Pakistan.
1973 – The Awami League wins the first parliamentary elections by a landslide.
1975 – A military coup kills the country's first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and most of his family, ending civilian rule.
1979 – In the second parliamentary elections, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former army chief Ziaur Rahman, comes to power.
1981 – President Ziaur Rahman is assassinated during a failed military coup.
1982 – General Hussein Mohammed Ershad seizes power in a coup, suspends the constitution and political parties.
1991 – The country returns to a parliamentary system.
2006-2008 – A political crisis leads to the brief detention of leaders of both major parties.
2014-17 – Bangladesh faces a campaign of Islamist violence against bloggers, atheists and secular intellectuals.
