History

October - Giorgia Meloni becomes the country's first female prime minister and leader of Italy's most right-wing government since 1945.

February: Mario Draghi, an economist and former governor of the Bank of Italy, forms a government of national unity to lead the country out of the coronavirus crisis.

January - League Party fails to unseat the left in a key election in Emilia-Romagna.

August - Right-wing League party leader Matteo Salvini withdraws from the government, hoping to trigger early elections. However, the radical 5-Star Movement and center-left Democratic Party agreed on a new coalition without the League, with law professor Giuseppe Conte retaining his position as prime minister.

June - Western Europe's first populist coalition government takes office after elections in March, with an agenda to cut taxes, boost welfare spending, and overhaul European Union budgets and immigration rules.

December - Italy has to scale back budget spending plans after EU objections.

 July - EU regulators approve a state bailout of the world's oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi, at the center of Italy's banking crisis.

October - Veneto and Lombardy, two wealthy northern regions, vote overwhelmingly in favor of greater autonomy in non-binding referendums.

 August - Earthquake rocks mountainous Apennine area of central Italy, causing extensive damage and casualties.

November - Prime Minister Renzi resigns after his flagship constitutional reform package is overwhelmingly rejected in a referendum. He is succeeded by his Democratic Party ally Paolo Gentiloni.

May - Parliament approves an electoral reform, giving the largest party an automatic majority of seats in parliament.

February - New Democratic Party leader and mayor of Florence, Matteo Renzi, forms a new left-right coalition government and unveils plans for significant economic and political reform.

 July - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wins an appeal against his conviction in June 2013 for paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

August—The Senate, or upper house of parliament, votes to back Prime Minister Renzi's plans to drastically reduce the chamber's size and powers.

 March - Silvio Berlusconi is sentenced to a year in jail over an illegal wiretap. He remains free pending the outcome of the appeals process.

 April - Enrico Letta of the Democratic Party (PD) becomes prime minister at the head of a grand coalition that also includes Silvio Berlusconi's PdL, after Pier Luigi Bersani steps down as PD leader.

August—Italy's highest court upheld Silvio Berlusconi's sentencing for tax fraud in October 2012, the former prime minister's first definitive conviction. Because of his age, he was sentenced to community service rather than prison and a two-year ban on holding public office.

 October - The governor of Sicily declares a state of emergency after hundreds of migrants die in shipwrecks while attempting to reach Europe from Africa.

 November - Senate expels Mr Berlusconi from parliament over his conviction for tax fraud, depriving him of his immunity from arrest.

January - Government issues de-regulation decree designed to curb restrictive practices, reduce protectionism and encourage competition.

September—Parliament gives final approval to a 54 billion euro (£47 billion; $74 billion) austerity package. The package contains a pledge to balance the budget by 2013.

 November - Amid growing doubts about Italy's debt burden, Mr Berlusconi resigns after his government fails to gain a majority in the Chamber of Deputies during a budget vote. Former European Union commissioner Mario Monti forms a government of technocrats.

 December - Mr Monti's package of austerity measures amounting to 33bn euros of spending cuts gains parliamentary approval. The package also includes measures to raise taxes and tackle tax evasion.

February - A Milan judge orders Mr Berlusconi to stand trial in April on charges of abuse of power and paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

August - Mr Berlusconi's coalition loses majority in lower house of parliament after more than 30 deputies break away from his People of Freedom party.

April - An earthquake strikes towns in the mountainous Abruzzo region, leaving hundreds of people dead and thousands homeless.

October - Constitutional court overturns law that granted Premier Berlusconi immunity while in office.

January - A no-confidence vote forces Mr Prodi's government to resign.

 April - Berlusconi wins general elections, securing a third term as prime minister after two years in opposition.

 November - After posting two consecutive quarters of negative growth, Italy is declared to be officially in recession.

April: Centre-left leader Romano Prodi wins closely fought general elections and is sworn in as prime minister in May.

Italy's most-wanted man, suspected head of the Sicilian mafia Bernardo Provenzano, is captured by police.

June—A national referendum rejects reforms intended to boost the prime minister's powers and regions. The changes were proposed during Silvio Berlusconi's premiership.

 August - Hundreds of Italian peacekeepers leave for Lebanon. Italy is set to become the biggest contributor to the UN-mandated force.

April - Parliament ratifies EU constitution.

January—The Constitutional Court throws out a law granting Mr. Berlusconi and other top state post-holders immunity from prosecution. Mr Berlusconi's trial resumes in April and is cleared in December.

November - Multi-billion euro fraud uncovered at Parmalat food-manufacturing giant. The company is declared insolvent.

Jan - Euro replaces the lira.

May/June - A centre-right coalition, led by Silvio Berlusconi of the Forza Italia party, wins the general elections.

Berlusconi forms a new coalition government that includes the leaders of two right-wing parties, Gianfranco Fini of the National Alliance and Umberto Bossi of the Northern League, as well as the pro-European Union Renato Ruggiero, who becomes foreign minister.

 Oct—The first constitutional referendum since 1946 saw a vote in favor of a significant change, giving greater autonomy to the country's 20 regions in tax, education, and environment policies.

Earthquakes struck the Umbria region, causing extensive damage to the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. Four people were killed.

Centre-left Olive Tree alliance wins election. Romano Prodi becomes prime minister.

Lamberto Dini heads the government of technocrats—austerity budget.

March: The Freedom Alliance wins the election. The coalition, which includes Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia, the Northern League, and the neo-Fascist National Alliance, collapses by the end of the year following clashes with anti-corruption magistrates and a battle with trade unions over pension reform.

The bribery scandal leads to Mr Craxi's resignation as leader of the Socialist Party. He later flees the country, is tried and sentenced in absentia to imprisonment, but dies in Tunisia in 2000.

Revelations of high-level corruption spark several years of arrests and investigations.

Top anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards killed in car bomb attack.

Communists rename themselves Democratic Party of the Left.

Roman Catholicism loses status as a state religion.

Bettino Craxi becomes Italy's first Socialist prime minister since war.

Bombing of Bologna station kills 84, linked to right-wing extremists.

Former Prime Minister Aldo Moro was kidnapped and murdered by a left-wing armed group, the Red Brigades. Abortion legalized.

Communist election gains lead to a voice in policy-making.

Giulio Andreotti becomes prime minister - a post he will hold seven times in 20 years.

Founder member of the European Economic Community.

Italy joins the European Coal and Steel Community.

New constitution. Christian Democrats win elections.

Italy cedes land and territories under the peace treaty.

Referendum votes for republic to replace monarchy.

May - Axis forces in Italy surrender. German Benito Mussolini, who had been rescued from prison by the Germans in 1943 to set up a puppet fascist state in northern Italy, is captured and executed by Italian partisans.

The Allies invade Sicily and then mainland Italy. Benito Mussolini is overthrown, and an armistice is signed with the Allies. Italy declares war on Germany.

British and Allied forces drive Italian troops out of East Africa.

Italy enters World War Two on the German side. Italian forces occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.

Italy annexes Albania.

Benito Mussolini forms an alliance with Nazi Germany.

Italy invades Ethiopia.

Fascist leader Benito Mussolini formed a government after three years of political and economic unrest and then established an authoritarian system.

Under the post-war peace treaties, Italy gains Trentino, South Tyrol, and Trieste from Austria-Hungary.

Italy enters World War One on side of Allies.

Unification is completed by the capture of Rome and its designation as the capital of the modern state of Italy.

The unification of Italy, also known as the Risorgimento, consolidates different peninsula states into a single state under King Victor Emmanuel II.