Law and Justice party maintains its position in the lower house of parliament at general elections, but loses control of the Senate to centre and centre-left parties.
A new law makes it an offence to ascribe Nazi atrocities in occupied Poland to the Polish state.
Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki takes over as prime minister of the Law and Justice party government.
President Duda vetoes controversial laws that would have given the government extensive power over the judiciary.
Tens of thousands of people take part in a march in the capital, Warsaw, to protest against what they see as curbs on democracy imposed by the governing Law and Justice Party.
Poland welcomes Nato troops deployed in the northeast, as part of efforts to enhance security following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Parliament rejects private-member's bill to institute a near-total ban on abortion following mass protests. The governing Law and Justice party decides not to back the bill.
European Commission investigates new media law that allows government to appoint heads of state TV and radio as potential "threat to European Union values".
President Duda approves controversial reform making it harder for the constitutional court to make majority rulings, despite large protests and EU concerns at the implications for oversight of government decisions.
Law and Justice conservative, Eurosceptic party becomes first to win overall majority in Polish democratic elections.
Conservative Law and Justice candidate Andrzej Duda beats centrist incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski in presidential election.
Poland announces purchase of US Patriot surface-to-air missiles amid rising tension with Russia.
Poland complains of "unprecedented" Russian military activity in the Baltic Sea region, saying Nato is being tested but is not at risk of attack.
Poland adopts a new National Security Strategy that states the country is threatened by war and names Russia as an aggressor in Ukraine
Prime Minister Donald Tusk resigns to take up the post of president of the European Council. Ewa Kopacz takes over as head of government.
Mr Tusk's ruling coalition narrowly survives a confidence vote triggered by a scandal prompted by leaked tapes of senior government officials appearing to disparage Poland's allies.
Poland asks Nato to station 10,000 troops on its territory, as a visible mark of the Alliance's resolve to defend all its members after Russia's seizure of Crimea.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk says that Russia's annexation of Crimea cannot be accepted by the international community.
Tens of thousands of protesters march through Warsaw in one of the largest demonstrations in years, organised by trade unions, to demand more jobs and higher pay.
A court gives communist-era interior minister Czeslaw Kiszczak a two-year suspended prison sentence in absentia for his role in the martial law crackdown in 1981. The Communist Party leader of the time, Stanislaw Kania, is acquitted.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right Civic Platform party wins parliamentary elections.
Poland takes over EU rotating presidency for first time since it joined the bloc in 2004.
Russia's aviation authority blames Polish pilot error for the Smolensk air crash in which President Lech Kaczynski and many other officials were killed in April 2010.
Nigerian-born John Abraham Godson becomes first black member of Polish parliament.
Parliament Speaker and Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski of the centre-right Civic Platform defeats former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in the second round of presidential elections.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton oversees amended agreement to station US missile defence shield base in Poland.
President Lech Kaczynski and many other senior officials are killed in an aircraft crash travelling to a ceremony in Russia marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre during World War Two.
The IMF approves a one-year credit line for Poland of $20.6bn to help it weather the global economic crisis.
Poland's last Communist leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, goes on trial in connection with the imposition of martial law in 1981.
The government forges an agreement with the US in principle to host a controversial American missile defence system.
Liberal, pro-EU Civic Platform party wins early general election after coalition government collapses.
Prosecutors bring charges against former communist leader General Jaruzelski over his role in introducing martial law in 1981.
Recently-appointed Archbishop of Warsaw Stanislaw Wielgus resigns over revelations about his co-operation with the secret police under communist rule.
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz resigns as prime minister. President Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, becomes premier.
Law and Justice Party reaches majority coalition agreement with Self-Defence Party and League of Polish Families.
Law and Justice candidate Lech Kaczynski wins presidential election.
Minority government led by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz of Law and Justice sworn in.
Conservative Law and Justice party comes first in general elections.
Poland is one of 10 new states to join the EU.
Prime Minister Miller resigns. Former finance minister Marek Belka succeeds him.
Poles vote in referendum in favour of joining EU.
Polish Peasant's Party ejected from ruling coalition over failure to vote with government on tax. Leszek Miller carries on as PM in minority government.
EU summit in Copenhagen formally invites Poland to join in 2004.
New coalition between the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Peasants' Party forms government with SLD leader Leszek Miller as prime minister.
Poland permits citizens to apply to see the files kept on them by the secret police during the communist era.
Aleksander Kwasniewski re-elected as president.
Poland joins Nato.
The EU opens talks on Polish membership.
Polish parliament adopts a new constitution. General election is won by the Solidarity grouping AWS. Jerzy Buzek forms a coalition government.
Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former Communist, narrowly beats Lech Walesa to become president.
Poland joins Nato's Partnership for Peace programme.
Reformed Communists enter coalition government. They pledge to continue market reforms.
First parliamentary elections since fall of communism. Soviet troops start to leave Poland.
Walesa elected president of Poland. Market reforms, including large-scale privatisation, are launched.
Round-table talks between Solidarity, the Communists and the Catholic Church pave the way for fall of communism in Poland. Partially free elections see landslide win for Solidarity, which helps form coalition government. Tadeusz Mazowiecki becomes Poland's first non-Communist prime minister since 1946.
Martial law lifted.
Martial law imposed. Many of Solidarity's leaders, including Walesa, are imprisoned.
Disturbances at the shipyard in Gdansk lead to the emergence of the Solidarity trade union under Lech Walesa.
Karol Wojtyla, Cardinal of Krakow, elected Pope.
Poland enjoys relative economic prosperity based on foreign loans. Successive US presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter visit Poland.
Food price riots in Gdansk. The protests are suppressed, hundreds are killed. Edward Gierek becomes party leader.
More than 50 people killed in rioting in Poznan over demands for greater freedom. Liberal Communist leader Wladislaw Gomulka takes over.
Poland joins the Soviet-run Warsaw Pact military alliance.
Poland becomes a Communist People's Republic after Soviet-run elections, under the Stalinist leadership of Boleslaw Bierut.
Soviet forces capture Warsaw in January. All German forces are driven from Poland by March. Poland's borders are set by the post-war Potsdam conference; Poland loses territory to the Soviet Union but gains some from Germany.
Polish resistance forces take control of Warsaw in August. The Germans recapture the city in October and burn it to the ground.
Warsaw ghetto uprising against German attempts to transport the remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps. Resistance lasts nearly four weeks before the ghetto is burned down. The Germans announce the capture of more than 50,000 Jews.
Germans start to build concentration camps in Poland. Their names - Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek - become synonymous with the Holocaust.
Soviet secret police carry out systematic massacre of about 22,000 Polish army officers, professionals and civil servants mainly in a forest near Katyn in Russia's Smolensk region. The Soviet Union attributed the crime to the Nazis until acknowledging responsibility in the late 1980s.
Nazi Germany invades Poland. Beginning of World War Two as the United Kingdom and France declare war on Germany in response. USSR invades from the east. Germany and the Soviet Union divide Poland between them and treat Polish citizens with extreme brutality. Germany begins systematic persecution of the large Jewish population.
Pilsudski dies. The military regime continues.
Poland signs similar 10-year pact with Nazi Germany.
Poland concludes non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.
Pilsudski stages a military coup, which leads to nine years of autocratic rule.
Soviet Red Army offensive repulsed.
After more than a century of foreign rule, an independent Polish state is restored after the end of World War One, with Marshal Jozef Pilsudski as head of state.
The Polish national movement in Russia, Prussia and Austria focuses on strengthening the grassroots through education, culture and political parties.
Another revolt against Russian rule is defeated and the Kingdom annexed to Russia.
Military revolt in protest at Russian erosion of the Kingdom's political autonomy and civil liberties.
The Congress of Vienna creates a rump Kingdom of Poland, ruled by Russia.
Napoleon creates the Duchy of Warsaw as a client state to rally Polish support for his cause.
Reformers lead an armed uprising against the partitioning powers. Following its failure the Commonwealth is finally partitioned among Prussia, Russia and Austria. Independent Poland disappears from the map of Europe.
A programme of political and social reform culminates in the 3 May Constitution in 1791, which promises civil rights to the urban and peasant population of the Commonwealth. Russia invades to prevent liberal change. Prussia also sends in troops, and the two powers carry out a second partition in 1793.
The Commonwealth is subjected to the first of three major partitions by its neighbours Prussia, Russia and Austria following an anti-Russian revolt.
Poland signs Union of Lublin with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to establish the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a major power in Europe unusual for its powerful parliament of noblemen and its elected kings.
Boleslaw I proclaims the Kingdom of Poland.
Duke Mieszko I, the historically recognised founder of the Polish state, adopts Catholic Christianity.