c. 4–3 million B.C Emergence of Australopithecus, possibly the first in the hominid line of evolution, culminating in modern humans in East/Southern Africa.

c. 1.5 million B.C Emergence of Homo erectus in Africa, definitely a human ancestor.

c. 100,000 B.C Emergence of Homo sapiens, “wise human,” in Africa.

c. 40,000 B.C Emergence of Homo sapiens sapiens, fully modern humans, in Africa.

c. 5000 B.C. to A.D. 1000 (depending on region) Closing of Late Stone Age, opening of Iron Age. Also—though not necessarily concomitant with Stone Age/Iron Age transition—closing of hunting/gathering age, onset of agriculture.

c. 3100–c. 350 B.C Egypt of the pharaohs.

c. 2000–c. 100 B.C Kingdom of Kush in the Nubian region of modern Sudan.

c. 750–650 B.C Nubian (or 25th) dynasty rules Egypt.

c. 3rd–5th centuries A.D Introduction of camel revolutionizes trans-Saharan trade.

Mid-4th century A.D Aksumite (Ethiopian) monarch converts to Christianity.

7th century A.D Rapid Arab/Muslim expansion across North Africa.

c. 7th–12th centuries A.D West African savanna kingdom of Ghana. Islam begins to penetrate West African savanna.

Late 1st millennium A.D Emergence of trading states in Southern Africa, such as Mapungubwe.

c. 11th–15th centuries Swahili city-states emerge on East African coast.

c. 12th–15th centuries Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe.

Early 13th century Ethiopian Christian monks begin building a series of churches carved out of solid mountain rock.

Early 13th century Sundiata founds West African savanna kingdom of Mali.

c. 1300 Completion of stone buildings at Great Zimbabwe.

1324–1325 King (Mansa) Musa of Mali makes epic pilgrimage to Mecca.

Early 15th century Sonni Ali founds West African savanna kingdom of Songhai.

1492 Columbus’s voyage marks the opening of the Atlantic System linking Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

1498 Portuguese circumnavigation of Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean.

1505 Portuguese sacking of the Swahili city-state of Kilwa.

16th–19th centuries Atlantic slave trade brings millions of Africans to the New World.

1591 Moroccans—with firearms—invade and defeat Songhai.

1619 First Africans brought to Virginia.

1652 Dutch establish post at Cape Town.

1657 Dutch East India Company releases nine employees, who end up as the first white settlers in what becomes South Africa.

1658 Dutch import the first slaves into Cape Colony.

1779 First conflict between Europeans and Xhosa—part of the southern Bantu peoples—in “South Africa.”

1795–1806 British take over Cape Colony.

1807 Britain outlaws international traffic in slaves; West Africa’s era of “legitimate commerce” soon underway.

c. early–mid-19th century Islamic reform movements—many involving jihad, or holy war—emerge in the West African savanna.

1818–1828 Shaka Zulu’s decade in power, when he founds the modern Zulu kingdom.

1820 First British settlers come to Cape.

1836–1845 Afrikaner (or Boer) “Great Trek” out of Cape Colony and into the interior.

1867 Diamonds discovered at Kimberley.

1879 Zulu/British war; Zulu finally conquered.

c. 1880–1905 “Scramble for Africa.” Almost all of Africa taken over by European empires; onset of Africa’s colonial period.

1884–1845 Berlin Conference of European powers considers “ground rules” for the scramble for Africa.

1886 Gold discovered near Johannesburg.

1896 Ethiopian Emperor Menelik defeats Italian army at Adwa; Ethiopia avoids colonization.

1899–1902 South African, or Boer, War between British and Afrikaners; Afrikaners finally defeated.

1910 Union of South Africa formed.

1912 African National Congress founded in South Africa.

1913 South African Natives Land Act establishes separate white and black areas.

1914–1918 World War I; the only major non-European theater is in East Africa, where there are both British and German colonies.

1935 Italy succeeds (finally) in taking over Ethiopia.

1935–1945 Numerous labor strikes across the breadth of colonial Africa; examples of proto-nationalist urban unrest.

1938 Cocoa “hold-up” in Gold Coast, an example of rural protest.

1939–1945 World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Africans serve overseas on the Allied side; in the aftermath, Britain and France, particularly, adopt more aggressive “developmentalist” colonial policies.

1941 Allied forces expel Italians from Ethiopia.

1944 ANC Youth League formed in South Africa, with Mandela a founder.

1948 “Purified” Afrikaner National Party takes power in South Africa; officially imposes policy of apartheid.

c. late 1940s–1964 High tide of “African nationalism”; within a few years either side of 1960, most colonies become independent under African rule—except for the settler colonies concentrated in Southern Africa.

c. early 1950s “Defiance campaign” in South Africa by ANC and other organizations.

c. early–mid-1950s "Mau Mau” rebellion/emergency in Kenya.

1955 Congress of the People in South Africa; Freedom Charter adopted.

1957 Gold Coast wins independence from Britain, becomes the modern country of Ghana, the first sub-Saharan colony to gain independence.

1960 South African security forces kill 69 unarmed protestors at Sharpeville; African nationalist organizations in the country are banned; they, in turn, adopt armed struggle.

1960–1961 Independence of many countries, including the Belgian Congo; its first premier, Patrice Lumumba, is executed by rebels, and the country is engulfed in civil war.

c. early 1960s Armed liberation movements emerge in Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau.

1964 Nelson Mandela and others sentenced to life imprisonment for treason in South Africa.

1965 Military coup brings Joseph Mobutu to power in Congo-Kinshasa. He will rule for 32 years. He came to power through the help of the Belgium Government.

1965 White settler regime in Southern Rhodesia proclaims Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain.

1966 Coup in Ghana overthrows Kwame Nkrumah, the “Father of African Nationalism.”

1967 Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere issues the Arusha Declaration, a blueprint for “African socialism.”

1967–1970 Nigerian civil war; attempt by Biafra (southeastern Nigeria) to secede ultimately thwarted.

1972 Beginning of sustained guerilla war in Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia).

1974 Coup in Portugal leads to the end of Portuguese rule in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau; in the first two, however, civil war supported by outside powers continues.

1974 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie overthrown by radical military officers.

c. mid-1970s “Oil shocks”—price rises for petroleum—signal decline in terms of trade and deepening crisis in many parts of Africa.

1976 Uprising in Soweto, a huge township outside Johannesburg, signals the arrival of a new, defiant generation in South Africa.

c. early 1980s AIDS identified; the disease almost certainly had already been spreading in Africa and will eventually have a significant impact.

c. late 1980s and early 1990s  Wave of “democratization” sweeps over Africa, leading to the end of one-party and military regimes.

1990 Mandela released from South African prison; negotiations for a democratic constitution begin.

1994 Rwanda genocide leaves some 700,000 dead.

1994 In South Africa’s first-ever democratic election, Nelson Mandela and the once-outlawed ANC sweep to victory.

2000 Government-sponsored “invasions” of white-owned land begin in Zimbabwe. Crisis continues today.

2004 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Wangari Mathai, the Kenyan woman who has courageously campaigned for the environment and human rights.

2004 Thabo Mbeki reelected South African president in the third peaceful and open election since the fall of apartheid.