| Year |
Date |
Event
|
| 1901 |
23 February |
A boundary is agreed between German East Africa and Nyasaland.
|
| 1916 |
|
Rwanda is occupied by Belgian forces.
|
| 1922 |
20 July |
Rwanda-Urundi are joined as a League of Nations mandate, governed by Belgium.[1]
|
| 1933 |
|
All citizens in Rwanda-Urundi are issued with an identity card defining their ethnicity.
|
| 1943 |
|
Famine affects the region.
|
| 1945 |
|
Rwanda-Urundi becomes a United Nations Trust Territory.
|
| 1957 |
|
The Hutu Manifesto is published.
|
| 1959 |
24 July |
Mwami Mutara III dies.[2]
|
| 3 September |
The Union Nationale Rwandaise (UNAR) party is formed.[2]
|
| 1 November |
Politician Dominique Mbonyumutwa is beaten by members of UNAR, leading to a violent backlash that kills thousands of Tutsis.[3]
|
| 1960 |
|
An election is held.
|
| 1961 |
|
Rwandans vote to abolish the Tutsi monarchy.
|
| 28 January |
Dominique Mbonyumutwa becomes provisional President of Rwanda.
|
| 1962 |
1 July |
Belgium grants Rwanda independence.[1]
|
| 26 October |
Grégoire Kayibanda becomes the first elected President of Rwanda.
|
| 1963 |
|
Following a Tutsi guerilla attack from Burundi, an anti-Tutsi backlash kills thousands.
|
| 1973 |
5 July |
Grégoire Kayibanda is overthrown in a military coup d'état.[4] Juvénal Habyarimana becomes the third President of Rwanda.
|
| 1985 |
26 December |
American naturalist Dian Fossey is murdered in her Rwandan cabin.[5]
|
| 1990 |
1 October |
The Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) makes an attack from Uganda, starting the Rwandan Civil War.[6]
|
| 1993 |
4 August |
The Arusha Accords are signed between President Habyarimana and leaders of the RPF in Arusha, Tanzania, ending the Rwandan Civil War.[7]
|
| 1994 |
6 April |
President Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira are assassinated as their aircraft is shot down approaching Kigali. This incident sparks the Rwandan genocide.[1]
|
| 8 April |
Théodore Sindikubwabo becomes interim President of Rwanda.
|
| 3 July |
The RPF takes control of Kigali.[1]
|
| 19 July |
The RPF forms a provisional government[1] and Pasteur Bizimungu becomes President of Rwanda.
|
| 21 August |
The RPF controls the whole of Rwanda.[1]
|
| 8 November |
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is established.[8]
|
| 2000 |
24 March |
Paul Kagame is selected as interim President of Rwanda.[9]
|
| 22 April |
Paul Kagame is sworn in as the fourth President of Rwanda.[10]
|