Slavs
- 1000BC: Slavs settle by the Dnieprs river
- 558 AD: defeated by the Avars the Slavs move east from the Russian steppes
- 575: the East Slavs inhabit western Russia, the Southern Slavs inhabit the Balkan peninsula, the West Slavs inhabit Poland, Czechoslovakia and Prussia
- 578: the Southern Slavs reach the Peloponnese
- 582 AD: Southern Slavs settle near Salonika ("Servia") under tsar Heraclius
- 584 AD: Southern Slavs mix with Bulgars
- 612 AD: Southern Slavs invade Greece and reach Thessalonica
- See Russians
Bulgars
- 482 AD: the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Bulgars live northeast of the Danube
- 584: Kubrat unifies the Bulgars and South Slavs mix with them
- 632: Khan Kubrat unites all Bulgarian tribes
- 650: the Khazars' expansion drives Bulgars westward
- 680 AD: the Bulgars under Kubrat's son Asparuch cross the Danube and the Romans accept their existence as an independent state
- 750 AD: Bulgars adopt the Slavic language
- 807 AD: Krum becomes king of the Bulgars, with capital in Pliska
- 810 AD: Bulgars, under king Krum, destroy the Avars
- 811 AD: Krum's Bulgars defeat the eastern Romans (Byzanthium) and kill Byzanthine emperor Nikephoros I
- 813 AD: Krum takes Hadrianopolis
- 814 AD: Krum dies (while on his way to storm Constantinople) and is succeeded by his son Omurtag
- 852 AD: Boris becomes king of Bulgaria
- 864 AD: Cyril and Methodius from Constantinople write the Slavic bible
- 864 AD: Boris converts Bulgaria to christianity
- 893 AD: Boris' son Simeon becomes Bulgaria's first tsar
896: Symeon of Bulgaria defeats the Byzantine army for the first time
922: Symeon of Bulgaria defeats the Byzantine army for the fourth and last time
927: Symeon of Bulgaria dies
- 1018: the eastern Roman empire (under Basil II) deposes Boris II and annexes the kingdom of Bulgaria
- 1197: Prince Kalojan is crowned tsar by the Pope
- 1241: the Mongols raid Bulgaria
- See the Ottoman Empire
- 1876: Ottoman troops massacre thousands of Bulgarians at Batak
- 1878: The Congress of Berlin creates an autonomous Christian principality of Bulgaria within the Ottoman Empire
- 1887: Ferdinand of Coburg becomes prince of Bulgaria under the Ottomans
- 1908: Ferdinand of Coburg declares the independence of Bulgaria, i.e. he raises from prince to czar
- Oct 1912: a Balkan League of Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece declares war on the Ottoman Empire and drives the Ottomans almost entirely out of Europe ("Balkan war")
- May 1913: Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece, that ally with Montenegro, Romania and the Ottoman Empire, and then defeat Bulgaria
- See the timeline of World War II
- Oct 1946: The communist party wins rigged elections in Bulgaria
- Aug 1947: Nikola Petkov, leader of the opposition, is arrested and executed and Bulgaria becomes a communist country under Georgi Dimitrov
- 1954: Todor Zhivkov becomes the communist leader of Bulgaria
- 1989: Zhivkov is forced to resign and Bulgaria becomes a democracy
- 1992: Zhelyu Zhelev becomes the first democratically elected president of Bulgaria
- 1994: Zhan Videnov of the Socialist Party becomes prime minister
- Jun 2001: former King Simeon II becomes prime minister after winning elections
- 2004: Bulgaria joins NATO
- 2005: Sergei Stanishev of the Socialist Party wins elections and becomes prime minister
- 2007: Bulgaria joins the European Union, the poorest member in the union
- 2009: Boyko Borisov of the right-wing party wins elections and becomes Bulgaria's prime minister
- May 2013: Massive anti-poverty rallies force the conservative government to resign and lead to the election of Plamen Oresharski as new prime minister
- Oct 2014: Boyko Borisov is reelected prime minister
- Jan 2017: Rumen Radev, a rival of Borisov, is elected president of Bulgaria
- Jul 2020: Mass demonstrations in Bulgaria, supported by president Rumen Radev, against the government of prime minister Boyko Borisov
- Nov 2021: 46 people die when a bus of tourists crashes in Bulgaria
- Dec 2021: Kiril Petkov, a US-educated economist, is appointed prime minister of Bulgaria after three parliamentary elections
- 2021: Czechia's GDP per capita is $26800, Slovakia's GDP per capita is $21300, Hungary's GDP per capita is $18700, Poland's GDP per capita is $18,000, Romania's is $14900, Bulgaria's is $12,200 versus Turkey's is $9600, Russia's $12200 and the euro zone's $44600
- 2023: Nikolai Denkov is appointed prime minister of Bulgaria
Poles
Czechs
- 1000BC: Slavs settle by the Dnieprs river
- 558 AD: defeated by the Avars the Slavs move east from the Russian steppes
- 575: the East Slavs inhabit western Russia, the South Slavs inhabit the Balkan peninsula, the West Slavs inhabit Poland, Czechoslovakia and Prussia
- 623: Samo founds the kingdom of Moravia, that includes Czechs and Slovaks
- 626: Samo leads the Slavs against the Avars
- 647: Catholic missionaries reach the Slavs
- 658: Samo dies and his Slavic kingdom dissolves
- 805: prince Vratislav of Bratislava
- 810: The Bulgars destroy the Avars and Moravia expands
- 822: Mojmir, prince of Morava, converts to christianity
- 833: Mojmir unifies Moravia and Nitra (Slovakia) in Great Moravia
- 846: Ratislav becomes prince of Moravia
- 862: prince Ratislav of Moravia converts to christianity
- 863: Cyril and Methodius from Constantinople write the Slavic bible in the first Slavic alphabet, glagolitic
- 872: after the Franks captured Ratislav, Svatopluk succeeds him as prince of Moravia
- 874: Borivoj I becomes prince of Bohemia and founds the Przemyslid/ Premyslid dynasty
- 874: the Moravians under Svatopluk invade the Vistula basin
- 880: Svatopluk is crowned king of Great Moravia
- 882: the Moravians under Svatopluk invade Bohemia and Pannonia
- 895: the dukes of Bohemia separate from the Moravian kingdom
- 906: The Magyars conquer the Moravian kingdom
- 929: Bohemia conquers Moravia (Slovakia)
- 965: Ibrahim-Ibn-Jakub, a Moorish Jew from Spain, accompanied the caliph of Cordoba to Prague
- 1000 AD: under Stephen the Magyars annex the Slovaks
- 1003: Poland conquers Moravia
- 1013: Bohemia reconquers Moravia
- 1038: Bohemia under the Przemyslid conquers Silesia and Wroclaw
- 1061: Vratislav II becomes prince of Bohemia
- 1085: Holy Roman emperor Henry IV makes Vratislav II king of Bohemia, but the title is not hereditary
- 1158: German emperor Friedrich I Barbarossa elevates duke Vladislav II of Bohemia to king
- 1253: Przemysl Otakar II becomes king of Bohemia and expands the borders
- 1300: Wenceslas II of Bohemia becomes king of Poland
- 1305: Wenceslas III, a pretender to the Hungarian throne, becomes king of Bohemia
- 1306: king Wenceslas III of Bohemia is murdered and the Przemyslid dynasty ends
- 1308: the House of Luxembourg inherits Bohemia
- 1344: an archdiocese is established in Prague
- 1347: the university of Prague is founded
- 1347: emperor Charles/Karl IV becomes king of Bohemia
- 1348: Charles University is founded in Prague
- 1415: Jan Hus is burned at the stake in Constance for heresy for opposing the sale of indulgences and claiming that the Church is a human invention
- 1419: the Hussite Revolution causes the end of the reign of the House of Luxembourg over Bohemia
- 1436: Bohemia adopts freedom of religion
- 1471: Kazimierz IV of Poland is elected king of Bohemia
- 1526: the Polish and Hungarian armies are defeated at the battle of Mohacs by the Ottomans of Suleyman and Hungary is partitioned between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs, with Hungary proper under Ottoman occupation, Transylvania as a Turkish protectorate and Slovakia (Upper Hungary) is annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy
- 1526: Ferdinand I Habsburg is elected king of Bohemia
- 1618: opposition to Ferdinand II as King of Bohemia causes the Thirty Years' War
- 1620: the Protestant nobility is expelled from Bohemia after losing at the "Battle of White Mountain"
- 1627: German becomes the second official language of Bohemia
- 1749: Bohemia is de facto annexed to Austria
- 1918: At the end of World War I the winning powers create an independent Czechoslovak Republic, a federation of Czechs (Bohemia and Moravia) and Slovaks with capital in Prague, a parliamentary democracy led by president Tomas Masaryk
- 1930: Czechoslovakia has 7.1 million Czechs, 3.3 million Germans, 2.6 million Slovaks, 720 thousand Hungarians, 569 thousand Ruthenes, etc and is the only Western-style democracy in Eastern Europe
- See the timeline of World War II
- May 1946: The communists of Klement Gottwald win elections in the Czech region but lose in Slovakia
- February 1948: Klement Gottwald's communists seize power in Czechoslovakia
- August 1968: troops of the Warsaw Pact invade Czechoslovakia to suppress the pro-democratic "Prague Spring" launched by prime minister Dubcek
- 1969: Gustav Husak replaces Dubcek
- 1989: communism falls and Vaclav Havel becomes the first elected president
- 1991: Vaclav Klaus founds the conservative and pro–Western Obcanska Demokraticka Strana (Civic Democratic Party) or ODS
- 1993: the Czech Republic (led by Vaclav Havel) and the Slovak Republic (led by Vladimir Meciar) separate peacefully into independent states
- 1999: the Czech Republic joins NATO
- 2004: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic join the European Union
- Jul 2006: The social-democrat Robert Fico becomes Slovakia's prime minister
- 2007: the Slovak Republic posts a record growth rate of 10.4%
- Jan 2009: Slovakia adopts the euro
- 2009: Vaclav Klaus becomes president of the Czech republic
- Jul 2010: Iveta Radicova becomes Slovakia's first female prime minister
- Apr 2012: The social-democrat Robert Fico is appointed again Slovakia's prime minister
- Mar 2013: Former prime minister Milos Zeman is elected president of the Czech republic
- 2015: Chinese oil conglomerate CEFC opens its European headquarters in Prague
- 2016: To avoid offending mainland China, Czech president Zeman denies a Holocaust survivor medal to the uncle of a government minister who met with the Dalai Lama
- Oct 2017: The Czech Republic's second richest man, billionaire Andrej Babis, wins national elections and becomes prime minister, but is accused of financial fraud
- Feb 2018: The murder of Slovakian journalist Jan Kuciak, who was investigating government corruption, triggers mass anti-government demonstrations and Fico resigns
- Nov 2018: Demonstrators demand the resignation of Czech prime minister Andrej Babis who is being investigated for fraud
- Mar 2019: Zuzana Caputova is elected Slovakia's first female president
- Jun 2019: The biggest demonstration yet against Czech prime minister Andrej Babis
- Nov 2021: The opposition parties narrowly win parliamentary elections and Petr Fiala of the ODS is appointed Czech prime minister
- 2021: Czechia's GDP per capita is $26800, Slovakia's GDP per capita is $21300, Hungary's GDP per capita is $18700, Poland's GDP per capita is $18,000, Romania's is $14900, Bulgaria's is $12,200 versus Turkey's is $9600, Russia's $12200 and the euro zone's $44600
- Oct 2023: Pro-Russian politician Robert Fico wins parliamentary elections and becomes Slovakia's prime minister again
- Dec 2023: A man kills 14 people in Prague, mostly students of Charles University, the biggest mass shooting in Czechia's history
- Apr 2024: Pro-Russian politician Peter Pellegrini is elected president of Slovakia defeating the pro-Western Ivan Korcok but real power rests with prime minister Robert Fico
- May 2024: A dissident tries to assassinate Slovakia's prime minister Robert Fico
Serbs and Croats:
- 1000BC: Slavs settle by the Dnieprs river
- 558 AD: defeated by the Avars the Slavs move east from the Russian steppes
- 575: the East Slavs inhabit western Russia, the South Slavs inhabit the Balkan peninsula, the West Slavs inhabit Poland, Czechoslovakia and Prussia
- 582: South Slavs settle near Salonika ("Servia") under tsar Heraclius
- 584: South Slavs mix with Bulgars
- 612: South Slavs invade Greece and reach Thessalonica
- 870: The Serbs convert to christianity
- 1168: Stefan Nemanja founds the Nemanjic dynasty in Serbia
- 1196: Stefan Nemanja abdicates and enters the monastery of Studenica
- 1217: Stefan, son of Stefan Nemanja, is crowned by the Pope as first king of Serbia
- 1296: king Milutin of Serbia builds the Gracanica Monastery in Kosovo and the Cathedral in Hilandar Monastery on Mt Athos
- 1300: king Stefan Decanski expands the Serbian kingdom both east and south (Macedonia) and builds the Visoki Decani Monastery in Metohija
- 1317: the third pharmacy in the world opens in Dubrovnik
- 1328: Stephen Dusan becomes Serbian emperor
- 1345: Serbian czar Stephan Dushan defeats Byzanthium and annexes Macedonia and Thrace
- 1348: Serbian czar Stephan Dushan defeats Byzanthium and annexes Thessaly and Epirus
- 1355: Stephen Dusan dies and the Serbian kingdom begins to collapse
- 1389: the Serbs are defeated by Ottoman Turks of Sultan Murad I at the battle of Kosovo
- 1448: the Serbs are defeated again by Ottoman Turks, who now dominate the Balkans
- 1521: the Ottomans capture Beograde
- See the Ottoman Empire
- 1804: Kara George leads an uprising against the Ottoman Empire
- 1815: prince Milos Obrenovic leads Serbia to de-facto independence from the Ottoman empire
- 1875: Bosnians and Serbs, supported by Russia, revolt against the Ottomans
- 1878: the Congress of Berlin grants Serbia its independence from the Ottoman empire
- 1903: King Alexander of Serbia and his wife are assassinated by 28 army officers led by Dragutin Dimitrijevic
- 1911: Dragutin Dimitrijevic plots to assassinate Austrian emperor Franz Josef
- Oct 1912: a Balkan League of Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece declares war on the Ottoman Empire and drives the Ottomans almost entirely out of Europe ("Balkan war")
- May 1913: Bulgaria attacks Serbia and Greece, that ally with Montenegro, Romania and the Ottoman Empire, and then defeat Bulgaria , resulting in Serbia doubling its size
- Jun 1914: Dimitrijevic's group assassinates the heir to the Austrian throne, archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo
- 1914: World War I breaks out in the Balkans, pitting Britain, France, Italy, Russia, Serbia, USA and Japan against Austria, Germany and Turkey
- 1917: Dimitrijevic is executed in Serbia
- 1918: the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is formed (Yugoslavia) under the Serbian king Petar I
- 1921: Petar I dies and is succeeded by his son Aleksandar I
- 1929: Aleksandar I renames his kingdom Yugoslavia
- 1934: Yugoslavian king Aleksandar I is assassinated in France and is succeeded by his son Petar II
- 1945: the communist partisan Tito (Josip Broz) seizes power in Yugoslavia
- 1948: Yugoslavia is expelled from the international communist organization and isolated in Eastern Europe
- 1961: Yugoslavia's president Josip Broz Tito hosts the first Non-Aligned Movement Summit
- 1980: Tito dies
- 1987: Slobodan Milosevic seizes power in Serbia and declares his intent to restore Serbia's dominance in Yugoslavia
- 1991: communism falls and the Yugoslavia federation collapses, with Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia declaring independence
- Mar 1992: Bosnia declares independence but Serbian forces encircle its capital Sarajevo, a siege that would last until 1996
- 1992: Civil war erupts in Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia between Serbs, Croats and Bosnians
- Jul 1995: Eight thousand Bosnian Muslims are killed by Ratko Mladic's Serbian militia in Srebenica in the worst European massacre since World War II
- 1996: the civil war of Yugoslavia ends with an occupation of Bosnia by NATO, after 200,000 people have been killed
- 1999: NATO bombs Serbia to stop Milosevic's repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo
- 2000: facing popular demonstrations, Milosevic capitulates and Vojislav Kostunica is inaugurated president of Yugoslavia
- 2001: Milosevic is arrested and deported to Hague where a trial for crimes against mankind is set up
- 2003: Yugoslavia renames itself "Serbia and Montenegro"
- 2003: Serbia's prime minister Zoran Djindjic is assassinated
- 2004: Slovenia joins the European Union
- 2006: Montenegro votes to secede from Yugoslavia, leaving Serbia the only state remaining in Yugoslavia
- 2006: Boris Tadic is elected president of Serbia
- Jan 2007: Slovenia adopts the euro
- 2008: Kosovo declares independence from Serbia
- 2012: Tomislav Nikolic is elected president of Serbia
- Apr 2013: A 60-year-old war veteran, Ljubisa Bogdanovic, kills 13 people in the Serbian village of Velika Ivanca
- Jul 2013: Croatia joins the European Union
- 2013: The GDP per capita of Serbia still has to get back to the 1990 level
- 2014: Aleksandr Vucic is appointed prime-minister of Serbia
- Jan 2015: Opposition leader Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic wins elections to become the first female president of Croatia
- Mar 2017: Pro-European prime minister Aleksandr Vucic wins Serbia's presidential election and Ana Brnabic succeeds him as prime minister, Serbia's first female and first openly gay prime minister
- 2021: Czechia's GDP per capita is $26800, Slovakia's GDP per capita is $21300, Hungary's GDP per capita is $18700, Poland's GDP per capita is $18,000, Romania's is $14900, Bulgaria's is $12,200 versus Turkey's is $9600, Russia's $12200 and the euro zone's $44600
- Jan 2022: Croatia adopts the euro
- May 2023: A teenage boy kills 8 children in Serbia's Belgrade and another young gunman kills 8 more people in two villages
Magyars/ Hungarians:
- 5 AD: the Romans occupy the plains of the Danube and found Aquincum (OBuda, Buda, Budapest)
- 106: Aquincum becomes the capital of the Roman province of Pannonia Inferior
- 540: the Magyars migrate from the Ural Mountains in Russia to the Don
- 833: defeated by Moravia, prince Pribina of Nitra (Slovakia) moves his Slavs to Pannonia where he founds the principality of Balaton
- 862: the Magyars raid the Franks
- 889: the Magyars are defeated by the Bulgarians and move to Hungary replacing the Avars
- 896: the kingdom of Hungary is formed by seven Magyar and three Khazar tribes under the leadership of Arpad
- 906: the Magyars defeat the Moravian kingdom and annex Slovakia (Nitra)
922: Magyars raid Italy
934: Magyars raid Constantinople
- 948: Bulcsu signs a peace treaty with the eastern Roman empire and converts to christianity
- 955: the Magyars are defeated at Lechfield by German emperor Otto I and lose control of Bavaria and Austria
- 973: the capital of Hungary is moved from Obuda to Esztergom
- 997: Vajko Arpad becomes the ruler of Hungary
- 1001: the Pope recognizes Stephen I (Vajko Arpad) as the king of Hungary
- 1003: Stephen I annexes Transylvania to Hungary and assigns it to a "voivod" (prince)
- 1038: Stephen I of Hungary dies
- 1055: the Hungarian abbey of Tihany is founded on the Lake Balaton
- 1055: oldest record in the Hungarian language
- 1077: king Ladislas I expands the borders of Hungary
- 1097: the Magyar king Kalman annexes Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia
- 1122: the nobles of Hungary demand a constitution from the king
- 1235: Bela IV Arpad becomes king of Hungary
- 1241: the Mongols defeat Bela IV's army at the battle of Mohi but then retreat
- 1242: Bela IV Arpad moves the capital of Hungary Obuda (Budapest), builds the castle of Buda and founds the Dominican convent on Margaret Island
- 1301: 13-year old Charles Robert of Anjou, a Catholic, inherits the throne of Hungary, thereby ending the Arpad dynasty, and introduces the gold forint as the new Hungarian currency
- 1342: Charles Robert dies and his son Louis I Anjou becomes king, expanding the borders of the kingdom
- 1367: the first Hungarian university is founded in Pecs
- 1382: Hungarian king Louis I Anjou dies, having expanded the kingdom to Bohemia, Moravia, Transylvania, Wallachia, Moldavia, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Sigismund of Luxemburg inherits the throne of Hungary
- 1396: The Ottomans defeat an army of crusaders led by Sigismund at Nicopolis of Hungary
- 1440: Wladyslaw III of Poland-Lithuania becomes king of Hungary
- 1442: Hungarian general Janos Hunyadi (Ioannes Corvinus) defeats the Ottomans in Transylvania and regains Wallachia
- 1444: the Polish-Hungarian army is defeated by the Ottomans at Varna, Wladyslaw III is killed and Poland loses Hungary
- 1448: Hunyadi leads another crusade against the Ottomans but is defeated at Kosovo and loses Wallachia
- 1456: Janos Hunyadi, prince of Transylvania, defeats the Ottomans at Belgrade
- 1458: Matthias Hunyadi (Corvinus), son of Janos, is elected king of Hungary and westernizes the country
- 1460: Matthias Corvinus hires Italian artists to build the Buda palace
- 1489: king Matthias of Hungary conquers Vienna and moves his capital there
- 1490: king Wladyslaw Jagiello of Poland-Lithuania becomes king of Bohemia and Hungary
- 1497: Poland goes to war against the Ottomans who are supported by Moscow and the Crimean Tartars
- 1499: Poland loses the war against the Ottomans whose allies the Crimean Tartars gain territories between Poland and Moscow
- 1526: the Polish and Hungarian armies are defeated at the battle of Mohacs by the Ottomans of Suleyman and Hungary is partitioned between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs, with Hungary proper under Ottoman occupation, Transylvania as a Turkish protectorate and Slovakia (Upper Hungary) is annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy as the kingdom of Hungary
- 1526: Pozony (Bratislava) replaces Buda as the Hungarian capital, part of the Habsburg empire
- 1547: German emperor Karl V and and Ferdinand I of Austria grant Suleiman the Magnificent control over most of Hungary (Truce of Adrianople)
- 1582: Batory conquers Livonia (Estonia and Latvia) from Russia
- 1586: Batory dies and the Swedish crown prince, Zygmunt Vasa, is elected king of Poland-Lithuania (the kingdom of Hungary is still under the Habsburg and Hungary proper is still under the Ottomans, while Transylvania is still independent)
- 1619: George Rakoczy revolts against the Habsburg
- 1644: George Rakoczy revolts again against the Habsburg
- 1686: the Ottomans are ejected from Budapest
- 1699: the Ottomans lose Hungary to the Habsburgs ("Treaty of Carlowitz")
- 1691: the Habsburg empire occupies Transylvania
- 1703: Ferenc Rakoczi, prince of Transylvania, leads a failed Hungarian insurrection against the Habsburg
- 1786: Buda becomes the capital of Hungary, still part of the Habsburg empire
- 1848: Austria with help from Russia crushes the Hungarian revolution of Louis Kossuth, which was aiming for democracy and equality
- 1867: Habsburg emperor Franz Josef declares the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary
- 1873: Pest, Buda and Obuda are unified in Budapest
- 1918: at the end of World War I the defeated Austro-Hungarian Empire is dismantled
- 1919: Bela Kun establishes a communist state in Hungary but Romania invades Hungary, overthrows the government and allows admiral Miklos Horthy to seize power
- 1920: The new kingdom of Hungary is born (under regent Miklos Horthy), but it includes only a fraction of historic Hungary, losing Slovakia to Czechoslovakia
- 1938: Ladislo Biro invents the ballpoint pen
- 1941: Romania and Hungary join Germany in the war against the Soviet Union
- See the timeline of World War II
- Nov 1945: The communists lose the free elections in Hungary
- February 1946: Ferenc Nagy is elected prime minister after Hungary's first democratic elections
- Jul 1946: Hungary's monthly inflation rate hits the world record of 41.9 quadrillion percent (prices doubling every 15.3 hours)
- May 1947: Ferenc Nagy is forced to resign after communist terrorists kidnap his son
- 1947: Dennis Gabor invents holography
- August 1949: Matyas Rakosi's communists seize power in Hungary and enact a socialist constitution
- Oct 1956: Students protest in solidarity with Polish workers
- Nov 1956: the popular uprising in favor of Imre Nagy is crushed by Soviet troops killing 2,800 people and Janos Kadar becomes the new leader
- June 1958: Nagy is executed
- 1989: communism falls and Hungary becomes a republic
- 1990: Hungary holds first free elections
- 2004: Hungary joins the European Union
- 2010: After the electoral success of the conservative Fidesz party and of the fascist Jobbik party, the new prime minister, the nationalist Viktor Orban, takes steps to centralize power, including a new constitution
- 2014: Viktor Orban pledges to turn Hungary into an illiberal, if democratic, state
- 2014: Hungary’s most-read news website Origo investigates the corruption of Viktor Orban's close associate Janos Lazar
- Nov 2015: Origo is acquired by an ally of Orba's government
- 2018: More than 500 news outlets are owned by Orban's allies
- Nov 2022: Hungary's inflation rate hits 22.5%, the highest in 26 years and the highest in Europe at 15.3%
- Feb 2024: Mass protests against the government's pardon of a man implicated in a child sex abuse scandal cause the resignations of Hungary's president Katalin Novak and justice minister Judit Varga
Romania:
- 650 BC: the kingdom of Dacia
- 44 BC: Burebista dies after uniting the Geto-Dacian tribes for the first time
- 87 AD: Decebal becomes king of Dacia and brings Dacia to the peak of its power
- 107: Trajan conquers Dacia and turns it into a province of the Roman Empire
- 271: the Romans withdraw from Dacia
- 1310: Basarab I forms the principality of Wallachia
- 1359: Bogdan I forms the principality of Moldavia
- 1386: Mircea the Old is voivode of Wallachia till 1418
- 1441: Iancu of Hunedoara is voivode of Transylvania till 1456
- 1456: Vlad the Impaler is voivode of Wallachia till 1462
- 1457: Stephen the Great and Holy is voivode of Moldavia till 1504
- 1462: Vlad IV of Walachia is defeated by the Ottomans
- See the Ottoman Empire
- 1541: Transylvania becomes an independent principality but recognizes the Ottoman authority
- 1571: Istvan Bathori becomes prince of Transylvania
- 1576: Transylvanian prince Stefan Batory is elected king of Poland-Lithuania
- 1593: Michael the Brave becomes voivode of Wallachia
- 1600: Michael the Brave unites all of Romania and becomes "prince of Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia"
- 1601: Michael the Brave is assassinated
- 1699: after the Austrian-Ottoman peace treaty of Karlowitz, Transylvania is annexed to Austria-Hungary
- 1711: the Ottomans introduce the "Phanariot" regime in Moldavia
- 1716: the Ottomans introduce the "Phanariot" regime in Wallachia
- 1812: following a Russian-Turkish war, Russia annexes eastern Moldavia (Bessarabia)
- 1821: the revolution led by Tudor Vladimirescu, the "Phanariot" regime is abolished in Moldavia and Wallachia and native voivodes are appointed again to the thrones of Wallachia and Moldavia
- 1828: at the end of another Russian-Turkish war, Pavel Kiseleff leads the Russian occupation of Moldavia and Wallachia
- 1834: the Russian occupation ends
- 1848: revolutionary movements in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania are put down by Ottoman, Czarist and Hapsburg armies
- 1856: at the end of the Crimean War, Moldavia and Wallachia are placed under protectorate of the western powers and Bessarabia is returned to Moldavia
- 1858: the Ottoman protectorates of Moldavia and Wallachia unite in the federation of Romania under Alexandru Ioan Cuza
- 1862: the united state of Moldavia and Wallachia assumes the name of Romania and chooses Bucharest as its capital
- 1866: Cuza abdicates and Romanians appoint Prussian prince Carol I Hohenzollern, supported by Napoleon III and Bismark, as their new prince, and proclaim Romania a constitutional monarchy, although still under Ottoman influence
- 1877: prime minister Ion Bratianu declares Romania's independence and joins Russia in the war against the Ottoman empire
- 1881: Romania proclaims itself a kingdom and Carol I (a member of Prussia's Hohenzollern family) is crowned King of Romania, independent of the Ottoman Empire
- 1916: prime minister Ion Bratianu declares war against Austria-Hungary
- 1918: at the end of World War I, Romania gains Transylvania from Hungary and Bessarabia (Moldavia) from the Soviet Union thus doubling in size
- 1927: Corneliu Zelea Codreanu establishes the fascist and Christian-fundamentalist movement Garda de Fier/ Iron Guard in Romania
- 1937: Romania is the seventh oil producer in the world (7.2 million metric tons of oil per year)
- 1940: Romania returns Bessarabia (Moldavia) to the Soviet Union
- 1941: Romania and Hungary join Germany in the war against the Soviet Union
- Aug 1944: King Michael leads a coup against the fascists and then Romania switches sides and attacks Germany
- Nov 1946: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej's communist party win elections in Romania
- Feb 1947: Romania expels the king and becomes a communist republic under the leadership of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
- 1955: Romania joins the Warsaw Pact
- 1964: Romania's government asserts its independence from the Soviet Union and relaxes control
- Mar 1965: Gheorghiu-Dej dies and Nicolae Caesescu seizes power
- Dec 1968: Students demonstrated in Bucharest
- Jul 1971: Shortly after visiting China and North Korea , Nicolae Ceausescu launches a cultural revolution similar to Mao's
- 1976: The 14-year-old Nadia Comaneci wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games and becomes the most famous gymnasts in the world
- 1987: Protests against the government erupt in Brasov
- Dec 1989: Caesescu, dictator of Romania, is deposed and executed
- 1990: Ion Iliescu is elected president of Romania in the first free elections
- 1990: Moldova declares its independence from the Soviet Union under president Mircea Snegur, but the Trans-Dniestr/Transnistria region of Molvoda declares its independence (Dniester Moldavian Republic)
- 1992: Moldova and the Trans-Dniestr/Transnistria region fight a war that leaves the region independent under Russian influence
- 2001: Vladimir Voronin is elected president of Moldova, the first time that a communist is voted back in power in a former communist country
- 2004: Opposition candidate Traian Basescu wins national elections and becomes the new president, and appoints Calin Popescu-Tariceanu as prime minister
- 2004: Romania joins NATO
- 2007: Romania joins the European Union
- Dec 2008: Emil Boc is appointed prime minister of Romania
- May 2012: Basescu appoints a socialist, Victor Ponta, as prime minister of Romania
- Nov 2014: Klaus Iohannis of the National Liberal Party wins presidential elections in Romania beating prime minister Victor Ponta
- Nov 2015: Romania's prime minister Victor Ponta resigns following corruption scandals and is replaced by Dacian Ciolos
- Nov 2016: Moldova elects a pro-Russian politician Igor Dodon as president
- Feb 2017: Mass anti-government protests in Romania
Aug 2018: Mass anti-government protests in Romania
Nov 2020: Pro-Western candidate Maia Sandu wins presidential elections in Moldova
- 2021: Czechia's GDP per capita is $26800, Slovakia's GDP per capita is $21300, Hungary's GDP per capita is $18700, Poland's GDP per capita is $18,000, Romania's is $14900, Bulgaria's is $12,200 versus Turkey's is $9600, Russia's $12200 and the euro zone's $44600
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