From the start of the Troubles to 1994 ceasefire as well as breakthroughs and setbacks from 1996 to 2005.
1968
October 5th: Two days of rioting after a banned civil rights march in Derry is broken up by RUC using batons. Many view this incident as the start of the Troubles.
1970
January 11th: Sinn Féin splits into Officials and Provisionals, mirroring the split in the IRA at the end of 1969.
1971
February 6th: Gunner Robert Curtis - killed by an IRA sniper - becomes the first soldier to die in the Troubles.
1972
February 22nd: In an IRA reprisal bomb attack for Bloody Sunday, seven people are killed in Aldershot military barracks; July 21st: Bloody Friday: Nine people are killed when the IRA sets off 22 bombs in Belfast.
1973:
January 14th: A reserve constable is killed when his police vehicle drives over an IRA mine. His is the first of 124 lives claimed by the IRA in 1973.
1974
November 21st: An IRA team blows up two pubs in Birmingham, killing 21 young people and injuring 162 (left).
1976
January 5th: The IRA shoots to death 10 Protestant workmen at Kingsmills in one of the bloodiest years of sectarian violence.
1977
The IRA extends its list of so-called "legitimate targets" to include police families, civilian searchers at security checkpoints and businessmen.
1978
February 17th: 12 people are killed by an IRA bomb at La Mon House Hotel, Co Down.
1979
August 27th: IRA bombers kill 18 soldiers near Warrenpoint, Co Down. Lord Mountbatten is killed by the IRA in explosion on his boat at Mullaghmore, Co Sligo.
1981
May 5th: IRA prisoner Bobby Sands (right) dies on his 66th day of hunger strike in support of political status. There is rioting in Belfast, Derry and Dublin.
1984
October 12th: Four people killed in IRA bomb at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, HQ of the Conservative Party conference.
1985
November 15th: Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher sign Anglo-Irish Agreement.
1986
May 8th: Eight IRA men shot dead by SAS in Loughgall, Co Armagh; November 8th: 11 killed by IRA bomb at Enniskillen Remembrance Day ceremony.
1988
January 11th: John Hume meets Gerry Adams for talks, both denying an IRA ceasefire is on the agenda; March 6th: SAS shoot three IRA members in Gibraltar;
August 20th: Eight British soldiers killed by IRA bomb on bus at Ballygawley, Co Tyrone.
1989
September 22nd: 10 killed in IRA bomb at Royal Marines School of Music, Deal, Kent.
1991
February 7th: IRA launches three mortars at 10 Downing Street while ministers are in session;
May 30th: Three UDR soldiers killed in IRA lorry bomb in Glenane, Co Armagh.
1992
January 17th: Eight Protestant workers die following an IRA bomb in a minibus in Co Tyrone; September 23rd: Amid indications that talks are coming to a halt, a 2,000lb IRA bomb destroys the forensic science laboratories in south Belfast.
1993
March 20th: IRA Warrington bomb kills two children;
April 10th: Hume and Adams meet for talks;
October 23rd: 10 people killed, including a bomber, following an IRA blast at a fish shop on the Shankill Road in Belfast. Adams later carries the bomber's coffin;
December 15th: Albert Reynolds and John Major announce the Downing Street Declaration. If the Provisional IRA stops its campaign for three months, Sinn Féin can eventually join the political process.
1994:
August 31st: IRA announces a complete cessation of violence.
1996
February: IRA ceasefire ends after 16 months with a one-tonne bomb in London’s Canary Wharf district, which kills two people.
June: Det Garda Jerry McCabe is shot dead during a post office raid in Adare, Co Limerick.
1997
July: IRA renews its ceasefire.
1998
April: The Belfast Agreement sees participants sign up to a "total and absolute commitment to exclusively
democratic and peaceful means of resolving differences on political issues".
May: The Belfast Agreement receives overwhelming support in polls in the North and the Republic.
August: A car bomb in Omagh kills 29 people including the mother of unborn twins. The Real IRA admits responsibility and later calls a ceasefire.
1999
July: The IRA is suspected of trying to smuggle several hundred guns from Florida in the US to the Republic.
2000
February: The Assembly is suspended after Gen John de Chastelain reports he received "no information from the IRA" on decommissioning.
2001
August: Three men with links to Sinn Féin are arrested in Colombia on suspicion of offering explosive training to Farc guerrillas.
2002
March: The IRA is accused of stealing confidential documents from PSNI Special Branch headquarters in Castlereagh, east Belfast.
July: The IRA apologises for the deaths and suffering of "non-combatants" caused by its campaign of violence.
2003
March. Two premiers meet at Hillsborough over two days to draw up Joint Declaration.
November: Postponed Assembly elections take place. Sinn Féin and the DUP poll strongly.
2004
September: The two governments and all the parties meet for intensive talks at Leeds Castle in Kent.
December: Proposed comprehensive settlement fails over photographic proof of IRA decommissioning. In the same month, £26.5 million is stolen from the Northern Bank in Belfast city centre.
2005
January 30th: Robert McCartney is fatally stabbed outside Magennis’s Bar in Belfast city.
February: The Independent Monitoring Commission said some Sinn Féin leaders were involved in authorising the robbery of the Northern Bank.
Following a series of denials of involvement in the Northern Bank raid and the McCartney killing, the IRA formally withdraws its offer of complete decommissioning.
March: IRA tells McCartney sisters it offered to shoot their brother’s killers.
April: Gerry Adams appeals to the IRA to adopt a purely political and democratic path.
July: IRA orders an end to its armed campaign.