1. ★ 450,000-190,000 years ago Penghu 1 jawbone found in the strait
2. ★ ~20,000-30,000 years ago Oldest evidence of modern human presence on Taiwan
3. ~15,000-5,000 years ago Changbin culture (Paleolithic chipped-pebble tools) found in Taitung
4. ~11,000 years ago Slash-and-burn farming at Sun Moon Lake
5. ~10,000 years ago The Taiwan Strait forms
6. ★ ~8,000 years ago Liangdao Man skeleton found on Liang Island (Matsu archipelago)
7. ★ ~3,000 BC Dapenkeng culture appears
8. ★ Post-3,000 BC The Austronesian expansion begins in Taiwan
9. 230 AD Wu dynasty troops raid Yizhou
10. ~400 AD Local iron smelting begins
11. c. 610 Sui expeditions to Liuqiu
12. ★ 1171 Chinese fishermen settled on the Penghu Islands near Taiwan
13. 1292 Kublai Khan's envoys mistake Taiwan for Ryukyu
14. ★ 1349 Wang Dayuan writes the first description of Taiwan
15. Early 1400s The Ming navy at its height
16. ★ 1500s Taiwan used as a base by Japanese and Chinese merchants and pirates
17. Late 1500s Chinese from Fujian begin settling in southwestern Taiwan
18. ★ 1542 Portuguese maps name it Ilha Formosa
19. 1582 Portuguese castaways spend 45 days ashore
20. 1603 Chen Di writes the Dongfanji
21. By 1623 The Dutch find Chinese already settled
22. ★ 1624 Fort Zeelandia built at Tayowan
23. 1624-25 Li Tan's pirate fleet based on Taiwan
24. 1625 The Dutch found Sakam
25. ★ 1626 Spanish settle at Keelung
26. 1629 Spanish build Fort Santo Domingo at Tamsui
27. ★ 1633 Zheng Zhilong beats the Dutch fleet off Quanzhou
28. 1635-36 Dutch defeat Mattau and Baccluan; pacify multiple aboriginal villages
29. 1636 Favorolang kills three Chinese
30. ★ 1638 Dutch build Fort Provintia on the main island's harbour shore
31. ★ Late 1630s The VOC pays Chinese settlers to come
32. 1642 The Dutch take Keelung from Spain
33. 1646 Zheng Zhilong defects and Koxinga takes up the Ming cause
34. 1646-59 Koxinga builds his fleet and army
35. 1650 Dutch estimate ~50,000 natives in the western plains
36. ★ 1652 The Guo Huaiyi rebellion
37. c. 1652 The Dutch legacy
38. 1659 Koxinga's army routed at Nanjing
39. ★ April 1661 Koxinga invades Taiwan
40. May 1661 Dutch warship *Hector* explodes and sinks in battle
41. c. 1662 Koxinga renames the Dutch forts
42. 1662-81 Koxinga's son Zheng Jing rules
43. ★ February 1662 After a nine-month siege, Fort Zeelandia surrenders
44. ★ June 1662 Koxinga dies at age 37
45. 1674-80 Zheng Jing joins the Revolt of the Three Feudatories
46. 1681 Zheng Keshuang murders his brother
47. c. 1683 Cultivated land triples under the Zheng
48. Over 200 years of Qing rule A state of constant rebellion
49. c. 1683 Western plains hold 2.5 million Chinese settlers
50. ★ July 1683 The Qing fleet takes Penghu
51. ★ October 1683 Zheng Keshuang surrenders; shaves his head in Manchu style
52. ★ 1684 Kangxi annexes Taiwan as a prefecture
53. c. 1684 Migration banned, and the illegal traffic that followed
54. c. 1684 Migrants barred from bringing their families
55. ★ 1721 The Zhu Yigui rebellion
56. ★ 1722 Boundary stelae divide settler from aboriginal land
57. ★ 1786-88 The Lin Shuangwen rebellion
58. 1840s British suggest seizing Taiwan during the First Opium War
59. 1867 The Rover shipwreck
60. 1871 Ryukyuan sailors shipwreck on southeastern Taiwan
61. ★ 1874 Japan's punitive expedition to southern Taiwan
62. 1875 Ban on entering Taiwan lifted
63. ★ 1884-85 The French invade northern Taiwan
64. ★ 1885 Taiwan elevated to a full province (previously a prefecture of Fujian)
65. 1885-91 Liu's campaigns against the aborigines fail
66. c. 1885 The railway plagued by corruption and sabotage
67. 1891 Liu resigns due to political opposition and recurring malaria
68. ★ 23 May 1895 The Taiwan Republic declared in Taipei
69. 25 May 1895 T'ang inaugurated as president
70. 29 May 1895 The Imperial Guard lands at Aoli
71. 3 June 1895 Keelung falls after a day's fighting
72. 5 June 1895 President T'ang flees by ship
73. June 1895 Ch'iu Feng-chia leaves for the mainland
74. 7 June 1895 Japanese troops enter Taipei unopposed
75. September 1895 Resistance stiffens in the south
76. 21 October 1895 Tainan is handed over without a fight
77. ★ c. 1895 No power recognises the republic
78. c. 1895 What the republic left behind
79. ★ 1895-1902 Five months of war, then seven years of partisans
80. 1895-1920 Arrests and uprisings under Japanese rule
81. ★ April 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki cedes Taiwan to Japan
82. May 16, 1895 Gentry press the governor to declare independence
83. ★ June 1896 6,000 Taiwanese slaughtered in the Yunlin Massacre
84. ★ 1898 Goto Shimpei appointed chief civil administrator
85. c. 1898 What Japanese rule builds
86. c. 1898 Food output quadruples, sugar fifteenfold
87. c. 1898 Life expectancy reaches sixty
88. c. 1898 Most Taiwanese felt their lives had improved
89. 1903 Harsher policy towards the aborigines
90. ★ 1907 The Beipu uprising
91. 1911 The army moves into the mountains
92. 1913 Luo Fuxing (Tongmenghui member) plans a rebellion
93. ★ 1915 The Tapani Incident
94. 1919-34 Aborigines relocated onto reserve land
95. ★ 1920 The first petition for self-determination
96. ★ 1921 The Taiwanese Cultural Association founded
97. 1923 Taiwan People's News founded in Tokyo
98. 1927 TCA splits
99. ★ 1930 The Musha uprising
100. c. 1930 The cost of the aboriginal wars
101. 1931 TPP terminated by authorities
102. ★ 1937 War with China and the kominka project
103. 1937-45 Over 207,000 Taiwanese employed by Japanese military
104. c. 1937 Taiwan as a base for the southward advance
105. 1940 The name-changing campaign
106. c. 1940 Taiwanese women forced into the comfort women system
107. 1942 Taiwan's real GDP per capita peaks at $1,522
108. c. 1942 War damage across the island
109. ★ Late 1944 Taiwan bombed in US air raids
110. c. 1945 Chen Yi's administration and the looting
111. c. 1945 Prices spiral and the rice crop halves
112. c. 1945 The dogs have gone and the pigs have arrived
113. ★ August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender
114. ★ October 25, 1945 Chen Yi receives the Japanese surrender
115. ★ 28 February 1947 Troops fire on the crowd in Taipei
116. 1-7 March 1947 The settlement committee's 32 demands
117. 8 March 1947 Kuomintang reinforcements land at Keelung
118. March 1947 The hunt for Taiwanese leaders
119. c. 1947 Chen Yi recalled and promoted
120. ★ February 27, 1947 The cigarette seller beaten in Taipei
121. ★ 1949 Communists win the Chinese Civil War
122. c. 1949 Chiang's plan: regroup, then retake the mainland
123. c. 1949 Mainlanders dominate government and the civil service
124. c. 1949 Martial law from 1947 to 1987
125. 1949-53 Land reform caps rents at 37.5% of crop value
126. ★ December 1949 Chiang Kai-shek formally moves the ROC capital to Taipei
127. 1950-65 US aid: $1.5 billion economic, $2.4 billion military
128. ★ January 1950 Truman writes off Taiwan
129. ★ June 25, 1950 Korean War breaks out
130. ★ 1951 San Francisco leaves Taiwan's status unspecified
131. 1953 Inflation finally curbed
132. ★ 1954 US and ROC sign a defence treaty
133. ★ 1958 Communist shelling of Kinmen and Mazu
134. 1960s-70s The light industrial revolution
135. 1960s A staging post for the Vietnam War
136. 1963 US shuts off economic aid tap
137. c. 1963 Defence takes twelve per cent of GDP
138. 1969 Chiang orders a nuclear weapons programme
139. 1971 US calls Taiwan's status undetermined
140. ★ 1972 Nixon visits China
141. c. 1975 Chiang Ching-kuo begins to loosen control
142. ★ April 1975 Chiang Kai-shek dies
143. ★ 1979 US formally recognises Beijing (PRC) and derecognises Taipei (ROC)
144. ★ 1979 The Kaohsiung Incident
145. ★ 1986 The DPP founded as the first opposition party
146. ★ 1987 Martial law lifted after 40 years
147. ★ 1988 Chiang Ching-kuo dies
148. ★ 1996 First direct presidential election
149. c. 2000 Chen pledges not to declare independence
150. c. 2000 Beijing misreads the KMT
151. ★ March 2000 Chen Shui-bian wins and ends KMT rule
152. 2001 The DPP takes the legislature
153. April 2001 US reconnaissance plane forced down by Chinese jets
154. September 2001 9/11 attacks shift US priorities
155. ★ 2004 Chen re-elected after an assassination attempt
156. 2005 The Pentagon on China's submarine force
157. 2008 Ma Ying-jeou wins the presidency with 58.5%
158. 2012 Ma re-elected
159. ★ 2014 The Sunflower Movement
160. ★ January 2016 DPP's Tsai Ing-wen wins presidency with 56% of the vote
161. 2018 Local elections set the DPP back
162. ★ May 2019 Taiwan becomes the first country in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage
163. January 2020 Tsai re-elected
164. ★ February 2022 Ukraine shifts Taiwanese views of the threat
165. ★ August 2022 Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan
166. ★ January 2024 William Lai Ching-te (DPP) wins presidential election