Zanzibar becomes an independent nation and a member of the Commonwealth

Kenya becomes independent, with Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister

Idi Amin leads a successful coup against the president of Uganda, Milton Obote

In an orgy of ethnic slaughter in Burundi, Tutsis klll some 100,000 Hutus

Winning power in a military coup, Juvenal Habyarimana begins a 21-year spell as dictator in Rwanda

An uprising organized in Ethiopia by the Dergue results in the arrest of Haile Selassie and his murder a year later

Mary Leakey and her team find footprints, about 3.6 million years old, of bipedal hominids walking upright at Laetoli in Tanzania

In a daring raid on Entebbe airport, Israeli troops rescue hostages hijacked on a flight from Tel Aviv to Paris

Mengistu Haile Mariam seizes control of Ethiopia's ruling Dergue (military council) in a violent coup

The French Territory of Afars and Issas becomes independent as Djibouti, with Hassan Gouled Aptidon as president

Jomo Kenyatta dies in office as Kenya's president and is succeeded by his deputy, Daniel arap Moi

Idi Amin flees from Uganda as Tanzanian troops reach his capital, Kampala

A coup in Uganda brings Milton Obote back into power, and he is confirmed as president in a subsequent general election

Government imposition of Islamic law (sharia) triggers renewed civil war in Sudan between the Muslim north and Christian south

A disastrous famine in the northern provinces of Ethiopia is the first to be seen all round the world on television

The Turkana Boy, the most complete known skeleton of Homo erectus, is found near Lake Turkana by Kamoya Kimeu in Richard Leakey's team

Milton Obote, toppled in a bloodless Uganda coup, escapes to Zambia

Julius Nyerere, long-serving president of Tanzania, relinquishes power voluntarily

The guerrilla leader Yoweri Museveni takes Kampala and becomes president of Uganda

The Rwandan Patriotic Front is formed, by a group of exiles, to bring about the downfall of Habyarimana's regime in Rwanda

An army of the Rwandan Patriotic Front crosses the border from Uganda to invade Rwanda

As Ethiopian and Eritrean rebels approach Addis Ababa, the leader of the Dergue, Mengistu, flees the country

The rebel Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), led by Meles Zenawi, takes control in Ethiopia

Hutu youth militias, known as the Interahamwe, are formed in Rwanda to spearhead attacks on Tutsis

Civil war in Somalia topples the Marxist dictator Mohamed Siad Barre