History - Current affairs Auestions and Answers - page 1

8000 B.C. – Creation of oldest currently known artifacts and stone shelters. Igboland mostly occupied by foragers, including Bantu ancestors.

3000–500 B.C. – Development of agriculture (probably including yam cultivation) and animal husbandry.

500 B.C. – A.D. 200 – Nok culture flourishes in Northern Nigeria.

400–100 B.C. – Ironworking develops around Opi, Nsukka

770 A.D. – Early Ijaw settlement.

800 – Mega-state at Igbo-Ukwu has complex social structure, produces copious artifacts including bronzes. Yoruba civilization already well established, based on thirteen farming villages centered at Ilé-Ifẹ̀.

900 – The reign of the Kingdom of Nri began.

1100 – The Islamic state of Borno was established.

1200 – Ilé-Ifẹ̀ becomes Yoruba metropolis.

1255 – Oba Ewedo comes to power in Benin Empire.

1450 – Beginning of European contact on the Atlantic coast.[1]

1500 – The nominally Muslim Hausa Kingdoms were established in Northern Nigeria.

1851 (December 26-27): Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos. Oba of Lagos (Oba Kosoko) is wounded and flees to Epe. On board the ship was Lt. Labulo Davies, probably the first Nigerian to be commisioned in a naval force.

1862 (January 1): Lagos Island is annexed as a colony of Britain

1862 (January 22): Mr H.S Freeman is appointed as the first Governor of Lagos Colony.

1877: George Taubman Goldie arrived in the Niger Delta in 1877

1885: Oil Rivers Protectorate proclaimed by the British after they had defeated of King Jaja of Opobo, the Oba of Benin and subdued all prominent oil merchants of the Niger Delta.

1892 (19 May): At the Battle of the (sacred) Yemoja River the British wreaks havoc amongst the Ijebu infantry with a British Maxim (capable of firing 2000 rounds in three minutes).

1893: Oil Rivers Protectorate renamed Niger Coast Protectorate with its capital at Calabar.

1890’s: British Journalist Flora Shaw, later wife of Lord Frederick Lugard, suggests the name “Nigeria” after the great Niger River.

1897: The British overthrow Oba Ovonramwen of Benin. One of the last independent West African kings.

1900: Niger Coast Protectorate was merged with the colony and protectorate of Lagos and renamed Protectorate of Southern Nigeria

1914: Formation of Nigeria under Governor Frederick Lugard

1929 (October): (Aba Women’s Riot). Women in Aba demonstrate against high taxes and low prices of Nigerian exports.

1954: The position of Governor was created in each region after the Federal System of Government is adopted.

1958: Nigerian Armed Forces came under Federal control. The Nigerian Navy is created.

1959: The new Nigerian currency is introduced

1959: Northern Peoples Congress(NPC)and Niger Delta Congress(NDC) go into alliance to contest parliamentary elections. The alliance earned the Brass Division a seat in the Federal Parliament for the first time.

1960(July): Sir Adesoji Aderemi becomes 1st Nigerian and 1st African to be appointed Governor in the Commonwealth. He became Governor before Nigeria got independence.

1960 (October 1): Nigeria’s Independence Day: Nnamdi Azikiwe (“Zik”) becomes 1st indigenous Governor General. At independence, the Nigerian government consisted of three ethnic states united in a federation. Each state was controlled by a single dominant ethnic-based party.

1962-63 – Controversial census fuels regional and ethnic tensions.

1966 January – Mr Balewa killed in coup. Maj-Gen Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi forms military government.

1966 July – General Ironsi killed in counter-coup, replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon.

1967 – Three eastern states secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking bloody civil war.

1970 – Biafran leaders surrender.

1975 – General Gowon overthrown by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammed, who begins process of moving federal capital to Abuja.

1976 – General Mohammed assassinated in failed coup attempt. Replaced by his deputy, Lt-Gene Olusegun Obasanjo.

1979 – Elections bring Alhaji Shehu Shagari to power.

1983 January – The government expels more than one million foreigners, mostly Ghanaians, saying they had overstayed their visas and were taking jobs from Nigerians.

1983 August-September – President Shagari re-elected amid accusations of irregularities.

1983 December – Maj-Gen Muhammad Buhari seizes power in bloodless coup.

1985 – Ibrahim Babangida seizes power in bloodless coup, curtails political activity.

1993 June – Military annuls elections when preliminary results show victory by Chief Moshood Abiola.

1993 August – Power transferred to Interim National Government.

1993 November – Gen Sani Abacha seizes power, suppresses opposition.

1994 – Moshood Abiola arrested after proclaiming himself president.

1995 – Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his Ogoni homeland, is executed following a hasty trial.

1998 – Gen Sani Abacha dies and is succeeded by Maj-Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar. Moshood Abiola dies in custody a month later.

1999 – Parliamentary and presidential elections. Olusegun Obasanjo sworn in as president.

2000 – Adoption of Islamic Sharia law by several northern states in the face of opposition from Christians. Tension over the issue results in hundreds of deaths in clashes between Christians and Muslims.

2001 – Tribal war in Benue State, in eastern-central Nigeria, displaces thousands of people. Troops sent to quash the fighting kill more than 200 unarmed civilians, apparently in retaliation for the abduction and murder of 19 soldiers.

2002 February – Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest.

2002 November – More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain.

2003 12 April – First legislative elections since end of military rule in 1999. Polling marked by delays, allegations of ballot-rigging. President Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party wins parliamentary majority.

2003 19 April – First civilian-run presidential elections since end of military rule. Olusegun Obasanjo elected for second term with more than 60% of vote. Opposition parties reject result. EU poll observers cite “serious irregularities”.

2003 September – Nigeria’s first satellite, NigeriaSat-1, launched by Russian rocket.

2004 May – State of emergency is declared in the central Plateau State after more than 200 Muslims are killed in Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia; revenge attacks are launched by Muslim youths in Kano.

2004 August-September – Deadly clashes between gangs in oil city of Port Harcourt prompts strong crackdown by troops. Rights group Amnesty International cites death toll of 500, authorities say about 20 died.

2006 January onwards – Militants in the Niger Delta attack pipelines and other oil facilities and kidnap foreign oil workers. The rebels demand more control over the region’s oil wealth.

2006 February – More than 100 people are killed when religious violence flares in mainly-Muslim towns in the north and in the southern city of Onitsha.

2006 April – Helped by record oil prices, Nigeria becomes the first African nation to pay off its debt to the Paris Club of rich lenders, which had written off two-thirds of the $30bn debt the previous year

2006 August – Nigeria agrees to cede sovereignty over the disputed Bakassi peninsula to neighbouring Cameroon under the terms of a 2002 International Court of Justice ruling. Transfer takes place in 2008.

2007 April – Umaru Yar’Adua of the ruling People’s Democratic Party wins the presidential election.

2008 September – Militants in the Niger Delta step up their attacks on oil installations, in response to what they describe as unprovoked attacks by the military on their bases.

2009 July – Hundreds die in northeastern Nigeria after the Boko Haram Islamist movement launches a campaign of violence in a bid to have Sharia law imposed on the entire country. Security forces storm Boko Haram’s stronghold and kill the movement’s leader.

Government frees the leader of the Niger Delta militant group Mend, Henry Okah, after he accepts an amnesty offer.

2010 May – President Umaru Yar’Adua dies after a long illness. Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan, already acting in Yar’Adua’s stead, succeeds him.

2010 December – Christmas Eve bomb attacks near central city of Jos kill at least 80 people. Attacks claimed by Islamist sect Boko Haram spark clashes between Christians and Muslims. Some 200 killed in reprisal attacks.

2011 March – Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan wins presidential elections.

2011 August – Suicide bomb attack on UN headquarters in Abuja kills 23 people. Boko Haram claims responsibility.

2011 December – Christmas Day bomb attacks by Boko Haram on churches kill about 40 people. President Jonathan declares state of emergency to contain violence by Boko Haram.

2012 January – More than 100 killed in single day of co-ordinated bombings and shootings in Kano, shortly after Boko Haram tells Christians to quit the north.

2013 May – Government declares state of emergency in three northern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa and sends in troops to combat Boko Haram.

2013 September – Boko Haram murder more than 150 people in roadside attacks in the northeast. Separately, security forces fight Boko Haram insurgents in the capital Abuja.

2014 April – Boko Haram kidnaps more than 200 girls from a boarding school in northern town of Chibok, in an incident that draws major national and international outrage.

2014 November – Boko Haram launches a series of attacks in northeastern Nigeria, capturing several towns near Lake Chad and running raids into neighbouring Chad and Cameroon in early 2015. It switches allegiance from al-Qaeda to the Islamic State group.

2015 February-March – Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger form military coalition and push Boko Haram out of all towns back into Sambisa Forest.

2015 March – Muhammadu Buhari wins the presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to do so in Nigeria’s history.

2016 June – Naira currency floated in attempt to stave off financial crisis caused by low oil prices.

2016 November – Niger Delta Avengers rebels bomb three oil pipelines in attempt to renew southern insurgency.

2017 January – Scores die as Nigerian air force accidentally bombs refugee camp rather than Boko Haram redoubt in Rann on Cameroon border.

2017 May – More than 80 of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped in Chibok are freed in a prisoner swap with the Islamist group Boko Haram.

2017 January – Big stay-at-home protest in favour of independence for the south-east marks 50 years since the independent republic of Biafra was declared, sparking a devastating civil war.

2017 September – Human Rights Watch alleges that Cameroon has forcibly returned 100,000 Nigerian refugees, charges it denies.

2017 December – Clashes between herders in Benue and Taraba states prompt thousands to flee.

2018 February – More than 100 girls feared abducted by Boko Haram in Yobe state.

Sources of these information BBC: BBC Ngex: Ngex Wikipedia: Wikipedia