Timeline of Events: Tunisia

In a coup Bourguiba is removed as president, and replaced by his fresh prime minister Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

Presidential elections, where President Ben Ali has allowed contesting candidates to run. According to the official figures, Ben Ali receives 99.44% of the votes, the two others sharing the remainder between them. Same-day parliamentary elections give the ruling RDC 91.6% of the votes and all contested seats. Of a total 182 seats, the opposition receives by law 34 seats. MDS gets 13 seats, UDU 7, PUP 7, MR-Ettajdid 5 and Parti social libéral 2.

An agreement with the European Union brings Tunisia into a close cooperation with Europe in economy and security.

Changes in the constitution allows a president to stay in power until the age of 75 (70 before) and be reelected unlimited times (3 times before, Ben Ali had at this time been reelected the three times).

Ben Ali is reelected president, receiving 94.5% of the votes. Mohamed Bouchiha gets 3.8%, Mohamed Ali Halouani 1%.

Islamist militants and security forces clash in Tunis (12 killed)

Ben Ali wins fifth term with 90 percent of the vote, rejects cries of fraud and threatens to prosecute critics.

Mohamed Bouazizi sets fire to himself in the central town of Sidi Bouzid in protest at the confiscation by police of his vegetable cart. Local people rally in support. Bouazizi later dies of his burns. Huge funeral increases momentum of protests against unemployment and repression.

After days of clashes in which dozens of people are killed, and having made empty promises of reforms and elections, Ben Ali flees to Saudi Arabia. Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi stays on, with parliamentary speaker Fouad Mebazza as interim president.

Some opposition figures quit cabinet, demanding removal of former Ben Ali loyalists. Protesters denounce ''sham''.

Protesters again demand Ghannouchi and other Ben Ali proteges go. Policemen, once the bulwark of Ben Ali's rule, demonstrate in Tunis, saying they too were victims.

Ghannouchi resigns after violent protests over his ties to Ben Ali, triggering street celebrations in Tunis. He is replaced by Beji Caid Sebsi, a former foreign minister under 1960s independence President Habib Bourguiba.

Sebsi unveils a new cabinet of technocrats rather than career politicians, none of whom had served in governments under Ben Ali. The Interior Ministry says Ben Ali's political police and state security apparatus has been dissolved.

A Tunisian court sentences Ben Ali and his wife Leila Trabelsi, in absentia to 35 years in prison for theft and illegal possession of large sums of cash. In July a court adds a 16-year jail term for Ben Ali and his son-in-law for corruption.

Tunisia votes in the first election of the Arab Spring, choosing from among 80 political parties to form an assembly charged with drafting a constitution within a year.

Members of the constitutional assembly vote to elect former dissident Moncef Marzouki as president, the second most powerful role after the prime minister. Hamadi Jebeli, secretary general of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, is designated as prime minister.

Hundreds of Salafi Islamists attack bars and shops and clash with security forces in Jendouba, raising religious-secularist tensions. In June, the government lifts a curfew imposed following riots by Salafis and others over an art exhibition they deemed insulting to Islam.

Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, says Tunisian authorities must stop using firearms against demonstrators after more than 220 people are reported injured in clashes between protesters demanding jobs and police in Siliana, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

Opposition secularist politician Chokri Belaid is shot dead, sparking huge street protests. Prime Minister Jebali calls the killing a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution.