6 December 1492		Christopher Columbus arrived on the island of Hispaniola and made it a Spanish colony.
1496		Santo Domingo was founded.
1548		The Taino Indians population, estimated at 1 million in 1492, had been reduced to approximately 500.
1655		English fleet tried to take Santo Domingo, but was defeated.
1697		Under the Treaty of Ryswick, Spain ceded the western third of the island to France.
1791		a slave revolt broke out in the French colony.
1804		Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared independence and established the republic of Haïti on the western third of the island in January 1804.
1809		Spain restored power at the whole island of Hispaniola.
30 November 1821		José Núñez de Cáceres announced the independence of the eastern part of the island as the state of Spanish Haiti.
1822		President of Haiti, Jean-Pierre Boyer, decided to invade Santo Domingo and to reunite the island under the Haitian flag.
1843		President Boyer was overthrow in the Revolution of 1843.
27 February 1844		Independence of the eastern side of the island was officially declared on February 27, 1844, and the name of Dominican Republic was adopted.
1882		General Ulysses Heureux became dictator of the Dominican Republic.
1916		the United States sent in its Marines to occupy the Dominican Republic and they established a military government in November.
1924		The US occupation in the Dominican Republic ends.
1930		Raphael Leonidas Trujilo took control of the country and established dictatorship for the next 30 years.
30 May 1961		President Tujilo was assassinated.
1965		After a rebellion US President Lyndon Johnson ordered the US Marines to occupy the Dominican Republic unitl 1966.
1986		Joachim Ballaguer was again elected president.
6 December 1992		500-year anniversary celebration of Columbus' discovery of America. In honor of the event, a massive concrete momument, the Faro de Colón (Columbus' Lighthouse) was erected on the outskirts of Santo Domingo.
1996		Leonel Fernandez Reyna was elected president.
May 2000		Hipolito Mejia became president.