1463		The conquest of Ecuador began under the leadership of the ninth Inca, the great warrior Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui.
1532		Francisco Pizarro's conquering expedition for Spain. He founded the first Spanish settlement in Ecuador, San Miguel de Tangarará.
29 August 1533		Spaniards garrotted Atahualpa.
1563		Ecuador was awarded its own audiencia, allowing it to deal directly with Madrid on certain matters.
1720		The Quito Audiencia was transferred from the authority of the Peruvian viceroyalty to the newly created Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada, whose capital was in Bogotá.
24 May 1822		The last president of the Audiencia of Quito signed a formal capitulation of his forces before Marshal Sucre. Ecuador was at last free of Spanish rule.
1829		The Treaty of 1829 fixed the border on the line that had divided the Quito audiencia and the Viceroyalty of Peru before independence.
1851		General José María Urbina became president.
1925		Bloodless coup d'état by theLeague of Young Officers.
September 1934		José María Velasco Ibarra became president.
1940		President Carlos Alberto Arroyo del Río allowed the United States to build a naval base on the Galápagos Islands and an air base at Salinas on the Ecuadorian mainland.
5 July - 31 July 1941		Peruvian invasion. A ceasefire went into effect on July 31.
September 1948		Galo Plaza Lasso became president.
22 June 1970		José María Velasco Ibarra dismissed Congress and the Supreme Court and assumed dictatorial powers.
1973		Ecuador became a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
11 January 1976		A bloodless coup was successful in removing Rodríguez Lara. He was replaced by a Supreme Council of Government consisting of the commanders of the three armed services.
10 August 1984		León Febres Cordero Ribadeneyra became president.
May 1996		Presidential election was won by the Bucaram Ortiz.
2003		Lucio Gutierrez was elected to the presidency.
20 April 2005		Lucio Gutierrez was replaced by Vice President Alfredo Palacio.