History Timeline -Chronology of Important Events

EARLY HISTORY
ca. 10,000 B.C. Earliest recorded probable human habitation within modern Ghana at site on Oti River.
ca. 4000 B.C. Oldest date for pottery at Stone Age site near Accra.
ca. 100 B.C. Early Iron Age at Tema. FORMATIVE CENTURIES
ca. A.D. 1200 Guan begin their migrations down Volta Basin from Gonja toward Gulf of Guinea.
ca. 1298 Akan kingdom of Bono (Brong) founded. Other states had arisen or were beginning to rise about this time.
1471-82 First Europeans arrive. Portuguese build Elmina Castle.
1482 - Portuguese set up trading settlement.
1500-1807 Era of slave raids and wars and of intense state formation in Gold Coast.
1697-1745 Rise and consolidation of Asante Empire.
1874 - British proclaim coastal area a crown colony. NINETEENTH CENTURY
1817 - 1821: Two ambassadors were sent to Kumasi to discuss peace with King Osei Bonsu. This failed.
1823 - 1824: In Asante Denkyira war, Sir Charles Macarthy and his Fante allies supported the Denkyiras. Marcathy was killed.
1826: The Asantes were defeated in the Battle of Kantamanto near Dodowa.
1831: George Maclean signed treaty with the Asantes. 600 ounces of Gold kept for the Asantes. Two princes sent to Britain. Returned after 6 years in 1842.
1843-44 British government signs Bond of 1844 with Fante chiefs.
1863: Battle of Bobikuma. Britain defeated
1864: Britain lost another war.
1873-1877: Kofi Karikari invaded Southern and coastal areas. Major General Sir Garnet Woseley with British expedition forces defeated the Asantes. Treaty of Fomena in 1874. Asante forced to recognize the Independence of all states south of the Pra River.
1873-74 Last Asante invasion of coast. British capture Kumasi.
1874 Britain establishes Gold Coast Colony.
1878 Cocoa introduced to Ghana.
1888: Nana Agyeman Prempeh I ascended the throne of the Asante Kingdom.
1896 Anglo-Asante war leads to exile of asantehene and British protectorate over Asante. - British troops marched to Kumasi, led by Sir Francis Scott. The king was exiled first to the Elmina Castle, then to Sierra Leone and later to Seychels.
1897 Aboriginess right Protection society. TWENTIETH CENTURY -Pre Independence
1900: First Africans appointed to colony's Legislative Council. Arnold Hodgson went to ask for the golden stool. The Asantes were infuriated. Yaa Asantewaa, the queen mother of Edwiso (Ejisu) led attack on the British Fort in Kumasi.
1902: Northern Territories proclaimed a British protectorate.
1914-18: Gold Coast Regiment serves with distinction in East Africa.
1919: German Togo becomes a mandate under Gold Coast administration.
1924: Nana Agyemang Prempeh I returned . Died in 1931.
1925: Constitution of 1925 calls for six chiefs to be elected to Legislative Council. Guggisburg Constitution
1935: Prempeh II Asante Confideracy Council.
1939-45 Gold Coast African forces serve in Ethiopia and Burma.
1947 United Gold Coast Convention founded.
1948 Nii Kwabena Bone II--an Accra chief organised the boycott of Europen and Syrian, Lebanese goods.
28 Feb 1948: Ex-servicemen marched on Christianborg Castle to hand petition to the governor about their poor conditions. The order was given and 3 laid dead. UGCC was held responsible and its officers were detained. (The dead were sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey). The six detained were Kwame Nkrumah, Obetsebi Lamptey, Ako Adjei, Ofori-Atta, Dr Danquah and Akuffo Addo. Mr Aiken Watson was appointed by the British Government to look into disturbances. He recommended a new constitution. Mr J Cousey headed this committee.
1949 Kwame Nkrumah breaks with United Gold Coast Convention and forms Convention People's Party. Internal trouble in UGCC. Nkrumah broke off to form his own Convention Peoples' Party (CPP), with the slogan of SELF GOVERNMENT NOW.
1951 New constitution leads to general elections. Convention People's Party wins two-thirds majority. First General election . CPP won 34 seats , UGCC --3. Kwame Nkrumah who was in prison for positive action, won the seat in central Accra, and was released to become the leader of Govt business, and Prime Minister on 21 March 1952.
1954 New constitution grants broad powers to Nkrumah's government. 104 elected representatives. CPP --72 seats, Northern People's Party (NPP) - 15, Independents - 11, and others - 6.The NLM (National Liberation Movement ) was formed by linguist Baffour Akoto. Leader was J B Danquah, and Dr K.A. Bussia - member. This group wanted a federal government.
1956 Plebiscite in British Togoland calls for union with Gold Coast. There was another election. CPP won 72 of the 104 seats. The NLM and its allies won the remaining seats and so became the parliamentary opposition. The former British Mandated Togoland also voted to join the Gold Coast--Ghana.
Convention People's Party wins 68 percent of seats in legislature and passes an independence motion, which British Parliament approves.
1957 British Colony of the Gold Coast becomes independent Ghana on March 6. TWENTIETH CENTURY -Post Independence
1958 Entrenched protection clauses of constitution repealed; regional assemblies abolished; Preventive Detention Act passed.
1960 Plebiscite creates a republic on July 1, with Nkrumah as president.
1964 Ghana declared a one-party state. Completion of Akosombo Dam.
1966: Feb 24 - While Nkrumah is in China, army stages widely popular coup. National Liberation Council(NLC), led by General Joseph Ankrah, comes to power. Russian and Chinese technicians expelled.
1969: General Ankrah is replaced by Brigadier Akwasi Afrifa in April, a new constitution is introduced and the ban on party politics is lifted the following month. August -- an election for a new National Assembly is held, the Progress Party (PP) wins and is led by Dr Kofi Busia, who is subsequently appointed Prime Minister. The PP government takes office in October.
1972 Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Acheampong leads a military coup in January that brings National Redemption Council to power.
1975: The NRC is replaced by the Supreme Military Council (SMC) also led by Acheampong.
1978: A referendum is held in favour of union government. July 5 Acheampong forced to resign by fellow officers; General Frederick Akuffo takes over. TWENTIETH CENTURY -Rawlings Era
1979: The ban on party politics is lifted and 16 new parties are subsequently registered. May - A coup staged by junior officers of the armed forces, led by Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings, fails on 15 May and he is subsequently imprisoned. June 4 - Junior officers stage Ghana's first violent coup. Armed Forces Revolutionary Council formed under Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. July - Hilla Limann elected president in July.
1981: Rawlings stages second coup, December 31. Provisional National Defence Council established with Rawlings as chairman.
1983: First phase of Economic Recovery Program introduced with World Bank and International Monetary Fund support. Rawlings adopts conservative economic policies, abolishing subsidies and price controls, privatising many state enterprises and devaluing the currency.
1985 National Commission for Democracy, established to plan the democratization of Ghana's political system, officially inaugurated in January.
1988-89: Elections for new district assemblies begin in early December and continue through February 1989.
1990: Various organizations call for return to civilian government and multiparty politics, among them Movement for Freedom and Justice, founded in August.
1991: Provisional National Defence Council announces its acceptance, in May, of multipartyism in Ghana. June deadline set for creation of Consultative Assembly to discuss nation's new constitution.
1992: National referendum in April approves draft of new democratic constitution. Formation and registration of political parties becomes legal in May.
Jerry Rawlings elected president November 3 in national presidential election. Parliamentary elections of December 29 boycotted by major opposition parties, resulting in landslide victory for National Democratic Congress.
1993: Ghana's Fourth Republic inaugurated January 4 with the swearing in of Rawlings as president.
1994: One thousand people are killed and a further 150,000 are displaced in the Northern Region following ethnic clashes between the Konkomba and the Nanumba over land ownership. Late 1994- Ghana hosts peace talks for warring factions early 1995 of Liberian civil war.
1995 President Rawlings pays official visit to the United States March 8-9, first such visit by a Ghanaian head of state in more than thirty years. Government imposes curfew in Northern Region as renewed ethnic violence results in a further 100 deaths.
1996: Jerry Rawlings re-elected president for second and last term 21st CENTURY
2000: Presidential and Parliamentary elections took place on 7 December 2000. Opposition leader John Kufuor polled 48.4% of the vote, not enough to win the first round. John Atta Mills scored 44.8% with the five other parties scooping the remaining votes. In parallel parliamentary elections, the NPP achieved a majority taking 99 seats. NDC took 92, PNC 3, Convention People's Party 1, independents 4. The Presidential run-off between Kufuor and Mills took place on 28 December 2000. Kufuor won taking 57% of the votes cast.
2001: Kufuor is Sworn in as the new president in January 7. 26 February -Petrol prices rise by 60% following the government's decision to remove fuel subsidies. 2001 April - Ghana accepts debt relief under a scheme designed by the World Bank and the IMF. May 26 - 126 people are killed at the Accra Sports staduim in a soccer match June - Government scraps public holiday celebrating Rawling's military coup in an effort to wipe out the legacy of his rule. Thousands march in Accra to protest against statement by Rawlings that army may turn against government. June - Floods hit Accra causing 10 deaths and 100,000 to flee their homes.