History
40,000BCPaleolithic – traces of the first settlements on Serbian soil
6500-5500BCMesolithic – the Lepenski Vir culture in the Đerdap Gorge.
4500-3200BCEarly Neolithic – the Vinča culture, near Belgrade.
2000-1000BCBronze Age – the Vatin culture, Dubovac.
1000-100 BCIron Age – the first historically recognised tribes: the Moesi, Triballi and the Dardani.
269ADEmperor Claudius II defeats the Goths near Niš
3rdto 4thcenturiesSeveral Roman emperors are born on the soil of modern Serbia (Aurelian, Probus, Galerius and Constantine the Great).
4thcenturySirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) is one of the capitals of the Roman Empire.
395After the Roman Empire splits, Serbia becomes part of the eastern portion.
527-565Byzantine emperor Justinian builds and reconstructs cities, raises churches, and builds a new city near his place of birth called Justiniana Prima.
6thcenturySlavic tribes from the Danube Basin settle in the Balkans.
c. 630The Slavs capture Singidunum (Belgrade).
7thcenturyThe Serbs begin to accept Christianity.
c. 780Prince Višeslav, first Serbian ruler known to historians.
830-851Prince Vlastimir, founder of the Vlastimirović dynasty, the oldest Serbian dynasty.
9thcenturyChristian missionaries Cyril and Methodius create the first Slavic script – Glagolitic – and liturgical texts are translated into the Old Church Slavonic language.
878First mention of the Slavic name for Belgrade.
10thcenturyTheCyrillic script is developed.
1054After the schism between the Eastern and Western churches, Serbia becomes a part of the Eastern church.
1096-1189Crusaders pass through Serbia.
1166-1196Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja, founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, wages war against the Byzantine Empire and rules a territory extending from the Adriatic coast to the Morava and Šar Mountains.
1175-1236Saint Sava (Prince Rastko Nemanjić), the first Serbian archbishop.
1180The Miroslav Gospel, the most important and beautiful preserved Serbian manuscript, is produced.
1196-1228Stefan Prvovenčani (‘the First-Crowned’) rules Serbia, conquers Niš, Vranje and Prizren.
1217Serbia becomes a kingdom, Stefan Prvovenčani is given the king’s crown by the pope.
1219The Serbian autocephalous Archbishopric of Žiča is created.
1243-1276King Stefan Uroš I marries Helen of Anjou, Serbia strengthens economically, arrival of Saxon miners.
1276-1282King Stefan Dragutin.
1282-1321King Stefan Uroš II Milutin expands the country southward.
1284Belgrade comes under Serbian rule for the first time.
1285The Mongols raid Serbia.
1321-1330King Stefan Uroš III Dečanski.
1331-1355King Dušan defeats the Bulgarians near Velbužd, conquers northern Greece and enacts Dušan’s Code.
1346Dušan crowned in Skopje as King of the Serbs and Greeks. The Serbian Church is accorded the status of a Patriarchate.
1355-1371King Uroš Nejaki (’the Weak’) does not manage to establish control over the fragmented Serbian nobility, a forewarning of the fall of the Serbian Empire.
1371Battle of Maritsa, after which the Turkish conquest of Serbia begins.
1377Bosnian Ban Tvrtko I, a descendant of the Nemanjić dynasty, is crowned in Mileševa as King of Serbs and Bosnia.
1389The Battle of Kosovo, in which both opposing rulers die (Prince Lazar and Sultan Murad I), together with the cream of the Serbian nobility, and Serbia is reduced to a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.
1389-1427Stefan Lazarević, son of Prince Lazar, becomes despot from 1402.
1402-1459The Serbian Despotate, a vassal state both in relation to Hungary and Turkey. Development of mining and trade, flourishing of cities.
1403Under Despot Stefan Lazarević Belgrade becomes the capital of mediaeval Serbia.
1427-1456Despot Đurađ Branković, nephew of Despot Stefan Lazarević.
1427The Hungarians conquer Belgrade.
1439-1455The Turks capture a large part of Serbia and Novo Brdo.
1459The Turks then take Smederevo too and Serbia loses its independence.
1521Belgrade, which had been held by the Hungarians, falls into Turkish hands.
1557Makarije, the brother of Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, becomes the Serbian patriarch.
1683-1699War of the Holy League between Austria and Turkey.
1688The Austrian army conquers Belgrade.
1690After defeating the Austrians near Kačanik, Patriarch Arsenije III leads a migration of Serbs towards the north, to Vojvodina. Belgrade again falls under Turkish rule
1717Habsburg military commander Eugène of Savoy defeats the Turks in a major battle in Belgrade and conquers Serbia down to the Zapadna Morava river.
1739The Peace of Belgrade signed, Danube and Sava rivers again form a border between Austria and Turkey.
1751-1753Serbs migrate to Russia in great numbers while mass colonisation from various parts of the Habsburg Monarchy gives rise to the diverse ethnic makeup of Vojvodina.
1788-1791Austro-Turkish War Kočina Krajina Serb rebellion.
15thFebruary 1804After a gathering of the people in Orašac, the First Serbian Uprising against Turkish rule begins, its chosen leader Đorđe Petrović, known as Karađorđe.
1806Karađorđe liberates Belgrade which once again becomes the capital city of Serbia.
1813The First Serbian Uprising fails.
1814Hadži-Prodan’s Revolt.
1815Second Serbian Uprising led by Miloš Obrenović.
1818First edition of Vuk Karadžic’s Serbian dictionary is published, setting in motion the introduction of today’s Serbian Cyrillic script.
1830-1833Serbia achieves autonomy through ahatiserif(Sultan’s edict) and aberat(Sultan’s decree) confirms Prince Miloš Obrenović as the hereditary ruler of Serbia.
1835The Constitution of the Principality of Serbia, known as the Sretenj Constitution, is passed but suspended under pressure from Austria, Russia and Turkey for being too liberal.
1839-1842First government of Prince Mihailo Obrenović.
1841Belgrade becomes the capital of the Principality of Serbia, and the Serbian Learned Society (later becoming the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts) is founded.
1842-1858Aleksandar Karađorđević, prince of Serbia.
1848Hungarian Revolution and the Serbian Vojvodina proclaimed.
1860-1868Second government of Prince Mihailo Obrenović.
1864Matica Srpska, founded in 1826 in Pest, moves to Novi Sad.
1867Turkish troops pull out of the last six fortified cities in Serbia.
1868-1889Milan Obrenović, king from 1882.
1876-1878Serbo-Turkish War during which southeastern Serbia, Niš and Vranje are liberated. Serbo-Bulgarian War in Slivnitsa.
1878The independence of Serbia recognised at the Congress of Berlin.
1882Principality of Serbia proclaimed a kingdom
1888Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbia introduces parliamentarism.
1889-1903King Aleksandar Obrenović.
1893Electric lighting is introduced to Belgrade, and electric trams begin the following year.
1903Maycoup d’etat, following the murder of King Aleksandar and Queen Draga, the Karađorđević dynasty again accedes to the throne.
1903-1921King Petar I Karađorđević ruler of Serbia.
1912First Balkan War, pitting Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece against Turkey, remaining Serbian territories under Turkish rule are liberated.
1913Second Balkan War in which Serbia defeats Bulgaria.
1914Austro-Hungarian attack on Serbia marks the beginning of the First World War. The Austrians bomb and conquer Belgrade, but the Serbs liberate the city in the same year. The battles of Cer and Kolubar a are the first Allied victories in the war.
1915Withdrawal of the Serbian army, government and people via Albania towards Greece, during which many die of hunger, cold and illness.
1918The Serbian army breaks through the Macedonian (Salonika) Front, Bulgaria and Austro-Hungary capitulate and Germany signs the Armistice.
1918-1929Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
1921-1934King Aleksandar is assassinated in Marseilles in 1934 during a visit to France.
1924Aircraft production begins in Serbia.
1929Radio Belgrade begins broadcasting.
1929-1941Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
6thApril 1941Germany bombs Belgrade and other Serbian towns, with no prior declaration of war.
1941-1945Germany and neighbouring countries occupy Yugoslavia during the Second World War.
20thOctober 1944Belgrade is liberated by the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, with the help of the Russian Red Army.
1945The monarchy is abolished and the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia.
1945-1980Josip Broz Tito, as Yugoslavian President, leader of the Communist Party and supreme commander of the Yugoslavian People’s Army, through skilful diplomacy during a time when the world is divided between the Warsaw Pact and NATO, manages to secure Yugoslavia a favourable position in international relations.
1948After a Cominform resolution, there is a disagreement between Tito and Stalin.
1950Workers’ self-management socialist practice officially begins, with properties seized from their pre-war owners.
1956Yugoslavia, Egypt and India found the Non-Aligned Movement.
1961The first Non-Aligned Movement conference is held in Belgrade.
1963Under a new constitution the name of the country is changed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
1961Ivo Andrić receives a Nobel Prize for Literature.
1968Student demonstrations in Belgrade.
1974The new Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Constitution is adopted.
1980Josip Broz dies, an eight-member Presidency begins to govern the country.
1991-1995Civil war and the breakup of Yugoslavia along the borders of the former republics.
1992Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, is declared. The United Nations imposes economic sanctions on the state.
1999NATO air forces, supporting Albanian secessionists in Kosovo and Metohija, bomb the FR Yugoslavia over a period of three months. A great number of civilians also killed as a result of the bombing of targets in Serbian cities. Kosovo and Metohija becomes a UN protectorate as part of the Kumanovo Agreement. Around 300,000 Serbs flee Kosovo and Metohija.
5thOctober 2000After elections and civil protests, Slobodan Milošević steps down from power.
2001Serbia gets its first democratic government
2003FR Yugoslavia becomes the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
12March 2003Prime Minister of Serbia Dr Zoran Đinđic is assassinated
2006Serbia again becomes an independent country. New Constitution of the Republic of Serbia adopted
2009Serbia formally submits its application for European Union membership.