Timeline of a troubled nation

• 1885: Burma (as it was then known) becomes a province of British India.

• 1941-45: Japan occupies Burma during World War II.

• 1948: Burma attains full independence from the British on January 4.

• 1962: General Ne Win seizes power in a coup.

• 1988: Nationalist hero Aung San’s daughter Aung San Suu Kyi emerges as a key opposition leader.

• 1989: The country’s name is changed to Myanmar.

• 1990: Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy wins a landslide victory in elections.

• 1991: Suu Kyi wins the Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest.

• 1992: Than Shwe becomes the new leader.

• 2007: Major protests dubbed the “Saffron revolution” break out.

• 2008: Vast areas of the Irrawaddy Delta are devastated by Cyclone Nargis, which leaves some 138,000 people dead.

• 2010: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.

• 2011: The junta cedes power to a quasi-civilian government.

• 2015: In November, Suu Kyi’s NLD wins a landslide victory in the first free and fair elections in decades.

• 2016: A lengthy power transition follows.

AFP