Key events in Egypt during the rule of Hosni Mubarak:

- October 1981: Mubarak succeeds assassinated leader Anwar Sadat, who had made him vice-president. Is later approved in the first of several single-candidate ballots.

- May 1989: Egypt readmitted to the Arab League, from which it had been suspended over the 1979 Peace Treaty Sadat signed with Israel.

- June 1995: Mubarak escapes the first of several assassination attempts, claimed by the armed fundamentalist group Gamaa Islamiya.

- November 1997: Gamaa Islamiya kills 68, including 58 foreign tourists, at a popular site in Luxor.

- December 1999: Egypt agrees to sell its natural gas to Israel, and also to the Palestinians.

- September 2003: Mubarak speaks of democracy and freedom of political assembly, but his son Gamal appears to be being groomed to succeed him.

- October 2004: Attacks in the Sinai resort of Taba and nearby kill 34 people, mostly Israelis.

- February 2005: Egypt decides to send an ambassador to Israel, a post that has remained vacant since the beginning of a Palestinian uprising in 2000.
Under US pressure, Mubarak orders parliament to amend Egypt's constitution to allow multi-candidate presidential elections.

- July 2005: Triple bomb attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh kill 68.

- September 2005: Mubarak sworn in for fifth term after being re-elected in Egypt's first multi-candidate poll.
- Under an agreement with Israel, Egypt says it will deploy soldiers along the southern border of the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip.

- June 2009: US President Barack Obama visits Cairo and makes a speech calling for a "new beginning" in relations between the United States and the Muslim world.

- December 2010: A major revolt breaks out in Tunisia, rapidly spreading to other Arab countries.

- 25 January 2011: First major protests against Mubarak.

- 11 February: Mubarak resigns, hands power to the army.

- 13 April: The military regime says Mubarak, who is suffering from heart problems, is to be placed in detention for 15 days as part of an inquiry into the crackdown against the revolution and on charges of corruption.