2011

- 15-19 February: Start of unprecedented protests against Muammar Gaddafi's rule and which are violently suppressed. Protests soon turn into an insurgency and armed conflict.

- 19 March: An operation is launched by Paris, Washington and London under a UN mandate before NATO mounts air strikes in Libya on 31 March.

- 23 August: Rebels capture Gaddafi's headquarters in Tripoli, marking the fall of his regime.

- 20 October: Gaddafi captured and killed while trying to flee Sirte, his hometown and the last major city to fall to NATO-backed rebels who rose up against his regime nine months earlier.

- 23 October: The former rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) declares Libya's "total liberation" and says more than 30,000 people were killed in the conflict.

- 31 October: NATO announces the end of its military role.

- 19 November: Seif Al-Islam, Gaddafi's most prominent son, wanted by the International Criminal Court, is captured by militiamen and detained in the hilltown of Zintan, southwest of Tripoli.

- 12-13 December: Hundreds protest against NTC in the eastern city of Benghazi, cradle of the revolt.

2012

- June: More than 100 die and 500 are wounded in a week of tribal fighting southwest of Tripoli. Numerous tribal clashes take place, with nearly 50 killed in Kufra. In February, violence in the southeastern desert town kills more than 100.

- 7 July: Libyans vote for the first time to elect a national assembly, named the General National Congress (GNC).

- A coalition of small liberal parties emerges victorious in the election, while the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood takes the number two position.

- 8 August: The NTC transfers power to the GNC in a symbolic move marking the first peaceful transition in Libya's modern history.

- 5 September: Mauritanian authorities extradite Gaddafi's ex-spy chief, Abdullah Al-Senussi, also wanted by the International Criminal Court, to Libya.

- 11 September: Four Americans, including US Ambassador Chris Stevens, killed in an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi.

- 23 September: Libyan authorities say they have decided to dissolve all militias and armed groups that do not come under state authority.

- 31 October: The GNC elects Ali Zeidan, a human rights lawyer, as prime minister after Mustafa Abu Shagur fails to form a cabinet acceptable to all political factions.

2013

- 12 January: Italian consul in Benghazi escapes an attack.

- 24 January: Several Western countries urge their citizens to leave Benghazi.