July 23, 1971: William V.S. Tubman dies in office. William Tolbert sworn in as his successor.

April 3, 1978: Jimmy Carter becomes the first U.S. president to visit Liberia. Feted with motorcade and luncheon in the Liberian capital.

April 1979: President Tolbert calls in troops to end rice riots; 74 protesters killed.

1980s

April 12, 1980: President Tolbert assassinated at executive mansion. Coup leader, Sgt. Samuel Kenyon Doe, installed as head of state.

April 22, 1980: After brief trial, 13 Americo-Liberian government ministers are sentenced to death. Executions are carried out on the beach the same day.

1985: Doe wins rigged presidential election. He cracks down tribes and political groups that oppose him.

1989: National Patriotic Front of Liberia, led by Charles Taylor, crosses into Liberia and starts fighting its way toward Monrovia.

1990s

1990: Economic Community of West African States, led by Nigeria, sends peacekeeping force into Liberia. Doe is executed by Prince Johnson and a splinter group of the National Patriotic Front.

1992: Taylor's troops launch an assault on West African peacekeepers in Monrovia. The peacekeepers respond by bombing Patriotic Front positions outside the capital and pushing the forces back into the countryside.

1995: Peace agreement signed.

April 1996: Fierce fighting resumes in Monrovia.

August 1996: West African peacekeepers initiate disarmament program, clear land mines and reopen roads, allowing refugees to start returning.

July 1997: Taylor wins landslide victory in public elections declared free and fair by international observers, led by Jimmy Carter.

January 1999: Ghana and Nigeria accuse Liberia of supporting Revolutionary United Front rebels in Sierra Leone. Britain and the United States threaten to suspend international aid to Liberia.

2000s

July 2000: America threatens to impose sanctions on Liberia unless it curtails its ties with Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front.

September 2000: Liberian forces launch massive offensive against rebels in the north.

March 2001: U.N. Security Council accuses Liberia of fomenting war in West Africa and imposes a ban on diamond exports and restrictions on travel by Liberian officials. The council also reimposes an arms embargo against Liberia that first took effect during the country's civil war between 1989 and 1996.