Facts About Nigeria's History.

This post is about some important events in the history of Nigeria.Nigeria like every other nation has its own fair share of events that forms our history.Some of them have been mentioned below 1472 - Portuguese navigators reach Nigerian coast 16-18th centuries - Slave trade: Millions of Nigerians are sold and sent to the American continent. 1809 - Sokoto caliphate - is founded in the north. 1830s-1886 - Civil wars plague Yorubaland, in the south. 1850s - British establish presence around Lagos. 1861-1914 - Britain consolidates its hold over what it calls the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, governs by "indirect rule" through local leaders. 1922 - Part of former German colony Kamerun is added to Nigeria under League of Nations mandate. 1960 - Independence, with Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa leading a coalition government. 1962-63 - Controversial census causes regional and ethnic tensions. 1966 January - Tafawa Balewa was killed in a coup. Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi heads up military administration. 1966 July - Aguiyi Ironsi was killed in counter-coup, replaced by Lieutenant-Colonel Yakubu Gowon. 1967 - Three eastern states secede as the Republic of Biafra, sparking a bloody civil war. 1970 - Biafran leaders surrender, former Biafran regions reintegrated into country. 1975 - Gowon overthrown, flees to Britain, replaced by Brigadier Murtala Ramat Mohammed, who begins process of moving federal capital to Abuja. 1976 - Mohammed assassinated in failed coup attempt. Replaced by his deputy, Lieutenant-General Olusegun Obasanjo, who helps introduce American-style presidential constitution. 1979 - Elections saw Alhaji Shehu Shagari come into power. 1983 January - The government expels more than one million foreigners, mostly Ghanaians, saying they had overstayed their visas and were taking jobs from Nigerians. The move is condemned abroad but proves popular in Nigeria. (Ghana must go) 1983 August, September - Shagari re-elected despite accusations of irregularities in the election. 1983 December - Major-General Muhammad Buhari seizes power in bloodless coup. 1985 - Ibrahim Babangida seizes power in bloodless coup, curtails political activity. 1993 June - Military annuls elections when preliminary results show victory by Chief Moshood Abiola. 1993 August - Power was transferred to an Interim National Government. 1993 November - General Sani Abacha comes into power forcefully , suppresses opposition. 1994 - Abiola arrested after proclaiming himself president. 1995 - Ken Saro-Wiwa, writer and campaigner against oil industry damage to his Ogoni homeland, is executed following a hasty trial. In protest, European Union imposes sanctions until 1998, Commonwealth suspends Nigeria's membership until 1998. 1998 - Abacha dies, succeeded by Major-General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Chief Abiola dies in custody a month later. 1999 - Parliamentary and presidential elections held and Olusegun Obasanjo sworn in as president. 2002 February - Some 100 people are killed in Lagos in clashes between Hausas from mainly-Islamic north and ethnic Yorubas from predominantly-Christian southwest. 2002 November - More than 200 people die in four days of rioting stoked by Muslim fury over the planned Miss World beauty pageant in Kaduna in December. The event is relocated to Britain. 2004 May - State of emergency is declared in the central Plateau State after more than 200 Muslims are killed in Yelwa in attacks by Christian militia; revenge attacks are launched by Muslim youths in Kano. 2003 12 April - First legislative elections since end of military rule in 1999. Polling marked by delays, allegations of ballot-rigging. President Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party wins parliamentary majority. 2006 January - Militant groups are formed in the Niger Delta attack pipelines and other oil facilities and kidnap foreign oil workers. The rebels demand more control over the region's oil wealth. 2007 April - Umaru Yar'Adua wins presidential election. 2007 September - The rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) threatens to end a self-imposed ceasefire and to launch fresh attacks on oil facilities and abductions of foreign workers. 2007 November - Suspected Nigerian militants kill 21 Cameroon soldiers in Bakassi peninsula. 2009 November - President Yar'Adua travels to Saudi Arabia to be treated for a heart condition. His extended absence triggers a constitutional crisis and leads to calls for him to step down. 2010 May - President Umaru Yar'Adua dies after a long illness. Vice-president Goodluck Jonathan, already acting in Yar'Adua's stead, succeeds him. 2010 October - Nigeria marks 50 years of independence. Celebrations in Abuja marred by deadly bomb blasts. 2011 March - Goodluck Ebele Jonathan wins presidential elections. 2014 April - Boko Haram kidnaps more than 200 girls from a boarding school. The US and Britain sends planes to help search for them and West African leaders agree to co-operate to fight the Islamists.This led to the Bring back our girls campaign. 2015 March - Muhammadu Buhari wins the presidential election, becoming the first opposition candidate to do so in Nigeria's history. 2016 August-Boko Haram releases new video of missing girls.Wants to exchange the girls to their fighters.