This is a timeline of Albanian history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Albania and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Albania. See also the list of Albanian monarchs and list of heads of state of Albania.
Antiquity
2nd century AD to 12th century
{| class="wikitable" width="100%"
! style="width:6%" | Year || style="width:10%" | Date || Event
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|150
|
|Ptolemy's map shows the city of Albanopolis (located northeast of Durrës). Ptolemy also mentions the Illyrian tribe named Albanoi, who lived around this city. The area was part of the Roman province of Macedonia.
|-
|244-311
|
|Epirus Nova or New Epirus or Illyria Graeca or Illyris proper was a province of the Roman Empire established by Diocletian during his restructuring of provincial boundaries. The province, belonged to the Roman province of Macedonia. Later it became a theme of the Byzantine Empire. Dyrrachium was established as the capital of Epirus nova. The Roman administrative region of Epirus Nova corresponded to southern Illyria, which was in part subject to ancient Greek influence.
|-
|1000-1018
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|The Arbanasi people are recorded as being 'half-believers' (non-Orthodox Christians) and speaking their own language in the Fragment of Origins of Nations between 1000 and 1018 by an anonymous author in a Bulgarian text of the 11th century.
|-
|1043
|
|In History written in 1079–1080, Byzantine historian Michael Attaliates referred to the Albanoi as having taken part in a revolt against Constantinople in 1043 and to the Arbanitai as subjects of the duke of Dyrrachium. It is disputed, however, whether the "Albanoi" of the events of 1043 refers to Albanians in an ethnic sense or whether "Albanoi" is a reference to Normans from Sicily under an archaic name (there was also tribe of Italy by the name of "Albanoi"). However a later reference to Albanians from the same Attaliates, regarding the participation of Albanians in a rebellion in 1078, is undisputed.
|-
|1081–1118
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|Arbanitai of Arbanon are recorded in an account by Anna Comnena of the troubles in that region during the reign of her father Alexius I Comnenus by the Normans.
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|1190
|
|The Principality of Arbanon was created.
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|1200
|
|Local Albanian noble families began to emerge and Serbia occupies parts of northern Albania.
|}
13th century
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! style="width:6%" | Year || style="width:10%" | Date || Event
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| rowspan="2" valign="top" | 1204 || || Fourth Crusade: Venice won control over most of Albania.
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| || Fourth Crusade: The Byzantines regained control of the southern portion of Albania and established the Despotate of Epirus.
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| 1258 || || The Angevin Kingdom of Sicily seized the Albanian coast and much of the Epirus hinterland.
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| 1272 || || Forces allied to Angevin Charles I of Naples occupied Durrës and established the Kingdom of Albania.
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| 1280 || || Siege of Berat (1280–1281): An Angevin offensive against Constantinople was repulsed by the Byzantines.
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| 1290 || || Albania began to come under Serbian attack.
|}
14th century
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! style="width:6%" | Year || style="width:10%" | Date || Event
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| 1304 || || The Angevins recaptured the Kingdom of Albania.
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| 1368 || || Karl Thopia captured Durrës from the Angevins.
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| 1385 || || Thopia invited the Ottoman Empire to intervene against his rival Balsha II.
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| 1389 || June 15 || Battle of Kosovo: Albanians, as part of a Serbian-led Balkan army, were crushed by Ottoman forces.
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15th century
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! style="width:6%" | Year || style="width:10%" | Date || Event
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| 1405 || || George Kastrioti, later Skanderbeg, was born.
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| September || After two months of political wrangling, former president Sali Berisha emerges as the victor in July's general election
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| rowspan="2" valign="top" | 2006 || April || Speedboats are banned in coastal waters, in order to fight people and drug smuggling
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| June || A Stabilisation and Association Agreement is signed between Albania and the European Union
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| rowspan="3" valign="top" | 2007 || || Despite the political situation, the economy of Albania grew at an estimated 5% in 2007. The Albanian lek has strengthened from 143 lekë to the US dollar in 2000 to 92 lekë in 2007, mainly due to the depreciation of the US dollar, but also thanks to the overall improvement of the Albanian economy.
|-
| June 10 || US President George W. Bush visited Albania, the first sitting US president to do so. While Mr Bush was glad-handing cheering crowds, it appears as if his wristwatch is stolen. TV footage of the President being mobbed, taken by the Albanian TV station News24, was broadcast on Italian TV news bulletins and watched by thousands on YouTube. It was later reported that Bush had given the watch to a guard.
|-
| July || Bamir Topi, ruling party chairmanpresident, is elected by the Parliament as President of Albania, after three failed round highlighted the risk of snap elections.
|-
| rowspan="2" valign="top" | 2008 || March 15 || An explosion in a badly-maintained arms depot causes 16 deaths and over 300 injured, damaging Tirana airport. Defense minister Fatmir Mediu resigns.
|-
| June 12 || Opposition Socialist Party leaves the Parliament, accusing the ruling Democratic Party of postponing voting on five new members of the Supreme Court awaiting appointment by President Bamir Topi.
|-
| rowspan="3" valign="top" | 2009 || April || Albania joins NATO and submit application for membership in the European Union
|-
| July || Sali Berisha's centre-right Democratic Party wins 2009 parliamentary elections by a narrow margin. Prior to the election, the electoral law was changed to a regional proportionally system.Berisha's alliance won enough seats to form a government, though it fell one seat short of a majority during the elections of Jun 28, 2009, having to join forces with a splinter socialist party, the Socialist Movement for Integration of Ilir Meta, whom Berisha appointed to the post of Deputy Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, and later Minister of Economy, Trade and Energy. It is the first time since the start of multi-party democracy in 1991 that a ruling party has been forced into a coalition through not winning enough seats on its own.
|-
| November || Protests begin in Tirana, led by opposition Socialist Party leader Edi Rama, against allegedly rigged vote counting in the 2009 elections. Berisha has refused any recount of the votes, on the ground that the Albanian Constitution do not foresee such procedure. The political crisis between government and opposition has worsened over time, with the Socialists abandoning parliamentary debates for months and staging hungerstrikes to ask for internal and international support.
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| rowspan="4" valign="top" | 2010 || May || The Socialist Party starts a civil disobedience campaign against the government, asking for a new count of votes, and including hunger strike of opposition leaders
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| September || Economy minister Dritan Prifti resigns after being involved in a corruption scandal.
|-
| October 28 || The opposition Socialist Party again walks out of the Parliament
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| November || The European Union rejects Albania's request for EU candidate status, but visa are liberalized. The ongoing political crisis was one of the reason of the refusal of granting Albania official candidacy status
|-
| rowspan="4" valign="top" | 2011 || January 7 || The Central Election Commission begins burning the ballots of the 2009 parliamentary elections, in a routine process leading to the 8 May local elections, making a second count (repeatedly requested by opposition) impossible. The Socialist Party has accused the CEC and the Berisha government to attempt hiding vote manipulation.
|-
| January 14 || Economy and Trade Minister Ilir Meta resigns after being involved in a corruption scandal.
|-
| January 21 || Clashes break out between police and protesters in an anti-government rally in front of the Government building in Tirana. Three people are shot dead. The EU issues a statement to Albanian politicians, warning both sides to refrain from violence.
|-
| 8 May || Local elections see the victory of the Socialist Party of Albania (PS) in the main cities outside Tirana, Lezha and Scutari; The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe released a mixed evaluation of the electoral process, which was considered "competitive and transparent, but took place in an environment of high polarization and mistrust". In Tirana, the match was between Edi Rama, incumbent mayor and PS leader, and Lulzim Basha, DP minister of the interior. After a long process of votes counting, Rama was first declared winner for a tight margin of 10 votes. Then, the DP-led Central Electoral Commission decided to add to the count some of the votes misplaced in the wrong boxes, a move on doubtful legal grounds that was contested by the opposition as well as by the OSCE. Basha was finally declared winner for 83 votes. The European Commission president José Manuel Barroso consequently cancelled his visit to Tirana; the Nobel-prize Ismail Kadaré pledged him to withdraw his candidacy to avoid the "collapse" and "isolation" of Albania.
|-
| 2012 || September 21 || September 2012 Hunger strike of former politically persecuted in Albania (2012)
|}
See also
- Timeline of Tirana
- List of years in Albania
References
Attribution:
- Data as of 1993.
Bibliography
- Afrim Krasniqi: The End of Albania's Siberia. Tirana 1998.
- Afrim Krasniqi: Civil Society in Albania. Tirana 2004.
- Afrim Krasniqi: Political Parties in Albania 1920–2006.Tirana 2006.