9th C The Wislanie (a Slavonic tribe) inhabit a fortified town on the Wawel
1000 Cracow's bishopric is founded
1025 Boleslaw the Brave crowned as the first King of Poland
mid-11th C Wawel becomes the residence of the Polish kings
1241 A trumpeter is shot by an arrow while warning of the Tartar raid; a Cracow raftsman kills the Tartar Khan
1257 Cracow receives its charter and the Old Town's streets are laid out
13th C The Salt-Works Castle is built in Wieliczka
1333-70 Reign of King Kazimierz Wielki (the Great)
1335 Charter for the Town of Kazimierz is granted
1364 King Kazimierz III the Great (1333-70) founds the Cracow Academy; Council of Monarchs
1491-95 Copernicus studies at Jagiellonian University
1495 Jews moved to Kazimierz ghetto
1501-06 Reign of King Alexander
1504-36 Wawel Castle assumes its present shape
1506-48 Reign of King Sigismund I the Old
1548-72 Reign of King Sigismund II Augustus
1569 Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania unite as the Republic of Two Nations
1572 King Sigismund II August dies heirless – end of Jagiellonian dynasty; beginning of Polish Baroque period
1609 King Sigismund III Wasa leaves to take up residence in Warsaw
1655-58 Swedes invade Poland and pillage Cracow
1683 Jan Sobieski breaks Turks siege of Vienna
1703-21 Swedes at war with Poland again
1772 First partition of Poland
1776 Austrian occupation of Cracow
1794 General Tadeusz Kosciuszko incites revolution
1795 After the third partition of Poland, Wawel is used as an Austrian barracks for almost a century
1815-46 The region enjoys limited autonomy as a free city – the Republic of Cracow
1846 Cracow is incorporated into Austro-Hungarian province of Galicia
1868 Galicia is granted autonomy within the empire
1905 Austrian army departs from Wawel Castle
6 Sep 1939 Nazis invade the city
1940 Planning for Auschwitz concentration camp begins
Mar 1941 Nazis relocate Jews to ghetto in Podgorze district
Jun 1942 Mass deportations to concentration camps begin
Nov 1942 Labour camp is set up in Plaszow
14 Mar 1943 All of those still in the ghetto are murdered or transported to camps
1945 Auschwitz is abandoned as Soviet Army approaches
1980 Solidarity movement begins; martial law is imposed
1989 Free elections mark the end of the Communist regime
1999 Poland joins NATO
2000 Cracow is one of the nine European Cities of Culture
2004 Poland joins the EU