Timeline of Cypriot history

This is a timeline of Cypriot history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Cyprus and its predecessor states. To read about the background to these events, see History of Cyprus. See also the list of presidents of Cyprus.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

11th century BC

Year	Date	Event
1400 BC		Hellenization of Cyprus after the colonization of Mycenaeans

10th century BC

Year	Date	Event
1000 BC		Emergence of the City States and eventually the Ten City States.

8th century BC

Year	Date	Event
709 BC		The lands of Cyprus were conquered and unified by the Neo-Assyrian Empire under Sargon II.

7th century BC

Year	Date	Event
669 BC		The ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus declared their independence from Assyrian rule.

6th century BC

Year	Date	Event
570 BC		Cyprus was conquered by the Egyptians under Amasis II.
526 BC		Amasis died. His son Psammetichus III succeeded him as pharaoh.
525 BC		The kingdoms of Cyprus pledged allegiance to Cambyses II of the Achaemenid Persian Empire in anticipation of his invasion of Egypt.
		Battle of Pelusium (525 BC): The Persian army wiped out the Egyptian army at Pelusium.

5th century BC

Year	Date	Event
499 BC		Ionian Revolt: Aristagoras, the appointed tyrant of Miletus, rebelled against Persian rule.
		Ionian Revolt: With the support of Athens and Eretria, Aristagoras captured Sardis, the capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia.
		Ionian Revolt: The kingdoms of Cyprus joined the revolt.
498 BC		Ionian Revolt: The Persian army reestablished control over Cyprus.
450 BC		Kition increased in importance.
		Phoenician rulers established themselves in Salamis.
411 BC		The Teucrid Evagoras I regained the throne of Salamis.
400 BC		Evagoras attempted to establish himself as an independent ruler on Cyprus with Athenian help.

4th century BC

Year	Date	Event
386 BC		Under the Treaty of Antakidas, Persian rule over Cyprus was accepted by Athens.
380 BC		Persia reconquered Cyprus.
351 BC		Pythagoras of Salamis and other Cypriot kings went over to Alexander The Great during the beginning of the siege of Tyre.
350 BC		A Cypriot rebellion began.
344 BC		The Cypriot rebellion was crushed by Artaxerxes III.
332 BC		The siege of Tyre ended.
331 BC		Nicocreon began to rule.
325 BC		The Archaic and Classical Period ended.
310 BC		Nicocreon ended his rule.
		Menelaos was made satrap of Cyprus.
306 BC		Menelaos ended his time as satrap of Cyprus.
		Antigonus began his rule.
301 BC		Antigonus ended his rule.
		The Ptolemaic Lagid Dynasty began.

2nd century BC

Year	Date	Event
116 BC		Cleopatra sent her son Ptolemy Philometor
109 BC		Cleopatra sent Alexander, her son and the brother of Ptolemy IX Lathyros, to Cyprus.
107 BC		Alexander returned from Cyprus and was made king of Egypt. Ptolemy campaigned in Palestine.

1st century BC

Year	Date	Event
58 BC		Cyprus became a Roman province.
51 BC		Cyprus was placed under the rule of Cleopatra by Julius Caesar.
30 BC		The Ptolemaic Lagid Dynasty ended.
		Cyprus reverted to Roman rule.

1st century

Year	Date	Event
45		Paul of Tarsus, St Barnabas and St Mark introduced Christianity to Cyprus and converted the Roman governor Sergius Paulus.

2nd century

Year	Date	Event
115		Kitos War: A messianic Jewish revolt began which resulted in the massacre of 240,000 Cypriots. Trajan intervened to restore the peace and expelled the Jews from Cyprus.
116		Kitos War: The revolt ended.

4th century

Year	Date	Event
335		The revolt of the usurper Calocaerus was suppressed by Flavius Dalmatius.
350		Salamis was rebuilt by Constantius II, the son of Constantine, after being destroyed by earthquakes and was renamed Constantia.
395		Cyprus became part of the Byzantine Empire.

7th century

Year	Date	Event
649		The Arabs under Muawiya invaded and occupied Cyprus.
683		The Arab garrison was withdrawn after its defeat at the hands of Constantine IV.
688		Emperor Justinian II and Caliph al-Malik signed a treaty under whose terms no garrisons were to be stationed in the island, and all taxes collected were to be divided between the Arabs and the Emperor.

10th century

Year	Date	Event
965		Cyprus was restored to Byzantine rule by Nicepheros Phokas

12th century

Year	Date	Event
1185		Cyprus became an independent Empire under Isaak Comnenus.
1192		Isaak Comnenus ended his reign.
		Richard I of England captured Cyprus on his way to Acre. The island was sold to the Templar Order, who in turn sold it to Guy of Lusignan.
		Guy of Lusignan and his descendants began to rule Cyprus as an independent kingdom.
1193		Altheides of Cyprus, the traveling philosopher, was born.

15th century

Year	Date	Event
1489		The descendants of Guy of Lusignan ended their rule of Cyprus.
		Cyprus became an overseas colony of the Venetian Republic after having been purchased from the last member of the Lusignan dynasty.
	9 June	Ottoman Turks raid Karpas Peninsula.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1539		Ottoman Turks attack Limassol.
1570	1 July	Ottoman Turks invade Cyprus with 80,000 men.
	25 July	Ottoman army besieges Nicosia.
	9 September	Nicosia falls to the Turkish invaders. 20,000 Nicosians, Greek and Latin, are killed in the aftermath. About 1,000 survivors are bound and shipped out to be sold in the Constantinople slave markets.
1571		Cyprus ended its time as a Venetian colony.
		Having been put under siege the previous year, Famagusta was captured and Cyprus was subjected to Ottoman rule. The first Ottoman settlers arrived.
		The Ottomans took Famagusta; Cyprus became a part of the Ottoman Empire. Greeks on the island of Cyprus sided with Venetians to fight off the attacking Ottomans.
1572		A period began during which twenty eight bloody uprisings occurred.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1821		The Cypriots sided with Greece in a revolt against Turkish rule. The island's leading churchmen and notables were executed as punishment. 20,000 Christians fled the island.
1869		The Suez Canal opened.
1878	12 July	British occupation began. The British took over the administration of the island, by mutual agreement, in order to protect their sea route to India via the Suez Canal. In exchange, Britain agreed to help Turkey against future Russian attacks.
	22 July	Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley became Crown commissioner.
1879		Sir Robert Biddulph became Crown commissioner.
1886		Sir Henry Ernest Bulwer became Crown commissioner.
1892		Sir Walter Sendall became Crown commissioner.
1898		Sir William Frederick Haynes Smith became Crown commissioner.

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1904		Sir Charles King-Harman became Crown commissioner.
1911		Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams became Crown commissioner.
1914		Britain annexed Cyprus in response to Turkey's alliance with Germany and Austro-Hungary in World War I.
1915		Sir John Eugene Clauson became Crown commissioner.
1920		Sir Malcolm Stevenson became Crown commissioner.
1925		Cyprus became a British Crown Colony. Sir Malcolm Stevenson was made governor.
1926		Sir Ronald Storrs became governor.
1931		Greek Cypriots demanding Enosis, the union with Greece, instigated their first serious riots. The government-house in Nicosia was burned down; martial law was declared afterwards and the legislative council was abolished. The Greek National Anthem and the display of the Greek flag were banned. The British invented the terms "Greek Cypriot" and "Turkish Cypriot" and used the latter against the "Greek Cypriots" so as to cease Enosis demands.
1932		Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs became governor.
1933		Sir Herbert Richmond Palmer became governor.
1939		Cypriots fought with the British in World War II, Greek Cypriots demanding Enosis at war's end. The Turkish Cypriots wanted British rule to continue.
		Sir William Denis Battershill became governor.
1941		Sir Charles Campbell Woolley became governor.
1946		The British Government began to imprison thousands of displaced Jews in camps on Cyprus.
		Sir Reginald Fletcher, Lord Winster, became governor.
1949		The British Government finished imprisoning displaced Jews.
		Sir Andrew Barkworth Wright became governor.
1950		Archbishop Makarios III was elected the political and spiritual leader of Cyprus, the head of the autocephalous Cypriot Orthodox Church and leader of the campaign for Enosis with the support of Greece.
1954		Sir Robert Perceval Armitage became governor.
	28 July	Minister of State for the Colonies, Henry Hopkinson, says that there were certain territories in the Commonwealth 'which, owing to their particular circumstances, can never expect to be fully independent'.
1955		Sir John Harding became governor.
	1 April	A series of bomb attacks marked the start of a violent campaign for Enosis by the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA) under George Grivas, a Cypriot ex-colonel in the Greek army. Grivas took the name Dighenis and conducted guerrilla warfare from a secret hideout in the Troodos Mountains.
1956		Britain deported Makarios to the Seychelles in an attempt to quell the revolt.
1957		Field Marshal Sir John Harding was replaced by the civilian governor Sir Hugh Foot in a conciliatory move.
1958	27 January	First of 2 days of serious rioting by Turkish Cypriots. Seven were killed by British security forces.
	7 June	Turkish press office in Nicosia is bombed. Inter-communal clashes as Turkish Cypriots invade Greek sector. On 26 June 1984 the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995 Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim in the Turkish newspaper, Milliyet.
	12 June	The first massacre between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. British police released from arrest a group of 35 Greeks in the region of Guenyeli. A Turkish mob attacks the unarmed group, killing some of them.
1959	18 October	British minesweeper HMS Burmaston intercepts the Turkish registered boat, Deniz. Loaded with weaponry, the boat is scuttled by its 3-member crew. The crew, all Turkish nationals, are arrested for importing munitions without a permit.
	28 October	Archbishop Makarios III and Dr. Fazıl Küçük appeal to their respective communities to hand over illegal weapons.
	15 November	Deadline to hand over illegal weapons.
1960		British occupation ended.
		The British, Greek and Turkish governments signed a Treaty of Guarantee to provide for an independent Cypriot state within the Commonwealth of Nations and allow for the retention of two Sovereign Base Areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Under the treaty, each power received the right to take military action in the face of any threat to the constitution. Cyprus became independent of foreign rule. The Greek Cypriot Archbishop Makarios became the first president, with Turkish Cypriot Dr. Kutchuk his vice president. Both had the right of veto. Turkish Cypriots, who formed 18% of the population, were guaranteed the vice-presidency, three out of ten ministerial posts and 30% of jobs in the public service. They were further guaranteed 40% representation in the army and separate municipal services in the five major towns. Overall, a very complex constitution was drafted, which demanded a majority of votes overall as well as within each community for many decisions.
1963		Greek Cypriots began to view the constitution as unworkable and proposed changes abolishing all veto rights and many ethnic clauses; these proposals were rejected by Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish government. Inter-communal fighting erupted. Tylliria was bombarded with napalm bombs. A UN Peace Keeping Force was sent in, but soon proved powerless to prevent incidents. Thousands of Turkish Cypriots retreated into enclaves where they were embargoed by the Greek Cypriots. The UN attempted to supply them with food and medicine. Akritas plan
1964		The Battle of Tylliria takes place. Greek-Cypriot forces storm the Turkish-held Kokkina enclave, prompting a Turkish military intervention and airstrikes on the Greek forces. However, Soviet pressure prevented the Turks from going any further, and when the battle ended after four days of fierce fighting, the Kokkina enclave had been reduced to 50-40% of its original size.
1971		EOKA B' is being created
1973		The Turks emerged from their enclaves.
1974		see Timeline of events in Cyprus, 1974
1975		Turks announced a Federate State in the north, with Rauf Denktaş as leader. UN Forces remained as buffer between the two zones.
1977		Makarios died. He was succeeded by Spyros Kyprianou.
1983		The Turkish Federated State declared itself the independent Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), with Denktaş as President. The new state was not recognised by any country except Turkey and was officially boycotted.
		Fearing a "second Cyprus", the Greek government adopts a policy of referring to the Turkish community in Greek Thrace as Greek Muslims or Hellenic Muslims, and does not recognise a separate Turkish minority.
1992		UN sponsored talks began between the two sides.
1995		The UN talks ran into the sand, but with a commitment to resume.

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001		The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of continuing human rights violations against the Greek Cypriots.
2003		Cyprus was set to join the European Union in May 2004. Renewed negotiations about the status of the island took place.
	23 April	The line which divided the two parts of Cyprus was partly opened. Thousands of Turkish and Greek Cypriots crossed the buffer zone to the "other side" after 30 years.
2004	24 April	2004 Annan Plan Referendum: The Annan Plan was accepted by the majority of Turkish Cypriots but overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek Cypriots.
	1 May	The sovereign Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union, however the EU acquis was suspended in the occupied north, Akrotiri and Dhekelia and the United Nations Buffer Zone.
2008		Demetris Christofias replaces Tassos Papadopoulos as president of the Republic of Cyprus. It was the first time that a leader of the Greek Cypriot communist party, AKEL, had entered the presidential race. He is currently the only communist leader in the European Union.

See also

• Timeline of Nicosia history