1959
Basque nationalist group EKIN was transformed into ETA.
1961
ETA's first military action involved a failed plot to derail a passenger train traveling to Donostia carrying Spanish Civil War veterans.
1968
The group began an assassination and bombing campaign against government, judicial and security officials.
1973
December: Gen. Francisco Franco's likely successor, Prime Minister Adm. Luis Carrero, was assassinated by ETA.
1976
Basques were given regional autonomy, but ETA intensified attacks against security forces and politicians.
1978
Herri Batasuna, ETA's political wing, was founded.
1980
ETA killed 118 people in one of its bloodiest years.
1992
Summer: Spanish police foiled an attempt by ETA to shoot down a helicopter carrying Spain's King Juan Carlos with a surface-to-air-missile at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona.
1994
August: French police detained Maria Idoia Lopez Raino, also known as "the Tigress," an ETA operative held responsible for the deaths of 17 Spanish Guardia Civil officers between 1980 and 1986.
1994
November: Basque police successfully attacked and disrupted ETA's Vascaya Command cell.
1995
French and Spanish authorities disrupted another plan to kill Juan Carlos. Also that year, ETA attempted to kill opposition Popular Party leader and (subsequently) President Jose Maria Aznar.
1997
July: After ETA kidnapped and murdered Basque councilor Miguel Angel Blanco, some 6 million Spaniards publicly protested against the group.
December: Twenty-three Herri Batasuna leaders were jailed for seven years for collaborating with ETA.
1998
September: ETA announced its first indefinite cease-fire.
1999
November: Blaming a lack of progress in negotiations with Aznar's government, ETA announced an end to the cease-fire.
2000
January and February: ETA resumed its violent campaign with bombings in Madrid and Vitoria.
2001
August: ETA leader Ismael Berasategui Escudero successfully escaped from La Sante prison in Paris by switching places with his brother.
2002
August: The Spanish government banned Herri Batasuna for three years because of suspected ETA ties.
October: Spanish and Italian authorities discovered an alleged link between ETA and the Italian Mafia. ETA was said to deliver drugs to Mafiosi in exchange for anti-aircraft missiles.
2003
May 30: An ETA package bomb detonated in Sanguesa in northern Spain, killing two police officers.
July 23: Two bombs exploded simultaneously at hotels in Alicante and Benidorm, Spain, injuring 13. ETA called in a bomb threat prior to the explosions, and the hotels were largely evacuated.
September: Police in northern Spain launched a sweep against ETA, arresting six members of the group. They also seized weapons and bomb-making equipment.
Nov. 19: Spanish police arrested 12 ETA suspects in Guipuzcoa and Navarra provinces, as well as in the city of Seville. The arrests brought the number of arrested ETA suspects in 2003 to 167, according to the Interior Ministry.
2004
Feb. 18: The ETA declared a truce for the first time since the end of a 14-month cease-fire in January 2000.
March 11: Terrorist bombings were carried out in several passenger trains in Madrid, killing some 200 and wounding about 1,400. The Spanish government, among others, suspected the involvement of ETA, though subsequent investigations did not bear out initial suspicions, and eventually focused on Moroccan Islamists.
September: After months of maintaining a low profile following the Madrid train bombings, the ETA vowed to continue to use violence rather than political means to gain an independent homeland.
Oct. 3: Suspected ETA political leader Mikel Albizu and ranking female member Soldedad Iparraguirre were captured along with around 19 other members in southeastern France. French authorities also uncovered several weapons caches, including two SAM missiles, in the series of raids.
2005
Dec. 11: The ETA expelled a half-dozen former senior members who had called for abandoning violence. The former leaders, serving prison sentences in Spain on terrorism charges, had signed a letter in August 2004 stating that violence was no longer justifiable. Their behavior was "a clear breach of discipline," according to an internal ETA publication.
2006
March 22: In a video statement that reportedly surprised the Spanish government, ETA declared a permanent cease-fire. The truce was meant to "stimulate a democratic process in the Basque country and build a new framework in which our rights as a people are recognized," said the communique. "The end of the conflict, here and now, is possible. That is the hope and will of ETA," said the video.
June 21: French and Spanish anti-terrorist police rounded up a dozen suspected ETA members during raids. Those arrested include Julen de Madariaga, one of the founders of ETA, and Angel Iturbe Abasolo, a senior member in charge of ETA's finances.
June 30: The Spanish government announced it would hold formal peace talks with ETA. "The government is going to begin a dialogue with ETA, maintaining the binding principle that political issues are only resolved with the legitimate representatives of the will of the people," said Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Aug. 18: Peace talks between the Spanish government and ETA were said to be "in a clear situation of crisis," according to an ETA statement. ETA accused the Spanish government of hounding Basque nationalist politicians, threatening to take reprisals.
Sept. 25: Militants claiming to speak on behalf of ETA announced that the group would "keep taking up arms" until the Basque region gained independence. "Until we achieve independence and socialism in the Basque country, we reaffirm our commitment to keep taking up arms firmly," the statement said. "The fight is not a thing of the past. It is the present and the future." The statement made no mention of ETA’s March 22 cease-fire announcement.
Oct. 26: ETA operatives kidnapped relatives of the manager of a French arms warehouse near Nimes, forcing him to open the facility so they could steal 350 pistols.
Dec. 23: ETA supporters opposed to the peace agreement hurled gasoline bombs at a Spanish navy building and set a bus on fire in the Basque region.
Dec. 30: A bomb exploded in a parking garage at Madrid's international airport, killing two people and injuring at least 26. The deaths were the first in an ETA attack since 2003. ETA claimed responsiblity but said it was still holding to the cease-fire. The Spanish government subsequently suspended peace talks.
2007
Feb. 13: The Spanish Supreme Court reduced the sentence of convicted ETA killer Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, who had been on a hunger strike since November.
March 1: In critical condition, de Juana Chaos was transferred to detention in a hospital in the Basque region to recover from his prolonged hunger strike.
April 8: ETA declared a renewed commitment to peace, but warned that "current conditions" would force it to continue its armed struggle with Spanish authorities. If the Spanish government halted its "attacks" against the group, a "scenario with no more violence" could proceed, said ETA.
June 6: ETA declared an end to its cease-fire. "The minimum conditions for continuing a process of negotiations do not exist," said a statement from the group, also indicating that ETA "will defend Euskal Herria (the land of Basque speakers) with arms on all fronts."
Aug. 24: ETA was blamed for a large explosion that occurred outside a police barracks in the Basque country town of Durango. Two police officers were wounded by flying glass. No advance warning was given.
Oct. 5: Spanish police arrested 23 members of the banned Batasuna party in Basque Segura, where the group was holding a supposedly clandestine meeting.
Oct. 9: ETA militants were blamed for a bomb in Bilbao that severely injured the security guard for a government official. The attack was in apparent retaliation for the arrest of 23 members of the ETA-related Batasuna group on Oct. 5.
Dec 1: ETA suspects killed two Guardia Civil policemen who were working undercover in southwest France. The event marked ETA's first such assassination since December 2002.
2008
Jan. 14: Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ruled out any chance of peace talks with ETA and said the group’s only option was unilateral surrender.
March 7: Isaias Carrasco, a former councilor for Spain’s ruling Socialist Party, was killed in the Basque country two days before a national election. Both main parties blamed ETA for the killing.
May 20: The government detained Xavier Lopez Pena, the suspected leader of ETA. He was apprehended with three other suspected ETA members in an apartment raid in Bordeaux, France.
June 27: The Basque parliament approved a plan for a regional referendum on self-determination. The central Spanish government condemned the referendum as illegal.
Aug. 2: The government released Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, an ETA militant jailed in 1987.
Sept. 21: Spain’s Interior Ministry blamed ETA for detonating an explosion outside a police station in the Ondarroa section in Basque. The blastinjured 11 people.
Oct 6: A Spanish court said that Basque regional President Juan Jose Ibarretxe would stand trial in January 2009 for meeting members of Batasuna, a party banned for its links to ETA. Ibarretxe and two members of Spain's governing Socialist Party – Patxi Lopez and Rodolfo Ares – were charged with illegally making contact with Batasuna at various times in 2006 and 2007.
Nov. 11: A Spanish court issued an arrest warrant for Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos. The court charged that Chaos wrote a letter publicly calling for Basque separatists to "continue the armed struggle" and "use violent and criminal means" to achieve Basque independence.