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1250 (about) Phra Ruang (Sri Indraditya) drives the Khmers from Sukhothai, and becomes the first Siamese King.

1285 (about) Ramkamhaeng, the third Siamese King of Sukhothai, invents the Thai alphabet.

1292-1296 King Mangrai establishes Chiang Mai as the capital of the Lan Na Kingdom.

1351 King U Thong of Suphanburi founds the Kingdom of Ayuthaya.

1376 Sukhothai becomes a vassal state of Ayuthaya.

1448-1487 Siam is weakened by almost forty years of war between Ayuthaya and Chiang-Mai.

1511 The Portuguese become the first Europeans to establish an embassy in Ayuthaya.

1569 After a decade of invasions and sieges the Burmese Kingdom of Pegu finally overruns Ayuthaya.

1593 Siam, under the leadership of King Naresuan, regains its independence from Burma.

1608 The first Dutch traders are welcomed in Thailand, to be followed four years later by the British.

1662 The French arrive in Ayuthaya, and zealously begin an ill-fated campaign to convert the Budhist Kingdom of Siam to Christianity.

1681 Constantine Phaulkon, the son of a Greek innkeeper, befriends King Narai, and so entangles him with the deceptive, double-dealing French that an anti-European revolt results.

1688 King Narai dies, Constantine Phaulkon is executed, the Europeans flee Ayuthaya, and Siam enters a period of isolationism that will endure for the next 163 years.

1733-1758 The "Golden Years" of King Borommakot’s reign. Siamese civilization flourishes, and Ayuthaya becomes recognized throughout South-East Asia as a major center for Buddhism.

1767 Ayuthaya is razed by the Pegu armies of Burma. At the very peak of its existence the "Venice of the East" is utterly and completely decimated, never to be rebuilt.

1768 King Taksin establishes a new Siamese kingdom with its capital near Bangkok, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River.

1782 Chaophraya Chakri, founder of the present Kingdom of Thailand, replaces Taksin as King of Siam, and the capital is moved to Bangkok.

1824-1851 Under the reign of King Rama lll, Siam very cautiously begins to emerge from its long period of self-imposed isolationism.

1855 King Mongkut signs the historic Treaty of Friendship and Commerce with Great Britain, thus opening the way for greatly improved relations with the trading nations of the West.

1868-1909 Chulalongkorn is forced to sign treaties that relinquish much of north-eastern and Southern Thailand to France and Britain; thus the present-day Thai frontiers are defined.

1932 A military coup deposes King Prajadhipok and replaces the absolute monarchy with a constitutional monarchy.

1939 Siam’s name is officially changed to Thailand ("Land of the Free").

1941-1945 After Thailand is invaded by the Japanese, Prime Minister Pibul Songgram enters into a controversial formal alliance with Japan.

1946 King Ananda Mahidol is assassinated. His younger brother, Bhumibol Adulyadej, still schooling in Switzerland, is designated as his successor.

1982 King Bhumibol, the ninth heir of the Chakri dynasty, presides over a national celebration, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Bangkok Kingdom.