1713: Treaty of Utrecht makes it a British colony with a stipulation that it be returned to Spain if Britain relinquishes it.

1779-83: The great siege sees Britain hold out against combined French and Spanish attack.

1830: Becomes British crown colony.

1947: Sir Joshua Hassan is elected chief minister.

1967: Gibraltarians vote 12,138 to 44 to remain British in a referendum following a UN resolution on decolonisation.

1969: New constitution gives large measure of self-government while affirming ties to Britain. General Franco retaliates by closing border with Spain.

1973: Gibraltar joins EEC as dependent territory of the United Kingdom. 1981 Gibraltarians granted full British citizenship.

1982: Spanish border opens to pedestrians.

1987: Anglo-Spanish agreement grants Spain joint use of Gibraltar's airport. Sir Joshua Hassan retires and his deputy, Adolfo Canepa, takes over as Chief Minister.

1991: Regular British Army battalion is withdrawn. Gibraltar's government reject Spanish plan for joint sovereignty.

1995: Spain reimposes frontier controls. Crowds stage protests after police seize boats in crackdown on drug smuggling under measures intended to ease tension between Britain and Spain.

1996: Peter Caruana is elected Chief Minister and demands that Gibraltar be given equal status with Britain in any future negotiations on the colony.

2000: Caruana is re-elected Chief Minister.

2002 (March): Nearly all of Gibraltar stages mass protest against London talks with Spain.

2002 (July): Britain announces it has reached agreement with Spain on shared sovereignty, but that many outstanding issues remain. Prime Minister Tony Blair says Britain will retain control over the military base but its status could change to a Nato base. Caruana announces a referendum on the colony's future. Britain and Spain say they will not recognise such a vote.

2003: Jack Straw is forced to review his Gibraltar policy after the referendum overwhelmingly rejected joint sovereignty with Spain. Days later, two years of talks ovn the issue appear to have ended in failure when Denis MacShane, the Foreign Office minister responsible for Europe, tells a Spanish newspaper the chances of reaching a deal are "simply zero".

2004: Gibraltar celebrates 300 years of British rule.

2005: Spain announces that it is taking Britain to the European Court of Justice claiming that Gibraltar should not have been allowed to vote in the European elections. Spain will argue that voting should be restricted to EU citizens which could leave one million people in Britain, mainly of Indian or Pakistani origin, unable to vote.

 

Source : The Telegraph.