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Small Spanish army led by Hernan Cortes lands at Veracruz, marking the start of Spain's conquest of Mexico.
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Allied with native anti-Aztec forces, Cortes' men capture the capital Tenochtitlan (modern-day Mexico City).
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War of Independence ends with the creation of the short-living Mexican Empire, which includes Central America to the southern border of modern-day Costa Rica, as well as what is now the southwestern US.
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Mexico becomes a federal republic after the ouster and exile of Emperor Augustin de Iturbide. Central American provinces secede, becoming the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
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"La Reforma" period, characterised by liberal reforms limiting the power and landholdings of the Catholic Church.
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Porfirio Diaz's 35-year-long dictatorship - known as the "Porfiriato" - brings a long period of stability, modernisation and economic growth, but at the price of political repression and stagnation.
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Mexican Revolution ends the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship and leads to establishment of a constitutional republic.
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The National Revolutionary Party is formed. In 1946 it is re-named the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI.
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Student demonstration in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, during the Olympic Games is fired upon by Mexican security forces. Hundreds of protesters are killed or wounded. The extent of the violence shocks the country.
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Earthquake in Mexico City kills thousands and makes many more homeless.
