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Migrants establish pearling and trading settlements along the coast of present-day Qatar.
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Conflict with neighbouring Bahrain over territorial claims; Doha is all but destroyed.
Seeds of independence are sown when Britain signs a treaty which recognises Qatar as a separate entity, rather than a dependency of Bahrain. -
Turkish Ottoman forces establish a garrison at the emir's invitation.
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Deal signed under which Britain controls Qatar's external affairs in return for guaranteeing its protection.
Oil discovered
1939 - Oil reserves discovered. Exploitation is delayed by World War II, but oil comes to replace pearling and fishing as Qatar's main source of revenue.
1950s - Oil revenues fund the expansion and modernisation of Qatar's infrastructure. -
Indepence
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QATAR WAR
Qatar looms large in US plans for a possible war against Iraq. Its al-Udeid air base is developed and expanded. Washington says it will deploy US Central Command staff to Qatar.
2003 March-April - Qatar-based US Central Command forward base serves as the nerve centre in the US-led military campaign in Iraq.
2003 April - Voters approve a new constitution, which provides for a 45-member parliament with 30 elected members and the rest selected by the emir.
2003 August - In a surprise move -
Former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev is killed in an explosion in Doha, where he had been living. Qatar hands life sentences to two Russian agents over the killing; relations with Russia deteriorate. The pair are extradited to Russia in late 2004.
2005 March - A car bomb at a theatre near a British school in Doha kills one Briton and injures 12 other people.
2005 June - Qatar's first written constitution comes into effect, providing for some democratic reforms.
2005 November - Qatar an