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Ghana Table A. Chronology of Important Events
Period Description
EARLY HISTORY
ca. 10,000 B.C. Earliest recorded probable human habitation
within modern Ghana at site on Oti River.
ca. 4000 B.C. Oldest date for pottery at Stone Age site near
Accra.
ca. 100 B.C. Early Iron Age at Tema.
FORMATIVE CENTURIES
ca. A.D. 1200 Guan begin their migrations down Volta Basin
from Gonja toward Gulf of Guinea.
ca. 1298 Akan kingdom of Bono (Brong) founded. Other
states had arisen or were beginning to rise
about this time.
1471-82 First Europeans arrive. Portuguese build
Elmina Castle.
1500-1807 Era of slave raids and wars and of intense
state formation in Gold Coast.
1697-1745 Rise and consolidation of Asante Empire.
NINETEENTH CENTURY
1843-44 British government signs Bond of 1844 with
Fante chiefs.
1873-74 Last Asante invasion of coast. British capture
Kumasi.
1874 Britain establishes Gold Coast Colony.
1878 Cocoa introduced to Ghana.
1896 Anglo-Asante war leads to exile of
asantehene and British protectorate
over Asante.
TWENTIETH CENTURY
1900 First Africans appointed to colony's
Legislative Council.
1902 Northern Territories proclaimed a British
protectorate.
1914-18 Gold Coast Regiment serves with distinction in
East Africa.
1919 German Togo becomes a mandate under Gold Coast
administration.
1925 Constitution of 1925 calls for six chiefs to
be elected to Legislative Council.
1939-45 Gold Coast African forces serve in Ethiopia
and Burma.
1947 United Gold Coast Convention founded.
1949 Kwame Nkrumah breaks with United Gold Coast
Convention and forms Convention People's
Party.
1951 New constitution leads to general elections.
Convention People's Party wins two-thirds
majority.
1954 New constitution grants broad powers to
Nkrumah's government.
1956 Plebiscite in British Togoland calls for union
with Gold Coast.
Convention People's Party wins 68 percent of
seats in legislature and passes an
independence motion, which British Parliament
approves.
1957 British Colony of the Gold Coast becomes
independent Ghana on March 6.
1958 Entrenched protection clauses of constitution
repealed; regional assemblies abolished;
Preventive Detention Act passed.
1960 Plebiscite creates a republic on July 1, with
Nkrumah as president.
1964 Ghana declared a one-party state. Completion
of Akosombo Dam.
1966 While Nkrumah is in China, army stages widely
popular coup. National Liberation Council
comes to power.
1969 Progress Party, led by Kofi A. Busia, wins
National Assembly elections.
1972 Lieutenant Colonel Ignatius Acheampong leads a
military coup in January that brings National
Redemption Council to power.
1978 Fellow military officers ease Acheampong from
power.
1979 Junior officers stage Ghana's first violent
coup, June 4. Armed Forces Revolutionary
Council formed under Flight Lieutenant Jerry
John Rawlings. Hilla Limann elected president
in July.
1981 Rawlings stages second coup, December 31.
Provisional National Defence Council
established with Rawlings as chairman.
1983 First phase of Economic Recovery Program
introduced with World Bank and International
Monetary Fund support.
1985 National Commission for Democracy, established
to plan the democratization of Ghana's
political system, officially inaugurated in
January.
1988-89 Elections for new district assemblies begin in
early December and continue through February
1989.
1990 Various organizations call for return to
civilian government and multiparty politics,
among them Movement for Freedom and Justice,
founded in August.
1991 Provisional National Defence Council announces
its acceptance, in May, of multipartyism in
Ghana. June deadline set for creation of
Consultative Assembly to discuss nation's new
constitution.
1992 National referendum in April approves draft of
new democratic constitution. Formation and
registration of political parties becomes
legal in May.
Jerry Rawlings elected president November 3 in
national presidential election. Parliamentary
elections of December 29 boycotted by major
opposition parties, resulting in landslide
victory for National Democratic Congress.
1993 Ghana's Fourth Republic inaugurated January 4
with the swearing in of Rawlings as president.
Late 1994- Ghana hosts peace talks for warring factions
early 1995 of Liberian civil war.
1995 President Rawlings pays official visit to the
United States March 8-9, first such visit by a
Ghanaian head of state in more than thirty
years.
Data as of November 1994
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