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 ass 1000
 semblies 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