Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat share the Nobel Peace Prize

Morocco annexes the Mauritanian part of the Western Sahara, thus taking control of the entire region

Muslim terrorists assassinate Anwar el-Sadat, in response to his peace agreement with Israel

Sadat is peacefully succeeded in Egypt by his vice-president, Hosni Mubarak

Yasser Arafat and the PLO move to Tunisia, after being driven out of Lebanon by Israel

President Reagan launches an air strike against Libya, accusing Gaddafi of involvement in international terrorism

Expelled from his own country, Saudi Arabia, Osama bin Laden moves to Sudan where he continues to develop al-Qaeda

Morocco and the Polisario end hostilities on the understanding that there will be a referendum in the Western Sahara

A new party, the Islamic Salvation Front, seems certain to win the Algerian election – until the army intervenes

Algeria is plunged into a brutal civil war between a military junta and Muslim terrorists

The UN imposes sanctions because of Libya's refusal to cooperate in the Lockerbie air disaster enquiry

Libya hands over, for trial in the Hague, two men suspected of causing the Lockerbie disaster of 1988

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the new president of Algeria, reveals that as many as 100,000 people have died in seven years of civil war and massacre

An amnesty is declared for some 8000 Muslim terrorists held in Algeria's gaols

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, convicted in 2001 for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, is released as being terminally ill and returns from Scotland to Libya

Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, sets himself on fire in protest at harassment and confiscation of his wares by local officials

Demonstrators gather in the streets of Sidi Bouzid as news of Mohamed Bouazizi's action spreads, in a mood that sparks the Tunisian revolution and the 'Arab Spring'

Ben Ali, in control of Tunisia for 23 years, resigns and flees to Saudi Arabia after four weeks of mounting tension and violence in the streets

Inspired by the example of Tunisia, a day of revolt is organized in Egypt, in protest against police methods and to coincide with National Police Day

Recognizing the use made by demonstrators of Facebook and Twitter, the Egyptian government shuts down internet access for most of the country

On what becomes known as the 'Friday of Anger' hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Egypt after Friday prayers, a developing tradition in the Arab Spring

The results are published of the Southern Sudan referendum on independence, with more than 98% voting in favour of the break from Sudan

After nearly three weeks of escalating violence in Egypt, President Mubarak announces his resignation

Demonstrations over the arrest of a human rights lawyer in Benghazi, Libya's second city, are violently broken up by the police

A demonstration in Rabat demands that the king of Morocco relinquish some of his powers is followed by King Mohammed VI announcing on television plans for reform