1841 And All That

1841 - Britain seizes Hong Kong

1842 - Treaty of Nanking signed - cedes Hong Kong island to Britain in perpetuity

1860 - First Convention of Peking signed - cedes Kowloon and Stonecutters island to the British in perpetuity

1877 - Sir John Pope Hennessy appointed Governor; he had controversial ideas about granting a degree of equality to the Chinese

1898 - Second Convention of Peking - grants 99 year lease to Britain on the New Territories

1925 - Hong Kong's first and only general strike

1941 - Japan occupies Hong Kong

1945 - British rule restored

1949 - China's new Communist government seals the border

1978 - Deng Xiaoping unveils `open door' economic policy, laying basis for Hong Kong's economic boom

1979 - First Sino-British discussions on return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule

1982 January - China tells Britain it will take back Hong Kong

September - Mrs Thatcher arrives in Peking, lectures Chinese leaders on sanctity of treaties. Fury in Peking. Negotiations for change of sovereignty begin.

1984 March - Jardine Matheson, the original opium traders, announce plan to shift domicile to Bermuda - China senses British plot

September - Britain and China initial Joint Declaration on handover of Hong Kong

1989 - Tiananmen Square massacre provokes monster demonstrations and outbreak of jitters in Hong Kong

1993 - Christopher Patten replaces David Wilson as last Governor

1994 - Patten introduces democratic reforms

1995 - First elections for legislature under new system - China says it will disolve legislature

1996 - Tung Chee-hwa appointed as head of first colonial government

1997 January - First meeting of rival provisional legislature

June 30 - 156 years of British rule ends. Prince of Wales formally hands sovereignty back to China

July 1 - Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule. All elected government replaced. Four thousand Chinese troops march in