Death of the Father
Chronology of Yugoslavia & Josef Broz Tito
500-700 A.D. Southern Slavs settle in Balkans.
1389 Battle of Kosovo during which the Turks of the Ottoman Empire defeat the Serbs.
mid-1400s Bosnia comes under Ottoman rule.
1878 Congress of Berlin, declares Serbia and Montenegro independent, places Bosnia and Hercegovina under Austro-Hungarian administration.
1892 (May) Tito born in Kumrovec, Croatia.
1913 (May) Tito called up for two years service in Austro-Hungarian army.
1914 (June) Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo.
1914 (July) Austria declares war on Serbia, leading to outbreak of World War I.
1915 (March) Tito wounded and taken prisoner by Russians.
1917 (February-March) Russian Revolution breaks out; Tito released from jail.
1918 (December) independent state of Yugoslavia formed.
1920 (January) Tito marries a Russian, Pelagea Belousova.
1920 (November) Yugoslav government decree outlaws Comunist Party.
1921 (June) Constitutent Assembly creates centralized unitary state under Serbian King.
1924 Tito arrested for subversive speech but released after eight days; with Pelagea has son, Zarko (two previous sons died in infancy, daughter died aged two).
1928 (November) Tito sentenced to five years prison under Law for the Protection of State.
1929 (January) King Alexander bans all political parties and trade unions and imposes personal dictatorship.
1934 (March) Tito freed from prison, goes underground.
1934 (October) King Alexander assasinated during visit to France.
1936 (September) Soviet Comintern disciplines Yugoslav Communist Party for disobedience, sacks Central Committee and appoints Tito organizational secretary.
1937 (August) head of Yugoslavia Communist Party summoned to Moscow, arrested and later killed; Tito called to Paris and becomes acting secretary general.
1939 (January) Comintern officially confirms Tito as secretary general.
(August) Nazi-Soviet Pact signed; Yugoslav government joins coalition with Croatian Peasant Party, agrees to limited autonomy for Croatia. (September) Britain and France declare war on Germany over invasion of Poland; World War II begins.
1941 (January-March) Tito lives in Zabreb with Herta Has and son Aleksandar is born; (March) Yugoslav government allies itself to Axis Powers under German pressure; (April) Germany invades Yugoslavia, which surrenders after 11 days; independent state of Croatian fascists created; Tito sets up headquarters in Serbia; (November) Tito moves to Bosnia.
1942 (November) Communists set up Anti-Fascist Council for the Liberation of Yugoslavia.
1943 (September) Mussolini deposed in Rome and Italian military collapse; partisans secure most Italian arms; (November) Allies agree to give full support to Partisans; provisional government established by Tito's communists.
1944 (October) joint liberation of Belgrade by Soviet Army and Tito's Partisans.
1945 (March) provisional government created under Marshal Tito; (November) elections to Constituent Assembly; new state created called Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
1946 (January) new constitution for Yugoslavia on Soviet model; Tito becomes first prime minister.
1947 (April) first Five Year Plan.
1948 (June) Yugoslavia expelled from Cominform after bitter dispute between Belgrade and Moscow, and Tito's defiance of Stalin.
1950 (June) Basic Law on Workers' Self Management.
1952 (April) Tito marries Jovanka Budisavljevic.
1953 (January) constitution revised and Tito elected president; (March) Stalin dies.
1954 (January) Djilas expelled from Party Central Committee for advocating dissolution of Party.
1955 (May-June) Khrushchev visits Belgrade to signal Soviet rapprochement on Tito's terms.
1956

(July) Tito entertains Nehru and Nasser, demonstrating key Yugoslav role in new nonaligned movement.
1956 (October-November) Hungarian Revolution: Tito initially supports it then endorses second Soviet military intervention.
1961 (September) Summit Conference of Non-aligned States in Belgrade.
1968 (August) Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia bitterly criticized by Yugoslavs.
1969 (March) Ninth Congress of Communist Party endorses decentralization of power in both Party and state.
1970 (September) Tito proposes collegiate state presidency, with equal representation for each Republic.
1971 (June) powers of federal government further curtailed.
1971 (November-December) Croatian student strike and national autonomy campaign suppressed by forcing resignation of top Croatian Party leadership.
1972 Party signals stricter discipline and less tolerance for dissent; purge of liberal leaders.
1974 (February) new Yugoslav constitution retains limits on federal government but strengthens Party control over election process.
1980 (May) Tito dies; principle of annual rotation of chair of both Party and state presidencies goes into effect.
1980s Economic crisis in Yugoslavia; unrest in Kosovo.
1987 (April) Milosevic speaks in Kosovo calling for greater Serbian unity.
1989 (Autumn) Collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.
1990 (December) Milosevic raids Bank of Yugoslavia.
1991 (March) Milosevic and Tudjman meet at Karadjordjevo; (May) federal presidency rotation blocked by Milosevic; (June) Slovenia and Croatia announce independence; (June-December) First Yugoslav war; Yugoslav national army under Serbian leadership fights Croatia; (October-November) Bosnian Serbs proclaim separate republic, vote to stay in Yugoslavia.
1992 (January) UN cease-fire in Croatia; UNPROFOR established; (March) Bosnian Serbs declare independent Serbian Republic within Bosnia; (April) war begins in Bosnia-Hercegovina; European Union recognizes Bosnian independence; (Summer) news reports of concentration camps and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia; (August) the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia expelled from the United Nations; (November) 6000 UNPROFOR troops sent to Bosnia to monitor.
1993 (January) War crimes tribunal established at The Hague.
1995 (November) Dayton [Ohio] peace talks; (December) Dayton Peace Accord signed in Paris
1996 (October) United Nations lifts sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
up arrow
Prepared by John Borneman, 1999