Timeline of Italian history

8th century BC

Year	Date	Event
706 BC		Spartan immigrants found the colony of Taranto in Southern Italy.

7th century BC

Year	Date	Event
630 BC		The lyric poet Stesichorus is born in Calabria in Southern Italy.

6th century BC

Year	Date	Event
540 BC		The Ancient Greek city of Elea is founded in Southern Italy.

5th century BC

Year	Date	Event
474 BC		The Battle of Cumae occurs, resulting in a Siracusani and Cumaean victory against the Etruscans and ending Etruscan expansion in Southern Italy.

4th century BC

Year	Date	Event
304 BC		The Greek tyrant Agathocles takes the title of king of Sicily.

3rd century BC

Year	Date	Event
289 BC		Agathocles dies, and democracy is restored in Syracuse due to this wish to not have his sons succeed him as king.

2nd century BC

Year	Date	Event
135 BC		The First Servile War, an unsuccessful slave revolt against the Roman Republic, begins.
104 BC		The Second Servile War, another failed slave rebellion against the Romans, begins.

1st century BC

Year	Date	Event
91 BC		The assassination of a tribune named Marcus Livius Drusus helps spark the Marsic War.
88 BC		The Marsic War ends in a Roman military victory, though the Italians were granted rights.
73 BC		The Third Servile War begins; one of the participants is the famous Thracian gladiator known as Spartacus.
71 BC		Like the other Servile Wars, the Third Servile War ends in a Roman victory against the uprising slaves.

1st century

Year	Date	Event
79		The eruption of Mount Vesuvius spews massive amounts of volcanic gas, ash, and molten rock. Several Roman settlements, including Pompeii and Herculaneum, are annihilated and buried under colossal amounts of ashfall deposits and rock fragments.

4th century

Year	Date	Event
365	21 July	An earthquake near Crete with a magnitude of at least eight affects the Eastern Mediterranean. Combined with a subsequent tsunami, residents of Sicily are among the casualties.

5th century

Year	Date	Event
476		Flavius Odoacer becomes the first King of Italy.
493		An Ostrogoth known as Theoderic the Great succeeds Odoacer as King of Italy.

6th century

Year	Date	Event
529		St. Benedict of Nursia establishes his first monastery at the hill of Monte Cassino.
568		The Lombards establish the Kingdom of the Lombards on the Italian Peninsula.

7th century

Year	Date	Event
661		Brothers Perctarit and Godepert share the ruling power of King of the Lombards.

8th century

Year	Date	Event
774	10 July	Charlemagne is crowned in Pavia and becomes King of the Lombards.

9th century

Year	Date	Event
813		Charlemagne crowns his son Louis the Pious of Aquitaine as co-emperor.
814	28 January	Charlemagne dies in Aachen of pleurisy.

10th century

Year	Date	Event
961	25 December	Otto I becomes King of Italy.
973	7 May	Otto I succumbs to a fever and dies.
980	25 December	Otto II becomes King of Italy.
983	7 December	Otto II dies due to an outbreak of malaria.
996	12 April	Otto III becomes King of Italy.

11th century

Year	Date	Event
1002	23 January	Otto III dies of a sudden fever in a castle near Civita Castellana.
1046		Italian feudal ruler and militant noblewoman Matilda of Tuscany is born.
1087		In the Mahdia campaign of 1087, seafaring vessels from the Italian maritime republics of Genoa and Pisa attack the North African town of Mahdia, burning Mahdia's Muslim fleet in the harbour.

12th century

Year	Date	Event
1115	24 July	Matilda of Tuscany dies of gout.

13th century

Year	Date	Event
1170		Leonardo of Pisa, an Italian mathematician more famously known as Fibonacci, is born.
1202		Fibonacci's Liber Abaci, a book on arithmetic, helps to popularise the Hindu–Arabic numeral system and brings the idea of the integer sequence known as the Fibonacci number to locations outside India.

14th century

Year	Date	Event
1377		Filippo Brunelleschi, a famous Italian architect, is born in Florence, Italy.

15th century

Year	Date	Event
1494		The Italian War of 1494–98, or First Italian War, begins, marking the first major battle in the Italian Wars.
1498		The First Italian War ends in a victory for the League of Venice.
1499		The Italian War of 1499-1504, or Second Italian War, begins.

16th century

Year	Date	Event
1504		The Second Italian War ends in a Spanish victory.
1551		The Italian War of 1551-59, or Last Italian War begins.
1559	3 April	The Last Italian War ends with a peace treaty signed between Henry II of France and Philip II of Spain at Le Cateau-Cambrésis.

17th century

Year	Date	Event
1678	4 March	Antonio Vivaldi, a famous Italian Baroque composer, is born in Venice.

18th century

Year	Date	Event
1725		Antonio Vivaldi publishes a now-famous set of concertos entitled The Four Seasons as part of a set of twelve concerti called Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione.
1741	28 July	Without a sustainable source of income or royal protection, the impoverished Antonio Vivaldi dies of infection during the night.
1796		Napoleon Bonaparte and his French Army of Italy invade Italy.
	17 November	Napoleon defeats József Alvinczi at the Battle of Arcole.

19th century

Year	Date	Event
1809		Napoleon Bonaparte occupies Rome, exiles Pope Pius VII to Savona and then to France, and takes the Papal States' art collections to the Louvre.
1821		A revolt in Piedmont, led by Annibale Santorre di Rossi de Pomarolo, takes place in an attempt to remove the Austrians from Italy and unify the Italian territories under the House of Savoy.
1830		A series of uprisings along the Italian Peninsula occur, calling out for the merging of the different territories in the peninsula into one unified nation.
1831	Spring	Austrian troops gradually crush political resistance along the Italian peninsula.
	July	The political movement Young Italy is formed by activist Giuseppe Mazzini, promoting insurrection in Italian states and Austrian lands to help unify Italy.
1834	28 May	Mazzini is arrested in Solothurn and exiled from Switzerland.
1846		Pope Pius IX is elected, and his support of the unification of Italy helps to further popularise the movement.
1848		Fuelled by the revolutionary republican ideology of Mazzini, uprisings lead to revolutionary governments being briefly installed in Rome, Milan (see Cinque giornate di Milano), and Venice, and the establishment of constitutions in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Papal States, and Tuscany. Takeover by reactionary forces and the defeat of Piedmont-Sardinia by Austria lead to a failure in the First Italian War of Independence.
1849	9 February	A Roman Republic is declared following an election.
	March	Mazzini arrives in Rome and is appointed Chief Minister of the Roman Republic.
1856		The Congress of Paris, a peace conference held between Austria, France, Prussia, the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia, is held to make peace after the Crimean War.
		Italian statesman Camillo Benso of Cavour disparages Austria's intrusive presence in the Italian Peninsula.
1858		Napoleon III and Cavour meet secretly in France, in Plombières-les-Bains, where they make the Plombières Agreement. They decide that Cavour will provoke rebellion in Austrian territories in Northern Italy so as to tempt Austria into making a military decision.
1859		After having allied with France, under the lead of Cavour, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia provokes Austria to war and secure the takeover of Milan and Lombardy (Second Italian War of Independence). Plebiscites subsequently guarantee the annexation of Tuscany, Emilian dukedoms, and Papal-controlled central Italy. Savoy and Nice are ceded to France in exchange for recognition. (to 1860)
1860		The Expedition of the Thousand takes place, in which volunteers led by Giuseppe Garibaldi set out to conquer the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which collapses. The Papal States are reduced to Latium.
1861	17 March	Most of the states of the Italian Peninsula are united under King Victor Emmanuel II of the Savoy dynasty, crowned King of Italy.
1865		The capital of Italy is moved from Turin to Florence, in order to approach it to Rome, considered the natural capital, but still under Papal rule and French protection.
1866	20 June – 12 August	The Third Italian War of Independence, between the Kingdom of Italy and Austrian Empire, occurs, resulting in no true victory by either side.
	3 October	After some heavy losses, like Custoza and Lissa, and few wins (most of them by Giuseppe Garibaldi), thanks to Prussian victories the Kingdom of Italy gains Veneto and western Friuli by the Treaty of Vienna. Trento and Trieste remains "irredeemed".
1870	20 September	Following the defeat of Napoleon III in the French-Prussian War, Italian forces occupy Rome, which becomes the new capital of Italy the following year. The Italian Army breaks into the walls of Rome by the breach of Porta Pia.
	2 October	Rome replaces Florence as the capital city of Italy.
1878	3 January	King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy dies.
	9 January	Victor Emmanuel II's son, Umberto I, takes the throne.
1882	5 July	The bay of Assab (Eritrea) becomes the first official Italian colonial possession in Africa.
1889		Somalia is established as the second Italian colony in Africa.
1895		21-year-old Guglielmo Marconi invents the radio telegraph.
1896		The French Lumière brothers publicly screen some of the earliest films in the history of cinema in various locations in Italy.
1900		the population is about 32.4 million
		King Umberto is assassinated.

20th century

Year	Date	Event
1906		The poet Giosuè Carducci is the first Italian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
1907		Maria Montessori establishes her first Casa dei Bambini in Rome.
		Ernestina Prola becomes the first Italian woman to get a driving licence.
1908		Europe's worst earthquake, centered on the strait of Messina, kills up to 200,000 people in Sicily and southern Italy.
1911		Italy defeats the Ottoman Empire and gain control over Libya and the Rhodes archipelago.
1915		Although formerly aligned with Germany and Austria-Hungary, Italy enters World War I on the side of the Anglo-French Allies. After the war, Italy expands his borders well beyond Trento and Trieste, including Bolzano/Bozen and Fiume/Rijeka.
1919		Enzo Ferrari, having no other job perspective, eventually settles for a job at a small car company called CMN (Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazionali) redesigning used truck bodies into small passenger cars.
1922		After the lack of a compromise between socialists and Christian-democrats, and the March on Rome of the fascist militias, Benito Mussolini is named by the King as prime minister of Italy.
1926		Mussolini assumes dictatorial powers.
		The novelist Grazia Deledda is the first Italian woman who is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
1929	3 January	Italian film director Sergio Leone is born.
1934		The Italian national football team wins its first FIFA World Cup.
1936		Following the invasion of Ethiopia, Italy is expelled from the League of Nations. Mussolini and Hitler signed the Rome-Berlin Axis.
1938		The Italian national football team wins its second FIFA World Cup.
		Enrico Fermi is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity.
1940		Italy enters World War II by invading Greece from Albania, which had been occupied in 1939.
1941		While they are confined on the island of Ventotene by the Fascist regime, Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi compile the Ventotene Manifesto, entitled "Towards a Free and United Europe". With his Manifesto, Spinelli gives the major contribution to the formulation of the Federalist thinking, and is later one of the main figures of the European Parliament.
1943		Nazi troops occupy Northern Italy, release Mussolini from prison and have him leading the puppet Italian Social Republic. Anglo-American troops fight in the following two years to free the whole peninsula. The Italian Resistance plays a growing role in harassing German occupation forces.
	25 July	After the Allied occupy Sicily, the government of Mussolini is overthrown by the same Great Council of Fascism.
	8 September	General Badoglio signs the armistice.
1945		Alcide De Gasperi becomes Prime Minister, holding the office until 1953. He is considered one of the founding fathers of the European integration.
	25 April	Milan is finally liberated on 25 April 1945. Resistance fighters catch Benito Mussolini as he flees north in the hope of reaching Switzerland. They shot him along with his lover, Clara Petacci. The corpses are brought back to Milan and hang in a gas station in Piazzale Loreto.
1946	10 June	Birth of the Italian Republic: Italy becomes a republic after the results of a popular referendum. The Constituent Assembly is elected to draft the Republican Constitution. Women are granted suffrage too.
1947		Primo Levi publishes If This Is a Man, based on his experiences in Auschwitz.
1948	18 April	The general election sanctions the supremacy of the Christian Democracy party, and the belonging of Italy to the Western side.
	24 November	The film Bicycle Thieves is released.
	22 December	The Constitution of the Italian Republic, agreed between Christian-democrats, Socialists and Communists, comes into force.
1949		Italy joins NATO.
1952		Italy becomes a founding member of the European Coal and Steel Community.
1953	10 February	The national oil company ENI (Ente Nationale Idrocarburi) is established, with Enrico Mattei as his first President. The ENI will become a strong actor in Italian foreign policy towards Arab countries.
1954		The state-owned RAI broadcasts the first Italian official TV program.
1955		The Messina Conference achieves the basic agreement on the European Economic Community
		Italy joins the United Nations, along with fifteen other states, after years of stalemate due to opposed vetoes between the United States and the Soviet Union.
1957		The Treaty of Rome founds the European Economic Community.
1958	22 September	Singer-songwriter Andrea Bocelli is born in Lajatico.
1959		Valentino opens his first atelier, in Rome on Via Condotti.
1960		Italian film director Federico Fellini shoots La Dolce Vita, an episodic study of life along Via Veneto in Rome.
		Rightist riots in Reggio Calabria against the regional capital being set in Catanzaro.
		Leftist riots in Genoa and Reggio Emilia against the Tambroni Cabinet led by Fernando Tambroni, a coalition between DC and post-fascist Italian Social Movement.
	25 August	The 1960 Summer Olympics opens in Rome.
1963		The DC switches to a strategy of alliance with the socialist PSI. Electric energy is nationalised and the high school system is reformed.
	30 June	Ciaculli massacre: a bomb intended for the mafia boss Salvatore Greco "Ciaschiteddu" explodes in Ciaculli, killing seven police and military officers.
	9 October	Two thousand people die when a landslide causes the overtopping of the Vajont Dam north of Venice; the flooding wave completely wipes out several villages.
1964	12 September	Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars, the first of three films in his Dollars Trilogy of Spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood, is released.
		An attempted coup (Piano Solo) is defused.
		Michele, the son of Mastro Pietro Ferrero, modifies his father's recipe for the "supercrema gianduja" (invented in 1946) and renames it Nutella.
1965	18 November	The film For a Few Dollars More is released.
	8 December	End of Second Vatican Council.
1966	30 October	Socialist and Democratic Socialist Party joined forces in the Unified Socialist Party.
	15 December	The film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is released. The film is now considered to be one of the greatest films of all time.
1968	14 January	The Belice earthquake sequence took place in Sicily between 14 and 15 January. The largest shock measured 5.5 on the moment magnitude scale, with five others of magnitude 5+. The maximum perceived intensity was X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The earthquake sequence, centred between the towns of Gibellina, Salaparuta and Poggioreale, killed at least 231 people, possibly more than 400, with between 632 and about 1,000 injured and left 100,000 homeless. It is known in Italy as Terremoto del Belice.
	31 January	The University of Trento is occupied by students.
	10 June	The Italian national football team wins its first UEFA European Championship at Rome, against Yugoslavia.
	24 June	Giovanni Leone was appointed First Minister: remains in office until December.
	2 December	In Sicily clashes between strikers and police.
	12 December	Mariano Rumor reconstitutes a center-left government.
1969	July	Published the first issue of Il manifesto (it will become daily in 1971).
	4 July	New split the Unified Socialist Party: reborn PSI and PSDI.
	September–December	The "Hot Autumn" of 1969 features occupations of factories and universities, and violence between right and left-wing students.
	19 November	During the disorders of far-left peoples of lyrical theatre, in Milan, policeman Antonio Annarumma was hit by an iron tube, according to the court inquiry. After his death his vehicle without guidance hit another police officer. Students believe it is the accident which killed him, but this claim was repudiated by the medical examination. Annarumma considered to be the first victim of the Years of Lead, a period of social and political upheaval in Italy.
	20 November	Agreement between Italy and Austria for a system of self-government in South Tyrol.
	12 December	Far-right terrorists bomb the Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Milan (Piazza Fontana bombing), killing 17 people and wounding 88. Four more bombs detonate without victims. Investigations are blurred, and no responsible party has been held accountable.
1970	6 August	After the resignation of Mariano Rumor (July 6), Emilio Colombo forms a new Government.
	September–October	Serious incidents of violence across Italy.
	1 December	Parliament approved the law on divorce.
	7–8 December	Another rightist coup attempt is defused (golpe Borghese).
1971	16 February	The regional council of Calabria recognizes Catanzaro regional capital.
	February	In Italy resume violent riots.
	13 June	Partial local elections showed a decline of the Christian Democrats and an advanced of MSI.
	October	The band Pink Floyd films performances for their songs "Echoes", "One of These Days", and "A Saucerful of Secrets" in Pompeii. The footage was included in their concert documentary film Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.
	24 December	Giovanni Leone is elected President of the Republic at the twenty-third ballot.
1974	12 May	A referendum asking voters to repeal a government law allowing divorce is defeated. The result of Italian divorce referendum, 1974 is the retention of the law allowing divorce.
1975	22 November	The controversial Italian-French art film Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, is first released.
1978	16 March	Kidnapping of the former Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades.
	9 May	Aldo Moro is killed after the government refuses to negotiate with the Communist group. The "historic compromise" is stopped and Giulio Andreotti steps down from government. The Red Brigades begin falling apart.
	15 June	President Giovanni Leone resigned.
	July	Socialist Sandro Pertini is the new President of the Republic.
1979	7 April	Arrest of several academics accused of subversive and terrorist activities.
	3–4 June	In the early parliamentary elections fall of PCI, advanced the Radical party and stability of DC.
	10–11 June	First election for the European Parliament.
	August	First government led by Francesco Cossiga.
	December	First transmissions of the third RAI channel, Rai 3.
1980		Umberto Eco publishes The Name of the Rose, a medieval murder mystery.
	27 June	Ustica Massacre: an Italian commercial flight operated by a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-15 which crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea between Ponza and Ustica, killing all on board, while en route from Bologna to Palermo. The disaster led to numerous investigations, legal actions, and accusations, and continues to be a source of speculation, including claims of conspiracy by the Italian government and others.
	2 August	Bologna massacre: a terrorist bombing of the Central Station at Bologna kills 85 people and wounds more than 200. This was found to be a neo-fascist bombing, mainly organized by the Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari: Francesca Mambro and Valerio Fioravanti were sentenced to life imprisonment. In April 2007 the Supreme Court confirmed the conviction of Luigi Ciavardini, a NAR member associated closely with close ties to Terza Posizione. Ciavardini received a 30-year prison sentence for his role in the attack.
	September	Broadcaster Canale 5 starts to broadcas on a national scale. This is the first national private television.
	23 November	Irpinia earthquake, took place in Southern Italy with a moment magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). The shock was centered on the village of Conza and left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, and left 250,000 homeless.
1981	17 March	The prosecutors of Milan and the police discovered the existence of the P2 lodge. Head of loggia is Licio Gelli.
	June	Giovanni Spadolini (PRI) is premier of a coalition (PRI-DC-PSI-PSDI-PLI) called Pentapartito. Spadolini is the first non-Christian Democrat minister since 1945. His government lasts one year.
	9 July	The fictional Italian video game character Mario, known then as "Jumpman", first appears in the game Donkey Kong.
1982	29 May	Parliament approves law on "collaborators of justice". It was officially created the figure of Pentito.
	18 June	Roberto Calvi was found hanged in London.
	11 July	The Italian national football team wins its third FIFA World Cup in Spain.
	3 September	General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa and his wife are killed by the mafia in Palermo.
1983	14 July	Mario Bros., the first game to officially feature the Italian video game character Mario, is released (both Donkey Kong and Mario Bros. were made by Nintendo R&D1, a defunct Japanese video game company owned by Nintendo). The game is also the first to feature Mario's younger brother Luigi, who is also of Italian nationality.
	August	Bettino Craxi (PSI) is premier of a PSI-DC coalition until 1987. Under his government, a television reform allows Berlusconi to build up his media empire. The Concordat with the Vatican is revised, and salary indexation is abolished to curb inflation from 12% to 5%, but public debt raises up to 90% of GDP.
1984	June	At the European Parliament elections, in the wake of the death of the leader Enrico Berlinguer, the PCI gains 33.3% of votes and overcomes the DC as first party in Italy.
	23 December	Sicilian Mafia bomb the 904 express train between Bologna and Florence, killing 16 people and wounding 267. Mafia boss Giuseppe Calò, also known as "Pippo", was convicted for ordering and organising the attack in November 1992.
1985		Franco Modigliani receives the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on household savings and the dynamics of financial markets.
	9 June	A referendum on abolishing the wage escalator was defeated by margin of 54.3% to 45.7% on a voter turnout of 77.9% out of 45 million eligible Italian electors.
	June	Francesco Cossiga is elected President of the Republic.
	27 December	Rome airport is attacked by Palestinian terrorists; 16 people die.
1986		Italy took its most visible steps toward fighting organized crime, convicting 338 Mafia members of criminal activities.
		Italy-US relations are strained by the Libyan retaliation after the American bombing of Tripoli, and by the Sigonella crisis following the kidnapping of the Achille Lauro liner ship by the Palestinian Liberation Front.
		The neurologist Rita Levi-Montalcini, together with Stanley Cohen, receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of Nerve growth factor (NGF). Since 2001, she has also served in the Italian Senate as a Senator for Life.
1987	July	Giovanni Goria is the new Prime Minister. His Cabinet lasts up to April 1988.
	November	In the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, a referendum put off the use of nuclear plants. The three working plants are slowly decommissioned. The Green party establishes itself in Italy.
1988	April	Ciriaco De Mita replaces Goria as Prime Minister. His Cabinet lasts one year.
	11 June	Former President Giuseppe Saragat dies.
	21 June	Achille Occhetto is the new leader of PCI.
1989	30 April	Sergio Leone dies of a heart attack.
	22 July	Giulio Andreotti is premier of a coalition until 1992.
	October	New Code of Criminal Procedure shall enter into force.
1990	24 February	Former President Sandro Pertini dies.
	May	Italian regional elections. Umberto Bossi's Lega Nord obtained a stunning result in the main election of this round of vote, the choice of the Lombard Regional Council.
	June–July	Italy hosts the World Football Cup, but loses in the semi-final against Argentina at penalties.
	October	Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti reveals the existence of Operation Gladio. Gladio was the codename for a clandestine North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) "stay-behind" operation in Italy during the Cold War. Its purpose was to prepare for, and implement, armed resistance in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion and conquest. Although Gladio specifically refers to the Italian branch of the NATO stay-behind organizations, "Operation Gladio" is used as an informal name for all of them.
1991	January	Italy takes part in the Operation Desert Storm, during the Gulf War, for the liberation of Kuwait.
	3 February	The Italian Communist Party split into the Democratic Party of the Left (PDS), led by Achille Occhetto, and the Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), headed by Armando Cossutta.
	9 June	A referendum abolished the multiple preferences for the election of Chamber of Deputies's members, in favor of the single preference.
	19 September	A man found frozen high in the Alps is discovered, and is later found to be a Neolithic hunter who lived approximately 5,000 years ago.
	1 October	It's transmitted first-run animated series The Simpsons.
1992		Mani pulite (clean hands), a nationwide judicial investigation into political corruption and influence-peddling, leads to the fall and dissolution of the Christian Democracy, and of the Socialist party, which had been the most influential political parties in Italy since 1948. Bettino Craxi flees to Tunisia to avoid prosecution.
	5–6 April	General elections. Lega Nord's first electoral breakthrough was at the 1990 regional elections, but it was with the 1992 general election that the party emerged as a leading political actor. Having gained 8.7% of the vote, 56 deputies and 26 senators, it became the fourth largest party of the country and within Parliament.
	25 April	President Francesco Cossiga resigned.
	25 May	Oscar Luigi Scalfaro is elected President of the Republic.
	28 June	Giuliano Amato (PSI) is premier of a PSI-DC-PLI-PSDI coalition.
	May–July	Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone, two Italian anti-Mafia magistrates, are assassinated by the mafia.
	15 December	Bettino Craxi is under investigation in Milan for corruption.
1993	27 March	Giulio Andreotti is under investigation for collusion with the mafia.
	18 April	The public overwhelmingly backed the abrogation of the existing proportional representation parliamentary electoral law in a referendum, for the benefit of a majority system.
	21 April	Prime Minister Giuliano Amato resigns.
	26 April	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, former governor of the national bank, was appointed head of the government and appointed a technical government without political influences.
	29 April	Italian Parliament denied permission to proceed against Bettino Craxi, accused of corruption. Several members of the government, having been in office just three days, resigned in protest; among them were Francesco Rutelli, Minister of the Environment and Vincenzo Visco, Minister of Finance.
	May–July	The Sicilian Mafia organizes some attacks in Rome, Florence and Milan.
	4 August	A mixed system was introduced by the Parliament.
	August	Parliament grants authorization to proceed against Bettino Craxi.
1994	27 April	Media magnate Silvio Berlusconi becomes Prime Minister for a rightist coalition. However, the pact between northern autonomists and southern post-fascists collapsed late in the year, and Berlusconi is forced to resign as prime minister.
	1 September	The Italian film Il Postino: The Postman premieres at the Venice Film Festival.
1996	17 May	Romano Prodi becomes Prime Minister for the Olive Tree coalition, voted into power with the external support of the communists.
1997		Valentino Rossi wins his first World Championship at the 1997 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.
	October	Dario Fo, an Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A theatrical caricaturist with a flair for social agitation, he has often faced government censure.
	20 December	Roberto Benigni's film Life Is Beautiful is released.
1998	3 February	20 skiers (of which 3 Italians) die in the Cavalese cable car disaster, when a US EA-6B Prowler military jet severed the cables supporting the Cermis mountain cable car. Pilots will be later found not guilty by an American court.
1999	1 January	Italy is accepted in the eurozone.
	21 March	The film Life is Beautiful is nominated for seven Academy Awards. The film wins the awards for Best Actor (the first for a male performer in a non-English-speaking role, and only the third overall acting Oscar for non-English-speaking roles), the Best Original Dramatic Score and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
	24 March	Italy takes part in the Kosovo War, a NATO-led aerial operation against Milosevic's Yugoslavia to prevent genocide in Kosovo. The premier is Massimo D'Alema, of the post-communist Partito Democratico della Sinistra.
	13 May	Carlo Azeglio Ciampi is elected President of the Republic.
2000	20 January	Bettino Craxi dies at Hammamet, Tunisia.

21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001	11 June	Berlusconi's second term as Prime Minister begins.
	20 July	Violence erupts at the G8 demonstrations in Genoa. The police are accused of severe abuses; one demonstrator is shot dead.
	October	Italy takes part in the Afghanistan War.
	November	Former President Giovanni Leone dies.
2002	1 January	The euro begins circulating as new official currency of Italy.
2003	March	Italy takes part in the Iraq War, although populations show disapproval through peace flags.
2005	4 March	Nicola Calipari, Italian secret agent, is shot dead by friendly fire from an US patrol during the rescue of journalist Giuliana Sgrena from kidnappers in Baghdad. US later refused the extradition of the identified shooter, Mario Lozano.
2006	10 February	The 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Turin (to 26 February).
	17 May	Prodi's second term as Prime Minister begins.
	9 July	The Italian national football team wins its fourth FIFA World Cup in Germany.
	September	Italy's engagement is pivotal in the deployment of the UNIFIL peace force after the 2006 Lebanon War.
	September	Roberto Saviano publishes Gomorra, where he describes and denounces the system of Camorra criminal organization around Naples and its ramifications.
	December	Italian government withdraws Italian troops from Iraq, ending the Operation Ancient Babylon.
2008		Berlusconi's third term as Prime Minister begins.
2009	6 April	An earthquake strikes L'Aquila, causing the death of 307 people and making about 65,000 homeless.
2010	August	Former President Francesco Cossiga dies.
2012	January	Former President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro dies.
2013	6 May	Former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti dies at 94 years old in Rome.
2015	January	President Giorgio Napolitano resignes.
	31 January	Sergio Mattarella is the new President of the Italian Republic.
2016	September	Former President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi dies.

See also

• Category:Timelines of cities in Italy

Bibliography

• Thomas Bartlett (1841). "Italy". New Tablet of Memory; or, Chronicle of Remarkable Events. London: Thomas Kelly. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• J. Willoughby Rosse (1858). "Italy". Index of Dates ... Facts in the Chronology and History of the World. London: H.G. Bohn – via Hathi Trust. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• George Henry Townsend (1867), "Italy", A Manual of Dates (2nd ed.), London: Frederick Warne & Co. {{citation}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• William Henry Overall, ed. (1870). "Italy". Dictionary of Chronology. London: William Tegg. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Alfredo Comandini. L'Italia nei cento anni del secolo XIX (1801-1900): giorno per giorno (in Italian). Milan: Antonio Vallardi Editore. OCLC 2899668. {{cite book}}: Check |author= value (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) 1900-1942. (Chronology)
• Charles E. Little (1900), "Italy", Cyclopedia of Classified Dates, New York: Funk & Wagnalls {{citation}}: External link in |author= and |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Henry Smith Williams, ed. (1908). "Chronological Résumé of Italian History". Italy. Historians' History of the World. Vol. 9. London: Hooper & Jackson. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Benjamin Vincent (1910), "Italy", Haydn's Dictionary of Dates (25th ed.), London: Ward, Lock & Co. {{citation}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Zygmunt G. Baranski and Rebecca J. West, ed. (2001). "Chronology". Cambridge Companion to Modern Italian Culture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55982-9. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Roy Domenico (2002). "Chronology". Regions of Italy: a Reference Guide to History and Culture. Greenwood. ISBN 0313307334.
• "Italy: Chronology". Western Europe. Regional Surveys of the World (5th ed.). Europa Publications. 2003. pp. 357–361. ISBN 978-1-85743-152-0.
• Mark Gilbert; Robert K. Nilsson (2007). "Chronology". Historical Dictionary of Modern Italy. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6428-3. {{cite book}}: External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
• Guggenheim Museum (2014). "Time Line". Italian Futurism, 1909-1944. New York.
• Michael Wyatt, ed. (2014). "Timeline". Cambridge Companion to the Italian Renaissance. Cambridge University Press. p. xxi+. ISBN 978-1-139-99167-4.

External links

• "Italy Profile: Timeline". BBC News.
• "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Italy". Norway: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo.