History
1517: A Portuguese ship sees the island and names it "Ilha Formosa", or "Beautiful Island" in Portuguese.
1860: Taiwan becomes a treaty port following the Treaty of Tientsin, opening the island to contact with the world.
1884-1885: Taiwan is blockaded by French navy during the Sino-Franco War and loses its control in Vietnam.
1895: Qing China lost the First Sino-Japanese War and ceded Taiwan to Japan permanently.
1945: Japan lost in World War II to USA and gave up Taiwan permanently.
1946: USA accepts millions refugees and soldiers from China to Taiwan and USA President installs The Republic of China to govern Taiwan and to fight China and communism.
1951: Japan signs the Treaty of San Francisco(1951) with USA.
1979: The KMT government jails many democracy activists who opposed it (Kaohsiung Incident).
1986: The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is formed; it is the first party to form in the ROC other than the KMT. It remains illegal for several years, but the KMT government does not try to ban it.
1987: The KMT government lifts the martial law after almost 40 years.
2000: Chen Shui-bian (DPP) becomes president.
2004: Chen Shui-bian is re-elected after a controversial assassination attempt, in which many KMT-supporters believed, was staged by Chen. However, after unwillingness to cooperate about his medical records the investigation was inconclusive.
2008: Ma Ying-jeou was elected as the president of the Republic of China and thus creating a change of political parties for the second time.