1. Vietnam Timeline Sema Rivas

2. 968 The capital moves to Hoa Lu with the Dinh and first Le dynasties.

3. 1010 The Ly dynasty moves the capital to Thanh Long (Hanoi).

4. 1288 The Mongols are defeated by Tran Hung Dao at the Bach Dang River.

5. 1428 Le Loi begins the second Le dynasty with the aid of Nguyen Trai. This dynasty sees further conquests in the South.

6. 1524 Beginning of a long period of political instability. While the Le governs only formally, a feudal war tempers between the Trinh from the Thang Long and the Nguyen from the Hue.

7. 1651 Jesuit Alexandres de Rhodes publishes in Roma a Latin Vietnamese catechism, and creates the Ngoc Ngu, the roman-based script currently used for Vietnamese.

8. 1802 Nguyen Anh changes his name to Gia Long and starts the Nguyen dynasty.

9. 1858 The French navy attacks Da Nang.

10. 1887 Creation of the Indochina Union, Cochin China, Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, and latter Laos.

11. 1932 Bao Dai, the last emperor, begins his reign as a baby.

12. 1940 Invasion of Indochina by Japan. The French administrations join forces and proceed to run the government.

13. 1945 Ho Chi Minh declares an independent Vietnam, called the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

14. 1955 Refusing to tool the Geneva accords, Ngo Dinh Diem declares himself president of the Republic of South Vietnam.

15. 1959 The communist party starts military operations in the South Construction of the Ho Chi Minh trail begins First Americans to die in the Vietnam War during the guerilla strike at Bienhoa (Major Dale Buis and Master Sargeant Chester M. Ovnand)

16. 1961 Vice President Johnson Tours Saigon President Kennedy increases US military aid to South Vietnam

17. 1965 First US ground combat unit in Vietnam - 9th Marine Regiment went ashore in South Vietnam to protect the large airfield at Da Nang.

18. 1969 Ho Chi Minh dies. President Nixon begins to reduce US ground troops in Vietnam as domestic public opposition to the war grows.

19. 1979 Vietnamese troops enter Phnom Penh and end the brutal Pol Pot plan in Cambodia.

20. 1989 Withdrawal from Cambodia; for the first time in half a century, Vietnam is not engaged in any war.

21. 1995 Diplomatic relationships are fully normalized with the US, one year after the end of the US embargo.