1995

20. After three-and-a-half years of trying, but failing, to keep the peace in Bosnia, United Nations commanders turn the job over to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Operation Joint Endeavor, NATO's largest military mission since its founding in 1949, begins.

14. Peace agreement between the Bosnians, Croats and Serbs signed in Paris, ending a war that engulfed the Balkans for nearly four years, claimed more than 200,000 lives and made six million people homeless. "Bosnia must find a way, with God's grace, to lay down the hatreds, to give up the revenge, to go forward together," said President Clinton. President Clinton's Full Remarks

4. First official NATO peacekeeping troops arrive in Sarajevo aboard three camouflaged C-130 transport planes; two Americans are part of this advance contingent. As many as 13,000 other American soldiers, mostly from the Army's First Armored Division based in Germany, begin loading trains and trucks with equipment bound for Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia.

3. President Clinton gives the official order for the first group of American soldiers to go to Bosnia. French General Jean-Rene Bachelet, leader of French peacekeeping force in Sarajevo is called back to Paris for a tongue-lashing after Bachelet criticizes the terms of the Dayton peace accord. Senator Bob Dole dares rival GOP presidential candidates to support the troop deployment plan.

2. Serbian General Ratko Mladic, after almost a month of silence, vows to fight the terms of the Dayton peace accord. TIME correspondent Alexandra Stiglmayer reports from Sarajevo that, despite a Serb sniper attack on a bus today, the city seems "almost normal."

N O V E M B E R

28. House Majority Leader Dick Armey predicts that getting public support for the American troop deployment would be "like pulling teeth through the back of your head." The Russians agree to participate in the NATO-sponsored peacekeeping operation.

27. President Clinton addresses the nation on national television to ask for support for sending 20,000 American troops to Bosnia.

26. Speaking of Sarajevo, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic warns that "the Dayton agreement has created a new Beirut in Europe." When Karadzic, who has been indicted by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, vows to go to Paris to protest at the formal signing ceremonies, American assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke warns, "If they set foot in Paris, or for that matter in any European or American country, they will be arrested."

24. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic says that Radovan Kardzic will support the peace accord.

21. Leaders of Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia agree to a settlement.

1. Peace talks begin at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.

S E P T E M B E R

8. Foreign ministers of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia agee to the division of Bosnia into Serb and Mulim-Croat entities.

A U G U S T

30. NATO warplanes begin a fierce air campaign against Serb positions around Sarajevo. Serbs hold their ground until September 20.

19. Three American diplomats are killed when their armored personnel carrier plunges off a road outside Sarajevo.

4. Croatia launches an offensive against Serb-held territory in eastern Croatia, sending 180,000 Serb citizens fleeing.

J U L Y

25 Serbs seize Zepa

Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic indicted for war crimes.

11 Serbs seize Srebrenica.

May 24. When Serbs ignore a U.N. order to remove heavy weapons from the Sarajevo area, NATO aircraft attack a Serb ammunition depot. In retaliation, Serbs begin shelling Muslim safe areas.

January 1. Former president Jimmy Carter brokers a truce between Bosnian Serbs and Muslims. It holds reasonably well for four months.

1994

February 28. NATO jets shoot down four Serb aircraftover central Bosnia; this is the alliance's first use of force since it was founded in 1949.

February 6. A mortar explodes in Sarajevo's central market; 68 people killed.

1993

March Bosnian Croats and Muslims begin fighting over the 30 percent of Bosnia not already seized by the Bosnian Serbs.

1992

April Bosnian Serbs, holding the high ground on the perimeter of the city, begin their siege of Sarajevo.

February 29 Bosnia-Herzegovina declares independence and the Bosnian Serbs declare their own separate state.

January 3 The fourteenth cease-fire takes effect; some 10,000 people have died so far in the war.

1991

June 27 Croats and Serbs begin fighting in Croatia.

June 25 Croatia and Slovenia proclaim indepedence from Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav army responds by attacking Slovenia.

1984 The XIV Winter Olympic Games open in Sarajevo on February 8, introducing the world to a city of cosmopolitan flair in the heart of the Balkans. There were 1,510 athletes from 49 nations, the most countries ever to participate in a Winter Olympics.

1980 Josip Broz Tito, who had united warring ethnic groups after World War II into a communist dictatorship of Yugolsavia, dies. A collective presidency rules until 1991.

1946 Tito forms the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, composed of six republics.

1944 Tito's partisans and the Soviets liberate Belgrade

1941 Germans and Italians invade Balkans. Croatia sets up a fascist state sympathetic to the Axis; a puppet fascist government established in Serbia.

1929 Name changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

1918 Kingdom of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenes created.

1914 Archduke Franz Josef of Austria is assassinated in Sarajevo by pro-Serbian terrorist. The murder triggers World War I.

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