July1980 — Vanuatu gains independence from Britain and France. From independence until 1991, Walter Lini, known as the country's founding father, serves as prime minister.
September 1981 — Vanuatu joins the United Nations.
December 1991 — Maxim Carlot Korman, leader of the Francophone, conservative Union of Moderate Parties (UMP - Union des Partis Moderés), is elected as prime minister.
August 1994 — Vanuatu's first ombudsman, Marie-Noelle Ferrieux-Patterson, is appointed.
March 1994 — Jean Marie Leye is elected as president.
December 1995 — Serge Vohor wins the elections and becomes prime minister.
July1997 — The government petitions the president to dismiss the ombudsman. The court decides that the cabinet decision is against the law. This is the first time an executive decision is challenged and struck down in Vanuatu's Supreme Court.
June 1997 — The government, with the aid of the Asian Development Bank, adopts a three-year long Comprehensive Reform Program (CRP). The program includes the introduction of value-added tax, consolidating and reforming government-owned banks and installing career civil servants as director generals in each ministry.
June 1998 — The Supreme Court upholds the repeal of the 1995 Ombudsman Act by the Parliament in 1997. The reason behind this repeal is seen as anger over the vigorous investigations of corruption by the first ombudsman.
November 1998 — Government passes a new Ombudsman Act, which requires the staff of the Ombudsman Office to be appointed by the Public Service Commission rather than by the ombudsman.
February 1998 — Aiming to remind the government of the principle of judicial independence, the acting Chief of Justice claims that his predecessor's dismissal in 1996 was unconstitutional and leads a joint declaration on "the basic principles on the independence of the judiciary" by judges and magistrates.
September 1999 — An amendment to the leadership code makes annual returns confidential, unless they are subject to an investigation or prosecution.
March 1999 — John Bernard Bani is elected as president.
February 1999 — Walter Lini, known as the nation's founding father, dies.
August 1999 — Hannington G. Alatoa is appointed as the successor of the first ombudsman, whose five-year term has expired.
November 1999 — Prime Minister Donald Kalpokas resigns in order to avoid a vote of no-confidence, which he was certain to lose as a result of recent electoral gains by the opposition and the defection of his supporters. Barak Sope becomes the new prime minister.
June 2000 — The Freedom Telecommunications Law is enacted and ends the monopoly of state-owned telecommunication enterprise.
January 2001 — Government orders the deportation of well-known newspaper publisher Mark Neil-Jones, blaming him for revealing state secrets in his coverage of government corruption. The acting chief justice overturns the decision, and the publisher returns and resumes his work.
April 2001 — A small group of coalition government members withdraw their support from Prime Minister Barak Tame Sope and he is replaced by Edward Natapei, after being ousted out by a vote of no-confidence. The reason behind this replacement is alleged to be the dealings of Sope-led government with the Amarendra Nand Gosh, a Thai businessman. The allegations surrounding this businessman and the government are that he was appointed to the honorary council of Thailand and given honorary citizenship soon after giving the government a 10 million Vatu (US$103,000) grant for disaster relief, and his presenting a gift of ruby claimed to be worth US$174 million.
2001 — Deputy Principal Immigration officer, John Wai, is sentenced to three months in jail for accepting bribe in order to process residency forms.
October 2001 — Negotiations to join the World Trade Organization are completed. The accession package has not been sent to the General Council for approval.
November 2001 — The government endorses the Anti-Corruption Action Plan for Asia and the Pacific, which is developed jointly by 17 countries in the region under the framework of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific.
November 2001 — Former Prime Minister Barak Sope is charged with two counts of forgery regarding his dealings with a controversial Indian businessman, who was given credit letters worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He is sentenced on each charge but afterward is pardoned by President John Bani due to medical problems.
March 2002 — Australia and Vanuatu sign an accord to fight money laundering activities in the Pacific.
May 2003 — The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) removes the country from its list of uncooperative tax havens because of the country's effort to improve its tax system.
August 2003 — The Public Prosecutor's Act, which establishes the Public Prosecutor's Office and defines its functions, is passed.
March 2004 — Alfred Masing Nalo replaces President John Bani, whose term expired.
May 2004 — The Supreme Court orders removal of President Alfred Masing Nalo due to his past conviction of receiving property dishonestly and because he was elected while serving a two-year suspended sentence for corruption.
May 2004 — The acting president and the speaker of the Parliament, Roger Abiut, dissolves the Parliament to prevent a possible vote of no-confidence and calls for special elections.
July 2004 — Serge Vahor becomes prime minister.
August 2004 — Lawyer Kalkot Matas Kelekele is elected as president.
August 2004 — Prime Minister Serge Vohor says that "anytime that there is talk of a motion of no-confidence in Parliament, then there are people in the background causing problems."
October 2004 — Government passes amendments to the constitution that ban votes of no-confidence during the first and last years of Parliament. This amendment is mainly because of the frequent changes in governments that occurred through no-confidence votes, especially during 1990s. For instance, in 2004 there were three no-confidence motions.
December 2004 — Prime Minister Serge Vohor is ousted from the Parliament with a vote of no-confidence regarding the controversy over his attempt to increase diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Ham Lini becomes the new prime minister of the new 10-party coalition government.
March 2005 — Peter Taurakoto is appointed as Vanuatu's third ombudsman.
August 2005 — A Singaporean businessman is deported from the country after allegedly trying to bribe several government officials, including Prime Minister Ham Lini, in order to win bids for several investment projects.
March 2006 — The United States Millennium Challenge Corporation signs a five-year US$65.69 million compact agreement with Vanuatu. The agreement consists of 11 infrastructure projects in order to solve the country's poor infrastructure problem. The second element of the agreement is to strengthen efforts and policy reform initiatives in Vanuatu's Public Works Department.
March 2006 — Prime Minister Ham Lini defeats a vote of no-confidence, after being accused by the opposition leader of moving to monopolize the export of kava, a dietary supplement derived from the roots of a plant of the pepper family.
March 2007 — The government declares a state of emergency after two days of violence, which began after the allegations of witchcraft, among the people of islands Ambrym and Tanna (Vanuatu), ended with the death of two men.
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