- 15 B.C. The Romans conquer the Helvetii and other resident alpine tribes.
- 455 A.D. Barbarian invasions begin.
- 742-814 Charlemagne incorporates much of what is now Switzerland into his enormous empire.
- 1291 Three cantons form the Perpetual Alliance, the germ of today's Swiss Confederation.
- 1439 The confederation breaks free of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1516 The confederates (Eidgenossen) proclaim their neutrality.
- 1798 The French Revolution brings an invasion of radical forces and ideas, and the old confederation collapses.
- 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte establishes a new 19-canton confederation, with relatively enlightened social policies.
- 1814-15 The Congress of Vienna guarantees the national boundaries and neutrality of Switzerland.
- 1848 The Swiss adopt a federal constitution, still in force today; Bern is recognized as the capital.
- 1863 The Red Cross is founded in Geneva as a response to the carnage in the 1859 Battle of Solferino.
- 1864 St. Moritz hotelier Johannes Badrutt ushers in the age of Alpine skiing.
- 1914 Switzerland declares its neutrality at the outbreak of World War I.
- 1918 Swiss workers stage the only general strike the country has ever known.
- 1920 Switzerland joins the League of Nations, offering space for a headquarters at Geneva.
- 1939 Fearing an invasion by Nazi Germany, the country orders a total mobilization of its air and ground forces.
- 1939-45 Remaining neutral, despite its laundering of Nazi gold, Switzerland becomes a haven for escaping prisoners of war.
- 1948 Switzerland introduces broad-based social reforms, including the funding of old-age pensions.
- 1971 Women are finally granted the right to vote in federal elections. Twenty years later, the canton of Appenzell becomes the last to allow women to vote on local measures.
- 1992 By a close vote, the Swiss reject membership in an economically integrated Europe.
- 1996-97 Critics around the world attack Switzerland's role as a World War II banker for the Nazi war effort.
- 1998 Three Swiss banks agree to a $1.25-billion fund to be distributed among Holocaust victims.
- 2000 Swiss voters agree to closer E.U. links.
- 2002 Swiss abandon isolation to join the United Nations.
- 2004 Switzerland called a "terror way station" for Al Qaeda suspects who used the country as a base.
- 2010 With four out of seven cabinet members, women form the majority in Switzerland’s executive branch for the first time ever.
- 2011 Switzerland becomes the first country in western Europe to announce the phase-out of nuclear power.
- 2018 After decades of secrecy, Swiss banks begin sharing their foreign clients’ account data with tax authorities abroad.