Published March 15, 2016
Myanmar's parliament on Tuesday elected Htin Kyaw, a 70-year-old confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi, as the country's first civilian leader in more than half a century. The key political events in Myanmar's recent history:
— March 1962: Gen. Ne Win leads a military coup to oust U Nu as prime minister and initiate half a century of military rule that isolates Myanmar and turns it into one of the poorest countries in the world.
— April 1988: Aung San Suu Kyi returns home from Britain to attend to her ailing mother just as pro-democracy protests erupt against the military junta. Thousands are estimated killed by a military crackdown.
— September 1988: Suu Kyi helps found opposition party, the National League for Democracy.
— July 1989: Suu Kyi, an increasingly outspoken critic of the junta, is put under house arrest, which continues on-and-off for 15 of the next 22 years.
— 1990: National League for Democracy wins landslide victory in general election, but the result is ignored by the military.
— 1991: Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful struggle against the regime. Suu Kyi is still under house arrest; her son Alexander, then 18, gives Oslo acceptance speech on her behalf.
— 1992: Gen. Than Shwe replaces Saw Maung as junta leader, prime minister and defense minister. Several political prisoners are freed in bid to improve Myanmar's international image.
— 2008: Cyclone Nargis hits Myanmar's low-lying Irrawaddy delta, killing an estimated 134,000 people. Soon after, junta holds referendum on new military-drafted constitution that it claims won 92 percent support.
— Nov. 7, 2010: Military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party wins victory in first election in 20 years. NLD boycotts the polls, which are widely seen as neither free nor fair. Opposition groups allege widespread fraud.
— Nov. 13, 2010: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
— 2011: Former junta official Thein Sein is sworn in as president of a new, nominally civilian government.
— April 1, 2012: Suu Kyi wins seat in parliament, marking her first elected office after two decades as a symbolic opposition leader.
— Nov. 8, 2015: Opposition NLD party, led by Suu Kyi, wins general election and enough seats in both houses of parliament to form a government.
— March 11, 2014: Suu Kyi's party names two nominees for president, her longtime confidant Htin Kyaw and another NLD lawmaker, Henry Van Tio. Suu Kyi is barred from becoming president because of a constitutional clause that excludes anyone with a foreign spouse or child. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband.
— March 14, 2016: Parliament elects Htin Kyaw as the country's first democratically elected leader in more than a half century.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/key-events-in-myanmars-political-history