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Post WWII		1940s Following WWII, the Balkan states (which included Yugoslavia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania) fell to the communists, leading to discussions of a wider Balkan federation – including Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania and Albania – united by communist ideology. 1946 Yugoslavia became a federated republic Jan. 1, and Marshal Josip Broz Tito became head of government; he was named president Jan. 13, 1953. 1948 Stalin feared Tito's growing power and in 1948 Moscow ousted Yugoslavia from the communist camp.
1980s		1980 Tito died May 4, and the absence of the man who had unified an ethnically diverse federation led the region to drift into a decentralized system with some measures of self-government for Yugoslavia's six constituent republics – Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia – and to the Serbian province of Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian. The development stirred resentment among Serbs. 1987 Feeding off the resentment, political rising star Slobodan Milosevic sparked nationalism by promising Serbs they would reclaim Kosovo. In September, Milosevic became leader of the powerful Serbian Socialist (formerly Communist) Party. 1989 March The Serbian National Assembly ratified constitutional changes in March that returned Kosovo's judiciary and police to Serbian control. Rioting in the province followed, killing more than 20 people. May Milosevic was named president of Serbia, the largest of Yugoslavia's six republics including Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia. November The Berlin Wall fell and communism crumbles across Europe. The eventual dissolution of the Soviet Union sparked nationalism in Yugoslavia's republics.
1990s		1990 During a party congress, Communists from Slovenia walked out to protest actions of the party representing Serbia, led by Slobodan Milosevic. The action led to the collapse of the party's hold on power and highlighted its inability to stem the increased fighting among ethnic groups. 1991 Slovenia and Croatia and later the Muslim government of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared their independence. Bosnian Serbs threatened violence if the government split from the Yugoslavian federation. 1992 Fighting in Croatia spilled into neighboring Bosnia, where the republic's Serbs attacked Muslim towns and declared their own independent republic within Bosnia by April. The ensuing war pulled in Bosnian Serbs, Muslims and Croats and became one of the bloodiest conflicts in European history since WWII. 1994 The Bosnian Muslims and Croats declared a cease-fire to end a 10-month-old war. Originally allied against the Serbs in the Bosnian conflict, both sides began fighting in April 1993 staking their own areas of control in preparation for a three-way partition of Bosnia proposed by international mediators. 1995 August U.N.-declared safe areas in Bosnia fell to Serb forces; NATO began a month-long bombing campaign against Bosnian-Serb forces. November The presidents of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia initialed a U.S.-sponsored peace settlement for Bosnia in Dayton, Ohio, which ended the war and created two autonomous entities: the Federation of Bosnia and the Bosnian Serb Republic. 1996 The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague handed down its first sentence in its effort to prosecute Balkan war crimes, to a Croat foot soldier guilty of helping execute more than 1,000 Muslim civilians in Bosnia. 1997 Ten Bosnian Croats indicted on war crimes charges surrendered to the war crimes tribunal. The group included Bosnian Croat political leader Dario Kordic, 37, one of Bosnia's most notorious war crimes suspects. 1998 Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a Serb offensive in February against ethnic Albanian separatists fighting for an autonomous Kosovo province. 1999 March After unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a peace accord with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia, which marked its first attack against a sovereign nation since its creation 50 years ago. April Concluding a three-day summit meeting shadowed by war in the Balkans, NATO leaders vowed to lead a major reconstruction effort to help restore stability to southeastern Europe once the Kosovo conflict is resolved. June NATO suspended its 11-week air campaign on Yugoslavia June 11 after Yugoslav troops began withdrawing from Kosovo. July The United States and 40 other nations pledged at a special summit conference July 30 to work for stability and prosperity in the Balkans after a decade marked by unrelenting war. August Montenegro, the sole partner of Serbia in the Yugoslav federation, has proposed changes that would turn Yugoslavia into a loose association of the two republics and open the way for Montenegrin independence.