Timeline of Zambia
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This page contains a timeline of some of the key events that have happened in Zambian history.
By towns
All events
1800 - 1900
- 1855: David Livingstone, English physician and explorer, first saw the 328-foot waterfall on the Zambezi River. Livingstone named the falls, which straddled the Zambia and Zimbabwe border, Victoria Falls. The local name is Musi-oa-Tunya (the smoke that thunders).
- 1873 May 1: David Livingstone (60), British physician, explorer, died in Chitambo, Zambia. His body passed through Zanzibar for a funeral in London in Apr 18, 1874.
- 1891 Jun 11: Portugal assigned Barotseland, now in Zambia, to Britain, and Nyasaland becomes a British protectorate.
1900 - 1950
- 1905: Cecil Rhodes brought about the construction of a 650 foot iron bridge to connect Zambia and Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls.
- 1911: North-Eastern Rhodesia and North-Western Rhodesia, administered as separate units, were merged to form the British Colony of Northern Rhodesia (Later Zambia).
- 1950-1959: Zambia’s Chibuku Beer was developed in the 1950s by Max Heinrich, a German brewer. He ramped the indigenous home-brew to a commercial scale. In 1999, after passing through many hands, it was acquired by SABMiller and branded as Chibuku Shake Shake.
1960 - 1970
- 1961 Sep 18: Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo. Hammarskjold was the son of a former Swedish prime minister. In 1953, he was elected to the top UN post and in 1957 was reelected. During his second term, he initiated and directed the United Nation's vigorous role in the Belgian Congo. Hammarskjold had sent Conor O’Brien (1919-2008), an Irish diplomat, to the Congo where a rebellion was openly being backed by Belgium and secretly by Britain and France. O’Brien ordered in UN troops, but the mission ended in disarray and the UN repudiated the mission. O’Brien recounted his version of the events in his book “To Katanga and Back" (1962).
- 1963: Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia) ended a federation with Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
- 1964 Oct 24: Zambia gains independence from Britain. President Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independence Party (UNIP) ran the country until 1991.
- 1967 Sep: The government delegations of China, Tanzania and Zambia held talks in Beijing and formally signed the "Agreement of the Government of the People's Republic of China, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania and the Government of the Republic of Zambia on the Construction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA)".
- 1969: Emmanuel Milingo (39) was named archbishop of Lusaka.
- 1969 Fort Jameson, the capital of the Eastern Province, was renamed Chipata.
- 1970 Oct: China began construction of the 1,160 mile TAZARA Railway between Lusaka and the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. China brought in its own workers for the project, which in 1976 finished ahead of schedule.
1971 - 1980
- 1973 Aug 25: Zambia adopted a constitution.
- 1976 Jul: China completed the construction of a railway between Tanzania and Zambia.
- 1980 Apr 1: The Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) was established by 9 countries with the Lusaka Declaration (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). The main aim was coordinating development projects in order to lessen economic dependence on apartheid South Africa. On August 17, 1992, it was transformed into the Southern African Development Community (SADC). By 2008 it included 15 members.
1981 - 1990
- 1982: Lusaka Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo resigned under pressure for his faith healings and exorcisms. He was brought to Rome as a functionary and retired in 2000. In 2001 he (71) married Marie Sung (43) of South Korea in a New York City wedding conducted by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
1991 - 2000
- 1991: Kenneth Kaunda was voted out of office. President Frederick Chiluba and the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) won in the first multi-party elections.
- 1991 Xu Jianxue arrived in Zambia and began a civil-engineering and construction firm with his 4 brothers. Some 300 Chinese lived in Zambia at this time. By 2006 the number was estimated at 3,000.
- 1994 Francis Grogan and Carl Irwin founded Zambeef with a staff of 60 people. In 2013 the company employed 5,000.
- 1996 May 21 The government of Zambia adopted new constitutional amendments to prevent Kenneth Kaunda from running for president. The amendments require that candidates be at least second-generation Zambians. Kaunda is the son of immigrants from Malawi.
- 1996 Jun 4 Nine opposition politicians were charged with treason and masterminding the Black Mamba group.
- 1996 Jun 16 15 soccer fans were crushed to death and 52 injured during a stampede after Zambia beat Sudan.
- 1996 Nov 20 Frederick Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) won re-election. Former president Kenneth Kaunda and his United National Independent Party (UNIP boycotted because he was declared ineligible to run.
- 1997 Aug 24 Kenneth Kaunda accused Frederick Chiluba of trying to kill him after he was wounded by riot police during a protest rally.
- 1997 Oct 28 Captain Solo (Steven Lungu) attempts a coup against President Frederick Chiluba. Scores of people, mostly soldiers, were later arrested and a state of emergency imposed.
- 1997 Dec 25 Former president Kenneth Kaunda was confined to prison on suspicion of being linked to the Oct 28 coup attempt.
- 1997 Dec 31 Kenneth Kaunda (73) was released from prison and placed under house arrest.
- 1997 UN definition 9% of the children were orphans due to AIDS.
- 1998 Jan 10 A court filing accused Kenneth Kaunda of paying army officers $270 to stage an October coup, promising another $13,300 if the insurrection was successful.
- 1998 Jan 14 Two officers told a court in Lusaka that they were tortured into accusing Kenneth Kaunda of plotting a failed coup.
- 1998 Mar 17 The state of emergency imposed after the October 1997 coup attempt was lifted.
- 1998 Jun 1 Zambia dropped charges against former President Kenneth Kaunda and released him after Kaunda pledged to retire.
- 1998 Celtel began mobile phone operations in Zambia. In 2003 it expanded to rural areas and the service became a cheap way to transfer money.
- 1999 Feb 28 A bomb exploded at the Angolan Embassy and 4 other locations in Lusaka.
- 1999 Mar 31 The high court declared former leader Kenneth Kaunda, born to Malawian missionaries, a non-citizen.
- 1999 Nov 3 Wazi Kaunda (47), the son of Kenneth Kaunda, is shot and killed by 4 gunmen at his front gate in Lusaka. Kaunda was a senior official in the opposition National Independence Party.
- 2000 Mar 10 Over 12,000 people lost their homes when the spillways of Kariba Dam in southern Siavonga were opened to relieve pressure.
- 2000 Dec 4 In southern Congo over 10,000 refugees were driven into northern Zambia due to renewed fighting over the last 12 days.
- 2000 Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), a state owned monopoly, was privatized after 4 years of negotiations.
2001 - 2010
- 2001 Apr 30 - The ruling party MMD nominated President Chiluba for re-election following a vote to amend the constitution.
- 2001 May 2 - The ruling party MMD ousted Vice President Christon Tembo, 8 Cabinet members and 11 other senior officials who opposed Chiluba's bid for a 3rd term.
- 2001 May 4 - President Chiluba announced he would not run for a 3rd term.
- 2001 May 27 - Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo married Maria Sung in a mass ceremony conducted by Rev. Sun Myung Moon in NYC. In Aug Milingo was reported to have recommitted his life to the Catholic Church. Marie Sung went on a hunger strike. Sung later resigned herself to Milingo’s return to the Church.
- 2001 Jul 20 - The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was formally adopted at the 37th session of the (OAU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Lusaka, Zambia.
- 2001 Dec 27 - Zambia held national elections. Early returns showed a virtual tie between Levy Mwanawasa of the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) and Anderson Mazoka (d.2006) of the United Party for National Development (UPND). Mwanawasa won with 29% of the vote.
- 2002 Jan 2 - Levy Mwanawasa (1948-2008) of the ruling (MMD) was sworn in as president despite protests of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. An appeal for a recount was rejected. Unrest closed much of Lusaka. Zambia’s inflation at this time was 21.7%.
- 2002 May 29 - In Zambia Pres. Levy Mwanawasa declared a national food crises with 4 million people facing starvation due to drought.
- 2002 Aug 16 - The Zambian government has rejected donations of genetically modified corn from the United States, even though a massive food shortage threatens nearly 2.3 million of its people with starvation.
- 2002 Nov 2 - Rex Mwanawasa (43), the brother of Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, is found dead in a hotel room in Pretoria.
- 2002 - Former President Frederick Chiluba divorces his wife, Vera. She tried to sue him for $400 million, her alleged share of the riches he had stolen over a decade in power. Her case was dismissed.
- 2003 Feb 24 - Former President Frederick Chiluba (59) is arrested and charged with stealing from the government while in office. In August Chiluba was charged with stealing over $40 million during his rule.
- 2003 May 6 - It was reported that AIDS in Zambia had cut the average life expectancy to 33 years from 44 a decade ago. One in 5 adults was reported to have HIV.
- 2004 - White farmers from Zimbabwe moved to Zambia and leased some 150 farms.
- 2005 Apr 8 - In northern Zambia a truck packed with high school students skidded off a mountain road, killing at least 38 and seriously injuring 50.
- 2005 Apr 21 - At least 51 people were killed in a blast at a Chinese-owned mining-explosives factory in Chambishi.
- 2005 Jul 16 - It was reported that at least 1 million Zambians were infected with HIV, out of a population of 10.5 million and that 1-20% had full blown AIDS.
- 2005 Jul 28 - An official reported anonymously that Haroon Rashid Aswat (31) has been arrested in the border town of Livingstone, having crossed into Zambia from Zimbabwe. Aswat was sought in connection with the July 7 attacks in London that killed 56 people.
- 2005 Aug 7 - Zambia deported Haroon Rashid Aswat (31), a Briton who has been questioned in connection with the July 7 London transit bombings and is suspected of links to al-Qaida.
- 2005 Oct 28 - The UN food agency warned that at least 1.7 million Zambians need food, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly.
- 2005 - The IMF’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries’ (HIPC) initiative forgave Zambia’s $3.9 billion debt as well as IOUs to Paris Club Creditors.
- 2005 - Zambia’s population stood at about 10.5 million.
- 2006 Jun 17 - Inflation was reported to have fallen under 10%. The Zambian Kwacha gained strength as the economy improved due to a lower debt burden and government moves toward a more market-oriented economy.
- 2006 Jul 27 - President Levy Mwanawasa called elections for Sept. 28 and dissolved parliament and Cabinet.
- 2006 Sep 28 - Zambians voted to decide whether President Levy Mwanawasa would stay in office for a second term despite a strong challenge from opposition candidates who lambasted his economic policies. Voters jammed polling stations after a national election campaign marked by bitter debate about the president's effort to increase foreign investment and combat poverty and corruption.
- 2006 Oct 1 - Rioting erupts in Lusaka after President Levy Mwanawasa surged ahead in presidential polls and his principal rival slipped into third place.
- 2006 Oct 2 - The Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) said that President Levy Mwanawasa was re-elected to a second term, collecting 43% of the votes cast in last week's balloting.
- 2006 Nov 17 - The court rules that ailing former president Frederick Chiluba is currently unfit to stand trial for corruption and should be immediately sent to South Africa for treatment.
- 2006 Dec 31 - President Levy Mwanawasa rejects IMF directives to introduce more taxes in Zambia amid high levels of poverty.
- 2006 Employees at a Chinese owned copper mine in Chambishi were sprayed with gunfire while protesting working conditions.
- 2007 Feb 3 - Chinese President Hu Jintao brings his eight-nation African tour to copper-rich Zambia where China's growing clout has prompted charges of exploitation and emerged as a volatile political issue.
- 2007 Mar 1 - Lands Minister Gladys Nyirongo acknowledges at a major conference on graft in Africa that "Corruption is everywhere, in the villages, wherever." Hours later she was sacked. President Levy Mwanawasa said: "She gave land to herself, her two daughters, her sons and her husband."
- 2007 March Malawi arrests and deports Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata after he flew there on personal business and to meet former Malawi president Bakili Muluzi.
- 2007 Mar 20 - President Levy Mwanawasa urged southern Africa to take a new approach to Zimbabwe, which he likened to a "sinking Titanic" as millions flee economic and political turmoil.
- 2007 Apr 22 - The annual Goldman Environmental Prizes were announced on Earth Day. The winners included Julio Cusurichi of Peru for his work to fight illegal logging; Willie Corduff of Ireland for his work to halt an energy project that disregarded local and environmental concerns; Sophia Rabliauskas of Canada for her work to help protect the boreal forest in Manitoba; Orri Vigfussen of Iceland for his work on the North Atlantic Salmon Fund; Ts. Munkhbayar for his work against unregulated mining in Mongolia; and Hammerskjoeld Simwinga for his work in organizing microloan programs in Zambia.
- 2007 May 4 - A British court finds Frederick Chiluba, Zambia's first democratically elected president (1991-2001), guilty of stealing $46 million in government funds and ordered him to repay the entire sum. He had gone on trial in Zambia in 2003, accused of 169 counts of corruption, abuse of power and theft, but was declared unfit to stand trial on the grounds of ill health.
- 2007 Jun 2 - At least 12 soccer fans are crushed to death as a crowd rushed from the Lusaka stadium after Zambia's victory over Congo Brazzaville in an African Cup qualifier.
- 2007 Aug 16 - Zambia hosts the 27th Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Lusaka. The 2-day summit provided scant hope for the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe rejected the need for political reform at the summit of regional leaders that is meant to find ways to ease the country's political and economic crisis.
- 2007 Nov 22 - The UN resumed the repatriation of 12,000 Congolese refugees from Zambia which was suspended three months ago due to insecurity in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Katanga province.
- 2008 Aug 19 - President Levy Mwanawasa (b.1948) dies in France. He had been hospitalized at a French military hospital since suffering a stroke in June.
- 2008 Oct 30 - Zambia votes for a successor to the late President Levy Mwanawasa in an election the main opposition leader, Michael Sata, accused the ruling party of rigging. Sata was ahead in early presidential election results, but his lead was slowly narrowed. Rupiah Banda won 40% of the vote and opposition leader Michael Sata secured 38%.
2008 Nov 2, Veteran diplomat Rupiah Banda (72) was sworn in as the new president of Zambia following a narrow and disputed victory over a populist rival in an election forced by the death of the country's former leader.
(AP, 11/2/08)
2008 Nov 17, The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said a ton of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted in a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on wildlife crime. Operation Baba also seized cheetah, leopard, serval cat and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets, airports and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2009 Mar 27, Southern African countries (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia) have been hit by the worst floods in years, killing more than 100 people and displacing thousands, as a tropical storm threatened to bring more pain.
(AFP, 3/28/09)
2009 Apr 6, In Zambia western nations and lending agencies meeting in Lusaka agreed a financing package of more than $1 billion to improve infrastructure in southern and central Africa at an investment conference meant to expand transport links and trade. Britain said it would separately provide 100 million pounds ($149.2 million) to transform the region's infrastructure to increase trade and mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis. New projects will link businesses in 8 African countries: Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 May 28, It was reported that scientists have identified a lethal new virus in Africa that causes bleeding like the dreaded Ebola virus. The so-called "Lujo" virus infected five people in Zambia and South Africa last fall. Four of them died, but a fifth survived, perhaps helped by a medicine recommended by the scientists.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jul 20, Zambia's Catholic bishops and the International Press Institute condemned the arrest on obscenity charges of a newspaper editor who says she was trying to draw attention to the consequences of a health workers' strike. Chansa Kabwela, editor of the independent Post, was arrested last week after e-mailing pictures of a woman giving birth in the streets to policy makers and aid groups.
(AP, 7/20/09)
2009 Aug 17, Former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba (1991-2001) was cleared of corruption charges following a six-year trial after a magistrate ruled that $500,000 of allegedly embezzled funds could not be traced to government money.
(AP, 8/17/09)(Econ, 8/22/09, p.43)(Econ, 11/21/09, p.51)
2009 Dec 17, The Vatican said it has stripped charismatic Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo of his priestly duties because he defiantly continues to ordain bishops despite already being excommunicated. Milingo angered the Vatican when he got married in 2001 to a South Korean woman by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. He was excommunicated in 2006 after installing four married men as bishops.
(AP, 12/17/09)
2009 Dambisa Moyo, native of Zambia and former World Bank consultant, authored “Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way For Africa."
(WSJ, 3/17/09, p.A13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dambisa_Moyo)
2009 Zambian Airways was liquidated. The government refused to let foreign airlines use Lusaka as a hub in the unlikely event that the airline would one day fly again.
(Econ, 8/16/14, p.55)
2010 Jun 4, In Zambia press freedom campaigner and newspaper publisher Fred M'membe was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labor. He was convicted of publishing critical comment on state maternity services after an editor faced pornography charges for e-mailing officials photos of the woman giving birth to illustrate the consequences of a health workers' strike. She was later acquitted.
(AP, 6/5/10)
2010 Jun 18, Parts of Zimbabwe and most of neighboring Zambia suffered a massive blackout for about 10 hours, as a fault crippled the hydro-electric dam that supplies most of the countries' power.
(AFP, 6/18/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Zambia nearly a dozen miners were shot in a pay dispute.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2010 Oct 17, Zambian police said managers at a Chinese-run coal mine who shot at workers protesting poor working conditions will be charged with attempted murder. 12 workers at Collum Coal Mine in the southern town of Sinazongwe were injured a day earlier when mainly Chinese managers fired randomly at the protesting workers.
(AFP, 10/17/10)
2011 Jan 4, Zambian prosecutors applied for arrest warrants after the mining officials Xiao Li Shan and Wu Jiu Hua failed to attend the preliminary hearing regarding the Oct 15 shooting of nearly a dozen miners at a Chinese-run coal mine.
(AP, 1/4/11)
2011 Jun 18, In Zambia Frederick Chiluba (68), a former president (1991-2001), died.
(AP, 6/27/11)
2011 Aug 4, Zambia's main opposition party said President Rupiah Banda is ineligible for re-election because both his parents were allegedly born outside the country. Banda, who is in his 70s, was born before Zambia gained independence in 1964.
(AP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 9, Zambia's high court dismissed a bid by the main opposition to block President Rupiah Banda from contesting polls next month over claims that he had lied about his parents' nationality.
(AFP, 8/9/11)
2011 Sep 20, Zambia held elections for a president, 150 lawmakers and over 1,000 municipal councilors. Incumbent president Rupiah Banda was in a close race with populist rival Michael Sata. Elections results on Sep 23 said Michael Sata won with 1,150,045 votes, or 43% of the total, to 961,796 votes, or 36.1% for incumbent Rupiah Banda.
(AP, 9/20/11)(AP, 9/23/11)
2011 Sep 22, In Zambia riots erupted in two mining towns over the slow pace of results from this week's polls, as EU observers accused the ruling party of abusing state resources in the campaign.
(AFP, 9/22/11)
2011 Sep 25, Zambia's new President Michael Sata, the first elected Catholic head of state, said his government would follow the tenets of the 10 Biblical Commandments.
(AFP, 9/25/11)
2011 Oct 1, New Zambian President Michael Sata replaced the head of the country's anti-corruption watchdog, who had been accused of bungling investigations into corruption allegations. He appointed Mrs. Rosewin Wandi as Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 4, Zambia announced that it has halted all metal exports, in a move to ensure that mining firms accurately report their sales. New rules on metal exports should be ready by October 16. The ban was lifted on Oct 6 as it would take too long for new rules to be drawn up.
(AFP, 10/6/11)
2011 Oct 14, Zambia's new President Michael Sata vowed to beef up anti-corruption laws and to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by the previous government, in his first address to parliament.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 14, Malawi agreed to allow back into the country new Zambian President Michael Sata, who had been deported four years ago while still head of the Zambian opposition. Malawi also agreed to allow back Britain's ambassador, who was expelled in April after criticizing President Bingu wa Mutharika.
(AFP, 10/15/11)
2011 Oct 20, Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer, said it has suspended the renewal and issue of new mining licenses and would undertake an audit of the sector.
(AFP, 10/20/11)
2011 Nov 3, Human Rights Watch said Chinese mining companies in Zambia ignore labor protections, demanding up to 18 hours of labor a day and flouting health and safety rules.
(AFP, 11/3/11)
2011 Nov 22, A survey of some 6,000 people over the last 12 months in Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe said police are the most corrupt institution in the six countries.
(AFP, 11/22/11)
2011 Dec 1, Amnesty International urged Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia to arrest former US president George W. Bush for violating international torture laws, during his African tour this week.
(AFP, 12/1/11)
2011 Alice Odiot authored "Commodities: Switzerland's Most Dangerous Business." It looks at the social and environmental impact on Zambia and the Mopani Copper Mines owned by Swiss giant Glencore.
(AP, 9/20/11)
2011 Zambia’s population numbered about 13 million people.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.47)
2012 Feb 3, Zambian corruption investigators arrested a former minister on theft charges and recorded a statement from ex-president Rupiah Banda's wife in another probe. Mines minister Maxwell Mwale was arrested and charged over the theft of 20 bicycles belonging to small-scale miners. The bicycles were worth 5.5 million kwacha (1,050 dollars, 800 euros) in total.
(AFP, 2/3/12)
2012 Feb 22, Zambia opposition lawmakers walked out of parliament, saying President Michael Sata and his government had been violating the constitution.
(AFP, 2/22/12)
2012 Mar 15, Zambian ex-president Rupiah Banda denounced the dissolution of his former ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy as an attack on freedom and accused the new administration of persecuting him. The Movement for Multiparty Democracy, whose 20-year rule came to an end in September, was dissolved by the chief registrar of societies for owing 390 million kwacha ($75,876) in registration fees dating back to 1993.
(AFP, 3/15/12)(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Mar 25, Twenty people from DR Congo drowned when their boats capsized while crossing the river border with Zambia enroute to a soccer game.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 May 31, Zambian investigators arrested Andrew Banda, the oldest son of former president Rupiah Banda, for corruption and possessing assets bought with dirty money.
(AFP, 5/31/12)
2012 Jun 26, A Zambian High Court overturned the march dissolution of the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy, the former ruling party, over unpaid fees, arguing the move had been excessive and against the country's general interest.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Jun 26, Denmark police said Attan Shansonga, a former Zambian ambassador to the United States wanted in his home country on charges of corruption, has been arrested. He was arrested by the Zambian Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in 2002 and charged with the theft of public funds, but fled for Britain in 2004.
(AFP, 6/26/12)
2012 Aug 4, In southern Zambia coal miners killed a Chinese mine manager and injured his colleague in a riot over wages at the Collum Coal mine in Sinazongwe known for tensions with the Chinese investor.
(AFP, 8/5/12)
2012 Aug 13, Zambia's main opposition leader, Hakainde Hichilema, was arrested and charged with publishing false information after he claimed on June 11 that ruling party youth were being trained by Sudanese militia.
(AFP, 8/13/12)
2013 Feb 7, In Zambia a bus operated by the postal service, carrying passengers toward its capital Lusaka, smashed into a semi-truck and another car killing at least 53 people in one of the worst traffic crashes in the nation in recent history.
(AP, 2/7/13)
2013 Mar 25, Zambia's former president, Rupiah Banda (76), was arrested by police for alleged abuse of authority and corruption. He was released on bail of Kwacha 500,000 ($100,000) and ordered to turn in his passport.
(AP, 3/26/13)
2013 Oct 11, In Sudan a Zambian military observer with UNAMID was killed by unidentified assailants in El Fasher, North Darfur state.
(AFP, 10/12/13)
2013 Nov 1, Dozens of Zambian separatists appeared in court on charges of treason for trying to create a new state called Barotseland in the west of the country. A total of 84 defendants, mostly from the Lozi tribe, were rounded up in a recent crackdown on those protesting for Barotseland.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 13, Zambia's anti-graft police said they had arrested a regional police chief who is suspected of receiving illicit gifts from a gemstone mining company. Copperbelt Province police boss Mary Tembo (53) was accused of receiving a Toyota Coroll from Grizzly Mining Limited and registering it in her name earlier this year.
(AFP, 11/13/13)
2013 Dec 23, Zambia's defense minister Geoffrey Mwamba resigned after admitting that he met a traditional leader who is blackballed by the country's president.
(AFP, 12/23/13)
2013 Dec 24, The Zambia Wildlife Authority said it has arrested two people in possession of more than 115 kg (250 pounds) of ivory.
(AP, 12/24/13)
2014 Jan 6, Zambian police arrested and charged opposition leader Frank Bwalya with defamation, after he referred to Pres. Michael Sata as a "Chumbu Mushololwa." The Bemba term literally refers to a sweet potato that breaks when it is bent and is used to describe someone who does not heed advice.
(AFP, 1/7/14)
2014 Feb 14, Zambian ex-diplomat and son of former president Rupiah Banda was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of corruption. Andrew Banda (53) was arrested in 2012 on charges of soliciting a kickback from Italian company Fratelli Locci, which was awarded a contract to build roads.
(AFP, 2/15/14)
2014 Mar 21, Zambia scrapped restrictions on the use of dollars and other foreign currencies as it tried to halt the slide in its currency, which has lost nearly a fifth of its value in recent months.
(AFP, 3/21/14)
2014 May 23, Zambia Ranger Dexter Chilunda was killed while investigating reports of gunshots in Liuwa Plain National Park. Two suspected poachers were arrested on June 1.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jul 2, African nations agreed to suspend military operations for six months against Congo-based Rwandan rebels in order to give them more time to lay down their arms. The suspension was announced after a meeting in Angola of foreign ministers from a regional bloc including Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
(Reuters, 7/3/14)
2014 Oct 3, Zambia’s Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda said it was difficult to resist corruption from Chinese contractors who allocate who gifts to other government officials. Chikwanda said the government has borrowed so much money from the chinese that it would soon become impossible to pay them back.
(SSFC, 10/5/14, p.A7)
2014 Oct 24, In Zambia at least 26 people died, most of them children, when a ferry capsized on Lake Kariba.
(SSFC, 10/26/14, p.A6)
2014 Oct 29, Zambia's Guy Scott became Africa's first white head of state in 20 years after the president, "King Cobra" Michael Sata (77), died in a London hospital.
(Reuters, 10/29/14)
2014 Nov 21, Zambia's ruling Patriotic Front said it has suspended President Guy Scott as acting head of the party for "unconstitutional conduct", in the latest twist of a bitter power struggle ahead of a January election.
(Reuters, 11/21/14)
2015 Jan 13, The cash-strapped Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA), which is owned by the governments of the two countries and has been struggling for more than a decade, shut down all train operations after workers downed tools to demand five months unpaid salaries.
(AFP, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 20, Zambia held presidential elections. The winner of the election will serve out the remainder of late President Michael Sata’s term until elections next year. Patriotic Front candidate Edgar Lungu (58) received 48.3 percent of the vote, while Hakainde Hichilema (52) of the United Party for National Development came in second with 46.7 percent after votes were tallied from all 150 constituencies.
(AP, 1/20/15)(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 24, In Zambia opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema held a briefing in which he described the Jan 20 election as a sham.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Jan 25, In Zambia Edgar Lungu was inaugurated as the country’s new president after being declared the winner of Zambia's Jan 20 presidential election late on Jan 24.
(AP, 1/25/15)
2015 Feb 20, Zambia and Zimbabwe signed $294 million in deals with international investors allowing urgent repairs to avert the collapse of the gigantic, power-generating Kariba Dam, the world's largest man-made dam, to begin this year.
(AFP, 2/20/15)
2015 Apr 6, In southern Zambia 17 people were killed when a light truck they were in hit a shop before turning over in Mazabuka.
(AFP, 4/6/15)
2015 Apr 20, Zambia slashed by more than half a controversial mineral royalty tax after investors threatened to pull out of the copper-rich country.
(AFP, 4/20/15)
- 16 July 2015: Edgar Lungu commutes the death sentences of 332 prisoners to life in prison and condemned the massive overcrowding at the Mukobeko Prison, calling it "an affront to basic human dignity".
- 20 January 2015: Edgar Lungu is elected as sixth president of the Republic of Zambia at the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka.
- February 2014: Nationwide strike after tax hike and public sector wage freeze prohibited salary increases and new hires.
- 24 December 2013: Edgar Lungu becomes Minister of Defence after Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba resigned from his ministerial post.
- 2 November 2008: Elijah Mudenda dies at age 81 at Mina Medical Centre in Lusaka.
- 19 October 2007: Kenneth Kaunda is awarded the 2007 Ubuntu Award.
- 11 December 2001 Mainza Chona dies at age 71 in South Africa.
- 27 April 1993: The Zambia national football team perishes in the 1993 air crash disaster in Gabon as the team was flying to the FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Senegal in Dakar. The crash left all on board dead.
- 27 May 1975: President Kenneth Kaunda names Elijah Mudenda as the Prime Minister after Mainza Chona resigned.
- 27 June 1973: The new constitution dubbed the Choma Declaration is signed in Choma.
- 1972: Zamrock music genre comes is started.
- January 1970: Zambia had acquired majority holding in the Zambian operations of the two major foreign mining interests, the Anglo American Corporation and the Rhodesian Selection Trust (RST). The two became Nchanga Consolidated Copper Mines (NCCM) and Roan Consolidated Mines (RCM).
- 24 December 1964: Kenneth Kaunda's Chilenje House 394 is achieved as a national monument.
- 24 October 1964: Zambia gains its independence from British colonial rule.
- 25 August 1960: Lusaka gains city status.
- 17 May 1960: The Kariba Dam is opened.
- October 1959: United National Independence Party (UNIP) is formed as a successor to the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC), which had been banned earlier in the year.
- 1935: Lusaka becomes the capital city of Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia}
- 21 January 1930: Mainza Chona is born in Monze.
- 6 June 1927: Elijah Mudenda is born.
- 1929: The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is founded.
- 28 April 1924: Kenneth Kaunda is born in Chinsali.
- 1921: Skull of Broken Hill Man is discovered in Kabwe.
