At least 10 people were killed by an explosion at a soccer stadium in Somalia\'s capital Mogadishu where the prime minister had just addressed hundreds of supporters on Tuesday. Here is a short chronology of events since independence.

Somalia\'s Road to Ruins

July 1, 1960 - Independence sees unification of Somali peoples ruled since late 19th century by Britain and Italy.

Oct 21, 1969 - Army seizes power in bloodless coup. Major- General Mohamed Siad Barre takes control.

Aug 7, 1990 - Rebel Somali National Movement, United Somali Congress (USC) and Somali Patriotic Movement (SPM) form alliance to topple Siad Barre.

Jan 27, 1991 - Siad Barre flees as rebels seize capital.

Nov 17, 1991 - Power struggle between rival clan warlords Mohamed Farah Aideed and Ali Mahdi Mohamed erupts into violence. Thousands of civilians are killed and wounded.

March 3, 1992 - Rival warlords sign U.N.-sponsored ceasefire but fail to agree on monitoring provisions.

– April 24 - U.N. Security Council approves deployment of 50 ceasefire observers. Siad Barre flees into exile days later.

– Sept 19 - Warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed returns to Mogadishu and rules out deployment of U.N. troops.

– Dec 3 - Security Council endorses full-scale military operation led
by the United States.

– Dec 9 - U.S. Marines hit Mogadishu\'s beaches under the glare of
television lights in \"Operation Restore Hope\".

Jan 15, 1993 - At U.N. talks in Addis Ababa, feuding clan militias sign
the first of many pacts to stop fighting.

– May 4 - U.S. hands over command of peace operation to United Nations.

– Oct 3 - Eighteen U.S. Army Rangers and one Malaysian killed and 74 U.S. servicemen wounded when Somali militias shoot down two U.S. helicopters in Mogadishu. The corpses of Americans are dragged through streets by mobs.

March 28, 1994 - U.S. mission formally ends.

Feb 28, 1995 - U.S. marines and Italian troops help evacuate the last U.N. troops.

Aug 1, 1996 - Aideed dies of gunshot wounds.

May 2, 2000 - The Somali National Peace Conference brings together morethan 2,000 participants.

– Aug 13 - Transitional National Government (TNG) is established and given a three-year mandate to try to unite warring Somalis. In subsequent months the TNG\'s authority withers amid opposition from warlords.

Oct 15, 2002 - 14th Somali peace conference opens in Kenya.

Sept 15, 2003 - Factions at the talks agree to a transitional
constitution and to set a five-year term for elections following the expiry of the TNG mandate in August.

Aug 2004 - Delegates to the talks select a 275-strong transitional
parliament under a clan power-sharing formula.

– Oct 10 - Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf is elected Somali president by lawmakers.

– Dec 1 - New Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi swears in 27 ministers in Kenya where he was talking to private armies in Somalia about how to arrange the new government\'s return.

Jan 31, 2005 - Gunmen shoot dead former national security service
officer Hersi Omar Dhorre in Mogadishu, in a warning to Somalia\'s fledgling government not to impose its authority.

– The African Union, in a summit in Nigeria, has authorized five east
African nations to deploy troops and equipment to help Somalia\'s
fledgling government return.

Feb 9 - Warlord and government minister Osman Ali Ato calls on Somalis to attack foreign peacekeeping troops from historic foe Ethiopia being sent to support the Somali government.

– Feb 24 - Somalian President and prime minister arrive in their
homeland in the central town of Jowhar, for the first time since their new government was formed in Kenya.

– April 29 - Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Gedi flies to Mogadishu for
the first time to sort out rifts in his government over where the TNG should initially be based and the possible role of foreign peacekeepers.

– May 3 - Prime Minister Gedi, addressing a meeting of supporters,
escapes unhurt after an explosion in a Mogadishu soccer stadium kills ten.