1842 – China gave up Hong Kong Island to England after the First Opium War.
1860 – Kowloon, Hong Kong, was formally given to England through The Convention of Peking.
1898 – China leased the New Territories, Hong Kong, along with 235 islands to England for 99 years  from July 1.
1937 – Hong Kong became a refuge for thousands of mainland Chinese fleeing from the Sino-Japanese War.
1941 – Japanese soldiers occupied Hong Kong. Because of the shortages of food, many residents fled to mainland China. The population dropped from 1.6 million to 650,000 by the end of WWII in 1945.
1946 – 1949 – Hundreds of thousands of former Hong Kong residents returned from Mainland China, after the British re-established civil government. The civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists in China caused many more refugees fleeing from Mainland to Hong Kong.
1950s – Hong Kong started to enjoy economic revival based on light industries, especially on textiles.
1960s – There were widespread labor disputes among poorly-paid workforce.
1967 – Large scale riots broke out between pro-communists and their sympathisers, and the Hong Kong government, instigated by followers of China’s Cultural Revolution. Originating as a minor labor dispute later grew into large scale demonstrations against the British colonial rule.
1970s – Underwent many changes that shaped its future, led for most of the decade by its longest-serving and reform-minded Governor, Murray MacLehose. Economically, reinvented itself from a manufacturing base into a financial center. Hong Kong is established as an “Asian Tiger” – one of the region’s economic powerhouse.
1982 – England and China began talks on the future of Hong Kong.
1984 – On December 19, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Joint Declaration on the conditions under which Hong Kong will revert to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. Under the “one country, two systems” formula, Hong Kong will become part of one communist-led country but retain its capitalist economic system and partially democratic political system for 50 years after the handover.
1989 – The Tiananmen Square massacre led to the fears that China would break its commitment to the one country, two systems after the handover of Hong Kong to England in 1997. It is the turning point for the Hong Kong people’s lost of trust in the Chinese Communist Government. The uncertainties led to a sizeable exodus of Hong Kong people to the western countries.
1990 – The Hong Kong Basic Law was created in April by the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee with 23 members from Hong Kong and 36 from Mainland China.
1992 – In July Chris Patten become the 28th and the last governor of Hong Kong until its transfer of sovereignty to China in 1997. In October, Patten announced proposals for democratic reform of Hong Kong which outraged China. In December, the Hong Kong stock market crashed.
1994 – Governor Chris Patten came up with a democratic reform package, after nearly 2 years of marathon and bitter debates, which was introduced by the Hong Kong legislature. The new legislation widened the franchise but fell far short of providing universal suffrage.
1995 – The 1995 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on September 17. It was the first, and only, fully elected legislative election in the British colonial period before transferring Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China two years later.
1997 – At midnight of July 1, the United Kingdom ended administration for the colony of Hong Kong and handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese authorities after more than 150 years of British control.