Opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is spending Burma's first election in 20 years under house arrest, was a political newcomer when she took up the struggle for democracy in 1988.
Following are the major events in the history of her role in Burma's politics since a military crackdown in 1988 and the formation of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party that followed.
1988:
-- August: Thousands of people believed killed after troops open fire on mass protests. Suu Kyi, daughter of independence hero Aung San, delivers her inaugural speech at Rangoon's Shwedagon Pagoda to a crowd of 500,000
-- September: Military takes charge with the creation of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)
-- Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) is formed.
1989:
-- July: Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest
1990:
-- May: Her NLD wins 392 out of 485 seats in parliamentary elections but the junta refuses to recognise the results
1991:
-- October: Suu Kyi wins Nobel Peace Prize
1994:
-- September/October: Talks with junta number one and three, Senior General Than Shwe and Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt
1995:
-- July: Released after six years under house arrest
1996:
-- May: Some 10,000 supporters of Suu Kyi march in Rangoon in the biggest demonstration since 1990, which the junta declares illegal.
1999:
-- March: Her husband Michael Aris, a British academic, dies from cancer having not seen his wife in four years
2000:
-- August: Suu Kyi defies order confining her to Rangoon. Again placed under house arrest the following month after attempting to travel to Mandalay
2002:
-- May: Released after 19 months under house arrest
2003:
-- May: Arrested in the country's north after a violent clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group leaves four dead
-- September: Moved to her Rangoon home and placed under house arrest for a third time
2007:
-- September: Suu Kyi prays with Buddhist monks outside her home during a monk-led uprising against escalating fuel costs, in her first public appearance since 2003
2008:
-- May: Her detention is extended again three days after a referendum is held to confirm a new constitution that paves the way to an election in 2010
-- August/September: Refuses food and placed on intravenous drip
-- October: Appeals through her lawyers against her detention
2009:
-- May: Appeal against detention is rejected
US national John Yettaw is arrested for swimming uninvited across a lake to her home and spending two days there. Suu Kyi placed on drip again shortly afterwards for dehydration and low blood pressure
Charged with breaching terms of her detention
-- August: Given another 18 months of house arrest
-- November: Appeals detention at Supreme Court
2010:
-- February: Supreme Court rejects appeal
-- March: Suu Kyi says she opposes contesting the election because of rules that forbid prisoners from being members of political parties.
Her party announces it will boycott the vote
-- May: The NLD is forcibly dissolved by the junta
Suu Kyi lodges last-ditch appeal with Supreme Court against her detention
-- October: She says she will refuse to vote
Supreme Court hears her appeal against detention
-- November 7: Suu Kyi remains in detention at her lakeside mansion as Burma holds its first election in 20 years
