Guatemala Timeline of Events

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Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

Timeline of Events

1821

9.15.1821

Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.

1851

2.1.1851

Honduras and El Salvador, during their invasion of Guatemala, are repelled at the Battle of La Arada.

1902

4.18.1902

Quetzaltenango, second largest city of Guatemala, destroyed by Earthquake.

1913

3.28.1913

Guatemala becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

1941

12.9.1941

World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.

1945

4.19.1945

Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Guatemala are established.

1957

7.26.1957

Carlos Castillo Armas, dictator of Guatemala, is assassinated.

1976

2.4.1976

In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.

1982

2.13.1982

Río Negro massacre in Guatemala.

3.23.1982

Guatemala's government, headed by Fernando Romeo Lucas García is overthrown in a military coup by right-wing General Efraín Ríos Montt.

7.18.1982

268 campesinos ("peasants" or "country people") are slain in the Plan de Sánchez massacre in Ríos Montt's Guatemala.

1996

12.29.1996

Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Union sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.