The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong as a base as it prepares for war with Qing China. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War.

The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally cedes.

A typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10,000 people in Hong Kong.

World War II: Hong Kong falls to the Japanese Imperial Army.

USS Grouper torpedoes ''Lisbon Maru'' not knowing she is carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong

Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.

World War II: The surrender of the Japanese troops in Hong Kong. The surrender is accepted by the Royal Navy Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt.

Cathay Pacific Airways is founded in Hong Kong.

The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong.

The United Kingdom introduces the British fifty-pence coin, which replaced, over the following years, the British ten-shilling note, in anticipation of the decimalization of the British currency in 1971, and the abolition of the shilling as a unit of currency anywhere in the world. (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, etc., had already abolished the shilling in favor of a decimal currency with exactly 100 pence per pound sterling or dollar, whichever was applicable.}

The Hong Kong MTR commences service with the opening of its Modified Initial System (aka. Kwun Tong Line).

The United Kingdom agrees to the handover of Hong Kong

The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that the People's Republic of China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.

Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.

A China Airlines Boeing 747 overruns Runway 13 at Hong Kong's Kai Tak International Airport while landing during a typhoon, injuring 22 people.

The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China.

The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule.

Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport is closed and the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok becomes operational.

Over 500,000 people protested against efforts to pass anti-sedition legislation in Hong Kong.

A Neoplan bus, owned by Kowloon Motor Bus, collides with a truck, falls off a bridge on Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong, and plunges into the underlying valley, killing 21 people. This is the deadliest traffic accident to date in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Disneyland opens in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong.

Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage.

Anti-WTO protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong