A timeline of some major events since Euskadi ta Askatasuna (Basque Homeland and Freedom) (Eta) was founded.
1959 - ETA is formed during dictatorship of General Francisco Franco to fight for Basque self-determination.
1968 - ETA carries out first killing: victim is Meliton Manzanas, police chief in the Basque city of San Sebastian.
1973 - Franco's Prime Minister Luis Carrero Blanco is killed when his car drives over explosives planted by ETA in Madrid.
1980 - In its bloodiest year, ETA kills nearly 100 people despite Spain's return to democracy.
Sept. 1985 - First ETA car bomb explodes in Madrid. A U.S. tourist is killed and 16 Civil Guards wounded.
July 1986 - Twelve Civil Guards are killed in Madrid and 50 wounded. Juan Manuel Soares, a repentant Basque separatist, is sentenced to 1,401 years in jail in April 2000 for the killings.
June 1987 - Twenty-one shoppers are killed by a bomb at Barcelona supermarket. ETA apologises.
July 1997 - ETA accepts the "crude and painful" consequences of its killing of Popular Party member and Ermua town councillor Miguel Angel Blanco after they kidnapped him on July 10. Blanco's killing is a turning point for public opinion as millions of Spaniards, incensed by the assassination, take to the streets to vent their anger. Sept. 1998 - ETA announces a truce which ends in Dec. 1999.
Nov 21, 2000 - Socialist Former Health Minister Ernest Lluch shot dead in Barcelona.
Oct 10, 2004 - New Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero appeals to ETA to give up the fight after the arrest of a suspected leader, Mikel Albisu Iriarte, alias "Mikel Antza".
March 22, 2006 - ETA declares a permanent ceasefire, which comes into force two days later.
Dec 30 - Car bomb explodes at Madrid airport killing two Ecuadorians. Zapatero breaks off peace process.
April 8, 2007 - ETA says it is ready to make new commitments to the peace process if Spain stops "attacks" in the Basque region where police have been arresting ETA suspects.
Dec 1 - ETA suspects kill two Guardia Civil policemen working undercover in France.
Jan 14, 2008 - Zapatero rules out any chance of peace talks with ETA and says its only option is unilateral surrender.
March 7 - Isaias Carrasco, former councillor for the Socialist Party, is killed in Mondragon. ETA later claims responsibility.
Oct 30 - A car bomb explodes in a University of Navarre car park in northern Spain, wounding 17 people.
Nov 5 - ETA claims responsibility for 10 bombings and says it will press its campaign for Basque rights.
Nov 17 - ETA's suspected military leader, Garikoitz Aspiazu Rubina, known by his alias "Txeroki" or "Cherokee", is arrested in France's Pyrenean region, near the Spanish border.
Dec 3 - Ignacio Uria, an owner of the construction company Altuna y Uria, building a stretch of the high-speed train named by ETA as a target, is shot dead in Azpeitia. ETA later claim responsibility for the killing.
Dec 8 - French police announce the arrest of a man identified as Balak, presumed successor to Txeroki.
April 18, 2009 - Jurdan Martitegi, ETA's new military leader known as "the giant" is arrested in southern France.
June 19 -- Eduardo Puelles, a police inspector is killed in a booby-trapped car in the northern city of Bilbao.
July 29 - A car bomb explodes outside a Civil Guard barracks in the northern city of Burgos, injuring 46 people.
July 30 - Two police officers are killed in an explosion at a civil guard barracks on Palmanova, close to the Marivent palace where Spain's royal family was spending a summer holiday.
Aug 9 - ETA claims responsibility for bombs in the last two months which have killed three policemen and injured 46.
Aug 26 - French police arrest three ETA suspects in a ski resort and then uncover 13 caches of arms in regions across southern France, dealing a a heavy blow to the group.
Nov 14 - Batasuna calls for talks between ETA and Spain based on principles used in Northern Ireland's peace process. Spain rejects the overtures the next day.
Dec 29 - The Interior Ministry says it has raised its anti-terror alert level to 2 reflecting the risk of attacks ahead of Madrid taking over the EU Presidency on Jan. 1.
February, 27, 2010 - Faction of ETA's banned political wing Batasuna says it wants to pursue peaceful politics.
Feb 28 - Ibon Gogeascoechea, ETA's latest top leader and on the run since 1997, caught along with two other senior ETA rebels in a joint Spanish-French raid near the small town of Cahan in Normandy, the Interior Ministry says.
March 1 - Spain demands Venezuela explains itself after a judge accused it of helping ETA rebels and Colombian FARC guerillas plot possible attacks on Spanish soil.
March 17 - A French police officer shot and killed near Paris after his patrol fired on by suspected ETA rebels leaving a car robbery scene.
March 18 - French President Nicolas Sarkozy vows to hunt down a group of suspected militants from ETA accused of murder of the police officer.
March 21 - ETA say ready to take steps for political change in Basque Country, but stopped short of calling end to armed struggle, through statement released to Gara newspaper.
May 20 - French police arrest suspected military leader of ETA in French town of Bayonne.
Sept 5 - ETA decides to stop carrying out armed attacks, according to a statement published by Basque-language newspaper Gara on its website.
Reuters