1960 (October 1): Independence. Nnamdi Azikiwe ("Zik") becomes 1st indigenous Governor General.

1960-1966: First Republic of Nigeria under a British parliamentary system.

1960: Nigeria's joins with Liberia and Togo in the "Monrovia Group" which advocated an extremely loose organization of African states.

1961 (February 11 and 12): People of Northern and Southern Cameroon went to the polls to decide on joining independent Nigeria or the French territory of Cameroon. The south voted to leave Nigeria and the North decided to join Nigeria.

1961 (June 1): Northern Cameroon becomes Sarduana Province of Nigeria, the thirteenth province of Northern Nigeria.

1961 (October 1): Southern Cameroon ceases to be a part of Nigeria

1962: By this time, the northern Northern People's Congress (NPC) controlled the federal government, while violence in the western region forced the dominant party there, the Yoruba "Action Group" (AG), to split in two.

1963: Nigeria proclaimed Republic. Nnamdi Azikiwe becomes its first President.

1964: The Northern Peoples Congress(NPC) aligns with a breakaway faction of the Action Group (AG) led by Chief Ladoke Akintola, the Nigerian National Democratic Party(NNDP),to form the Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) to contest elections. At the same time, the main Action Group led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo forms alliance with the United Middle-Belt Congress(UMBC)and Alhaji Aminu Kano's Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) and Borno Youth Movement to form the UPGA (United Progressive Grand Alliance).

1965 (November): Elections triggered violence in the western region, where Igbo civil servants of the Hausa- dominated federal government represented authority to the Yoruba population. .

1966 (January 15): The Nigerian army staged its first coup.

1966 (May 29): Massive rioting starts in the major towns of Northern Nigeria against the Igbo minority in the north and nearly 30,000 died.

1966 (July 29): A group of Northern officers and men storm the Government house Ibadan where General Aguiyi Ironsi was staying with his host, Lt. Col Adekunle Fajuyi. The men are arested and killed.

1966 (August 1): Lt. Col Yakubu Gowon announces a take-over of the government to the nation

1967 (January 4): Nigeria's military leaders travel to Aburi near Acrra, Ghana to find a solution problems facing the country.

1967 (May 30): Eastern leadership announces Republic of Biafra

1967 (July 6): First shots are fired that formally start of about thirty months of the Biafran war.