Long Kesh and H-blocks will never be forgotten, writes Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor
August 9th, 1971: Stormont ministers under prime minister Brian Faulkner use the Special Powers Act to introduce internment.
Some 342 suspected republicans are arrested in dawn raids and taken to the compounds at Long Kesh. Key IRA members are known to have escaped.
One-third of those detained are freed within days. However, serious violence erupts with 23 deaths in 72 hours.
March 1972: The Stormont parliament is prorogued and direct rule is imposed amid seriously worsening security and political situation.
There are more than 900 detainees in captivity at Long Kesh.
William Whitelaw, the first northern secretary, allows "special category" status for detainees and for those convicted of crimes linked to the Troubles and reviews the operation of internment. By August there are 243 in detention.
December 1974: There are now more than 1,100 "special category" prisoners at the site which is organised on a prisoner-of-war basis.
March 1976: Acting on a recommendation of the Gardiner Commission, northern secretary Merlyn Rees announces the end of "special status" for those convicted after March 1st.
Prisoners are now held in the new H-blocks at the Maze alongside the Long Kesh compounds. Newly transferred prisoners refuse the prison uniform, denying they are ordinary criminals. The "blanket protest" begins.
March 1978: The prison protest escalates with prisoners beginning the "dirty protest" and daubing their excrement on cell walls.
There are now about 300 prisoners "on the blanket".
October 27th, 1980: Six republican prisoners begin a hunger strike in support of special category status.
The strike is called off shortly before Christmas with the prisoners thinking they had won the restoration of special privileges. Shortly afterwards, prisoners riot, claiming the British government has acted in bad faith.
March 1981: Bobby Sands begins his hunger strike with more republicans joining the protest on a phased basis. Bobby Sands dies on May 5th after being elected MP for Fermanagh South Tyrone.
By October, when the protest is called off, 10 hunger strikers have died.
September 23rd, 1983: Thirty-eight IRA inmates, some of whom are armed, hijack a prison meals lorry and escape.
One prison officer, James Ferris, dies of a heart attack and six others are injured.
Within days, 19 are recaptured. The remainder escape in what was then the most significant breakout at a UK prison.
1988: The remaining 92 prisoners are transferred from the Long Kesh compounds to the H-blocks and allowed to retain their "special category" status.
Authorities gradually allow concessions in line with special status for all paramilitary prisoners at the Maze.
1994: IRA and Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefires are announced with the support of Maze prisoners.
December 27th, 1997: INLA inmates murder Billy Wright, leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force, as he is transferred to a visitors' block at the prison.
January 1998: Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam visits the prison to convince loyalist prisoners to back efforts at a political solution.
April 1998: The Belfast Agreement is signed and phased prisoner releases begin. The prison is empty by the end of 2000.