FEBRUARY 25TH: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev uses a Communist Party Congress in Moscow to denounce predecessor Josef Stalin, who died in 1953. Hungarians interpret this as an indictment of their leader Matyas Rakosi, who was known as "Stalin's best Hungarian disciple" for his slavish loyalty to the dictator.
JUNE 28TH
In the Polish city of Poznan, more than 100,000 people join a protest led by workers demanding higher wages and lower production targets. At least 70 people are killed and hundreds injured when troops break up the demonstration. Poland's push for reform would cause greater concern to the Kremlin than Hungary's until late October.
OCTOBER 23RD
Some 200,000 people join a demonstration in Budapest to support the Polish reform movement. Students march to the main radio station to broadcast a list of 16 demands, which include the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Hungary, the reinstatement of moderate Communist leader Imre Nagy and free elections. When protesters do not disperse, the secret police open fire, killing more than a dozen people; some soldiers abandon the army and join the demonstrators; a huge statue of Stalin is toppled and dragged through Budapest.
OCTOBER 24TH
Soviet tanks enter Budapest, and fighting breaks out between troops and rebels. The Kremlin approves the reappointment of Nagy as prime minister.
OCTOBER 25TH
More than 100 people are killed when Hungarian secret police shoot at a peaceful demonstration outside parliament. The massacre radicalises moderate Hungarians and strengthens the call for the complete withdrawal of Soviet forces.
OCTOBER 26TH
Protests continue to spread throughout Hungary. In the western town of Mosonmagyarovar, more than 50 people are killed when Hungarian soldiers open fire on a peaceful rally. International attention is diverted from Hungary by the Suez Crisis - Israel, backed by France and Britain, invades Egypt.
OCTOBER 30TH
Nagy announces the end of the one-party system, forms a coalition government and disbands the secret police. A ceasefire begins in Budapest and Soviet tanks pull out of the city. Catholic prelate Cardinal Mindszenty is freed after seven years in jail. Dozens of secret police members are lynched in Budapest - proof, some top Soviet officials say, that violent reactionaries are seizing power in Hungary.
NOVEMBER 1ST
More Soviet tanks flood into Hungary. In desperation, Nagy announces Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact. He appeals to the West and the UN for help - but the major powers are focused on the Middle East.
NOVEMBER 3RD
Soviet officials insist they still want to withdraw troops from Hungary but, at a meeting outside Budapest to discuss the move, the Hungarian delegation is arrested.
NOVEMBER 4TH
Some 2,000 Soviet tanks and 150,000 troops seize Budapest, and crush an uprising that left more than 2,500 people dead and prompted 200,000 to flee abroad. Nagy and his closest allies take refuge in the Yugoslav embassy. Janos Kadar returns to Hungary from Moscow and forms a new government on the Kremlin's orders. Cardinal Mindszenty seeks protection in the US embassy, where he stays for 15 years.
NOVEMBER 22ND
After Kadar guarantees their safety, Nagy and his allies are seized after leaving the Yugoslav embassy. On June 16th, 1958, they are tried and hanged. On the same day in 1989, they are re-buried with full state honours, in a huge public ceremony that, for many, symbolises the end of communist rule in Hungary.