The last IRA ceasefire was called on August 31st, 1994, and held for just over 16 months.
It came to an emphatic end on February 9th, 1996, when a onetonne bomb blasted South Quay in London's Docklands, killing two people and injuring many more and causing hundreds of millions of pounds of damage.
The blast signalled the start of a new wave of bombings, killings and disruption in Northern Ireland, Britain and continental Europe.
February 15th, 1996 - a 5lb Semtex bomb left in a holdall in a telephone box in Charing Cross Road, central London, was disarmed.
February 18th - IRA man Edward O'Brien was killed by his own bomb when it accidentally detonated and ripped apart the bus on which he was travelling in Aldwych, central London.
April 24th - Two devices were placed at the south side of Hammersmith Bridge in west London and an IRA warning was telephoned to a news agency. There were small explosions when the detonators went off, but the bombs themselves did not explode.
June 15 - the IRA brought mayhem to the streets of Manchester with a huge van bomb which ripped through the city centre, injuring around 200 people, several seriously.
June 28th - Three mortars were fired at Quebec barracks in Osnabruck, Germany. July 13th - A 1,200lb car-bomb devastated the Killyhevlin Hotel in Enniskillen, injuring 17 people following a week of rioting after the RUC forced through an Orange march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road, Portadown, after a stand-off with Orangemen at Drumcree.
July 15th - Police recovered components for up to 36 bombs which they believed would have been used against utilities installations in London and south-east England.
September 23rd - IRA suspect Diarmaid O'Neill was shot dead by police during a series of raids in London and Sussex. At a warehouse in north London, police recovered a massive haul of arms.
October 7th - The first major IRA attack in Northern Ireland since the ceasefire took place with the planting of two bombs at Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, Co Antrim, the British army's Northern Ireland headquarters. Warrant Officer James Bradwell later died of his injuries.
December 20th - Two RUC officers accompanying Nigel Dodds, a leading member of the DUP, narrowly escaped assassination as Mr Dodds visited his son at the Royal Children's Hospital in Belfast.
December 21st - Leading republican Eddie Copeland was injured after a booby-trap bomb exploded under his car in Ladbrook Drive in the Ardoyne area of Belfast.
December 31st - A wedding reception had to be abandoned after the IRA claimed it had abandoned a landmine in the grounds of Belfast Castle.
1997
February 12th - Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick was shot dead by an IRA sniper at a checkpoint in Co Armagh.
March 23rd - An IRA escape bid was foiled when a tunnel was discovered at the Maze Prison.
March 26th - During the British general election campaign, the IRA detonated two bombs on the railway line near Wilmslow, Cheshire, bringing chaos to the rail network.
March 30th - Loyalists were accused of planting a massive car bomb which was left outside a Sinn Fein office in Belfast.
April 3rd - Police found two 4lb high explosive bombs on the M6 in the West Midlands.
April 5th - Terrorists forced the postponement of the 150th running of the Grand National with bomb threats which forced the evacuation of around 60,000 spectators.
April 10th - RUC reservist Alice Collins was shot in the back and seriously wounded by an IRA sniper in Derry.
April 18th - An explosion and a series of telephoned coded bomb warnings caused travel chaos across the Midlands and north of England.
April 21st - London suffered traffic chaos after a series of coded telephone bomb threats brought the capital to a virtual standstill.
April 29th - A blitz of rush-hour security alerts brought chaos to motorways in south-east England.
May 8th - The RUC begin a murder inquiry after a Catholic man, Robert Hamill, died several days after a savage beating by a loyalist mob in Portadown, Co Armagh.
May 9th - Off-duty RUC officer Darren Bradshaw (24) was shot dead in a crowded Belfast bar. The Irish National Liberation Army admitted responsibility.
June 16th - Prime Minister Tony Blair banned all further contact between senior civil servants and Sinn Fein representatives after the IRA gunned down RUC officers John Graham (34) and David Johnston (30) in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
July 6th - Violence erupted in Portadown as the RUC moved in in the early hours of the morning to seal off the nationalist Garvaghy Road so the Drumcree Orange march could pass through.
The decision sparked two nights of shootings and rioting.
July 10th - The Orange Order eased the tension by declaring it would cancel or re-route four July 12th marches through nationalist areas because of the "possible loss of life".
July 15th - Catholic teenager Bernadette Martin (18) was shot dead at the home of her Protestant boyfriend in Aghalee, Co Antrim.
July 18th - Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness issued a statement urging the IRA to call a fresh ceasefire.
July 20th - The IRA declared a renewal of its previous ceasefire.