Events in the life of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi

The opposition party of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has announced that she won a parliamentary seat in Sunday’s by-elections. The victory, if confirmed in official results, marks a milestone in a nation that where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century.

Here are some key events in the life of Suu Kyi, who became the face of Myanmar’s struggle for democracy while locked under house arrest for two decades:

— EARLY LIFE

— June 19, 1945: Born in Yangon, then called Rangoon. She is the daughter of national hero Gen. Aung San and Daw Khin Kyi, also a prominent public figure.

— July 1947: Aung San and six members of his interim government are assassinated by rivals. Suu Kyi is 2.

— 1960: After finishing high school, Suu Kyi leaves for further study in New Delhi, where her mother is Burma’s ambassador. She later moves to England to study at Oxford University.

— 1972: Marries Michael Aris, an Oxford University academic. Son Alexander born in 1973, son Kim born in 1977.

— POLITICAL LIFE

— April 1988: Suu Kyi returns home to attend to her ailing mother just as pro-democracy protests erupt against the military junta. Her mother dies later that year.

— Aug. 8-11, 1988: Mass demonstrations throughout Burma. Security forces open fire on demonstrators. Hundreds are killed.

— September 1988: Suu Kyi helps found opposition party, the National League for Democracy.

— June 1989: The government renames the country Myanmar and the capital Yangon.

— July 1989: Suu Kyi, an increasingly outspoken critic of the junta, and her deputy, Tin Oo, are put under house arrest.

— May 1990: The junta calls general elections. Suu Kyi’s party wins a landslide victory, but the military refuses to hand over power.

— October 1991: Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful struggle against the regime.

— July 1995: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest but remains in Myanmar, fearing she will never be let back into the country if she leaves.

— March 1999: Aris, who has not seen his wife since 1995 because the junta repeatedly denied him a visa, dies of cancer in England.

— September 2000: Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest after attempting to leave Yangon for a political meeting.

— May 2002: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.

— May 2003: Suu Kyi is put back under house arrest. She is taken into “protective custody” after her motorcade is ambushed by a government-backed mob.

— August 2007: Protests start over fuel price increases, then swell into the largest pro-democracy demonstrations since 1988. The movement was dubbed the “Saffron Revolution” because it was led by saffron-robed Buddhist monks.

— Aug. 11, 2009: Suu Kyi’s detention is extended by 18 months when a court convicts her of violating her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house uninvited.

— Nov. 7, 2010: Myanmar’s first elections in 20 years. Pro-junta party wins landslide victory in polls critics say were rigged and rampant with fraud.

— Nov. 13, 2010: Suu Kyi’s detention expires and she is freed.

— Jan. 18, 2012: Suu Kyi registers for April 1 by-election, kicking off a campaign that draws ecstatic nationwide support.

— April 1, 2012: By-elections to fill 45 seats in the 664-seat parliament. Suu Kyi’s party says she wins a seat, in what would mark her first elected office after two decades as a symbolic opposition leader.

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