CHRONOLOGY - MAIN EVENTS IN YELTSIN YEARS

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who announced his shock resignation on Friday, was the first elected leader of Russia.

He presided over monumental events in his country's history, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the divisive transition from a command economy to a free market, two wars in Chechnya, street battles with parliamentary opponents, three parliamentary elections and his own historic re-election in 1996.

Here is an outline of his political career.

1985 - New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev brings Yeltsin, a Communist Party boss in the Urals city of Sverdlovsk, to Moscow to oversee construction. He then becomes Moscow city party boss.

February 1986 - Yeltsin is made a candidate member of the Politburo, the inner cabinet of the Soviet Union's ruling party.

October 1987 - Yeltsin is sacked from the Politburo in disgrace after complaining at the slow pace of reform. He is taken to hospital after suffering a breakdown.

May 1990 - The Russian Federation's Congress of People's Deputies, the republic's parliament, elects Yeltsin as chairman.

June 1990 - Yeltsin quits the Communist Party.

June 16, 1991 - Yeltsin becomes Russia's first directly elected president, defeating communist and nationalist rivals.

August 1991 - Yeltsin plays a key role in putting down a hard-line coup against Gorbachev and he soon eclipses his rival. Yeltsin's decision to climb atop a tank during the coup gives rise to one of the seminal images of the collapse of Communism.

Oct 29, 1991 - Yeltsin announces plans for radical reforms with a team headed by little-known economist Yegor Gaidar.

Dec 8, 1991 - Yeltsin and the leaders of Belarus and Ukraine sign agreement ending Soviet Union. Gorbachev resigns.

June 16, 1992 - Yeltsin appoints Gaidar acting premier.

Dec 14, 1992 - Yeltsin, facing opposition from a conservative parliament to Gaidar's reforms, drops Gaidar and replaces him with former gas industry boss Viktor Chernomyrdin.

March 28, 1993 - Yeltsin survives an impeachment bid by the Russian parliament by 72 votes.

April 25, 1993 - He wins referendum on his rule.

Sept 21, 1993 - Yeltsin dissolves parliament, accusing it of blocking constitutional reforms and elections. Rebel deputies barricade themselves inside the White House parliament building.

Oct 4, 1993 - Supporters of parliament stage an armed attack on the Moscow TV station. The following day Yeltsin uses tanks to storm the White House and put down the rebellion.

Dec 12, 1993 - Voters approve a constitution giving Yeltsin increased powers. They select a new lower house of parliament, the State Duma, at an election in which nationalists do well.

Feb 26, 1994 - Leaders of the parliamentary rebellion walk free after Yeltsin fails to prevent a parliamentary amnesty.

Aug 1994 - Yeltsin behaves erratically on a visit to Berlin marking withdrawal of Russian troops from Germany. He stumbles after a champagne lunch, seizes conductor's baton to direct an orchestra and grabs the microphone to sing.

Sept 30, 1994 - On refueling stop in Shannon, Ireland, on his way back from the United States, Yeltsin fails to get off his plane to meet Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds. He says he overslept, aides say there was a mix-up.

Dec 11, 1994 - Yeltsin sends troops to Chechnya region to try to quell a separatist drive. Tens of thousands are killed in 21 months of fighting.

July 11, 1995 - Yeltsin is taken to hospital with heart problems. He stays there two weeks before moving to sanatorium.

October 26, 1995 - Yeltsin has another heart problem. He does not return to the Kremlin until December 29.

December 17, 1995 - Communists win more than one-third of seats in elections to a new Duma.

January 1996 - Yeltsin ousts several liberals from the cabinet in a shift away from reform after the election.

Feb 15, 1996 - Yeltsin says he will run for a second term in office and launches an active, Western-style campaign.

June 16, 1996 - Yeltsin wins first-round election ahead of communist Gennady Zyuganov. He later consolidates his position by making third-placed Alexander Lebed his security adviser.

June 20, 1996 - Yeltsin sacks three hawkish members of his team, one day after dismissing Defense Minister Pavel Grachev.

July 3, 1996 - Yeltsin wins a second term in office despite disappearing from view and canceling campaign trips in final stage of campaign. Only later will the Kremlin reveal that he suffered several heart attacks during this period.

Aug 9, 1996 - Yeltsin takes his oath of office.

Aug 31, 1996 - Lebed signs peace deal ending Chechnya war.

Sept 5, 1996 - Yeltsin announces he has agreed to have heart surgery to enable him to live a normal life.

Oct 17, 1996 - Yeltsin sacks Lebed, accusing the general of harboring presidential ambitions.

Nov 5, 1996 - Yeltsin undergoes quintuple bypass surgery.

Jan 9, 1997 - Yeltsin taken to hospital with pneumonia.

March/April, 1997 - Back at the Kremlin, Yeltsin completes a government reshuffle and puts reformers in key positions.

Dec 10, 1997 - Days after returning from a trip to Sweden, where he made several diplomatic blunders, Yeltsin retreats to the Barvikha sanatorium outside Moscow for a few weeks with what the Kremlin says is an acute respiratory viral infection.

March 23, 1998 - Returning to Kremlin after a respiratory infection, Yeltsin sacks Prime Minster Viktor Chernomyrdin and his cabinet for failure to push through reforms. He names former Energy Minister Sergei Kiriyenko as new premier.

July 13, 1998 - The International Monetary Fund and other foreign lenders agree a $22.6 billion credit package for Russia.

Aug 17, 1998 - Under increasing financial pressure, the government is forced to let the rouble slide and to default on some debts, triggering a severe economic crisis.

Aug 23, 1998 - Yeltsin sacks Kiriyenko and his entire government and appoints Chernomyrdin acting prime minister. Chernomyrdin fails to win backing from parliament, so Yeltsin later names Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov instead.

October, 1998 - Yeltsin cuts short a Central Asian trip and scraps plans to visit Austria because of health problems. Kremlin aides say day-to-day affairs in Russia are increasingly in Primakov's hands.

November, 1998 - Yeltsin enters hospital with pneumonia.

December, 1998 - He returns to work and sacks Valentin Yumashev as his Kremlin chief of staff.

January, 1999 - Yeltsin is rushed to hospital with a bleeding stromach ulcer which keeps him out of public view for much of the first part of the year.

May 12, 1999 - Yeltsin sacks Primakov and names loyal top policeman Sergei Stepashin as premier. Three days later Yeltsin survives an impeachment vote over Chechnya.

Aug 9, 1999 - Yeltsin sacks Stepashin, names little-known security chief Vladimir Putin as new prime minister, says he wants Putin to succeed him as president.

Sept 23, 1999 - After clashes in neighboring Dagestan province and a series of bomb blasts in Russian cities, Russia bombs the Chechen capital, Grozny, signaling the start of a new armed conflict in the rebel region.

Nov 29, 1999 - Yeltsin again in hospital with pneumonia.

Dec 19, 1999 - Putin's supporters perform surprisingly well in a parliamentary vote, a sign of premier's vast popularity.

Dec 31, 1999 - Yeltsin resigns, names Putin acting president.