| BC | |
| 5th-4th mill | Earliest settlements Palaeolithic remains |
| 3rd-2nd mill | Bronze Age: sings of religious cults |
| 2nd mill | Domestication of camel |
| 1st mill | Emergence of city states, Saba, Ma’in, Qataban, Hadhramawt, Awsan |
| c.800 | Earliest inscriptions |
| 6th-5th | Marib temples and dam |
| c.2nd c | Rise of Himyarites |
| 24 | Aelius Gallus’ Arabian expedition |
| AD | |
| 1st-3rd c | Political and economic shift to central highlands |
| 1st c | Periplus of the Erythraean Sea |
| 2nd c | Roman development of sea route to India |
| 3rd-4th c | Judaism and Christianity established |
| c. 520 | Marib dam burst, scattering Qahtan tribes over southern Arabia |
| 523 | Massacre of Najran Christians by Jewish ruler Nawas |
| 525 | Ethiopians occupy Yemen; Himyarite state collapses |
| 575 | Ethiopians replaced with Persian occupation |
| c.570 | Birth of Prophet Muhammad |
| 622 | Prophet’s flight to Madina; start of Muslim hijrah calendar |
| 630s | Yemen’s conversion to Islam begins; establishment of Islamic caliphate. Centralised rule by ‘Umayyads (Damascus) & ‘Abbasides (Baghdad) |
| 9th c | Yu’firid dynasty in central highlands |
| 819-1018 | Ziyadid dynasty in Tihamah |
| 844 | Ahmad ibn Isa al-Muhajir arrives in Hadhramawt |
| 890s | Al-Hadi ila l-Haqq establishes Zaydi Imamate |
| 1047-1138 | Isma’ili Sulayhid dynasty |
| 1173-1228 | Ayyubid dynasty |
| 1228-1454 | Rasulid dynasty |
| late 14th c | Coffee-drinking al-Shadhili arrives in Mokha from Ethiopia |
| 1454-1517 | Tahirid dynasty |
| 1504 | First Portuguese vessel in Red Sea |
| 1517 | Mamluk invasion; Mamluk defeat in Egypt by Ottoman Turks |
| 1539-mid-17th c | First Ottoman occupation of Yemen |
| 16th c | Kathiris in Hadhramawt invite Yafa’i mercenaries to help them |
| 1763 | Danish expedition, including Carsten Niebuhr |
| 1798 | Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition |
| 1839 | British capture Aden |
| 1869 | Inauguration of Suez Canal |
| 1872-1918 | Second Ottoman occupation of northern Yemen |
| 1904-1948 | Imam Yahya expels Ottomans, rules northern Yemen |
| 1934 | Anglo-Yemeni treaty establishes de facto frontier between north and south |
| 1937 | Aden becomes British colony |
| 1948 | Imam Yahya assassinated, succeeded by son Ahmad |
| 1962 | Federal constitution established in south |
| 1962-1970 | Republic declared, Imamate abolished; civil war in northern Yemen; establishment of Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) |
| 1967 | Independence in southern Yemen; establishment of People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY) |
| 1990 | Unification of north and south; Establishment of Republic of Yemen |
| 1994 | Suppression of southern uprising |