Santiago in History

Presides over the first national governing junta established in Santiago.

Supports the opening of Chile's first National Congress during the independence movement.

Promulgates a constitutional regulation asserting that no foreign decree has authority within Chile.

Supports early measures establishing freedom of the press during the Patria Vieja.

Appointed political director of Chile by San Marin

Appointed political director of Chile by San Marin

Assumes executive authority after the patriot victory at Chacabuco.

Promulgates a provisional constitution organizing executive and legislative authority.

Promulgates a new constitution that strengthens the office of Supreme Director.

Abdicates after political opposition demands an end to his government.

Assumes office as Supreme Director following the resignation of Bernardo O'Higgins.

Promulgates legislation completing the abolition of slavery in Chile.

Promulgates the constitution commonly known as the Moral Constitution.

Oversees repeal of the 1823 Constitution after its moral and administrative provisions prove impractical.

Governs while Congress experiments with a federal political structure.

Becomes the first ruler to hold the constitutional title President of Chile.

Becomes the first Chilean head of state to use the title President of the Republic.

Assumes executive authority after Manuel Blanco Encalada resigns from the presidency.

Temporarily assumes the presidency during the transition from the office of Supreme Director.

Assumes the presidency during the liberal constitutional period.

Calls elections for a constituent congress that prepares the liberal Constitution of 1828.

Leaves office as conflict begins between liberal and conservative political forces.

Assumes acting presidential authority during the political crisis of 1829.

Returns to acting executive authority as the civil conflict intensifies.

Becomes provisional president during the conservative political ascendancy.

Assumes provisional leadership after Francisco Ruiz-Tagle leaves office.

Serves provisionally as head of government while Congress prepares the presidential succession.

Begins the conservative political order that dominates Chile for three decades.

Takes office as President of Chile and begins the conservative presidential era.

Promulgates the long-lasting Constitution of 1833.

Establishes Chile's national coat of arms during the consolidation of the conservative republic.

Authorizes war against the Peru-Bolivian Confederation after diplomatic relations collapse.

Begins a second presidential term after re-election under the constitutional order established in 1833.

Takes office as President of Chile and begins a decade of national consolidation.

Creates a government statistical office to strengthen the collection of demographic and administrative information.

Establishes the University of Chile as a national institution of higher education.

Promulgates legislation organizing the state's territorial administration through provinces and departments.

Leads Chile when Spain formally recognizes Chilean independence.

Promulgates legislation encouraging settlement and agricultural development in southern Chile.

Begins a second presidential term after securing re-election during the conservative republic.

Defeats an armed revolt challenging his disputed presidential election.

Takes office after a disputed election and confronts the Revolution of 1851.

Promulgates the Civil Code prepared under the leadership of Andres Bello.

Suppresses a regional rebellion against the central government.

Promulgates the Organic Law of Primary Instruction, establishing free state primary education without making attendance compulsory.

Promulgates Chile's first banking law during the expansion of the national financial system.

Is formally inaugurated as President of Chile for the 1861-1871 term.

Joins Peru in war against Spain during the Chincha Islands crisis.

Permits non-Catholic religious worship within privately owned buildings.

Approves measures declaring Mapuche lands subject to state control during territorial expansion in Araucania.

Signs a treaty defining the Chilean-Bolivian boundary at the twenty-fourth parallel.

Begins his second presidential term during the transition toward more liberal constitutional politics.

Leads the government when the Commercial Code enters into force and standardizes commercial law.

Introduces compulsory scientific subjects into the curriculum of primary education.

Promulgates a constitutional reform ending immediate presidential re-election and limiting future presidents to a single five-year term.

Takes office as President of Chile and continues the liberal political period.

Supports constitutional reforms expanding rights of association, assembly, press and education while reducing presidential authority.

Takes office as President of Chile before the outbreak of the War of the Pacific.

Declares war on Peru and Bolivia after the Antofagasta dispute escalates.

Begins his presidency during the continuing War of the Pacific.

Takes office as President of Chile.

Takes office as President of Chile during the War of the Pacific settlement period.

Promulgates legislation establishing secular control over cemeteries during the liberal secular reforms.

Promulgates legislation establishing civil marriage as part of the secular reform programme.

Creates the civil registration system for births, marriages and deaths outside direct church administration.

Creates the state railway enterprise to consolidate government administration of the national rail network.

Is inaugurated for the constitutional presidential term ending in 1891.

Attempts to govern without an approved budget, precipitating civil war with congressional forces.

Temporarily heads the government after Balmaceda loses control of Santiago.

Death of Jose Manuel Balmaceda, commits suicide after defeat in the civil war

Death of Jose Manuel Balmaceda, commits suicide after defeat in the civil war. Commits suicide after defeat in the civil war

Promulgates municipal legislation increasing local administrative autonomy after the civil war.

Takes office and begins the parliamentary republic after the civil war.

Oversees the return to metallic currency during efforts to stabilize Chile's monetary system.

Takes office as President of Chile during the parliamentary republic.

Leads the government when Chile introduces compulsory military service as part of army modernization.

Assumes acting presidential powers after Federico Errazuriz Echaurren dies in office.

Takes office as President of Chile and governs during the parliamentary republic.

Promulgates the Code of Civil Procedure, standardizing rules governing civil litigation.

Signs the treaty formally ending the state of war with Bolivia.

Leads the government when a new Code of Criminal Procedure modernizes the administration of criminal justice.

Promulgates early social legislation intended to improve housing conditions for urban workers.

Takes office as President of Chile before dying during an overseas medical journey.

Leads the government when Chile adopts its first comprehensive sanitary code.

Assumes acting executive authority following the death of President Pedro Montt.

Becomes acting president after Elias Fernandez Albano dies during the succession.

Takes office as President of Chile during the centenary-era parliamentary republic.

Promulgates legislation introducing permanent electoral registers to reduce manipulation.

Approves equal secondary study programmes for male and female students.

Declares Chilean neutrality after the outbreak of the First World War.

Takes office as President of Chile and leads the final full administration before Alessandri.

Promulgates legislation requiring nursery services in qualifying workplaces employing women.

Promulgates social legislation strengthening workers' entitlement to Sunday rest.

Promulgates a new sanitary code strengthening the legal framework for public health.

Leads Chile as the country joins the League of Nations after the First World War.

Promulgates the law making primary education compulsory and expanding state responsibility for schooling.

Begins his first presidential administration amid demands for social and political reform.

Wins a plurality in the presidential election and is later confirmed by the full Congress.

Is inaugurated as President of Chile after winning the closely contested 1920 election.

Obtains congressional leave and departs the country during the September military crisis.

Leaves Chile after military pressure disrupts his first presidential administration.

Faces military pressure as officers protest delays in passing social legislation.

Promulgates major labour and social insurance laws after military pressure on Congress.

Leaves the country after Congress grants him temporary constitutional leave.

Receives the Kemmerer financial mission, whose recommendations influence banking, currency and fiscal reforms.

Is recalled after a new military movement removes the January governing junta.

Resumes presidential authority and prepares constitutional reform.

Returns to the presidency after the January military movement recalls him from exile.

Promulgates legislation creating the Central Bank of Chile.

Restores the gold standard as part of the monetary reforms associated with the Kemmerer Mission.

Submits the proposed presidential constitution to a national plebiscite.

Promulgates the Constitution of 1925 and ends the parliamentary constitutional system.

Promulgates the new constitutional order separating church and state.

Appointed acting President of Chile after the resignation of Arturo Alessandri.

Resigns before completing the restored presidential term.

Takes office following the first direct presidential election under the 1925 Constitution.

Creates the Ministry of Public Education as part of a wider reorganization of the state.

Creates Carabineros de Chile by merging existing national police forces.

Begins his first presidency after consolidating power over the civilian administration.

Consolidates an authoritarian presidency after eliminating major political opposition.

Assumes presidential authority after Emiliano Figueroa resigns.

Promulgates Chile's first consolidated Labour Code before leaving office during the economic crisis.

Serves briefly as acting president after the resignation of Carlos Ibanez del Campo.

Resigns as economic collapse and political opposition undermine his government.

Assumes acting presidential duties immediately after Carlos Ibanez resigns.

Takes acting presidential authority during the 1931 institutional crisis.

Takes office as elected president before the Socialist Republic movement removes him.

Oversees the election that restores constitutional government after the political upheavals of 1932.

Begins his second elected presidency after the 1932 return to constitutional government.

Heads the first junta of the short-lived Socialist Republic of Chile.

Assumes acting presidential authority and organizes the return to constitutional elections.

Organizes the election that restores stable constitutional government.

Takes office for his second elected presidency and restores stable civilian administration.

Promulgates legislation granting women the right to vote in municipal elections.

Promulgates legislation introducing minimum-wage protections during his second presidency.

Promulgates legislation expanding preventive medical protection for workers.

Takes office as President of Chile at the head of the Popular Front coalition.

Establishes the Production Development Corporation to support reconstruction and industrialization.

Survives an attempted military challenge led by General Ariosto Herrera and maintains constitutional government.

Defines the claimed boundaries of the Chilean Antarctic Territory by presidential decree.

Assumes acting presidential powers after Pedro Aguirre Cerda dies.

Promulgates legislation establishing the National Prize for Literature.

Takes office as President of Chile during the Second World War.

Creates Chile Films by decree to develop a national film industry.

Breaks diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan during the Second World War.

Supports creation of the national electricity company ENDESA as part of state-led industrial development.

Wins election to the Senate and begins a long national parliamentary career.

First assumes acting presidential duties after the death of Juan Antonio Rios.

Returns briefly to acting presidential authority during the 1946 succession.

Serves briefly as acting president before Gabriel Gonzalez Videla is inaugurated.

Takes office as President of Chile after winning the 1946 election.

Breaks diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and several Eastern European governments.

Proclaims Chilean sovereignty and jurisdiction over a two-hundred-mile maritime zone.

Creates the Universidad Tecnica del Estado by reorganizing state technical education institutions.

Serves as Minister of Finance and pursues fiscal restraint during the Gonzalez Videla government.

Promulgates legislation outlawing the Communist Party and removing many members from electoral rolls.

Promulgates legislation granting women equal voting rights in presidential and parliamentary elections.

Creates the national petroleum company ENAP to develop Chilean oil resources.

Takes office for his second presidential administration.

Creates Banco del Estado de Chile by merging several public financial institutions.

Deploys security forces during violent protests against transport fare increases and rising living costs.

Begins an independent conservative administration focused on economic management.

Wins the presidential election after finishing ahead of Salvador Allende in the popular vote.

Promulgates electoral reform establishing a state-printed single ballot to reduce bribery and electoral manipulation.

Promulgates repeal of the Law for Permanent Defense of Democracy, restoring Communist political participation.

Is inaugurated as President of Chile after narrowly defeating Salvador Allende.

Promulgates Chile's first modern agrarian reform law.

Begins a reformist Christian Democratic administration.

Wins the presidential election with an absolute majority of the popular vote.

Launches social, educational, housing and agrarian reforms under the Revolution in Liberty programme.

Expands housing, education, rural organization and agrarian reform programmes.

Takes office as President of Chile and begins the Revolution in Liberty programme.

Negotiates increased state participation in the major foreign-owned copper companies.

Launches a major reform reorganizing education into preschool, basic, secondary and higher levels.

Promulgates legislation increasing Chilean state participation in major foreign-owned copper companies.

Becomes President of the Senate while remaining a leading Socialist presidential figure.

Promulgates legislation creating the national scientific and technological research commission CONICYT.

Promulgates legislation protecting the organization of agricultural workers.

Promulgates a stronger agrarian reform law permitting extensive land expropriation.

Negotiates majority state ownership in major copper operations as the next stage of Chileanization.

Confronts a military protest led by General Roberto Viaux at the Tacna Regiment.

Wins a plurality in the presidential election against Jorge Alessandri and Radomiro Tomic.

Oversees the election and constitutional transfer of power to Salvador Allende.

Completes constitutional reforms lowering the voting age and extending suffrage to citizens who cannot read or write.

Is confirmed as President-elect by the full Congress after winning a plurality.

Takes office as President of Chile after congressional confirmation of the election result.

Begins his single constitutional term as President of Chile.

Expands state ownership of banks and strategic industries during the Popular Unity government.

Signs the constitutional reform unanimously approved by Congress to nationalize the major copper mines.

Congress unanimously approves nationalization of the large copper mines

Promulgates the unanimous constitutional amendment nationalizing the large copper mines.

Forms a military-civilian cabinet while confronting a prolonged national transport strike.

Authorizes constitutional studies intended to replace the 1925 constitutional framework.

Establishes the commission charged with preparing proposals for a new constitution.

Death of Salvador Allende

Assumes leadership of the military junta after the armed forces overthrow the constitutional government.

Leads the military junta established after the armed forces overthrow President Salvador Allende.

The military junta dissolves the National Congress and assumes legislative authority.

The military government publishes principles defining its proposed political and institutional reconstruction.

Presents the military government as a programme of national reconstruction.

Sets out institutional objectives intended to guide the military government.

Establishes the National Intelligence Directorate as the regime's principal secret police organization.

Assumes executive power under the title Supreme Chief of the Nation.

Assumes the title President of the Republic while retaining command of the army.

Implements administrative regionalization that reorganizes Chile into thirteen regions.

Implements a nationwide regional administrative structure.

Creates the National Information Centre to replace DINA as the military government's intelligence organization.

Issues an amnesty covering many crimes committed during the first years of military rule.

Launches a package of structural reforms affecting pensions, health, education, labour relations and other social institutions.

Issues a decree recognizing the cueca as Chile's national dance.

Establishes a new individual-capitalization pension system through Decree Law 3,500.

The government declares approval of a new constitution in a plebiscite conducted without normal electoral registers.

Holds a plebiscite approving a new constitution without established democratic electoral safeguards.

Begins reforms permitting new private higher-education institutions and restructuring the university system.

Promulgates legislation regulating securities issuance and stock-market operations.

Begins allowing selected political exiles to return to Chile as domestic opposition increases.

Confronts the first nationwide protest against military rule amid recession and growing political opposition.

Reimposes a state of siege amid expanding opposition protests.

Responds to growing United States criticism of the military government’s human rights record.

Faces increasing international financial and diplomatic pressure over human rights violations.

Opposition organizations begin a two-day national strike against military rule.

The government confronts the second day of a nationwide opposition strike.

Tightens security measures after surviving the armed attack in Cajon del Maipo.

Attempts to assassinate Pinochet

Loses the plebiscite proposing that he remain president for another eight years.

Accepts constitutional reforms agreed between the military government and democratic opposition.

Oversees the election won by opposition candidate Patricio Aylwin.

Is elected president as the candidate of the Concertacion coalition.

Wins the first competitive presidential election held after the 1988 plebiscite.

Begins the first elected civilian government after the military regime.

Takes office as President of Chile and restores elected civilian government.

Creates the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation to investigate deaths and disappearances.

Presents the truth commission's findings and apologizes on behalf of the state.

Promulgates legislation recognizing indigenous peoples and creating the national indigenous development corporation.

Leads Chile as the country joins the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Takes office as President of Chile and begins the second Concertacion administration.

Begins the second successive government of the Concertacion coalition.

Takes office as President of Chile after winning the 1999-2000 runoff election.

Promulgates health reforms guaranteeing treatment for a defined group of medical conditions.

Leads Chile when its free trade agreement with South Korea enters into force.

Promulgates a new civil marriage law that introduces divorce into Chilean law.

Promulgates reforms removing appointed senators and reducing military influence over civilian institutions.

Takes office as Chile’s first woman president.

Death of Augusto Pinochet

Promulgates legislation establishing access-to-information duties and transparency rules for public institutions.

Promulgates a pension reform creating a solidarity pension system.

Promulgates the General Education Law, replacing the previous constitutional education framework with new national standards.

Declares emergency measures after a major earthquake and tsunami strike central and southern Chile.

Takes office as President of Chile for his first constitutional term.

Promulgates reform introducing automatic electoral registration and voluntary voting.

Promulgates a major tax reform intended to increase public revenue and help finance education and social policy.

Returns to office as President of Chile for a second non-consecutive term.

Promulgates legislation establishing civil unions for same-sex and opposite-sex couples.

Replaces the binomial congressional electoral system with a proportional representation system.

Promulgates legislation permitting abortion in three narrowly defined circumstances.

Returns to office as President of Chile for his second non-consecutive term.

Supports a political agreement establishing a process for drafting a new constitution.

Declares a constitutional state of catastrophe as COVID-19 spreads through Chile.

Holds a referendum in which voters approve drafting a new constitution.

Promulgates legislation establishing marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Promulgates legislation creating the Universal Guaranteed Pension while serving as acting Vice President.

Takes office as President of Chile at the beginning of the 2022-2026 term.

Accepts the referendum result rejecting the first proposed replacement constitution.

Promulgates legislation reducing the standard working week gradually to forty hours.

Accepts the referendum result rejecting the second proposed constitutional text.

Takes office as President of Chile for the 2026-2030 constitutional term.

Promulgates legislation increasing the statutory minimum wage and related family benefits.