977 German emperor Otto II grants Lower Lorraine, where modern-day Brussels is located, to Charles, Duke of Lower Lorraine, illegitimate son of King Louis IV of France.
1585 The Spanish seize Brussels.
1835 In Belgium a railway is opened between Brussels and Mechelen. It is the first railway in continental Europe. (See Rail transport in Belgium)
1900 Strikers in Aachen, Vienna and Brussels demand an 8 hour working day and higher wages.
1902 Police physically abuse universal suffrage demonstrators in Brussels.
1910 fire at World Exhibition in Brussels destroys exhibitions of Britain and France.
1914 World War I: German forces occupy Brussels.
1918 November 22
1940 Brussels falls to German forces; Belgian government flees to Ostend.
1944 Allies liberate Brussels.
1947 15,000 demonstrate in Brussels against the relatively short sentences of Nazis.
1958 King Baudouin of Belgium officially opens the World Fair in Brussels, also known as Expo '58.
1960 February 10
1961 A Sabena Boeing 707 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
1966 NATO moves its HQ from Paris to Brussels.
1967 The ''Innovation'' department store in the centre of Brussels (Belgium) burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, which results in 323 dead and missing and 150 wounded.
1971 Angry Belgian farmers bring three live cows to crash the EEC meeting in Brussels.
1971 A Brussels court sentences pretender Alexis Brimeyer to 18 months in jail for falsely using a noble title; Brimeyer has already fled to Greece.
1990 Gerald Bull, a Canadian engineer who developed long-range artillery, is assassinated in Brussels.