The opposition party of Myanmar's 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 where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century.
Here are some key events in the life of Ms 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 General 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. Ms Suu Kyi is 2 years old.
- 1960: After finishing high school, she 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: Ms 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: Ms 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: Ms 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. Ms Suu Kyi's party wins a landslide victory, but the military refuses to hand over power.
- October 1991: Ms Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful struggle against the regime.
- July 1995: Ms 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: Mr Aris, who has not seen his wife since 1995 because the junta repeatedly denied him a visa, dies of cancer in England.
- September 2000: Ms Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest after attempting to leave Yangon for a political meeting.
- May 2002: Ms Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.
- May 2003: Ms 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: Ms 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: Ms Suu Kyi's detention expires and she is freed.
- Jan. 18, 2012: Ms 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. Mrs 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.