TIMELINE: Tensions rise with fresh turmoil in Thailand

(Reuters) - A grenade attack on protesters occupying the Thai prime minister's office in Bangkok killed one person and wounded 23 on Thursday, the most serious assault on the three-month sit-in.

Here is a timeline recapping the political turmoil that has dogged the Southeast Asian country for the past three years.

2005

* Sept: Sondhi Limthongkul, a former business associate of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra starts the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) street campaign to oust Thaksin.

2006

* April 2: Thaksin wins a snap election called to silence Sondhi. Opposition boycotts poll, court later nullifies result.

* September 19: Military stages coup while Thaksin is at U.N. headquarters in New York. He retreats into exile in London.

* October 1: Former army commander-in-chief Surayud Chulanont sworn in as interim prime minister.

2007

* March 26: Thaksin's wife, Potjaman, her brother and secretary charged with tax evasion.

* May 30: Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party is dissolved for breaking election laws. He and 110 senior party members are banned from politics for five years.

* August 20: Voters endorse new, military-drafted constitution, the 18th in 75 years of on-off democracy.

* December 23: Pro-Thaksin People Power Party (PPP) falls just short of outright majority in a general election.

2008

* Jan 8: Thaksin's wife, Potjaman, returns to Thailand after months of exile to fight corruption charges.

* Jan 28: PPP leader Samak Sundaravej elected prime minister.

* Feb 28: Thaksin flies to Bangkok after 18 months in exile.

* May 25: PAD resumes street protests to overthrow what it says is a "Thaksin puppet" government.

* July 31: Potjaman gets three year jail term for tax fraud. Freed on bail, she and Thaksin fly to Beijing for Olympics opening ceremony on August 8.

* Aug 11: Thaksin and wife skip bail, flee to London.

* Aug 26: Thousands of protesters storm state broadcaster NBT and Samak's official compound in a bid to unseat his government.

* Sept 2: Samak declares state of emergency in Bangkok after one person is killed and 45 hurt in clashes.

* Sept 9: Constitutional Court finds Samak guilty of violating constitution by hosting TV cooking shows while in office. Says he must quit.

* Oct 7: Deadly riots kill two people and injure more than 400 in Bangkok in worst street violence in 16 years.

* Oct 21: Supreme Court sentences Thaksin to two years in jail in absentia for breaking conflict-of-interest law.

* Nov 1: Thaksin urges Thais to bring him home in a phone address to a huge pro-government rally in Bangkok.

* Nov 8: Britain revokes visas for Thaksin and his wife.

* Nov 16: Thaksin announces he and Potjaman have divorced.

* Nov 20: Grenade attack on PAD protesters occupying the prime minister's office kills one person and wounds 23.

Source: Reuters

(Compiled by Bangkok bureau and Gillian Murdoch, Singapore Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Valerie Lee)