TIMELINE: Ghana was trail blazer of independence in Africa

(Reuters) - Ghana's opposition leader John Atta Mills was sworn in as the West African country's president on Wednesday after a narrow victory in last week's run-off vote.

He succeeds President John Kufuor, who stepped down after serving the maximum two elected four-year terms allowed by the constitution.

Here is a timeline of Ghana since independence:

March 6, 1957 - The former British colony of Gold Coast becomes the first country in black Sub-Saharan Africa to win independence.

July 1960 - Kwame Nkrumah becomes president of the Republic of Ghana, months after a republican constitution is ratified by a referendum.

February 1966 - Nkrumah is overthrown after a military coup. Russian and Chinese technicians are expelled.

August 1969 - A new constitution is ratified leading to a transfer of power to the civilian government of Kofi Busia.

January 1972 - Busia is ousted in coup led by Colonel Ignatius Acheampong. General Frederick Akuffo takes over in 1978.

June 1979 - Akuffo is deposed in a coup led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings. Elections are held and in September Rawlings hands over power to a new president, Hilla Limann.

January 1981 - Limann is overthrown in coup led by Rawlings after two years of weak economic policies.

November 1992 - Rawlings is elected president.

January 2001 - Former opposition leader John Kufuor is sworn in as new president after Rawlings served the two elected terms he is allowed.

December 2004 - Kufuor wins second and final four-year mandate.

June 2007 - London-based Tullow Oil Plc says it has found up to 600 million barrels of oil offshore.

December 7, 2008 - First round of presidential election. Neither Nana Akufo-Addo of the ruling New Patriotic Party nor John Atta Mills of the opposition National Democratic Congress wins more than the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off.

December 28, 2008 - Presidential runoff vote held in all but one of Ghana's 230 constituencies. Results show Mills ahead with 50.13 percent of votes, ahead of Akufo-Addo on 49.87 percent. With barely 23,000 votes separating the two, vote goes down to final constituency of Tain, which has 53,000 voters.