. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador
; Santa Ana
and San Miguel
are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America. El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the countries of Guatemala
to the north and Honduras
to the east. Its eastern-most region lies on the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca
, opposite Nicaragua
.
1821 Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica jointly declare independence from Spain.
1851 Honduras and El Salvador, during their invasion of Guatemala, are repelled at the Battle of La Arada.
1895 El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua form the Greater Republic of Central America.
1953 Ernesto "Che" Guevara sets out on a trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador.
1969 Football War: after Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.
1969 A cease fire is announced between Honduras and El Salvador, 6 days after the beginning of the "Football War"
1980 Archbishop Óscar Romero of El Salvador gives his famous speech appealing to men of the El Salvadoran armed forces to stop killing the Salvadorans.
1980 El Salvador and Honduras sign a peace treaty to put the border dispute fought over in 1969's Football War before the International Court of Justice.
1980 Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, are murdered by a death squad in El Salvador.
1981 El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.