Jan 31 (Reuters) - Moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed won the Somali presidency on Saturday in a parliamentary vote.

Here is a timeline of events since Islamists were driven from the capital, Mogadishu, in December 2006:

Dec. 28, 2006 - Islamists flee Mogadishu ahead of a joint Ethiopian and Somali government force which captures the city.

Jan. 8, 2007 - President Abdullahi Yusuf arrives in Mogadishu for the first time since he became president in 2004.

Aug. 30 - Yusuf winds up a six-week-long peace conference, which has no visible impact on growing insurgency. Islamists and some other opposition figures boycott the talks.

May 1, 2008 - U.S. air strike kills al Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayro.

Aug. 18 - Somalia formally signs a peace deal with some opposition figures, but the pact is rejected by hardliners.

Aug. 22 - Al Shabaab insurgents seize Kismayu, a strategic southern port, after fighting that killed 70 people.

Nov. 14 - President Yusuf admits Islamist insurgents control most of the country, raising the prospect his government could completely collapse.

Dec. 29 - Yusuf resigns and says that parliament speaker Sheikh Aden Madobe will take over as interim President.

Jan. 2, 2009 - Ethiopia says it has started pulling its troops out of Somalia.

Jan. 26 - Last Ethiopian soldiers leave. Fighters from al Shabaab move into Baidoa, capturing an old granary serving as Somalia's parliament.

Jan. 31 - Moderate Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed wins the presidency in a parliamentary vote in Djibouti under a U.N.-brokered plan to broker a unity government.

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