Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, was freed from house arrest Saturday. She has spent more than 15 of the past 21 years in prison or detained in her lakeside home.

Here are some key events in the life of Suu Kyi, whose struggle for democracy in Myanmar, also called Burma, has made her one of the world's most famous political prisoners.

 EARLY LIFE

 June 19, 1945: Born in Yangon, then called Rangoon. She is the daughter of national hero Gen. 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. Suu Kyi is 2.

 1960: After finishing high school, Suu Kyi 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: 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: 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: 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. Suu Kyi's party wins a landslide victory, but the military refuses to hand over power.

 October 1991: Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful struggle against the regime.

 July 1995: 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: Aris, who has not seen his wife since 1995 because the junta repeatedly denied him a visa, dies of cancer in England.

 September 2000: Suu Kyi is placed under house arrest after attempting to leave Yangon for a political meeting.

 May 2002: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.

 May 2003: 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.

 Aug. 11, 2009: 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: Suu Kyi's detention expires and she is freed.