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Lebanon
(Death
toll from Western invasion of Lebanon 1982: 20,000)
(Death toll from CIA terrorist bombing in Lebanon 1985: 81)
(Death toll from U.S.-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon 2006: 1,000)
Articles:
1957 - President Kamil Shamun accepts the Eisenhower Doctrine, announced
in January, which offers US economic and military aid to Middle Eastern countries to counteract Soviet influence in the region.
Quote
In Lebanon in 1957, the CIA supported Christian parties with U.S. government
money and donations by American oil companies that wanted to insure a friendly government in Lebanon, a pivotal Middle Eastern
country. Wilbur Crane Eveland, a CIA officer, later described driving his gold and white DeSoto onto the grounds of President
Camille Chamoun's residence in Beirut and delivering political payoffs. "Throughout the elections, I traveled regularly to
the presidential palace with a briefcase full of Lebanese pounds, then returned late at night to the embassy with an empty
twin case" to be replenished with CIA money, Eveland wrote in "Ropes of Sand" in 1980, a history of American policy failures
in the Middle East.
1958 14 July - Faced with increasing opposition which develops into
a civil war, President Shamun asks the US to send troops to preserve Lebanon's independence.
1958 15 July - The US,
mindful of Iraq's overthrow of its monarchy, sends marines to re-establish the government's authority.
Arab-Israeli war
1967 June - Lebanon plays no active role
in the Arab-Israeli war but is to be affected by its aftermath when Palestinians use Lebanon as a base for activities against
Israel.
1968 28 December - In retaliation for an attack by two members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) on an Israeli plane in Athens, Israel raids Beirut airport, destroying 13 civilian planes.
1969 November - Army
Commander-in-Chief Emile Bustani and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat sign an agreement in Cairo
which aims to control Palestinian guerrilla activities in Lebanon.
1973 10 April - Israeli commandos raid Beirut and
kill three Palestinian leaders, close associates of Arafat. The Lebanese government resigns the next day.
1975 13 April
- Phalangist gunmen ambush a bus in the Ayn-al-Rummanah district of Beirut, killing 27 of its mainly Palestinian passengers.
The Phalangists claim that guerrillas had previously attacked a church in the same district. (These clashes are regarded as
the start of the civil war).
1976 June - Syrian troops enter Lebanon to restore peace but also to curb the Palestinians.
1976
October - Following Arab summit meetings in Riyad and Cairo, a ceasefire is arranged and a predominantly Syrian Arab Deterrent
Force (ADF) is established to maintain it.
1978 14/15 March - In reprisal for a Palestinian attack into its territory,
Israel launches a major invasion of Lebanon, occupying land as far north as the Litani river.
1978 19 March - UN Security
Council (UNSC) passes Resolution 425, which calls on Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory and establishes the United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) to confirm the Israeli withdrawal, restore peace and help the Lebanese government
re-establish its authority in the area.
1978 - By 13 June Israel hands over territory in southern Lebanon not to UNIFIL
but to its proxy mainly Christian Lebanese militia under Maj Sa'd Haddad.
1982 6 June - Following the attempted assassination
of Shlomo Argov, Israeli ambassador to Britain, Israel launches a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, "Operation Peace for Galilee".
Sabra and Shatila massacres—why do we ignore them?Ariel Sharon, From Sabra/Shatila to Jenin"Limited War" in Lebanon1982 14 September - President-elect, Bashir al-Jumayyil,
is assassinated. The following day, Israeli forces occupy West Beirut, and from 16 to 18 September, the Phalangist militia
kill Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in West Beirut.
1982 21 September - Bashir's elder brother, Amin
al-Jumayyil, is elected president.
1982 24 September - The first contingent of a mainly US, French and Italian peacekeeping
force, requested by Lebanon, arrives in Beirut.
1983 17 May - Israel and Lebanon sign an agreement on Israeli withdrawal,
ending hostilities and establishing a security region in southern Lebanon.
1983 23 October - 241 US marines and 56
French paratroopers are killed in two bomb explosions in Beirut, responsibility for which is claimed by two militant Shia
groups.
1985 - By 6 June most Israeli troops withdraw but some remain to
support the mainly Christian South Lebanon Army (SLA) led by Maj-Gen Antoine Lahd which operates in a "security zone" in southern
Lebanon.
1985 16 June - A TWA plane lands in Beirut after having been hijacked on a flight from Athens to Rome by two
alleged members of Hezbollah demanding the release of Shia in Israeli jails. The crisis is resolved with the help of Syrian
mediation.
1987 21 May - Lebanon abrogates the 1969 Cairo agreement with the PLO as well as officially cancelling the
17 May 1983 agreement with Israel.
1987 1 June - After Prime Minister Rashid Karami is killed when a bomb explodes
in his helicopter, Salim al-Huss becomes acting prime minister.
1988 22 September - When no candidate is elected to
succeed him, outgoing President Amin al-Jumayyil appoints a six-member interim military government, composed of three Christians
and three Muslims, though the latter refuse to serve. Lebanon now has two governments - one mainly Muslim in West Beirut,
headed by Al-Huss, the other, Christian, in East Beirut, led by the Maronite Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Gen Michel Awn.
1989
14 March - Awn declares a "war of liberation " against the Syrian presence in Lebanon.
1989 28 July - Shaykh Abd-al-Karim
Ubayd, Hezbollah leader in Jibshit, is abducted by Israeli forces.
1989 22 October - The National Assembly, meeting
in Ta'if, Saudi Arabia, endorses a Charter of National Reconciliation, which reduces the authority of the president by transferring
executive power to the cabinet. The National Assembly now has an equal number of Christian and Muslim members instead of the
previous six to five ratio.
1989 November - President-elect Rene Mu'awwad is assassinated on 22 November and succeeded
by Ilyas al-Hirawi on 24 November. The following day, Salim al-Huss becomes prime minister and Gen Emile Lahoud replaces Awn
as Commander-in-Chief of the Army on 28 November.
Civil war ends
1990 13 October - The Syrian air force attacks
the Presidential Palace at B'abda and Awn takes refuge in the French embassy. This date is regarded as the end of the civil
war.
1990 24 December - Umar Karami heads a government of national reconciliation.
1991 - The National Assembly
orders the dissolution of all militias by 30 April but Hezbollah is allowed to remain active and the South Lebanon Army (SLA)
refuses to disband.
1991 22 May - A Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination is signed in Damascus by Lebanon
and Syria and a Higher Council, co-chaired by their two presidents, is established.
1991 1 July - The Lebanese army
defeats the PLO in Sidon so that it now confronts the Israelis and the SLA in Jazzin, north of the so-called "security zone".
1991
26 August - The National Assembly grants an amnesty for all crimes committed during the civil war, 1975-1990. Awn receives
a presidential pardon and is allowed to leave for France.
1991 30 October - Lebanon participates in the Middle East
Peace Conference launched in Madrid.
1992 16 February - Shaykh Abbas al-Musawi, Secretary-General of Hezbollah, is
killed when Israeli helicopter gunships attack his motorcade on a road south-east of Sidon
1992 20 October - After
elections in August and September (the first since 1972), Nabih Birri, secretary-general of the Shia Amal organisation, becomes
speaker of the National Assembly.
1992 31 October - Rafik Hariri, a rich businessman, born in Sidon but with Saudi
Arabian nationality, becomes prime minister, heading a cabinet of technocrats.
1993 25 July - Israel attempts to end
the threat from Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) in southern Lebanon
by launching "Operation Accountability", the heaviest attack since 1982.
1994 21 May - Mustafa Dib al-Dirani, head
of the Believers' Resistance, a breakaway group from the Shia Amal organisation, is abducted by Israeli commandos from his
house in eastern Lebanon.
1996 11 April - "Operation Grapes of Wrath", in which the Israelis bomb Hezbollah bases in
southern Lebanon, the southern district of Beirut and the Biqa.
1996 18 April - An Israeli attack on a UN base at Qana
results in the death of over 100 Lebanese refugees sheltering there.
1996 26 April - US negotiates a truce and an "understanding"
under which Hezbollah and Palestinian guerrillas agree not to attack civilians in northern Israel, and which recognises Israel's
right to self-defence but also Hezbollah's right to resist the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. Lebanon and Syria do
not sign the "understanding" but the Israel-Lebanon Monitoring Group (ILMG), with members from the US, France, Israel, Lebanon
and Syria, is set up to monitor the truce.
1998 1 April - Israel's inner cabinet votes to accept UN Security Council
Resolution 425 of 1978 if Lebanon guarantees the security of Israel's northern border. Both Lebanon and Syria reject this
condition.
1998 24 November - Army head Emile Lahoud is sworn in as president, succeeding Ilyas al-Hirawi.
1998
4 December - Salim al-Huss becomes prime minister heading a cabinet which includes no militia leaders and only two ministers
from the previous administration.
1999 3 June - South Lebanon Army (SLA) completes its withdrawal from the Jazzin salient
(north of the "security zone") occupied since 1985.
2000 5 March - Israeli cabinet votes for the unilateral withrawal
of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon by July 2000.
2000 18 April - Israel releases 13 Lebanese prisoners held without
trial for more than 10 years but extends the detention of Shaykh Abd-al-Karim Ubayd and Mustafa Dib al-Dirani.
2000
24 May - After the collapse of the SLA and the rapid advance of Hezbollah forces, Israel withdraws its troops from southern
Lebanon, more than six weeks before its stated deadline of 7 July.
2000 25 May - 25 May declared an annual public holiday,
called "Resistance and Liberation Day".
2000 October - Rafik Hariri takes office as prime minister for a second time.
2001 March - Lebanon begins pumping water from a tributary of the River Jordan to supply a southern border village
despite opposition from Israel.
2002 January - Elie Hobeika, a key figure in the massacres of Palestinian refugees
in 1982, dies in a blast shortly after disclosing that he held videotapes and documents challenging Israel's account of the
massacres.
2002 September - Row with Israel over Lebanon's plan to divert water from a border river. Israel says it
cannot tolerate the diversion of the Wazzani, which provides 10% of its drinking water, and threatens the use of military
force.
2003 August - Car bomb in Beirut kills a member of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group. Hezbollah and a government
minister blame Israel for the blast.
2004 September - UN Security Council resolution - aimed at Syria - demands that
foreign troops leave Lebanon. Syria dismisses the move.
2005 February - Former prime minister Rafik Hariri is killed
by a car bomb in Beirut. The attack sparks anti-Syrian rallies and the resignation of Prime Minister Omar Karami's cabinet.
Calls for Syria to withdraw its troops intensify.
2005 March - Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese attend pro- and anti-Syrian
rallies in Beirut.
2005 April - Omar Karami resigns as PM after failing to form a government. He is succeeded by moderate
pro-Syrian MP Najib Mikati.
2005 June - Prominent journalist Samir Qasir, a critic of Syrian influence, is killed
by a car bomb.
2005 July - Lebanese PM Siniora meets Syria's President Assad; both sides agree to rebuild relations.
2005 September - Four pro-Syrian generals are charged over the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.
2005
December - Prominent anti-Syrian MP and journalist Gibran Tueni is killed by a car bomb.
2006 February - Denmark's
embassy in Beirut is torched during a demonstration against cartoons in a Danish paper satirising the Prophet Muhammad.
2006
July - Israel launches air and sea attacks on targets in Lebanon after Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group captures two Israeli
soldiers. Civilian casualties are high and the damage to civilian infrastructure wide-ranging. Thousands of people are displaced.
In August Israeli ground troops thrust into southern Lebanon.
Sometimes the Dog Wags the Tail Israel, Oil and the "planned demolition" of Lebanon
2006 August - Truce between Israel and Hezbollah
comes into effect on 14 August after 34 days of fighting and the deaths of around 1,000 Lebanese - mostly civilians - and
159 Israelis, mainly soldiers. A UN peacekeeping force, expected to consist of 15,000 foreign troops, begins to deploy along
the southern border.
2006 September - Lebanese government forces deploy along the Israeli border for the first time
in decades.
2006 November - Ministers from Hezbollah and the Amal movement resign shortly before the cabinet approves
draft UN plans for a tribunal to try suspects in the killing of the former prime minister Hariri.
2006 December -
Thousands of opposition demonstrators in Beirut demand the resignation of the government.
2007 January - Hezbollah-led
opposition steps up pressure on the government to resign by calling general strike.
2007 March - Tent town which sprang
up in central Beirut as part of the opposition sit-in to demand more say in government, remains in place 100 days after start
of protest.
2007 May-September - Siege of the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al-Bared following clashes between militants
and the military. More than 300 people die and 40,000 residents flee before the army gains control of the camp.
2007
May - UN Security Council votes to set up a tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of ex-premier Hariri.
2007
June - Anti-Syrian MP Walid Eido is killed in a bomb attack in Beirut.
2007 September - Anti-Syrian MP Antoine Ghanim
is killed by a car bomb.
2007 November - President Emile Lahoud steps down after parliament fails to elect his successor.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora says his cabinet will assume powers of presidency.
2007 December - Car bomb kills Gen
Francois al-Hajj, who had been tipped to become army chief.
2008 January - Bomb blast apparently aimed at a US diplomatic
vehicle in Beirut kills four.
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