270 entries on 249 dates · the books disagree on 56
dates 1–60 of 249 next
August 1971
Wednesday, 18 August 1971
The road to war · From the books
Yuhanna Bassul is elected Greek Catholic bishop of Zahle.
Elected Greek Catholic bishop of Zahle on 18 August 1971, Yuhanna Bassul was welcomed with ceremony in the town and in Christian villages of the northern Bekaa. His journals, covering 1971-1976 and long unknown, are a rare source on how the war came to Zahle.
Art and memory- book Bishop Yuhanna Bassul's journals for 1971-1976, kept at the Greek Catholic archbishopric of Sayyidat al-Najat in Zahle, surfaced during fieldwork in 2016. They trace tensions over the Palestinian question in Zahle and Ta'labaya.
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May 1973
Wednesday, 2 May 1973
The road to war · From the books
Heavy fighting as the army rings Beirut's Palestinian camps.
More than 100 Lebanese and Palestinians were killed in two weeks of fighting that began on 2 May, when the army deployed around Beirut's largest Palestinian camps; the CIA called these the worst clashes since 1969. Uprisings broke out in Sidon and Tripoli, and Beirut's Muslim neighbourhoods filled with demonstrators.
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October 1973
Saturday, 20 October 1973
The road to war · From the books
Armed robbery of the Bank of America in Beirut.
This raid on the Bank of America was the first major hold-up, coming before the war; once fighting began, bank robberies became common.
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January 1974
Friday, 18 January 1974
The road to war · From the books
Egypt and Israel sign the first Sinai disengagement agreement.
Kissinger's shuttle diplomacy produced the first Egyptian-Israeli disengagement agreement in Sinai. Hanf argues that the disengagements left Lebanon as the only front open to Palestinian armed struggle.
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April 1974
Tuesday, 2 April 1974
The road to war · From the books
Left-wing union federations call their own general strike.
The leftist federations called a general strike on their own, after a big demonstration against inflation. Tufaro says it opened the way to the first real gains: peasants entered the social security fund, and Article 50 of the Labour Law, which let employers sack workers at will, was partly reformed.
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February 1975
Tuesday, 18 February 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Imam Musa al-Sadr preaches in a Beirut church.
Imam Musa al-Sadr, invited by Archbishop Boulos Bassim, gave a Lenten sermon at Saint-Louis, the Capuchins' church in Beirut. Amal, his movement, was already secretly training with weapons in the Bekaa.
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Thursday, 20 February 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Pierre Gemayel calls for a referendum on the armed Palestinian presence.
Kataeb leader Pierre Gemayel called for a referendum on whether Palestinian commandos should stay in Lebanon. He had already pressed the PLO to rein in its breakaway factions, and spoke of 'two governments and two armies'.
Sources differ: Traboulsi and Picard give no day.
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March 1975
Tuesday, 4 March 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Kataeb march in Beirut in support of the army.
On 4 March 1975 the Kataeb rallied in East Beirut for the army, which Muslim leaders and the Left blamed for the Sidon shooting. Hanf finds that rival pro- and anti-army marches helped brand the army a Christian instrument.
Sources differ: Picard places the march on the day after the Sidon demonstration.
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May 1975
Tuesday, 20 May 1975
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Five people were killed and 24 were wounded in Dekwaneh
Violent confrontations opposed Palestinians from the Tell El Zaatar camp and Phalange Party members. Businesses were closed in protest against the lack of security.
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July 1975
Wednesday, 2 July 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Al-Qaa, a Christian village of the northern Bekaa, comes under attack.
Several villagers were killed and houses and fields burned when gunmen besieged al-Qaa, a Christian village by the Syrian border. De Clerck and Malsagne date the Christian exodus from the northern Bekaa from this attack. Amal fighters from neighbouring villages later shielded al-Qaa and other Christian villages.
Sources differ: Attackers: fedayeen (Tegho Bou Nassif), local Shiites (de Clerck and Malsagne), or Fatah, Saiqa, SSNP, Communists and a Shiite clan (Hanf). Dead: 5 or 7. Hanf places the attack before the Karami cabinet was formed (late June).
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August 1975
Monday, 18 August 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The National Movement publishes its reform programme.
The Lebanese National Movement published a transitional programme of democratic reform. Its demands included a constituent assembly, administrative decentralisation and an optional civil code of personal status, together with proportional representation in a single national constituency and an end to sectarian quotas.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne's chronology gives 12 August. Tufaro's 18 August comes from the date printed on the LNM document itself and is preferred here.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 12 August 1975
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September 1975
Tuesday, 2 September 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Fedayeen stab to death the Christian owner of a Ta'labaya wheat mill and his two sons.
At Ta'labaya near Zahleh, a Christian wheat-mill owner and his two sons were knifed to death by intruding fedayeen.
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Saturday, 20 September 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Zahleh is shelled.
Five days after the Kataeb and the Tajammu called a general mobilisation (15 September), 25 rockets and 17 mortar rounds hit Zahleh.
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October 1975
Thursday, 2 October 1975
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Rachid Karameh presided the meeting of the Ç National Committee for dialog È at the Serail. The committee decided that all armed elements will have to back up from their positions before the next day and will be replaced by Interior Security Forces.
What the books addFormed in September 1975 through Syria's foreign minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, the National Dialogue Committee of some twenty leaders debated secularism and ending sectarian quotas; Hanf says it broke up empty-handed.
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Saturday, 4 October 1975
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Interior Security Forces held in check a land attack against the Beirut International Airport where 4 armed men tried to kidnap an airplane in order to go to Cairo.
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Religious leaders meet at Bkerke and condemn the violence.
Lebanon's religious leaders, every community represented, jointly condemned the violence after a summit hosted by Patriarch Khuraych at Bkerke and continued at Dar al-Fatwa, seat of Mufti Hassan Khaled.
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Monday, 20 October 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Battle of the Hotels begins.
The battle for Beirut's seafront hotels began. The Sunni Murabitun militia, allied with the National Movement and the PLO, fought from the Murr tower against the Kataeb in the Holiday Inn. Five months of close-quarters fighting wrecked central Beirut.
Sources differ: Traboulsi dates the launch of the battle to after Black Saturday (6 December).
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November 1975
Sunday, 2 November 1975
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Chuchu, the famous actor died from a hart attack. His real name was Hassan Alaeddine, the friend of younger and older kids was the most popular comedian on stage and on TV.
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December 1975
Saturday, 20 December 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
PLA troops cross from Syria and besiege Zahleh.
Syrian guns in the Anti-Lebanon shelled Zahleh as 3,000 men of the PLA's Yarmouk Brigade, under Syrian officers, crossed the border and besieged it from 20 December: Syria was now intervening directly.
Sources differ: Tegho Bou Nassif dates the first Yarmouk infiltration near Zahleh to 30 October 1975.
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January 1976
Sunday, 4 January 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The siege of Tal al-Za'tar camp begins.
Christian militias besieged Tal al-Za'tar, the Palestinian camp in East Beirut, until it fell on 12 August 1976.
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Sunday, 18 January 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Karantina massacre
Christian forces conquered Karantina, a slum district populated primarily by poor Kurds and Armenians but controlled by a PLO detachment. More than 1000 civilians were massacred.
What the books addDates differ between historians: 16 January (Ménargues), 18 January (de Clerck and Malsagne; consistent with Fisk), 19 January (Hanf), 20 or 22 January (Traboulsi). Maslakh, next door, fell at the same time. Most of the district's people were Shi'is, living alongside Palestinians, Kurds and Armenian Lebanese. Haugbolle estimates 150-500 dead, de Clerck and Malsagne 600-1,000; some 30,000 people were driven out to West Beirut and the southern suburbs.
Art and memory- film Les Enfants de la guerre, Jocelyne Saab's 1976 documentary, was shot in the aftermath of the Karantina massacre.
- place The B018 nightclub, put up at Karantina in 1998, was given a coffin-like look that Haugbolle reads as an allusion to the massacre there.
- book Jonathan Randal's reporting made the Karantina and Damour massacres known abroad.
Other dates in the books: Friday, 16 January 1976, Monday, 19 January 1976, Tuesday, 20 January 1976, Thursday, 22 January 1976
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Tuesday, 20 January 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Damour massacre
Avenging the massacre of Karantina by Christian forces 2 days before, Palestinians and leftist Muslims attacked the Christian city of Damour, located about 20 kilometers south of Beirut, and murdered 350 civilians.
What the books addThe siege of Damour had begun on 9 January, before the fall of Karantina; the main massacre began on 20 January (Hanf, Ménargues, Fisk, de Clerck and Malsagne; Traboulsi gives 22 or 24 January). Jiyeh fell the same day. The attackers were mainly PLA, Saiqa and Fatah units, with Lebanese leftist parties. Estimates of the dead range from about 150 bodies found plus 200 missing (Fisk) and 300-584 (de Clerck and Malsagne) to about 900 (Ménargues); some 5,000 people fled by land and sea.
Art and memory- film Ziad Doueiri's The Insult (2017) recalls the Damour massacre.
- photograph The German magazine Stern published a photograph taken during the Damour massacre of January 1976.
- novel Farid and Michel Gharib's novel Damour, Man Anti (1978) tells of Damour up to the massacre.
Other dates in the books: Friday, 9 January 1976, Friday, 16 January 1976, Monday, 19 January 1976, Thursday, 22 January 1976, Saturday, 24 January 1976
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March 1976
Thursday, 18 March 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Assad tells the US ambassador that Frangieh has asked for Syrian military help.
When Murphy raised the security of Israel's borders, Assad said he could promise nothing but hoped Washington would persuade Israel this internal Arab matter did not concern it. Frangieh, he said, had asked Syria for military help.
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Kamal Jumblatt's forces launch the 'Mountain War'.
Kamal Jumblatt, head of the National Movement, attacked on two fronts, Beirut and the Mountain, to crush the Christian camp militarily. That day's Druze attacks brought several massacres of Christians, some of them Jumblatt supporters.
Sources differ: Hanf places the main Joint Forces offensive in the Upper Metn in the last week of March.
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April 1976
Friday, 2 April 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A ten-day truce had bee decided, in order to elect a new President of the Republic after the expected departure of Sleiman Frangieh.
What the books addParliament used the truce to amend Article 73 of the constitution so that Frangieh's successor could be elected early: on 9 April according to Hanf, 10 April according to Yara El Khoury. The truce had coincided with the arrival on 31 March of the US envoy Dean Brown.
Other dates in the books: Wednesday, 31 March 1976, Friday, 9 April 1976, Saturday, 10 April 1976
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May 1976
June 1976
Wednesday, 2 June 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The residents of Beirut and its surroundings were living in the dark. The last cable supplying the capital with power had been broken. Daily life was very difficult.
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Bashir Gemayel and Kamal Jumblatt meet secretly.
For an end to military pressure on Bikfaya, Bashir Gemayel offered Kamal Jumblatt full secularisation when they met secretly in West Beirut; Jumblatt offered to keep a Maronite president and a senate. Both opposed the Syrian intervention. That day the Lebanese Front, in its last statement of the year, asked Frangieh to coordinate with Sarkis.
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Friday, 18 June 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Palestinian Progressive forces launched attacks against the Syrian forces positioned in Ain Zhalta and Ain Dara in order to stop their advance in the Chouf.
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
President Gerald Ford ordered the US embassy in Beirut to evacuate urgently all US nationals in Lebanon who would like to return home.
What the books addBarely a tenth of American and British residents accepted the evacuation, Fisk writes. The British went by road, the PLO escorting them through West Beirut and a Libyan officer on to the Syrian lines; a day later a US landing craft took evacuees off from a PLO-guarded bathing club on the Corniche.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 16 June 1976
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July 1976
Tuesday, 20 July 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Assad publicly justifies the Syrian intervention.
In a long speech in Damascus President Assad defended the intervention as protecting Lebanon's unity, and recounted his meetings with Jumblatt and Arafat.
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September 1976
Saturday, 4 September 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Bleeding continued in the ports. Massive emigration went on in the same intensity. Hundreds of families flew every day by sea escaping from hell.
What the books addHistorians disagree on 1976: Haugbolle ranks it among the war's largest emigration waves, while de Clerck and Malsagne see many returning that year after nearly 400,000 Lebanese had left by 1975. Haugbolle notes that no official figures exist.
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November 1976
Saturday, 20 November 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The third phase of the peace plan started. 250 tanks and 11 battalions entered Zghorta, Ehden, Tripoli and the Koura. In South Lebanon, the 'Green Helmets' took position in Saïda, and Zahrani. The Arab Dissuasion Force was not able to enter Tyr, Nabatyeh, Marjeyoun, and Masnaa because of the Israeli opposition to any Arab military presence beyond its famous 'red line'.
What the books addIsrael, Hanf notes, would accept no Arab troops south of the 'red line', Syrian ones least of all. When a Syrian unit entered Nabatiyeh in January 1977, an Israeli protest got it withdrawn and the Palestinians kept the town.
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December 1976
February 1977
Friday, 4 February 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Government promulgated a decree concerning wartime conflicts between owners and renters.
The decree stipulated mainly that rent contracts remained operative, while backlogs will be staggered on 18 months with no interest for all rents under 5,000 Lebanese Pounds. As to destroyed properties, there were three possibilities: reconstruct, compensate the renters, or give them shares.
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June 1977
August 1977
September 1977
Tuesday, 20 September 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While bombardments and fights were taking place along the border since September 16, Radio Israel announced that Israel had sent a warning to Syria, indicating that no Syrian troop movement will be tolerated in Southern Lebanon.
What the books addRobert Fisk, who reported from the area, saw Israeli tanks on Lebanese soil near Ibl al-Saqi and Israeli shelling of Christian villages such as Rachaya al-Fukhar, where Palestinian guerrillas had dug in.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 21 September 1977
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October 1977
December 1977
Tuesday, 20 December 1977
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
An-Nahar publishes a Lebanese Front memorandum on the Christians' future.
Lebanon's Christians faced a threat to their survival, the Lebanese Front argued in a memorandum carried by An-Nahar, as a Muslim majority would oppress whatever its intentions.
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January 1978
Friday, 20 January 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A new armament and US equipment shipment sent to the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces arrived at the Port of Beirut. It included a hundred armored vehicles and cistern trucks.
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February 1978
May 1978
Tuesday, 2 May 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A fight opposed the UNIFL and the Palestinians. The French barrack in Tyr was bombed and the commander of the French contingent was seriously injured.
What the books addColonel Jean Germain Salvan was badly hurt in both legs in early May, Fisk writes, when dissident PLO gunmen fired on the Fatah jeep carrying him, killing a French soldier and his Palestinian driver; Arafat called it a crime. Hanf adds that such losses made the French unit much more careful.
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June 1978
July 1978
Tuesday, 18 July 1978
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Sarkis withdraws his resignation after the Syrian shelling stops.
President Sarkis took back his resignation once Syria had halted its shelling of East Beirut.
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October 1978
Wednesday, 4 October 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The bombardments reached Bikfaya and Beit-Mery while in East Beirut there was a shortage of food and medications. The Security Council called for the urgent ending of the combats.
What the books addAccording to de Clerck and Malsagne, the Security Council's call for a ceasefire came on 6 October.
Other date in the books: Friday, 6 October 1978
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November 1978
December 1978
March 1979
Tuesday, 20 March 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A car bomb containing explosives operated by remote control, parked next to the military council of the Phalange Party was found. This attack aimed at the chief of the Lebanese Forces, Bechir Gemayel.
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April 1979
Wednesday, 18 April 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
An army battalion deployed in the UNIFL zone in the South, despite bombardments by Saad Haddad’s militias against the Lebanese soldiers. The latter have come all the way from Yarze. The same day, the rebel officer Saad Haddad proclaimed the State of Free Lebanon. He was dismissed from the Lebanese army the following day.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne and Picard agree that Haddad declared his 'State of Free Lebanon' at Marjayoun on 18 April 1979, in reaction to the army being sent towards the UNIFIL area under the March 1979 defence law; de Clerck and Malsagne put its size at 250 square kilometres and call it entirely reliant on Israel. Hanf has Haddad's troops stopping the battalion; de Clerck and Malsagne and Picard, Israeli aircraft bombing it; Fisk, Israel letting its militia shell it. Traboulsi dates Haddad's break to his Army of Free Lebanon of June 1976, Ménargues to a secession at the end of 1977. Hanf adds that once Haddad had lost his rank and been dismissed in disgrace, Israel paid his men.
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June 1979
Monday, 18 June 1979
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The army enters Ain al-Rummaneh and clashes with Bashir Gemayel's militiamen.
Unable to stop the fighting between their own militias, Pierre Gemayel and Camille Chamoun turned to President Sarkis, who sent in the army. In Ain al-Rummaneh the troops clashed bloodily with Bashir Gemayel's Kataeb fighters, the first serious confrontation between the army and a Lebanese militia, and relations between the army and the Lebanese Forces worsened thereafter.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne put the Ain al-Rummaneh turning point on 18 June (p. 275) but have the army called in on 14 June in another passage (p. 321). Original entry 272, of 16 June, expected the army to move in early the following week, which fits Monday 18 June.
Other date in the books: Saturday, 12 May 1979
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July 1979
August 1979
September 1979
October 1979
Thursday, 4 October 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A light earthquake shook the region of Saida without any victim.
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Minister of Foreign affairs, Fouad Boutros, called upon the United Nations to end Israeli aggressions in the South, to freeze the activities of the Fedayin, to reinforce the UNIFL, and to dissociate the Lebanese problem from the regional crisis.
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January 1980
Wednesday, 2 January 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The chief of the 'Iranian volunteers', Hodjatolislam Mohammed Montazeri, held a press conference in Beirut during which he reasserted his men's determination to go to South Lebanon to 'fight imperialism and Zionism.' And he added: 'We will come by thousands.'
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne have Iranian clerics and activists settling in the Bekaa, and then in Tyre, from 1980, before 500 to 2,000 Revolutionary Guards entered Lebanon in June 1982.
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Friday, 18 January 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A Shiite hijacked an MEA Boeing 707.
This airplane flying from Beirut to Larnaca had 72 passengers and 10 crewmembers onboard. The hijacker surrendered to the Lebanese authorities and claimed, in a press conference, the intensification of the efforts in order to find Imam Moussa Sadr. He also requested the positioning of the Lebanese army in South of Lebanon.
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March 1980
Tuesday, 4 March 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The mutilated body of Selim Laouzi was found in the forests of Aramoun ten days after his kidnapping.
What the books addFisk reads the mutilation of al-Lawzi's body as a warning to the Lebanese press: the flesh of his writing hand had been removed, by knife or acid, and two shots fired into his neck from behind. A shepherd found him, half under snow, in the Aramoun woods on 5 March.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 5 March 1980
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dates 1–60 of 249 next
