266 entries on 246 dates · the books disagree on 48
dates 1–60 of 246 next
December 1968
Saturday, 28 December 1968
The road to war · From the books
Israeli commandos destroy Lebanon's civil airliners at Beirut airport.
In retaliation for a Palestinian attack on an El Al airliner at Athens, Israeli commandos landed by helicopter at Beirut International Airport and destroyed thirteen or fourteen Lebanese passenger planes on the ground, most of them belonging to Middle East Airlines. The army failed to respond. Abroad the raid was widely condemned; at home it fed anger at the state and sympathy for the Palestinians.
Sources differ: Number of aircraft: 13 (Traboulsi, Hanf, Picard, Fisk) or 14 belonging to three Lebanese companies, 8 of them MEA (de Clerck & Malsagne). Traboulsi and Hanf speak of MEA planes only; Fisk and de Clerck & Malsagne of MEA and other companies. Picard says the Israeli air force blew up the planes; Hanf, Fisk and de Clerck & Malsagne describe a heliborne or landed commando. Picard places the Athens attack 'two months earlier'; Hanf and de Clerck & Malsagne date it 26 December 1968. Traboulsi and Hanf call it a hijacking, de Clerck & Malsagne and Fisk an attack.
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April 1973
Monday, 30 April 1973
The road to war · From the books
Fatah members with explosives are arrested at Beirut airport.
Four Fatah members with explosives in their luggage were stopped at the airport before a flight to Europe; a day later, near the US embassy, five Democratic Front guerrillas were held.
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August 1973
Tuesday, 28 August 1973
The road to war · From the books
The labour confederation holds a general strike.
The government met the CGTL general strike with a decreed 5 per cent rise, higher minimum wage and family allowances, and curbs on sacking unionists. Strikers also wanted commercial profits capped and cooperatives aided: for Traboulsi, the unions' first challenge to the commercial oligarchy.
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January 1975
Thursday, 30 January 1975
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
15,000 persons demonstrated in Beirut to express their solidarity with South Lebanon, which had been regularly bombed by Israel.
What the books addTraboulsi counts this among the early-1975 protests, a southern general strike and Beirut demonstrations, over the Palestinian presence and the south's defence.
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February 1975
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
Wednesday, 28 May 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Rashid Karami is named Prime Minister.
On 28 May, after the military cabinet fell, Frangieh named Rashid Karami Prime Minister. Forming a government took him a month, since most Christian politicians would not sit without the Kataeb and Jumblatt vetoed the party.
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Friday, 30 May 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
'Black Thursday': sectarian kidnappings and killings in Beirut.
Sectarian abductions rose sharply on either side of the demarcation line after a Palestinian was killed and frightening rumours spread through Beirut. The worst came at Bashura, where Christians walking between Basta and the cemetery were abducted and some of them killed or mutilated. The Shiite gang Fityan Ali was blamed. De Clerck and Malsagne stress that this happened months before Black Saturday, often wrongly called the war's first massacre.
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June 1975
Thursday, 5 June 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Suez Canal reopens.
Egypt reopened the Suez Canal. Hanf notes that by then Lebanon was already at war, and links the Egyptian-Israeli rapprochement to the Lebanese crisis.
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Saturday, 28 June 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Musa al-Sadr begins a hunger strike against the fighting.
Protesting at the fighting in Chiyah, Imam Musa al-Sadr went on hunger strike, pledging to fast until the violence stopped. Christian and Sunni clergy and Palestinians backed him. Traboulsi says he fasted at the Amiliya school until a national unity government was formed.
Sources differ: Traboulsi's wording places the strike about a month before 6 June; de Clerck and Malsagne and Hanf place it in late June, which fits the formation of the Karami cabinet at the end of June.
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July 1975
Saturday, 5 July 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
An explosion at a training camp reveals Amal's militia.
Musa al-Sadr's movement was found to have a hidden militia, trained with Fatah's help, when 27 young Shiites and their Palestinian instructor died in an anti-tank mine training blast at Ain al-Bunayya, near Baalbek. Christian fears grew.
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August 1975
September 1975
October 1975
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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Thursday, 30 October 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Yarmouk units enter the Bekaa near Zahleh.
Yarmouk units, a Palestinian force trained by the Syrian army, entered the Bekaa plain near Zahleh by way of Bar Elias. The bishop's diary shows that the Palestinian fighters in the district had until then been Fatah and its Lebanese allies.
Sources differ: Hanf dates the Yarmouk Brigade's crossing to 20 December.
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December 1975
Friday, 5 December 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Palestinian units in Aley shell Kahhale.
Palestinian forces in Aley, a Druze town, started shelling the Maronite village of Kahhale on the eve of Pierre Gemayel's Damascus visit.
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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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Friday, 30 January 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While the normalization process continued, the Superior Military Committee decided to dispatch the Lebanese Army to Damour, Mkalles, and Dbayeh, as well as to the road leading to the Beirut International Airport.
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Lieutenant Ahmed Khatib left the Hasbaya barracks and announced the creation, in the Bekaa, of the Army of Arab Lebanon.
What the books addHistorians date Lieutenant Ahmad al-Khatib's breakaway to 21 January (de Clerck and Malsagne, in the Bekaa) or 22 January (Julie Tegho Bou Nassif, from the diary of the Greek Catholic bishop of Zahleh); Hanf places the mutiny in the south. About 300-400 Muslim soldiers followed him at first. The entry of 30 January may record a later step.
Other dates in the books: Wednesday, 21 January 1976, Thursday, 22 January 1976
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March 1976
Friday, 5 March 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Christian soldiers from Akkar leave the Sarba barracks.
After the Army of Arab Lebanon attacked Qubayat, their home village in Akkar, 200 Christian soldiers walked out of the Sarba barracks in Kesrouan in protest. Their 'Lebanese Liberation Army', announced with a demand that the government protect their families, went no further.
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April 1976
Monday, 5 April 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A Zahleh delegation led by its bishop meets Khaddam in Damascus.
Greek Catholic Bishop Yuhanna Bassul led a delegation from Zahleh, besieged since December, to Damascus; there the Syrian vice-president, Abdel Halim Khaddam, promised humanitarian aid.
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Wednesday, 28 April 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Rabin gives a written green light to a Syrian intervention.
Rabin approved a Syrian intervention in Lebanon in a written message that Israel's ambassador, Gideon Rafael, gave King Hussein in London; Hussein had relayed Syria's assurances to Rafael on 11 April.
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May 1976
Sunday, 30 May 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
An avalanche of missiles and shells hit Beirut while combats continued on all fronts. The bombings reached the airport, imposing the closure of runways to air traffic at night.
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July 1976
Monday, 5 July 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The PLO and their allies launched a massive offensive against the Kura and the Christian town of Chekka north of Beirut.
What the books addHanf writes that once Jisr al-Pasha fell on 1 July the Palestinians struck in the north, taking coastal Chekka from Tripoli by way of the Koura, with massacres, looting and arson. A Lebanese Front counter-attack with army tanks reached Tripoli's outskirts.
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Friday, 30 July 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Khalil Salem, director-general of the Finance Ministry, is kidnapped.
Lebanese Arab Army officers wanted Khalil Salem, director general of the Finance Ministry, to sign false pay-slips, and he refused. Seized in West Beirut on his way to work, he was found shot dead in his car boot on 2 August. Nobody has identified his killers.
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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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Tuesday, 28 September 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Syrian forces and the Lebanese Forces launched an attack against the positions of the Palestinian Progressive forces in the mountain. This far-reaching attack aimed at dislodging the Common Forces from the crests they occupied in Sannine, Zaarour, Aintoura and Mtein. This assault was accompanied by an intensive bombing of Aley, the main Palestinian Progressive base in the mountain.
What the books addFrom Sarkis's inauguration on 23 September Hanf counts three quiet days, the Semiramis Hotel attack in Damascus and a Syrian move two days after it, placing this offensive at about 28 September. The Palestinian and leftist forces lost the Upper Metn; Traboulsi notes that the Joint Forces' largest concentration, there under Abu Khalid al-Amleh, never engaged the advancing Syrians.
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October 1976
Thursday, 28 October 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Fourteen Christians are killed at Ma'asir Beiteddine in the Chouf.
Gunmen with automatic weapons executed 14 Christians, eight from one family, at Ma'asir Beiteddine in the Chouf. The PSP often justified such killings as 'purification' of 'isolationists'.
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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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Monday, 28 February 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A master plan for the souks of the old Beirut was submitted to the Council of Ministers. This project included the creation of a green front, an opening to the sea from the Saint George to Bahri, the construction of a port district around the first basin, the opening of avenues towards the sea, and the reconstruction of the souks.
What the books addAPUR, the Atelier parisien d'urbanisme, drew up this 1977 plan, the earliest of three reconstruction studies made during the war.
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March 1977
Monday, 28 March 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Council of Ministers appointed Colonel Victor Khoury at the head of the army replacing General Hanna Said.
What the books addMuslim leaders accused Hanna Saïd, commander since September 1975, of leniency towards the Lebanese Front (Traboulsi: of closeness to the dissident troops in the south). His replacement, Victor Khoury, a Constitutional Bloc sympathiser committed to Christian-Muslim coexistence, ran the army and its rebuilding from March 1977 to December 1982.
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April 1977
Tuesday, 5 April 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The officials were satisfied with the ongoing excavations in the heart of the city where the most damaged sectors were located, for they exhumed valuable Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine vestiges.
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Palestinian guerrillas capture Taibe in the south.
Palestinian fighters took the border village of Taibe from Christian militiamen, with tons of munitions still in Israeli crates. Afterwards it stood almost empty.
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June 1977
Thursday, 30 June 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
On the last day of its full-powers, the Council of Ministers published a series of decree-laws. The most important ones stipulated the revision of certain laws relative to the Lebanese University, the amendment of some press censorship laws, and the adoption of the mandatory car insurance.
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July 1977
September 1977
November 1977
Saturday, 5 November 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
An odious murder was committed against Abdel-Hamid Ahdab. He was a strong defender of an inter-Lebanese dialogue in favor of an absolute allegiance to the country. The powerful explosion placed in Ahdab's residence killed his daughter and seriously injured him and his spouse. This criminal act was perpetrated against democracy, freedom of speech and reconciliation between the Lebanese.
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March 1978
April 1978
June 1978
Monday, 5 June 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Ghassan Tueini proposed, at the UN General Assembly, an 'international neutrality to protect Lebanon, because this country has no longer any other future besides explosion or invasion'. A UN force would take in charge the protection of the territory, while the army would devote its efforts to internal security and reconstruction.
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Wednesday, 28 June 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A massacre of a unique atrocity was perpetrated in the North of the Bekaa region.
Forty persons from the Christian town of Kaa and its surroundings were kidnapped from their homes at night. 26 were executed at dawn, and their bodies were left in a mass grave. The Lebanese population and especially the Greek Catholic community, to which the victims belonged, were terrorized and distressed.
What the books addThe Qaa massacre is dated to the night of 27-28 June (de Clerck and Malsagne) or to 29 June (Hanf); Ras Baalbek and Jdeidet al-Fakiha were also raided. De Clerck and Malsagne blame Syrians in civilian clothes, carrying name lists and guided by local Christian members of the SSNP and the Communist Party, and see the killings as revenge for Ehden. Hanf counts 26 dead, de Clerck and Malsagne 32 to 36. The community's Supreme Council asked that a day of national mourning be held.
Other dates in the books: Tuesday, 27 June 1978, Thursday, 29 June 1978
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July 1978
August 1978
September 1978
Thursday, 28 September 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
It is the famous ' Black Thursday ' where hundreds of shells hit Achrafieh in a murderous frenzy that did not spare anyone. The Arab Strike Force and the Lebanese Front accused each other of being responsible of this nightmare, while women, children and elderly persons were dying.
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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
Tuesday, 5 December 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.
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January 1979
Friday, 5 January 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Lebanon entered a complacency phase.
All sides seemed decided to wait for important regional developments to unfold in order to re-evaluate the situation and define the course of action. The situation was very tense in the South where the Israelis were shelling the Hasbaya region.
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February 1979
Wednesday, 28 February 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Saudi troops decided to withdraw from the Arabic Strike Force. The Lebanese tried to dissuade them.
What the books addThe Saudis announced their departure in March 1979 (Ménargues). Picard has Syria's partners, among them Saudis, Sudanese and Emiratis, leaving two years after the 1976 summits; de Clerck and Malsagne call the ADF wholly Syrian from 1979.
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May 1979
June 1979
Saturday, 30 June 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The 'race for peace' organized by the Lebanese Federation of Athletics under the patronage of L'orient-Le Jour was a manifestation of the Lebanese sportsmen in favor of national unity. Departed from Achrafieh, the 66 participants representing 18 clubs from all the Lebanese regions met in Manara after having crossed the Fouad Chehab Ring.
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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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Sunday, 28 October 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Israel stiffened its position.
While Hoss discussed with Abou Ayad a Lebanese Palestinian understanding platform, Israel laid two conditions for peace: the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon and the end of Palestinian raids, according to what Menahem Begin affirmed to the American delegate, Philip Habib in Jerusalem.
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January 1980
dates 1–60 of 246 next
