217 entries on 196 dates · the books disagree on 51
dates 1–60 of 196 next
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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February 1975
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
Wednesday, 12 March 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The cabinet transfers two officers over the Sidon shooting.
On 12 March the Solh cabinet partly yielded to Sidon and the National Movement, giving Sidon's governor a month's administrative leave and moving two army officers, which Gemayel opposed.
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April 1975
Saturday, 12 April 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The government cancels the Protein fishing project.
The cabinet's decision to scrap the Protein scheme and compensate Sidon's fishermen came a month after its first concessions, and a day before Ain al-Rummaneh.
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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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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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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
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
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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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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Friday, 12 December 1975
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Sixty people are killed in Zahleh.
Six days after Black Saturday, assaults and shelling by Palestine Liberation Army and Yarmouk units killed sixty Christians of Zahleh; Bishop Bassul called it a massacre.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne blame attacks by the PLA and Yarmouk units; Tegho Bou Nassif blames fedayeen shelling.
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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
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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February 1976
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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Friday, 12 March 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A Phalange delegation travels secretly to Israel.
Ammunition running out, Pierre Gemayel relented, and on 12 March 1976 the Phalangists Joseph Abu Khalil, Sami Khoueiry and Fouad Roukoz went by speedboat to Israel for arms. Israel shipped them within days but again ruled out intervening directly.
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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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Monday, 12 April 1976
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Assad attacks the National Movement and offers to intervene.
Pierre Gemayel called it a historic speech: in Damascus, President Assad said Syria was ready to send forces into Lebanon to protect any oppressed group, Christian or Muslim, and attacked the PLO and National Movement leaders.
Sources differ: Traboulsi's chronology lists 'al-Asad's speech attacking LNM' under '13 March', apparently a misprint for 12 April.
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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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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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August 1976
Thursday, 12 August 1976
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Tell El Zaatar assault and massacre
After a siege that lasted 52 days, the Tell El Zaatar Palestinian camp fell in the hands of the Lebanese Forces as a result of an ultimate assault launched at dawn. It was in total confusion that the 12000 camp residents were evacuated. In retaliation, kidnappings were reported in West Beirut. 2000 people died in fighting during the entire siege, and 4000 were wounded. The surviving cilvilians were settled by The PLO in other camps and in Damour.
What the books addTal al-Za'tar fell on 12 August 1976 (13 August in Ménargues) after more than 70 assaults. Ménargues and Hanf count a siege of 52-53 days from the final offensive; de Clerck and Malsagne and Traboulsi count six months from the January blockade. An ICRC report cited by de Clerck and Malsagne puts the dead at about 2,500 residents and defenders and up to 800 attackers; many died trying to escape. The Tigers and the Guardians of the Cedar led the last assault, reportedly with Syrian and Israeli officers present. The camp was bulldozed and never rebuilt.
Art and memory- novel Liana Badr's novel The Eye of the Mirror tells of a girl growing up in Tal al-Za'tar during the siege of 1976.
- artwork Ziad Rahbani made the siege of Tal al-Za'tar widely known through one of his musical works.
- film Georges Hachem's film Balle perdue (2010) is set in late summer 1976 north of Beirut, in the lull that followed the fall of Tal al-Za'tar.
- place Tal al-Za'tar was bulldozed after its fall in 1976; neither it nor Jisr al-Basha, both levelled that year, has been rebuilt.
- testimony Nayla Hachem's testimony describes her relief work in 1976 at the siege of Tal al-Za'tar, the fall of Nabaa and the massacres; she was a nurse, later an ICRC delegate.
- book In Camille Chamoun's war diary, Tal al-Za'tar's fall in August 1976 was a triumph of fighters of every class.
- artwork The play Silence, ça tourne (2025) is built on the testimony of a Swedish nurse who survived the siege of Tal al-Za'tar.
Other dates in the books: Sunday, 4 January 1976, Friday, 13 August 1976
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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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January 1977
Wednesday, 12 January 1977
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The collection of heavy and light arms continued while the government was helping the victims of the war and trying to boost the economy.
What the books addUnder the Riyadh decisions of October 1976 all parties were to give up heavy weapons to the Arab Deterrent Force; the Hoss government set a 5 December 1976 deadline (Traboulsi). Fisk reports the militias did not hand them in; Hanf, that the Palestinians moved most of theirs south of the 'red line'.
Other date in the books: Monday, 18 October 1976
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February 1977
Saturday, 12 February 1977
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A decree-law opens the rebuilding of the army.
Deserters could return to the ranks, and officers who had fought in the conflict were asked to resign, under a decree-law that opened President Sarkis's programme for rebuilding the army. De Clerck and Malsagne say nearly 9,000 soldiers were removed and 12,000 new volunteers enlisted.
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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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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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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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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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May 1978
Friday, 12 May 1978
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Seiman Frangieh and Rachid Karameh reconciled under the auspices of the Syrian commander of the Arab Strike Force in Northern Lebanon.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne record that Frangieh had quit the Lebanese Front the day before over its ties with Israel. The reconciliation, Hanf notes, made the north a pro-Syrian bloc.
Other date in the books: Thursday, 11 May 1978
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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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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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Friday, 12 January 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Members of the Commission of Justice requested the adoption of a law prohibiting the sale of lands to non-Lebanese. In the south, it seemed that many lands have been sold to non-Lebanese.
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February 1979
Monday, 12 February 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Brian Urqhart, the assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, examined with Lebanese officials the modalities of the Army's deployment in the South next to the UNIFL Israel nevertheless rejected the program.
Other date in the books: Wednesday, 18 April 1979
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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
Thursday, 12 April 1979
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Damascus says Syria will leave Lebanon only once its aims are achieved.
In a Le Monde interview, a Syrian leader, probably Foreign Minister Abd al-Halim Khaddam, said Syria would withdraw from Lebanon when its aims were met; Picard cites it among examples of Damascus's high-handed treatment of Lebanese leaders.
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May 1979
Saturday, 12 May 1979
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Fighting between the Kataeb and the NLP militia breaks out in Furn el-Chebbak.
Bashir Gemayel's Kataeb and Camille Chamoun's National Liberal Party (Ahrar) first fought in Furn el-Chebbak, in Beirut's eastern suburbs; the fighting then reached every spot where their militias faced each other and, by its end in July 1980, had claimed dozens of victims.
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July 1979
Thursday, 12 July 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Unrest spread in West Beirut where Shiite militiamen manifested their anger against the eventual visit to Beirut of Colonel Kadhafi. The Lebanese government cancelled, under pressure from both officials and Shiite masses, the visit of the Libyan president.
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August 1979
September 1979
Wednesday, 12 September 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The notables of Zghorta and Becharreh reconciled under the aegis of Patriarch Khoreiche. In a common declaration, the notables requested the deployment of the army in their region.
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November 1979
Monday, 12 November 1979
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The work document that Lebanon was going to present in Tunis, contained 6 main points: exercising pressure on the United States to end Israeli aggressions, freezing the actions of the Fedayin, laying the Lebanese authority in the South, banning any illegal armed presence, re-activating the Beiteddine Committee, and grouping guerillas in some specified zones.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 20 November 1979
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February 1980
March 1980
Wednesday, 5 March 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
In a message addressed to the Nation, the President of the Republic proclaimed the State's Arab and internal options. He rejected the Camp David agreements, and underlined the coordination between Lebanon and Syria wile respecting the sovereignty of both countries. Furthermore, he refused the idea of creating mini-states and reassured his attachment to freedom.
What the books addProbably the text Picard lists as President Sarkis's 'Fourteen Points' (March 1980), one of the drafts that fed into the Taif Accord. Traboulsi notes that in that same month an American spokesman called on Lebanon to sign up to the Camp David accords.
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Seven Zghortiotes were released in exchange of eleven Phalangists. The exchange of hostages took place after 5 months of detention.
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Thursday, 20 March 1980
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Phalange newspaper rejects the National Movement's 'peace of the brave'.
The Phalange daily al-Amal answered on 20 March 1980: there could be no united Lebanon with half a million Palestinians on its territory, and sending the army south must come first. It was replying to the LNM's 'peace of the brave', a call launched at a military parade for the third anniversary of Kamal Jumblatt's assassination to rebuild national unity on an equilibrium between the two camps at war.
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April 1980
Saturday, 12 April 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Saad Haddad militiamen attacked UNIFL soldiers. Bombings destroyed two United Nations helicopters in Nakoura.
What the books addFisk: in the April 1980 fighting at At-Tiri, Haddad's gunmen killed Private Stephen Griffin of the Irish UNIFIL battalion and UN troops killed a militiaman, whose death two other Irish soldiers later paid for. The militia also held the coastal strip between the French unit and Naqoura and shot at helicopters.
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May 1980
July 1980
Saturday, 5 July 1980
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A Christian–Druze channel is opened at Moukhtara.
With Bashir Gemayel's go-ahead, his adviser Zahi Boustani lunched with Walid Jumblatt at Moukhtara and spent more than four hours with him on a possible 'Christian–Druze axis', a rapprochement President Sarkis had been promoting. The Lebanese Forces' assault on the National Liberals two days later ended the contact.
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Sunday, 20 July 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Takieddine Solh was asked, by the President of the Republic, to form a new Government of National Union.
What the books addIn Ménargues's account Damascus rejected Takieddine Solh, finding him too lukewarm about Lebanese–Syrian friendship, and offered three names instead, Selim Hoss's among them.
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August 1980
October 1980
Sunday, 5 October 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While the war was raging between Iraq and Iran, assaults continued against several embassies in Beirut. After the US, the Iraqi, and the Iranian chancelleries, a load of dynamite was thrown on the Saudi embassy in Bliss Street at Ras-Beirut.
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November 1980
Wednesday, 5 November 1980
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
After Bechir Obeid and Kamal Kheir Beik, two leaders from the Social National Syrian Party, were killed in West Beirut, as well as a civilian called Mounir Fatha, bloody confrontations opposed the Mourabitoun to the SNSP.
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dates 1–60 of 196 next
