173 entries on 156 dates · the books disagree on 40
dates 1–60 of 156 next
January 1970
Tuesday, 27 January 1970
The road to war · From the books
Annexes to the Cairo Agreement are concluded.
Dated 27 January 1970, the Cairo Agreement's annexes, in Picard's summary, let armed fedayeen travel to and from the southern fronts, chiefly the Arqoub, and put the camps outside Lebanese jurisdiction under Palestinian military police.
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February 1970
February 1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
A threatened general strike forces health cover under social security.
Some 250,000 employees were due to gain health cover when the government, facing a general strike called for February 1970, started the National Social Security Fund's medical scheme. To pay less, employers laid off long-serving staff en masse.
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March 1970
Monday, 23 March 1970
The road to war · From the books
A Palestinian funeral convoy is fired on at Kahhale.
Palestinians died when a convoy carrying a guerrilla's coffin to Damascus for burial and the residents of Kahhale, a Maronite village, traded fire. Who shot first, and how many were killed, is disputed. Hanf places the incident among the first serious clashes between Palestinians and armed Christians.
Sources differ: De Clerck & Malsagne: a Kataeb attack, 18 Palestinians dead. Hanf: ten dead; he reports both sides' versions and judges it likeliest that villagers took Palestinian shots into the air for an attack.
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Wednesday, 25 March 1970
The road to war · From the books
Bashir Gemayel is kidnapped and held in Tall al-Za'tar.
Kamal Jumblatt's intervention with Yasir Arafat freed Bashir Gemayel, the Kataeb leader's younger son, seized by Palestinians and held in Tall al-Za'tar camp.
Sources differ: Hanf: 25 March 1970, held eight hours. Ménargues: 1969, adding he was beaten. Jumblatt became interior minister after the November 1969 Cairo Agreement (Hanf), which fits late 1969 or 1970.
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late March 1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
A week of fighting between Palestinians and Kataeb around Tall al-Za'tar.
Only the Egyptian foreign minister's intervention ended a week of Palestinian-Kataeb fighting that broke out right after Kahhale, heaviest between Tall al-Za'tar and Dekwaneh, a mainly Maronite suburb beside it.
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May 1970
May 1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Israeli forces invade the south after the shelling of Kiryat Shmona.
Lebanese troops suffered heavy losses when Israel sent forces across the border to retaliate for the Palestinian shelling of Kiryat Shmona. Hanf links the rise in guerrilla raids after the Cairo Agreement to more reprisals and a new wave of villagers fleeing north.
The road to war · From the books
New government rules bar PLO rocket fire, minelaying and weapons in towns.
The Popular Front rejected, and Fatah and Saiqa accepted, the rules set by the government in May: no rocket fire from Lebanese soil, no minelaying, no carrying of arms in towns and villages. Jumblatt, as interior minister, had also sought to keep PLO bases at least a kilometre from any town or village and training out of the camps. It did not last.
The road to war · From the books
The government recognises the Shi'i council and releases aid after a national day for the south.
The government recognised the new Higher Shi'i Council and released ten million dollars of aid for the south, steps taken after an official solidarity day for the region.
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August 1970
August or September 1970 (disputed): day not established
The road to war · From the books
Suleiman Frangieh is elected president by one vote.
Kamal Jumblatt's bloc tipped the balance, and Suleiman Frangieh, a Zghorta clan leader backed by the Tripartite Alliance and Saeb Salam, beat the Chehabist Elias Sarkis by a single vote. When the Speaker contested the result, Frangieh's gunmen came armed into the chamber.
Sources differ: August 1970 (Hanf) against September 1970 (Traboulsi twice, Picard). The September date has more citations, but Picard may refer to the political agreement rather than the vote, and Hanf's footnote is the only explicit date for the election itself. Kept open.
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September 1970
September 1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Black September in Jordan: the PLO leadership and thousands of fighters move to Lebanon.
Lebanon became the Palestinian resistance's chief base after King Hussein's army defeated the PLO in Jordan; thousands of fighters and tens of thousands of civilians came with its leaders, who settled in Beirut. Within months, Hanf judges, the Palestinians held the upper hand.
Sources differ: Figures differ: Hanf gives estimates of 200,000 to 500,000 Palestinians in Lebanon after 1970 and calls them unreliable; Picard cites the PLO Research Center (over 240,000 in 1970, plus over 100,000 from Jordan in two years). Quéméner alone gives a day (12 September) for the start of the Jordanian offensive.
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November 1970
November 1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Hafez al-Assad takes power in Syria.
Hafez al-Assad seized power in Damascus in a bloodless coup, his 'corrective movement'. Picard sees the Baath, above all after this, as an unofficial tool of Syrian intervention in Lebanon.
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1970
1970: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Tenant farmers of Maronite convents strike for land.
In 1970 gendarmes intervened at Mayfuq, where, as at Tannurin, convent tenants of the Batrun and Jbeil uplands struck and marched for more of the harvest and a share-out of church land.
The road to war · From the books
The labour confederation unifies; the Organisation of Communist Action is born.
In 1970 Lebanon's licensed unions joined the General Confederation of Workers (CGTL), where moderate and right-wing federations still held sway. That year two new-left groups, Socialist Lebanon and the Organisation of Lebanese Socialists, fused as the Organisation of Communist Action in Lebanon (OCAL), which made the fast-growing industrial workforce central to its project and built workers' committees in the factories.
Sources differ: OCAL founded in 1970 (Tufaro, Picard) or 1969 (de Clerck & Malsagne). Tufaro dates the separation of the Organisation of Lebanese Socialists from the Arab Nationalist Movement to 1968-1969, which may explain the earlier date.
Art and memory- testimony In al-Nahar in April 2004, Jocelyne Khueiry and Ahmad al-Jabir (Organisation of Communist Action from 1973) recalled their early-1970s youth as partisans.
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late 1970 (after Frangieh took office): day not established
The road to war · From the books
The Frangieh-Salam government dismantles the army's Deuxième Bureau.
Frangieh and his prime minister, Saeb Salam, swiftly broke up the Chehabist military intelligence: many civil servants were moved; five arrested officers were sentenced to prison and fled to Syria. Hanf argues the state thereby lost control of political groups, which armed as never before.
Sources differ: De Clerck & Malsagne date the trial of the officers to 1973; Hanf and Traboulsi place the purge at the start of the mandate.
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1970, shortly before the presidential election: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Jumblatt legalises the Communist, Arab nationalist, Syrian nationalist and Baath parties.
The Lebanese Communist Party, the Arab Nationalist Movement, the Syrian Social Nationalist Party and the Baath parties were legalised by Kamal Jumblatt in his final act as interior minister.
Sources differ: Traboulsi names the pro-Iraqi Baath; Picard both Baath parties.
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January 1983
Wednesday, 5 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Pope John-Paul II appointed the maronite Patriarch of Antioch and the East, Bishop Antonios Boutros Khoreiche, Cardinal. Bishop Khoreiche was born on the 20th of September, 1907 at Ain Ebel in Southern Lebanon. After having studied at Saint Joseph University, he was ordained priest on April 12, 1930. He became Bishop on October 1950 and Archbishop of Saida in 1957. On April 11, 1974, he became patriarchal vicar general of Bkerkeh. Following the death of Patriarch Meouchi on January 11, 1975, the synod elected Bishop Khoreiche on February 3, 1975, after a conclave of 15 days.
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Thursday, 6 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Israeli forces pursued their combing operations in the sectors of Laylaki, Kfarchima and Choueifat. The 'Marines' sent a severe warning to the Israeli army.
What the books addRobert Fisk recounts that Defence Secretary Weinberger proposed an award for Charles Johnson, a Marine captain who in January 1983 stopped an Israeli tank unit entering the Marine sector off the old Sidon road by climbing onto the lead tank and pointing his pistol at its commander.
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Tuesday, 11 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Bombs fell on Hadeth and Baabda. For the first time since the Israeli invasion in June 1982 and since the Multinational Force arrived in Beirut, the guns came closer to the capital as bombs fell on the suburbs of Hadeth, Baabda, Kfarchima and Bsaba killing 2 and injuring 9.
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Thursday, 13 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The sixth Lebanese-American-Israeli round of negotiations took place in Kyriet Shmona, Israel. Five points were put on the agenda: 1- Ending the state of war. 2- Reaching security arrangements. 3- Establishing a framework for mutual relations, including matters such as liaison, and end of propaganda... 4- Completing the withdrawal program: conditions for the Israeli withdrawal within the context of a withdrawal of all foreign forces. 5- Giving eventual guarantees
What the books addLebanese and Israeli delegates met in turn at Khalde, in a repaired beach hotel, and at Kiryat Shmona. De Clerck and Malsagne count 37 meetings over 138 days, from December 1982 to May 1983.
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Sunday, 23 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The American envoy, Philip Habib headed back to Washington empty-handed. Israel continued to impose unacceptable conditions on Lebanon, notably concerning the set up of Israeli pre-alert stations on the Lebanese territory.
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Wednesday, 26 January 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books range
Murders multiply around Israeli-occupied Sidon.
Around Sidon, two bodies, one a Palestinian's, were found on 26 January 1983 and three mutilated ones near Ain el-Helweh on 9 February; on 29 January a Palestinian was killed at his door. Israel's occupation authorities made no official comment.
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Sunday, 30 January 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A bomb storm fell on East Beirut. While a constructive beginning of the week was expected, mainly concerning the project of a disarmed and open 'Greater Beirut', blind violence hit again. Following the degradation of the situation in the mountain between the Lebanese Forces and the Progressive Socialist Party, mortar shells, Katiouchas and other Grad fell on East Beirut causing important material damages.
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February 1983
Wednesday, 2 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The aggressions didn't spare the Multinational Force. Reacting to the anti-French attacks, the President of the French Republic, Francois Mitterand, ordered the reinforcement of the French contingent in Lebanon.
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Monday, 7 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A 20-point security agreement to pacify the mountain was finally reached between the Lebanese Forces and the Druze, under Israeli aegis.
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Israel's Kahan Commission publishes its report on Sabra and Chatila.
Israel's inquiry into the September 1982 massacre blamed the Phalangists above all, finding its own political and military leaders indirectly responsible; Ariel Sharon lost the Defence Ministry.
Sources differ: Fisk quotes the finding as Sharon's 'personal responsibility'; Traboulsi and de Clerck and Malsagne call it indirect responsibility. Fisk also criticises the report for treating the massacre as 'events'.
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Tuesday, 8 February 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
A British contingent joins the Multinational Force.
A British contingent of 100 men from the Queen's Dragoon Guards joined the French, American and Italian troops of the second Multinational Force.
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Monday, 14 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Army deployed 3800 soldiers and officers in the East between Nahr El Mott, Dora and Hazmieh, by virtue of a decree granting it extended powers.
What the books addEarly in 1983 the Eighth Brigade went into all of Beirut, the east included, under a plan to collect light arms in the city and clear heavy weapons and gunmen from Greater Beirut. The Lebanese Forces resisted, then on 1 March 1983 agreed to return East Beirut and the port's fifth basin to the state.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 1 March 1983
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Tuesday, 15 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Armenian Community in Lebanon gave a grandiose and emotional official farewell to its Patriarch H.S. Khoren 1st Catholicos of the house of Cilicie, dead at the age of 69.
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Sunday, 20 February 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Even the weather seemed to conspire against Lebanon in the beginning of this year. The storm and the cold raging from the coast up to the peaks of Lebanon claimed several victims. 23 cadavers were discovered and tens of persons were reported missing in the region of Dahr El Baydar. Rescue teams had already succeeded in saving 200 persons; but tens of others, trapped in their cars or buried under the snow where they were attempting to find shelter, were fighting death. The final toll reached 60 deaths and tens of isolated villages.
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March 1983
Tuesday, 1 March 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
The Lebanese Forces agree to place East Beirut and the port's fifth basin under state control.
Given guarantees by President Gemayel, the Lebanese Forces returned control of East Beirut to the state, along with the port's fifth basin, which had brought in about a fifth of their income.
Sources differ: De Clerck and Malsagne give 1 March 1983 here but 'spring 1983' elsewhere (p. 351); original entry 654 dates the state's recovery of the fifth basin to 7 March.
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Saturday, 5 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Rain and snow fell again on Lebanon, thus increasing the risks of flood as the streams and rivers, caused by the rain and the melting snow, were threatening to overflow. The State mobilized its entire means to prevent a catastrophe.
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Monday, 7 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The State regained control over the fifth basin of the port.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne date the Lebanese Forces' return of the fifth basin to the state to 1 March 1983. Until then its customs receipts, put at 5 million dollars a month, supplied 20% of the militia's revenue. The army held it until 1985, when Samir Geagea took it back.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 1 March 1983
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Wednesday, 9 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
At the summit of New Delhi, President Amine Gemayel pleaded Lebanon's cause in front of 95 nations. He declared that Lebanon pursued a triple objective in the negotiations: preserve the national consensus, safeguard the State's sovereignty, and maintain the country's credibility among the Arabs.
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Sunday, 13 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The negotiations that were taking place in Washington, in view of an Israeli troops withdrawal from Lebanon, seemed to have reached some progress. Back to Lebanon, an attack against an Israeli patrol in Jiyeh provoked the death of three soldiers.
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Wednesday, 16 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
14 American Marines and Italian bersaglieri were wounded by three attacks perpetrated in less than 12 hours. Washington and Rome declared however that the Multinational Force would continue its mission. The Lebanese Army launched a clean up operation in the Southern suburbs.
What the books addA caller claimed the attacks for 'Islamic Jihad', then an unknown name; the same voice later claimed the embassy bombing (Fisk). He counts ten Italians, two critically, and five US Marines wounded within 48 hours. De Clerck and Malsagne date these first Islamic Jihad attacks to 17 March.
Other date in the books: Thursday, 17 March 1983
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Friday, 18 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
During his visit to the region, former American President, Jimmy Carter met with President Gemayel, while the negotiations were frozen binding the return of Philip Habib. These negotiations resumed on March 21.
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Saturday, 19 March 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Israeli jeeps attempt to push into the Marines' positions by Beirut airport.
Israeli fire nearly hit several Marines when soldiers in two Israeli jeeps tried to enter the Marine lines. Washington then ordered regular Marine meetings with Israeli liaison officers, from which Shi'i militiamen concluded the Americans were feeding Israel intelligence.
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Saturday, 26 March 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
Following troubles triggered by a series of arrests, the Army reinstated the calm in Bir El Abed. It was the first incident of this kind since the inception of 'Greater Beirut'.
What the books addHanf dates Amal's first fighting with the army to March 1983, after soldiers had arrested large numbers of Shi'is on dubious charges.
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April 1983
Sunday, 10 April 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
King Hussein abandons talks with the PLO, ending the Reagan plan.
The Reagan plan, launched after the 1982 Lebanon war, died on 10 April, when King Hussein announced he had failed to agree terms with the PLO for talks on the occupied territories.
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Wednesday, 13 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
General Moussa Kanaan was appointed new CEO of Télé-Liban.
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The French soldiers of the Multinational Force dug out a 1000 kilos bomb dropped by an Israeli airplane during the summer of 1982 and buried next to a building. 15000 persons were evacuated from their homes.
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Sunday, 17 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Arens considered that the Middle East peace process was not dead and that a peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon would be concluded in the near future.
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Monday, 18 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
A murderous attack was perpetrated against the United States embassy in Beirut. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack executed using a small truck loaded with explosives driven by a Kamikaze. The embassy's building was totally devastated, resulting in the death of 61 persons including 17 Americans. Two hours after the attack, President Gemayel arrived at the scene in order to supervise the rescue operations.
What the books addFisk and de Clerck and Malsagne count 63 dead, 17 of them Americans, and Fisk about a hundred wounded. Many victims were Lebanese queuing in the visa section. The bomb struck a meeting of the CIA's senior regional officers. De Clerck and Malsagne describe the vehicle as a van, Fisk as a truck.
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Friday, 22 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While President Reagan was still determined to reestablish security and freedom in Lebanon, Lawrence Eagleburger, the American under-secretary of State, arrived in Beirut to take back the remains of the American citizens killed during the attack against the American embassy.
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Tuesday, 26 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Phalangist militia handed over the alleged assassin of Bechir Gemayel, Habib Chartouni, to the Army.
What the books addMénargues dates the handover to 28 April 1983. Held in an army intelligence cell at the Defence Ministry in Yarze, Chartouni admitted the killing before the military prosecutor that day. The case was later handed by Amine Gemayel's cabinet to a constitutional High Court that had never been created; he was freed on 13 October 1990.
Other date in the books: Thursday, 28 April 1983
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Thursday, 28 April 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
As part of his trip to the Middle East, the Secretary of State, George Shultz made a quick stop in Lebanon. He visited the ruins of the American embassy and met with Lebanese officials.
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May 1983
Sunday, 1 May 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
While the American Secretary of Sate, George Shultz was undertaking a forcing to reach an agreement between Israel and Lebanon, the mountain went again on fire. The Lebanese Forces and the PSP resumed their combats. The bombardments reached the Kesrouan coastline. They continued in the days to follow causing tens of victims.
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Tuesday, 3 May 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Assad and Arafat fail to agree in Damascus.
With ties between Damascus and the PLO leadership worsening, Hafez al-Assad and Yasser Arafat held talks in Damascus but found no common line.
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Friday, 6 May 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Shultz is told in Damascus that Syria will not withdraw.
In Damascus President Assad told US Secretary of State George Shultz that Syria opposed the draft Lebanese-Israeli agreement and would not withdraw; in Beirut, Druze and Phalangist gunners paused only during Shultz's visit.
Sources differ: Hanf dates the Damascus meeting to 6 May, Fisk to 8 May.
Other date in the books: Sunday, 8 May 1983
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Thursday, 12 May 1983
The Lebanese war · Added from the books
Fatah units in the Bekaa mutiny against Arafat.
Under Colonel Abu Musa and with Syrian backing, Bekaa-based Fatah units revolted against Arafat and attacked his loyalists, who withdrew to Tripoli.
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Saturday, 14 May 1983
The Lebanese war · 111101 entry in the original chronology
The Council of Ministers approved unanimously the draft agreement with Israel which only needed to be signed.
What the books addDe Clerck and Malsagne say the deputies were told of the text at a closed session on 15 May; Prime Minister Wazzan approved it and sent it to the president, and that month 70 of the 91 deputies still in office backed the government.
Other date in the books: Sunday, 15 May 1983
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dates 1–60 of 156 next
