73 entries on 67 dates · the books disagree on 19
dates 1–60 of 67 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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
January 2000
January 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
The army crushes an Islamist uprising in Denniyeh.
Special forces moved against Sunni Islamist rebels of Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian origin in deprived Denniyeh, helped by Syrian intelligence and equipment.
\_this day in full
February 2000
Thursday, 10 February 2000
After the war · From the books
A former Lebanese Forces intelligence officer apologises publicly to his victims.
Assaad Shaftari, once Hobeika's fellow LF leader, apologised in al-Nahar to all his victims, 'living or dead'. Haugbolle sees a radical break in ex-leaders' silence; few noticed it at first.
Art and memory- book Robert 'Cobra' Hatem's memoir From Israel to Damascus (1999), banned in Lebanon, accused Elie Hobeika and may have set off his political decline.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
Israeli night raids hit Lebanon again.
The raids came as Hezbollah's pressure on the occupied zone was tied to the stalled Syrian-Israeli talks.
\_this day in full
March 2000
Sunday, 5 March 2000
After the war · From the books
Israel's cabinet decides on a unilateral withdrawal from the south.
Barak's plan set 7 July 2000 for leaving the 'security zone'. Beirut, deferring to a stalled Damascus, prepared nothing.
Sources differ: Cabinet decision on 5 March (Abirached); Picard places Barak's announcement in April.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 23 March 2000
After the war · From the books
Gebran Tueni's open letter asks Bashar al-Assad to withdraw Syria's troops.
Gebran Tueni printed it on al-Nahar's front page, demanding a withdrawal timetable; Haugbolle links it to a new openness in criticising Syria's presence.
\_this day in full \_on this day
March 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
The Clinton-Assad summit in Geneva fails.
After the Geneva summit failed, Barak announced that Israel would leave the south entirely, with or without an agreement. Mermier sees the Syrian–Lebanese track of talks with Israel ending there; Picard argues that Damascus lost the international latitude it had enjoyed over Lebanon.
Sources differ: February (Picard 2002), March (Picard 2016; 33 jours p. 210) or April 2000 (33 jours p. 176). March has the most support.
\_this day in full
April 2000
Saturday, 29 April 2000
After the war · From the books
A Syrian dissident writes that Lebanon no longer needs Syria's army.
Riyad al-Turk opened a dossier in al-Nahar's supplement with 'Lebanon no longer needs the Syrian presence': the occupation served Israeli intransigence, and the Geneva failure did not justify it.
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2000
Wednesday, 24 May 2000
After the war · From the books
Israel ends its occupation of southern Lebanon.
Israel pulled out overnight on 23–24 May as the South Lebanon Army, deserting since early May, collapsed. Villagers streamed home, crowds forced open the Khiam jail and several thousand SLA men and relatives left for Israel. The Shebaa Farms, the Kfarshuba hills and Lebanon's part of Ghajar stayed occupied.
Sources differ: 24 May (Abirached, Tarraf; Picard: night of 23–24) or 25 May (de Clerck and Malsagne, book and article). Occupation lasted 18 years (from 1982, de Clerck and Malsagne) or 22 years (from 1978, Abirached).
Other date in the books: Thursday, 25 May 2000
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
Raymond Eddé dies in exile in Paris.
Picard names the National Bloc leader, who died in Paris, among the real opposition chiefs who remained in exile.
\_this day in full
June 2000
Friday, 16 June 2000
After the war · From the books
The UN Secretary-General confirms the Israeli withdrawal.
Kofi Annan confirmed Israel had left; Lebanon rejected the UN's 'Blue Line' where it departed from the 1923 border.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
Hafez al-Assad dies; his son Bashar succeeds him.
Hafez al-Assad's death in June 2000, a month after Israel quit the south, briefly allowed freer criticism of Syria's presence in Lebanon.
Sources differ: June 2000 (Haugbolle, Picard 2016 ch. IV), May 2000 (Picard 2016 ch. V) or 10 June 2001 (Picard 2002, clearly a misprint for 2000).
\_this day in full
July 2000
Friday, 28 July 2000
After the war · From the books
UN peacekeepers deploy along the Blue Line.
A phone call with Bashar al-Assad reportedly preceded Lahoud's approval of the deployment. The Lebanese army was kept away from the border.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Sunday, 30 July 2000
After the war · From the books
Lahoud says the army's role in the south will be defined 'in due course'.
Lahoud's Army Day speech left the army's role undefined, so no national strategy emerged; the government called Hezbollah's continuing fight a 'national struggle'.
Sources differ: 30 July (Picard 2002) or 29 July (Picard 2016).
Other date in the books: Saturday, 29 July 2000
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 31 July 2000
After the war · From the books
Former president Amine Gemayel returns after eight years in Paris.
Afterwards, with President Lahoud's backing, he secured the Bikfaya seat for his son Pierre. In August he and Walid Jumblatt signed a 'pact of honour', opening the way to Christian-Druze reconciliation.
\_this day in full \_on this day
July 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
President Lahoud declares all the missing of the war dead.
President Émile Lahoud declared all the missing dead, officially blaming no one; families had pressed for inquiries. That year a commission on the missing identified three Beirut mass graves: Mar Mitr (Ashrafieh), the Martyrs' cemetery (Horsh Beirut) and the British cemetery (Tahwita).
\_this day in full
August 2000
Wednesday, 9 August 2000
After the war · From the books
A thousand soldiers and police enter the former occupied zone.
International pressure, tying reconstruction aid to the state's presence, brought five hundred troops and five hundred internal security men. Hezbollah remained the real authority in the area.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Sunday, 27 August 2000
After the war · From the books range
Parliamentary elections bring Hariri back in triumph.
The electoral law, imposed by Syria's Ghazi Kanaan, favoured his ally Hariri, whose lists swept Beirut's nineteen seats; Amal and Hezbollah took all twenty-three in the south. Government-backed candidates faced unexpectedly strong pro-independence rivals.
\_this day in full \_on this day
October 2000
Sunday, 1 October 2000
After the war · From the books
Bashar al-Assad declares the Shebaa Farms Lebanese.
Bashar al-Assad's declaration at the Arab League in Cairo that the farms were Lebanese legitimised continued resistance to Israel; Syria never confirmed it in writing to Lebanon or the UN.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 26 October 2000
After the war · From the books
Rafiq Hariri forms a new thirty-member cabinet.
Hariri regained the premiership after the 2000 elections, but the hopes that had greeted him in 1992 were gone.
Sources differ: September 2000 (Quéméner) against October (Picard, Abirached).
\_this day in full \_on this day
October 2000: day not established
After the war · From the books
Waves of arrests hit anti-Syrian Christian activists.
An SSNP deputy made pointed threats against Walid Jumblatt, who had spoken of a 'readjustment' in ties with Syria, and soldiers detained dozens of militants in successive waves: the state's answer around the confidence vote for Hariri's new cabinet.
After the war · From the books
The Maronite bishops openly criticise Syria.
The bishops' open criticism of Syria echoed protests by Aoun's followers and ex-Lebanese Forces members; Picard sees clergy now contesting Syria's armed presence.
Sources differ: Picard dates the bishops' communiqué to October 2000.
After the war · From the books
Hezbollah captures three Israeli soldiers near the Shebaa Farms.
Citing Shebaa, Hezbollah kept up sporadic attacks; Israel replied with artillery and bombing.
\_this day in full
November 2000
Tuesday, 14 November 2000
After the war · From the books
The UN Security Council asks Lebanon to take control of the evacuated south.
\_this day in full \_on this day
January 2002
January 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Elie Hobeika is killed by a car bomb near Beirut.
The former Lebanese Forces intelligence chief, widely held responsible for Sabra and Shatila and a minister after the war, died shortly before he was to testify in the Belgian case against Ariel Sharon.
\_this day in full
February 2002
Thursday, 14 February 2002
After the war · From the books range
Assaad Shaftari's war confessions appear in al-Hayat.
In three interviews with Hazim al-Amin, Hobeika's former aide described his militia years, including orders to execute captives, and called for the truth to be told so that the next generation might forgive.
\_this day in full \_on this day
March 2002
Sunday, 31 March 2002
After the war · From the books
Israel threatens to strike Syria over its support for Hezbollah.
On 14 April, two weeks after that threat, Ariel Sharon charged Syria and Iran with supporting Hezbollah's attacks.
\_this day in full \_on this day
April 2002
Wednesday, 3 April 2002
After the war · From the books
The government announces Syrian troop withdrawals from parts of Mount Lebanon.
The move was presented as an application of the Taif Agreement.
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2002
Saturday, 25 May 2002
After the war · From the books
On Liberation Day Nasrallah declares Hezbollah's support for the Palestinian intifada.
\_this day in full \_on this day
August 2002
August 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Sharon calls a Lebanese water pump on the Wazzani a cause for war.
A war over the Council of the South's plan to supply some fifty villages from the Wazzani, a Hasbani tributary, was averted by American, Russian and European mediation.
\_this day in full
November 2002
November 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Before-and-after photographs of downtown go on show in Place de l'Étoile.
Haugbolle calls the book version, 'Beirut's Memory', propaganda: a Solidere-linked bank published it in the name of Hariri's photographer Ayman Traoui. On site, paired 1990 and 2002 views ringed the clock tower.
\_this day in full
December 2002
December 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Rustom Ghazaleh replaces Ghazi Kanaan as Syria's intelligence chief in Lebanon.
Kanaan had ruled from Anjar since 1982, vetting candidates and shaping the 2000 electoral map; his recall signalled Bashar al-Assad's tighter grip on Lebanon. Ghazaleh, his replacement, was implicated in Al-Madina bank's 2003 collapse.
Sources differ: Farewell ceremony 9 October 2002 versus replacement in December 2002.
\_this day in full
2002
summer 2002: day not established
After the war · From the books
Much of rebuilt downtown Beirut is inaugurated as 'Beirut reborn'.
Posters ('Le Liban vit'), full-page press advertisements and television spots hailed the completion, with no reference to the war.
\_this day in full
January 2007
January 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
An opposition general strike turns into Sunni-Shiite clashes.
Sunnis and Shiites clashed in Beirut's Muslim quarters during the strike, and many feared a new civil war.
Since 2005 · From the books
Paris III conference pledges 7.6 billion dollars to Siniora's government.
With the opposition sit-in under way in Beirut, Paris III donors pledged Siniora's government 7.6 billion dollars.
\_this day in full
February 2007
Saturday, 10 February 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Compulsory military service ends.
Quéméner notes that ending conscription, once binding on citizens of every faith, left only the sectarian allocation of officer posts.
Sources differ: Quéméner dates conscription's end to 10 February 2007, Picard to January 2005; perhaps one marks the law, the other its application.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Bus passengers are killed in bombings at Ain Alaq.
Picard cites the bus bombing to show that ordinary people, not just public figures, were among the victims.
\_this day in full
April 2007
Friday, 13 April 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
The Ain al-Rummaneh bus is shown at the war's anniversary.
For the anniversary of the war's outbreak, visitors to the Beirut hippodrome could see the wreck of the Fargo Dodge bus in which 27 people died on 13 April 1975; it was exhibited again in 2011, at the Hangar in the southern suburbs.
Art and memory- film Ziad Doueiri's West Beirut (1998) popularised the Ain al-Rummaneh bus. In Philippe Aractingi's Bosta (2005) a bus touring Lebanon with music and dance quietly recalls it, recasting the symbol of the 1975 rupture as one of reconciliation.
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2007
Sunday, 20 May 2007
Since 2005 · From the books range
Battle of Nahr al-Bared between the army and Fatah al-Islam (20 May - 2 September).
Soldiers asleep at an army post by the camp entrance were killed when Fatah al-Islam fighters overran it; the army had been trying to detain members of the group over a Tripoli bank robbery. It then besieged and bombarded the camp for over three months, and 30,000 to 40,000 Palestinian refugees fled.
Sources differ: Soldiers killed: 179 (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 170 (Picard). Total dead: about 400 (Quéméner), consistent with 179 + 226 = 405.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
UN Resolution 1757 establishes the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The tribunal, charged with identifying and trying those behind the attack on Hariri, came into force under an accord the Siniora government signed in June 2007.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 2007
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Future Movement MP Walid Eido is assassinated.
Walid Eido was one of a series of anti-Syrian deputies killed between 2005 and 2007.
\_this day in full \_on this day
August 2007
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
A banned play about the war, How Nancy Wished That Everything Was an April Fool's Joke, opens.
Culture Minister Tarek Mitri's intervention lifted an initial ban, and Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's play opened at Masrah al-Madina. Its multimedia staging set rival war narratives side by side.
Art and memory- artwork Rabih Mroue and Fadi Toufiq's multimedia play pitted rival accounts of the Lebanese role in the war against each other.
\_this day in full \_on this day
September 2007
Sunday, 2 September 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
The army takes control of Nahr al-Bared.
The army regained the camp after more than three months of fighting.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
Kataeb MP Antoine Ghanem is assassinated.
A car bomb killed him and several others.
Sources differ: 19 September (de Clerck & Malsagne) against 18 September (Quéméner).
\_this day in full \_on this day
late September 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Parliament's session to elect a president is adjourned.
Parliament's sitting to choose Lahoud's successor, called about a week after Antoine Ghanem's assassination, was adjourned; deadlock lasted until May 2008.
\_this day in full
November 2007
November 2007: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Émile Lahoud's term ends with no successor: the presidency is vacant.
With the rival blocs deadlocked over who should succeed Lahoud, the presidency stayed empty until May 2008.
Sources differ: Picard starts the vacuum in September 2007, when the electoral sessions began to fail; the other books date it from November 2007, the end of Lahoud's term.
\_this day in full
December 2007
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Since 2005 · From the books
General François al-Hajj is killed by a car bomb.
A Beirut car bomb killed General François al-Hajj, army chief of operations during the Nahr al-Bared siege and expected successor to Michel Sleiman as commander.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2012
February 2012: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Fighting in Tripoli between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen (February-December 2012).
From February to December, Tripoli's pro-regime Alawite quarter of Jabal Mohsen and its Sunni quarter of Bab al-Tebbaneh, which backed the Syrian opposition, clashed.
\_this day in full
June 2012
Monday, 11 June 2012
Since 2005 · From the books
The Baabda Declaration commits Lebanon to 'dissociation' from regional conflicts.
The declaration, agreed at President Sleiman's National Dialogue, pledged 'dissociation' from regional conflicts and border control, mainly towards Syria; Picard considers the promise empty from the outset.
\_this day in full \_on this day
October 2012
Friday, 19 October 2012
Since 2005 · From the books
Intelligence chief Wissam al-Hassan is assassinated.
Seven people died along with Wissam al-Hassan, head of ISF intelligence and an investigator of Hariri's assassination, in a Beirut car bombing.
\_this day in full \_on this day
2012
2012: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Former minister Michel Samaha is arrested.
Picard treats the arrest as evidence that Syrian-paid agents took part in the unrest after the 2005 withdrawal.
\_this day in full
dates 1–60 of 67 next
