70 entries on 65 dates · the books disagree on 17
dates 1–60 of 65 next
February 1972
February 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
The Israeli army invades the south as far as the Litani.
Picard counts over 100 dead and over 150 houses destroyed as Israeli troops, aiming to disable the fedayeen and their Lebanese backers, drove south to several points on the Litani.
Sources differ: Picard gives one toll, 'on each occasion', for this and the September 1972 invasion alike.
\_this day in full
March 1972
March–April 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Lebanese University students launch a mass strike; private universities join.
In spring 1972 AUB, Saint-Joseph and Beirut Arab University students backed a mass strike called by NULUS, the Lebanese University students' union, now run by the left (PSP, Communists, OCA).
\_this day in full
May 1972
late May 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
After the Lod airport attack, Israel holds Lebanon responsible and strikes the south.
Israeli attacks by land, sea and air on the Rashidieh camp, Hasbaya, Dayr Ashayer and Tibnin killed about 150 people after Japanese Red Army gunmen killed 24 at Lod airport, an operation the PLO had prepared for them in Beirut. Israel now declared Lebanon's government answerable for every PLO action.
\_this day in full
July 1972
Saturday, 8 July 1972
The road to war · From the books
Ghassan Kanafani is killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
Ghassan Kanafani, Palestinian writer and PFLP official, died when his car was blown up; de Clerck and Malsagne blame Mossad.
\_this day in full \_on this day
July 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Kamel al-As'ad founds his Democratic Socialist Party.
In July 1972 Speaker Kamel al-As'ad, Sadr's rival for Shi'i leadership, set up a Democratic Socialist Party, partly to curb Communists and Baathists in the south.
\_this day in full
September 1972
Saturday, 16 September 1972
The road to war · From the books
After Munich, Israel invades South Lebanon for three days.
Israeli forces entered the south in reprisal for the Munich Olympics attack on Israeli athletes, striking Nahr al-Bared camp and southern and Bekaa villages. The Lebanese army held them up for two days; they left after three, destroying bridges and houses on the way out. De Clerck & Malsagne count 118 dead.
Sources differ: Death toll 118 (de Clerck & Malsagne) or more than 100 (Picard). Only de Clerck & Malsagne give the day.
\_this day in full \_on this day
autumn 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
Habash and Jibril reject the 'freeze' Arafat accepts.
Urged by the government to hold back, Arafat agreed to suspend operations; Habash and Jibril said their groups were not bound. Hanf notes that southern Shi'is, at first wary of the guerrillas, came to blame government inaction for Israel's blows.
\_this day in full
November 1972
Friday, 3 November 1972
The road to war · From the books
Workers at the Ghandour factories begin an open-ended strike.
On 3 November 1972 an indefinite strike began at the Ghandour confectionery group, Lebanon's largest non-unionised industrial workforce. Workers wanted their factory committee recognised, the right to unionise, equal wages for women and higher pay.
Sources differ: Workforce: 1,200 in Shiyah (Traboulsi) or about 1,250 in Choueifat plus 350 in Chiyah (Tufaro).
\_this day in full \_on this day
Saturday, 11 November 1972
The road to war · From the books
Police fire on Ghandour strikers, killing two.
Two workers died on 11 November 1972 when security forces opened fire outside Ghandour's Chiyah plant: Fatima al-Khawaja of the Communist Party and Yusuf al-Attar of the OCA's workers' committees. Others were wounded. De Clerck & Malsagne call it the first workers' protest since independence put down with deadly force.
Sources differ: Wounded: 14 (Traboulsi) or 19, including 13 policemen (de Clerck & Malsagne).
\_this day in full \_on this day
mid-November 1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
A general strike and mass rallies protest the Ghandour killings.
Protests broke out nationwide for three days. Under pressure from its members, the labour confederation called a one-day general strike, and Kamal Jumblatt led some 20,000 marchers to parliament, where the crowd shouted '99 thieves and 17 ruffians'. Salam's government refused any inquiry and made demonstrations subject to permits.
\_this day in full
December 1972
Friday, 15 December 1972
The road to war · From the books
Ghandour locks out and dismisses its workers.
Talks failed; the company locked out and sacked its whole workforce. Traboulsi says it reopened after a week, taking back all but 100 it saw as ringleaders; Tufaro describes a six-month lockout that fresh protests ended, with the demands unmet.
Sources differ: Length of the lockout: one week (Traboulsi) against a declared six months (Tufaro).
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 26 December 1972
The road to war · From the books
The left demonstrates against the Ghandour dismissals.
On 26 December the Left protested again at the Ghandour sackings. Tufaro: workers left the dispute resentful of state and CGTL alike.
\_this day in full \_on this day
1972
1972: day not established
The road to war · From the books
The Arab Front for Participation in the Resistance is founded.
Some twelve progressive parties and organisations made up the Arab Front for Participation in the Resistance, set up in 1972 with the Lebanese National Movement among its founders.
The road to war · From the books
The 'Ring' expressway links Ashrafieh to Hamra.
From 1972 traffic between Christian Ashrafieh and Hamra, Beirut's second hub, could avoid the crowded centre on the Ring expressway. In the war it symbolised the split city.
Art and memory- place Linking Ashrafieh and Hamra since 1972, the Ring became a wartime emblem of the divided city; snipers fired on it from rooftops including the unfinished Murr tower.
The road to war · From the books
Sixteen thousand public school teachers strike for two months.
In 1972 the ministry broke a two-month nationwide public school teachers' strike by suspending salaries. They wanted higher pay, union rights and a pension after 25 years' service.
\_this day in full
1972 (month not given): day not established
The road to war · From the books
The last parliamentary elections before the war.
After the 1972 general elections there were none for twenty years; the parliament they chose sat through the whole war. Hanf rates them Lebanon's cleanest and freest; Traboulsi stresses how little they let new forces in.
Sources differ: Hanf: Lebanon's freest elections; Traboulsi, citing Le Monde: a chamber hardly representing public opinion.
\_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 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
January 2011
January 2011: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Hariri's government collapses as Hezbollah's ministers resign.
Hezbollah's ministers and their allies resigned, toppling the cabinet during the dispute over the UN tribunal's Hariri inquiry.
\_this day in full
February 2011
February-March 2011: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Weekly demonstrations call for abolishing the sectarian system.
Weekly marches against the sectarian system drew secular and leftist activists inspired by the Arab Spring; Lebanon, they said, had some twenty dictators, not one.
\_this day in full
March 2011
March 2011: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
The Syrian uprising begins and immediately plays out in Lebanon.
Lebanese took sides from the revolt's first month; dozens of young Lebanese and Palestinians crossed from Akkar and Hermel to join the rebels around Homs.
\_this day in full
June 2011
June 2011: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Najib Mikati forms a government dominated by Hezbollah's allies.
Hezbollah's allies took many cabinet seats; Picard calls it an '8 March' government.
\_this day in full
September 2011
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Since 2005 · From the books
Syrian and Lebanese intellectuals renew their 2006 declaration.
Nine months into the Syrian uprising, the signatories reissued their 2006 appeal, 'For the sake of the Lebanese-Syrian future'.
\_this day in full \_on this day
September 2011: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai backs Bashar al-Assad.
Patriarch Bechara Rai sided with Assad, fearing Islamists would win, though his community was hostile to the Syrian regime.
\_this day in full
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
March 2016
Saturday, 19 March 2016
Since 2005 · From the books
Beirut's rubbish is finally collected and taken to new landfills.
Quéméner notes that one of the two new landfills had been sited too near Beirut's international airport.
\_this day in full \_on this day
April 2016
April 2016: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Refugee pressure: the labour minister asks for help; Hollande pledges aid.
In April 2016 Labour Minister Sejaan Azzi, citing 25 per cent unemployment and 1.5 million Syrians, asked the US ambassador to take the refugee burden off Lebanon. Visiting Beirut that month, François Hollande announced 50 million euros a year in refugee aid for 2016-2018.
\_this day in full
dates 1–60 of 65 next
