73 entries on 67 dates · the books disagree on 15
dates 1–60 of 67 next
January 1992
January 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
A budget with huge borrowing needs sets off a run on the Lebanese pound.
The run on the pound outlasted the budget's withdrawal; it planned borrowing of half of GDP.
After the war · From the books
Syria's vice-president Khaddam comes to arbitrate the 'troika'.
In January 1992 Vice-President Khaddam came to Beirut to explain how Taif should regulate the troika of president, prime minister and speaker: the first of many Syrian arbitrations, mostly his.
\_this day in full
February 1992
Saturday, 29 February 1992
After the war · From the books
The Central Bank gives up defending the pound.
By early May a dollar cost 2,000 pounds; the bank had given up on the pound after losing a third of its foreign reserves.
Sources differ: Peak rate: 2,000 (Hanf, early May) or 2,200 (Picard, 1992).
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May 1992
Wednesday, 6 May 1992
After the war · From the books
A general strike against the cost of living brings down the Karami government.
Karami resigned after the 6 May general strike paralysed the country and rioters, often anti-Syrian in tone, attacked the prime minister's office and property of leading figures. Rashid Solh's cabinet, formed in Damascus, called elections.
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June 1992
Wednesday, 17 June 1992
After the war · From the books
The last two Western hostages are freed.
Two Germans, the last Western hostages held in Lebanon, were released.
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July 1992
Thursday, 16 July 1992
After the war · From the books
Parliament passes a new electoral law for 128 deputies.
Mixing large and small constituencies, the law set 128 seats, not Taif's 108; Hanf sees Syria's allies as the gainers. Albert Moukheiber called it 'imported and imposed'.
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Thursday, 23 July 1992
After the war · From the books
A general strike against the elections; the main Christian forces call a boycott.
The 23 July strike against the elections held where Syrian troops were absent. The Patriarch and his synod led opponents, wanting no vote until the displaced returned and the occupation ended; the Kataeb, LF, NLP, National Bloc and some Muslim figures joined.
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July 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
Hundreds of Aoun supporters are arrested for distributing leaflets.
Leaflets urging 'real independence' or a boycott led military police to detain young Aounists; some faced military courts. Amnesty International counted about 200 arrests by December 1992, citing ill-treatment.
Sources differ: More than 120 (Picard) or about 200 (Amnesty, via Hanf).
After the war · From the books
Army commander Emile Lahoud deploys troops to take back public property held by wartime militias.
Protests by Druze clerics and civilians, organised by Walid Jumblatt, blocked the army in the Chouf; the government gave way and left Beiteddine palace in his hands.
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August 1992
summer (no day in the books) August 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
First parliamentary elections since 1972, boycotted by most Christians.
In Baalbek-Hermel Hezbollah's list defeated the speaker's, and with Amal it took the Shiite seats. Few voted: about 10 percent in Beirut and 6.5 percent in Jbeil, where one deputy won with 41 votes. The major Christian currents had no seats.
Sources differ: Turnout: under 20 percent (Hanf, provisional official) or 30 percent (Picard). Hezbollah seats: Hanf counts a faction of fourteen, Picard nine deputies.
\_this day in full
September 1992
September 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
The Taif deadline for Syrian redeployment passes without a withdrawal.
In September 1992 Lebanese pressing for the partial Syrian pullback that Taif tied to a two-year deadline after the constitutional reforms were told the reforms, deconfessionalisation first, remained unfinished.
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October 1992
late October 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
Rafiq Hariri becomes prime minister.
Hariri, a billionaire contractor and not a deputy, formed a cabinet of business people and technocrats in late October, centred on reconstruction. Within two weeks the dollar fell from 2,200 to 1,900 pounds. Berri became speaker that month; Jumblatt minister for the displaced.
Sources differ: Hanf's text prints 1982 for 1992, an obvious misprint.
\_this day in full
October 1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
Kisrawan has to vote again for lack of candidates.
Kisrawan's October by-election turnout was 20.9 percent, against 57 percent in 1972; the government had found one candidate for its five seats.
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November 1992
Tuesday, 10 November 1992
After the war · From the books
Speaker Berri hopes to see confessional elections end with this parliament.
Hezbollah took up the call to abolish political confessionalism, which Syria then tied to any future withdrawal of its troops.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 26 November 1992
After the war · From the books
Hariri wins a vote of confidence but not the powers he wanted.
Deputies refused him temporary decree powers and an end to civil servants' immunity, which Hanf deems vital to reforming the administration.
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December 1992
Tuesday, 8 December 1992
After the war · From the books
Syrian withdrawal is made conditional on ending confessionalism.
On 8 December Hrawi declared that deconfessionalisation would rest on consensus, Taif and the Constitution. Khaddam tied any partial Syrian withdrawal to ending confessionalism, and a Damascus summit's communiqué left withdrawal out.
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1992
1992: day not established
After the war · From the books
Demolitions begin in downtown Beirut for the reconstruction company.
From 1992 Solidere blew up shell-damaged central Beirut: part of the medieval wall, the gold souk ruins, Ottoman façades. Its 'tabula rasa' angered press and universities.
Sources differ: Picard dates the founding of Solidere to 1993 (next entry), after the demolitions Fisk describes in 1992.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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February 2003
April 2003
Sunday, 13 April 2003
After the war · From the books
'Remember, so as not to return': a campaign for a national day of memory.
In al-Safir leading politicians openly backed remembering the war for the first time. On 13 April hundreds gathered in Martyrs' Square, handing out flowers and collecting signatures for a national memory day and a memorial; earlier, the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir and the families' Committee had screened war documentaries unseen in Lebanon at Masrah al-Medina.
Art and memory- place Architect Mona El-Hallak came upon the Barakat building, above the old demarcation line at Sodeco, in 1996, and from 1997 led APSAD's campaign to save it. In 2003 the municipality expropriated it for $3 million for Beit Beirut.
- film Films Haugbolle cites on postwar amnesia include Ghassan Salhab's Beyrouth Fantôme (1999) and Terra Incognita (2002); the novel Ya Salam (1999) by Najwa Barakat follows former militiamen in peacetime.
Other date in the books: Tuesday, 8 April 2003
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April 2003: day not established
After the war · From the books
A replica of the 1975 bus becomes a memory installation in Beirut.
Hassan Saouli deliberately kept graphic images out: to mark 28 years since 13 April, he parked a bus of the 1975 model on a central Beirut street, with videos and texts on guilt and forgiveness inside.
\_this day in full
May 2003
Tuesday, 27 May 2003
After the war · From the books
Ghassan Tueni answers a Syrian general's threats against the Lebanese.
In al-Nahar Ghassan Tueni addressed Bashar al-Assad as an equal, protesting at threats against the Lebanese by General Bahjat Sleiman, Syria's intelligence chief.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 2003
June 2003: day not established
After the war · From the books
Nada Sahnaoui's installation 'Atadhakkar' (I remember) opens in Martyrs' Square.
Sahnaoui set readers' memories of prewar downtown on 360 newspaper stacks, leaving a few stacks bare for what had been erased.
Sources differ: Opening in June 2003 (p. 132); the photograph is dated July 2003.
Art and memory- artwork Nada Sahnaoui's earlier work 'Statistics' listed war casualty figures from the press; Haugbolle's note points to 111101's Artworks section.
After the war · From the books
A Kataeb memorial in Ashrafieh is pulled down for luxury flats.
A 1986 site for local fighters, it had lost its point once many of their families left in 1989-90, the mukhtar said.
\_this day in full
September 2003
September 2003: day not established
After the war · From the books
Soldiers fire on Hezbollah members in a poster fight at Jiba.
In Jiba, Hezbollah members objected to Amal's pictures of Imam Musa Sadr; in the ensuing brawl the army fired on Hezbollah, a first in over ten years: one dead, two wounded.
After the war · From the books
A by-election sets off a poster war in Gemmayzeh.
In Jummayza's September 2003 by-election, posters of Aoun's Hikmat Dib, the jailed Geagea and Bashir Gemayel were torn or mocked daily: Christian memory, divided.
\_this day in full
October 2003
Monday, 27 October 2003
After the war · From the books
Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions at Shebaa; Israel raids near villages.
\_this day in full \_on this day
November 2003
November 2003: day not established
After the war · From the books
A public hearing on 'understanding the war' turns into a shouting match.
Two women broke into the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir's hearing for students and war witnesses: one abused Samir Kassir for attacking Syria; a mother blamed a former Kataeb editor for her son's killing.
\_this day in full
December 2003
December 2003: day not established
After the war · From the books
The US Congress passes the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act.
It demanded a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon and allowed for sanctions, partly applied from spring 2004.
Sources differ: Passed in November (Haugbolle) or December 2003 (Picard, 33 jours); sanctions from April (Picard) or May 2004 (33 jours).
\_this day in full
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
January 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Since 2005 · From the books
Double bombing in Haret Hreik kills nine.
The attack struck the Shiite district of Haret Hreik in Beirut's southern suburb.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Since 2005 · From the books
Suicide bombing in Hermel.
The suicide attack hit the town of Hermel in the northern Bekaa.
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Tuesday, 21 January 2014
Since 2005 · From the books
Suicide bombing in Haret Hreik.
A further suicide attack hit Haret Hreik in the southern suburb.
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January 2014: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
The Special Tribunal begins hearing witnesses.
Hezbollah members and accomplices in the Syrian regime were implicated in the STL trial near The Hague, where Lebanese witnesses appeared for both sides.
\_this day in full
February 2014
Monday, 3 February 2014
Since 2005 · From the books
Suicide bombing in Choueifat.
A suicide bomber struck at Choueifat, south of Beirut.
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dates 1–60 of 67 next
