71 entries on 66 dates · the books disagree on 16
dates 1–60 of 66 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).
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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'.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
\_this day in full
January 2005
Monday, 17 January 2005
After the war · From the books
A bulldozer is attacked at Shebaa; Israel strikes Hezbollah positions in the south.
\_this day in full \_on this day
February 2005
Monday, 14 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is assassinated in Beirut.
Shortly after midday a huge bomb struck Rafic Hariri's convoy outside the Saint-Georges hotel on the Beirut seafront, killing him and others travelling with him. Lebanese politics then divided into two blocs, which took their names from the rallies of 8 and 14 March.
Sources differ: Death toll differs: 22 dead (de Clerck & Malsagne, p. 461 and p. 577); Hariri 'and eight companions' (Abirached, p. 243, although the same chronology's 7 April entry speaks of Hariri 'and twenty-two other persons'); 18 dead (Quéméner). The counts may cover different groups (convoy only, or all victims, including those who died later).
Art and memory- book Sune Haugbolle's War and Memory in Lebanon begins with the Hariri bombing of 14 February 2005, which he takes as the end of postwar Lebanon and which brought the war back to many Lebanese minds.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 15 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
The UN Security Council calls for Syria's withdrawal.
Quéméner's calendar has the Security Council demanding Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon on 15 February 2005, the day after Hariri's killing.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 16 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Hariri is buried in downtown Beirut; his grave becomes a place of pilgrimage.
Hariri was buried on 16 February in central Beirut, beside his unfinished mosque. His family had refused a state funeral and barred President Émile Lahoud. Crowds swelled the cortege; for days people visited the tent over the grave, where a roadside cloth gathered signatures for 'the truth'.
Art and memory- place Hariri's grave in the city centre became a place of pilgrimage, and the 'freedom fence' beside it, along his mosque, gathered layer upon layer of graffiti in Arabic, French and English; in November 2006 the site was sealed off with barbed wire.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 21 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
First large opposition demonstration near the site of the bombing.
Mass rallies followed every Monday in February and March. On 21 February, a week after the attack, a large, orderly crowd met near the Saint-Georges hotel with national flags only. Young activists camped on Martyrs' Square below Hariri's grave.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Friday, 25 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
A UN fact-finding mission arrives in Beirut.
Irish police officer Peter Fitzgerald arrived in Beirut with a UN fact-finding team, whose job was to give a first account of how Hariri was killed.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 28 February 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Prime Minister Omar Karami resigns under pressure from the street.
Omar Karami's government resigned as demonstrations grew in downtown Beirut.
Sources differ: Two contributors to the same volume differ: Abirached's chronology dates Karami's resignation to 28 February, Khayat's chapter to 27 February. Abirached's dated chronology is the more precise of the two.
\_this day in full \_on this day
March 2005
Saturday, 5 March 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
In a speech to Syria's parliament, Bashar al-Assad promises to pull his army out of Lebanon.
Under pressure from abroad, including from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Bashar al-Assad told the Syrian parliament that his troops would leave Lebanon; Syria, he insisted, was not abandoning its responsibilities towards its 'brothers and friends'.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 8 March 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Hezbollah and Amal rally in central Beirut to thank Syria.
Hezbollah and Amal brought a huge crowd into central Beirut to thank Syria and to reject Western interference. Addressing it, Hassan Nasrallah credited Syria with keeping Lebanon stable and warned against foreign meddling. The pro-Syrian '8 March' camp took its name from the day.
Sources differ: Crowd size: about 800,000 (Abirached; Khayat) against 400,000 (Quéméner). De Clerck & Malsagne call it the first mass demonstration, whereas Khayat places it the day after the opposition's third Monday rally.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 10 March 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
President Lahoud names Omar Karami Prime Minister again.
Ten days after his resignation, Omar Karami was again designated to form a government.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 14 March 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
About a million people gather on Martyrs' Square: the '14 March' demonstration.
The opposition answered with a still larger rally of nearly a million people; Sunnis came out in force beside Christians and Druze, waving Lebanese flags. They demanded the truth about Hariri's assassination, an end to the joint Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus and Syria's withdrawal. The '14 March' coalition is named after the day.
Art and memory- photograph Al-Nahar showed Wissam Moussa's photograph of the 14 March 2005 marchers next to Hariri's grave for two months that spring: placards of dead leaders, each said to have been killed by Syria.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Friday, 25 March 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
The Fitzgerald mission hands its report to the UN in New York.
Peter Fitzgerald's UN team delivered its findings on the Hariri assassination in New York.
\_this day in full \_on this day
late March 2005: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
A series of bombs begins in Christian areas.
Bombs started going off in Christian areas shortly after the 14 March rally. The first did only material damage, but the attacks escalated until they were aimed at killing people in the anti-Syrian camp.
\_this day in full
March 2005: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Syrian workers flee Lebanon amid reprisals.
After Hariri's killing, sporadic attacks by Lebanese, which a Daily Star report cited by Picard says left several dozen victims, drove unskilled Syrian farm and building workers out. Syrian unemployment, already 20 per cent officially, rose sharply as they went home.
\_this day in full
April 2005
Sunday, 3 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Syria agrees with the UN envoy to withdraw by 30 April at the latest.
Syrian troops were to be out of Lebanon by 30 April at the latest under a deal Bashar al-Assad struck with the UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.
Since 2005 · From the books range
Unity Week festival in downtown Beirut (3-13 April).
Bahia Hariri drove Unity Week, which filled central Beirut with events from 3 to 13 April as the war reached its thirtieth anniversary; war-wounded wheelchair users joined some forty thousand others in its unity marathon. Haugbolle notes that it left out Amal, Hezbollah and smaller pro-Syrian groups, and had a commercial streak.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 7 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
UN Resolution 1595 creates an international commission to investigate Hariri's killing.
Detlev Mehlis, a German magistrate, was appointed to chair the new UN International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC), which Resolution 1595 set up to investigate the 14 February killing of Hariri and twenty-two others.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Wednesday, 13 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Thirtieth anniversary of the war: a march along the former Green Line.
On the evening of 13 April a procession walked the old Green Line from the National Museum to Martyrs' Square. At the Museum, a banner apologising for all that was done in the war hung for people to sign. Unity Week press advertisements set a grey, crossed-out 1975 beside a brightly graffitied 2005.
Art and memory- artwork Al-Nahar's Unity Week advertisements of 13 April 2005 set a struck-through grey 1975 beside a bright 2005 ('History did not repeat itself'), marking for Haugbolle the passage from war to new unity.
- testimony Haugbolle cites a conversation with Naji Zahar, the artist behind 111101, held in Beirut on 14 April 2005, the day after the anniversary; Haugbolle's book also discusses Zahar's memory meetings and online database (printed p. 101).
\_this day in full \_on this day
Friday, 15 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Najib Mikati is named Prime Minister.
Najib Mikati was appointed prime minister at the head of a more neutral team charged with running the May–June elections; Omar Karami had been unable to form a cabinet.
Since 2005 · From the books
UMAM shows Jocelyne Saab's 1975 film of a Lebanon about to go to war.
Away from Unity Week, UMAM Documentation and Research showed Jocelyne Saab's 1975 film on Lebanese society as war was about to break out.
Art and memory- film Lokman Slim and Monika Borgmann, UMAM's founders, filmed Massaker (2005) from 2001 to 2004 out of interviews with ex-militiamen who had joined in the Sabra and Shatila killings; Haugbolle spoke with the pair in Beirut on 30 April 2005.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 25 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
General Security chief Jamil al-Sayyed resigns.
On 25 April Jamil al-Sayyed stepped down as director general of General Security.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 26 April 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
The last Syrian troops and intelligence officers leave Lebanon.
Syria's remaining troops and intelligence personnel left Lebanon, ending twenty-nine years of Syrian military presence. By Picard's count, some 14,000 soldiers went home peacefully before the end of April.
\_this day in full \_on this day
May 2005
Saturday, 7 May 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
General Michel Aoun returns from fifteen years of exile in France.
Back in Beirut, the Free Patriotic Movement leader told supporters on Freedom Square that his fellow opposition leaders were sectarian. He later came to terms with Hezbollah and joined forces with one-time pro-Syrian politicians.
Sources differ: 7 May (Quéméner) or 8 May (Abirached). Each date has one source; the others give only 'May' or 'a few days after' the withdrawal.
Since 2005 · From the books
Parliament keeps the 2000 electoral law for the coming elections.
With no agreement on a new law, Parliament kept the 2000 electoral law, devised by Syria's Ghazi Kanaan according to Picard, for the late-May elections. Picard sees the elite dropping the protest movement once the Syrians had left, to secure its own re-election.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Sunday, 29 May 2005
Since 2005 · From the books range
Parliamentary elections over several weeks give the anti-Syrian coalition a majority.
Saad Hariri's anti-Syrian coalition won 72 of 128 seats and Michel Aoun's movement much of Mount Lebanon; with each region returning its own local leaders, the vote showed a country more divided by sect than ever.
Sources differ: The two chapters of the same book disagree on when voting ended: 12 June in Abirached's chronology, 19 June in Khayat's chapter. Picard dates the elections simply to May 2005.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 2005
Thursday, 2 June 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Journalist and historian Samir Kassir is killed by a car bomb.
Samir Kassir, academic, columnist and a leading voice against Syrian control, died when a bomb went off in his car. Haugbolle treats the killing as the moment post-Syrian Lebanon's disarray grew plain.
Sources differ: 2 June in four sources (de Clerck & Malsagne, Abirached, Quéméner, Khayat) against 1 June in Haugbolle. 2 June has the most support.
Art and memory- book De Clerck and Malsagne call Samir Kassir's 1994 study, which ends in 1982, a reference work; Kassir himself noted that no academic research yet covered the conflict in its full complexity.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 21 June 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Former Communist Party leader George Hawi is assassinated.
George Hawi, former secretary general of the Lebanese Communist Party and close to the anti-Syrian opposition, was killed by a car bomb in Beirut.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Sunday, 26 June 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Nabih Berri is re-elected Speaker of Parliament.
The Amal leader kept the speakership with 90 votes out of 128.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 30 June 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Fouad Siniora is chosen as Prime Minister.
A parliament dominated by the 14 March parties chose Fouad Siniora, Rafic Hariri's trusted associate, as prime minister. Israel had retaliated, on a limited scale, for a major Hezbollah attack in the Shebaa Farms launched a few hours before the nomination.
Sources differ: Abirached's chronology has Siniora forming the government on 30 June; Khayat says only that he was designated at the end of June. For the government itself, de Clerck & Malsagne (Confluences) give 19 July (see the following entry).
\_this day in full \_on this day
July 2005
Tuesday, 12 July 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Defence Minister Elias Murr survives a car bomb.
Former Defence Minister Elias Murr survived an assassination attempt, a case the Special Tribunal later treated as linked to Hariri's murder.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 19 July 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Siniora's government takes office, with Hezbollah ministers for the first time.
Hezbollah ministers sat in a Lebanese cabinet for the first time, beside a majority from the former opposition. Siniora went on to head governments until November 2009.
Sources differ: Most sources say July (Confluences 19 July, Picard July); Abirached's chronology has 30 June, perhaps Siniora's designation, which the same book's narrative puts at the end of June.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 25 July 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Siniora says Hezbollah's weapons exist because of the occupation.
Quoted in al-Nahar, Siniora tied Hezbollah's arms to the occupation, backing the 'national' resistance yet endorsing UN calls to disarm all non-state forces.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Tuesday, 26 July 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Samir Geagea, leader of the Lebanese Forces, is freed after eleven years in prison.
Released under an amnesty, the former militia leader officially re-founded the Lebanese Forces as a party; his wife told reporters the civil war was over.
Sources differ: 26 July (Abirached) and 'end of July' (Khayat) against 'June 2005' (de Clerck & Malsagne, p. 451-452). Haugbolle's source for the wife's words is al-Nahar of 18 July 2005, which may refer to the amnesty vote rather than the release.
\_this day in full \_on this day
summer 2005: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Syria blockades the border in retaliation.
Syria answered Lebanese and UN efforts to restore legality on the border with a retaliatory blockade in summer 2005, a sign of its exasperation.
\_this day in full
August 2005
Monday, 8 August 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
The cabinet sets up a national commission to write a new election law.
The commission was asked to prepare a new law after the 2005 elections were held under the 2000 law.
\_this day in full \_on this day
September 2005
Thursday, 1 September 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Four security chiefs are arrested in the Hariri investigation.
Mustafa Hamdan of the Presidential Guard and the three men who had headed the security services when Hariri was killed were arrested at the instance of the UN commission, aided by the Lebanese judiciary. Picard records that the four were held without evidence until April 2009.
Sources differ: 1 September (Abirached) against end of August (Khayat; Picard gives August). Two sources favour late August.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 26 September 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Television journalist May Chidiac is gravely injured by a car bomb.
The LBC television journalist, a fierce critic of Syria, was seriously wounded in a car-bomb attempt on her life.
\_this day in full \_on this day
October 2005
Friday, 21 October 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
The first Mehlis report points to Lebanese and Syrian intelligence.
Lebanese and Syrian intelligence services, judge Detlev Mehlis told the Security Council as he presented the UN commission's first report, were linked to Hariri's assassination by 'converging evidence'. Picard adds that the report implicated the Syrian president's brother and brother-in-law.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Monday, 31 October 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
UN Resolution 1636 orders Syria to cooperate with the investigation.
Under Chapter VII, the Council threatened Syria with sanctions unless it cooperated fully with the UN inquiry commission.
Sources differ: Picard has 31 October, Abirached 1 November; a late New York vote on the 31st would fall on the 1st in Beirut, but this is unchecked.
\_this day in full \_on this day
November 2005
Thursday, 10 November 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
Assad's defiant speech at Damascus University.
At Damascus University Bashar al-Assad branded Resolution 1636 a threat and accused Beirut's government of conspiracy, though he agreed to cooperate with the inquiry. Picard sees the hard line as meant to rally Syrians humiliated by their defeat in Lebanon.
\_this day in full \_on this day
late November 2005: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Hezbollah tries to capture Israeli soldiers at Ghajar.
In Ghajar, beside the Shebaa Farms zone, Hezbollah made an unsuccessful bid to capture Israeli soldiers, putting its military strength to use.
\_this day in full
December 2005
Monday, 12 December 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
MP and al-Nahar publisher Gebran Tueni is assassinated.
A car bomb killed Gebran Tueni, MP and chief executive of al-Nahar, a vocal critic of the Syrian presence recently back from France. Prime Minister Siniora demanded an international tribunal, and the Shiite ministers started staying away from cabinet meetings.
\_this day in full \_on this day
Thursday, 15 December 2005
Since 2005 · From the books
UN Resolution 1644 extends the investigation.
One of the series of Security Council resolutions on Lebanon between 2004 and 2007.
\_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
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
dates 1–60 of 66 next
