37 entries on 35 dates · the books disagree on 10
February 1998
February 1998: day not established
After the war · From the books
Two agreements open trade between Lebanon and Syria.
Duties on agricultural goods were to fall by 50 percent a year from October 1999, and those on industrial goods by 25 percent a year from that January.
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March 1998
March 1998: day not established
After the war · From the books
Israel's prime minister accepts Resolution 425.
Netanyahu's unexpected acceptance of Resolution 425 exposed, in Picard's analysis, a paradox: Lebanon still demanded the resolution officially, but Syria's veto on separate Israeli-Lebanese talks meant it in fact opposed it.
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November 1998
Tuesday, 24 November 1998
After the war · From the books
Army commander Emile Lahoud becomes president.
Backed by Bashar al-Assad, who had taken charge of the Lebanese file, Lahoud promised to fight corruption. He soon broke with Hariri.
Sources differ: September 1998 and October 1998 (both in Picard 2002), November (Picard 2016, 33 jours) and 24 November (de Clerck). The later dates may be the start of the term rather than the vote.
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December 1998
December 1998: day not established
After the war · From the books
Hariri leaves office; Salim al-Hoss forms a government.
Soon after Hariri left office, dozens of his administration's senior officials faced corruption inquiries. Hoss governed until October 2000.
Sources differ: Hariri stepped down in November (Picard p. 166) or December 1998 (Picard p. 177).
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1998
1998: day not established
After the war · From the books
The first municipal elections since 1963 are held after a civic campaign.
Newly formed associations drove the campaign and gathered a million signatures; Picard calls it post-war civil society's first major win.
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January 2001
February 2001
February 2001: day not established
After the war · From the books
Christian opposition figures form the Qornet Shehwan Gathering.
Patriarch Sfeir informally led this anti-Syrian Christian gathering of the centre-right, whose members ranged from ex-president Amine Gemayel to Samir Frangieh, formerly of the National Movement.
Sources differ: February 2001 (Haugbolle) or April 2001 (Picard).
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March 2001
March 2001: day not established
After the war · From the books
On a US tour, Patriarch Sfeir demands that Syrian forces leave Lebanon.
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April 2001
April 2001: day not established
After the war · From the books
The 'Memory for the Future' colloquium breaks the silence on the war.
Amal Makarem convened it at the UN building in Beirut: Lebanese journalists, academics and lawyers met transitional-justice specialists from Germany, Rwanda and South Africa. Several organisers later set up the Association Mémoire pour l'Avenir.
Sources differ: April 2001 (Haugbolle) or March 2001 (title cited by Reder).
Art and memory- testimony Haugbolle's notes cite the 111101.net artist page and 111101.com: the artist Naji Zahar, he writes, started a war-memory discussion group in the late 1990s and later created 111101, an award-winning online memory database.
After the war · From the books
Rival demonstrations over Syria revive fears of war around 13 April.
Haugbolle notes that in April 2001 several newspapers wondered whether war could return: they reported ex-militiamen stirring in both East and West Beirut after rival rallies, some against Syria, some for the government.
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May 2001
Thursday, 24 May 2001
After the war · From the books
A national holiday marks one year since the 'liberation' of the south.
Sources differ: Abirached dates the anniversary 24 May; de Clerck and Malsagne date the withdrawal itself to 25 May (see the withdrawal entry).
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June 2001
June 2001: day not established
After the war · From the books
Syrian troops partly withdraw from Beirut.
In June 2001, a year after Bashar al-Assad took power, some Syrian units moved from Beirut and its eastern suburbs to the north and east, while the bulk of the army stayed. Reported troop numbers: 25,000 after 2000, 21,000 in 2001, 17,000 in 2004.
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August 2001
Saturday, 4 August 2001
After the war · From the books
Patriarch Sfeir's visit to the Chouf seals a Maronite-Druze reconciliation.
Patriarch Sfeir toured the Chouf and called on Walid Jumblatt, eighteen years after the Mountain war; thousands of villagers applauded. Yet most displaced Christians still did not return.
\_this day in full \_on this day
August 2001: day not established
After the war · From the books
Hundreds of Lebanese Forces and Aoun supporters are arrested.
Reacting to the Maronite–Druze reconciliation, the security services detained anti-Syrian activists for allegedly plotting against the state, and plainclothes police forcibly broke up a protest outside Beirut's Palace of Justice. The cabinet and parliament approved the crackdown.
Sources differ: Hundreds (Picard) or 200 (Quéméner).
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October 2001
Monday, 22 October 2001
After the war · From the books
After Hezbollah strikes Israeli posts at Shebaa, Israel hits back with raids in the south.
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2001
late 2001 (after 11 September): day not established
After the war · From the books
The United States lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group; Beirut refuses to act.
Washington asked Lebanon to freeze Hezbollah's assets and disarm it; the government refused, citing the unfinished Israeli withdrawal.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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.
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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
May 2016
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Since 2005 · From the books
Beirut municipal elections: Hariri's list beats the civil-society list Beirut Madinati.
Saad Hariri's list won Beirut's council over Beirut Madinati ('Beirut, my city'), a civil-society slate that proposed deliberative urban planning and fielded engineers, architects, artists and researchers; Reder links it to the 2015 'You Stink' protests. Some 80 per cent of voters abstained.
Art and memory- artwork A 111101 project presents the 2016 Beirut municipal vote interactively, from the results and the electoral rolls (/Projects/Municipalities/results-beirut.php and voters-beirut.php).
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July 2016
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
Since 2005 · From the books
A Syrian refugee camp is burned in Akkar.
A small Syrian refugee camp in Akkar, a poor Sunni region, was set on fire on the night of 5-6 July.
\_this day in full \_on this day
summer 2016: day not established
Since 2005 · From the books
Beit Beirut, the memory museum in the Barakat building, is inaugurated but stays closed.
The municipality inaugurated Beit Beirut, the old snipers' building on the demarcation line, but kept it shut; its 2008-2016 restoration saw repeated quarrels among the municipality, architect and scientific committee. Paris's mayor visited in September.
Art and memory- memorial Beit Beirut, the old Barakat building on the demarcation line, was the municipality's planned museum of the city's memory. Reder finds that in 2016-2019 artists and NGOs, not the municipality, kept it alive.
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October 2016
Monday, 31 October 2016
Since 2005 · From the books
Michel Aoun is elected President after twenty-nine months of vacancy.
Aoun, 81, ended a vacancy of over two years. A surplus envelope voided the last two of three rounds held before his election, Quéméner notes.
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November 2016
Thursday, 3 November 2016
Since 2005 · From the books
Saad Hariri is designated Prime Minister.
Hariri was named three days after Aoun's election.
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