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127 news for the 2nd, 15th, 23rd of every month

with the books

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January 23, 1975thursday
Dalida sang in Lebanon, at the Picadilly theatre. It was a triumph.

\_this day in full \_on this day

April 15, 1975tuesday
A cease-fire was reached
After more than three days of anguish, with 120 deaths and many injuries, two suspects were handed over to the Justice. Beirut and its surroundings have been the theater of violent clashes between the Phalange Party and Palestinian militias. Also, Zghortiotes and Tripolitans fought in Tripoli. A cease-fire was declared at night and all parties reached an agreement, the execution of which was entrusted to the Internal Security Forces.

\_this day in full the books also date it 16 May 1975 \_on this day

\_what the books add

After several days of fighting (Hanf; four, says Traboulsi), Pierre Gemayel gave up to the police two militiamen implicated in the Ain al-Rummaneh shooting. Early Syrian mediation failed to stop this round, which de Clerck and Malsagne end with a cease-fire on 16 May 1975; no book confirms a truce on 15 April.

May 23, 1975friday
Following the resignation of the Government of Rachid El Solh, Sleiman Frangieh, President of the Republic, put together a military government.
The new government was headed by Noureddine Rifai, a retired Corporal, and included only one civilian, Lucien Dahdah. This Government was in charge of reestablishing the peace in the country caused by bloody clashes between the Phalange Party and the Resistance. These clashes were still going on in Beirut and its surroundings.

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Nureddine al-Rifai was a retired Sunni officer: a general according to Hanf, a brigadier-general according to Traboulsi, an officer of the gendarmerie according to de Clerck and Malsagne.

October 2, 1975thursday
Rachid Karameh presided the meeting of the Ç National Committee for dialog È at the Serail. The committee decided that all armed elements will have to back up from their positions before the next day and will be replaced by Interior Security Forces.

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Formed in September 1975 through Syria's foreign minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, the National Dialogue Committee of some twenty leaders debated secularism and ending sectarian quotas; Hanf says it broke up empty-handed.

November 2, 1975sunday
Chuchu, the famous actor died from a hart attack. His real name was Hassan Alaeddine, the friend of younger and older kids was the most popular comedian on stage and on TV.

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December 15, 1975monday
After a week of dreadful combats, the first phases of the 18th cease-fire agreement were executed with the evacuation of the towers and big hotels in the capital.

\_this day in full the books also date it 8 December 1975, 9 December 1975 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf has the Murabitun, discreetly backed by the Palestinians, going on the offensive against the Kataeb downtown and around the hotels on 8 December and seizing the Phoenicia and St Georges. Traboulsi places an army attempt to retake the two hotels on 9 December.

February 23, 1976monday
A forty-five years old fanatic locked up 35 persons at the Canadian embassy. This situation lasted 8 hours and immersed Lebanon in a torrid suspense. The hostages were then liberated in a happy ending.

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March 15, 1976monday
Lieutenant Ahmed Khatib, chief of the ' Army of Arab Lebanon ', rejoined Ahdab's reformist movement. Barracks fell in the hands of protesters. 68 deputies signed a petition claiming the departure of Sleiman Frangieh who refused to leave his post, despite all the pressures against him.

\_this day in full the books also date it 11 March 1976, 13 March 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The deputies' petition demanding Frangieh's resignation is dated 11 March in Traboulsi's chronology and 13 March by de Clerck and Malsagne; Picard and Traboulsi's chronology count 68 signatures out of 99, Traboulsi's narrative 69. On 15 March Syrian-controlled PLA and Saiqa units halted a march on the Baabda palace by the Lebanese Arab Army and al-Ahdab's followers. Within days Khatib's force grew to a few thousand men and held most of the army's heavy weapons.

March 23, 1976tuesday
The ' Beirut Battle ' continued amid shelling.
The past 48 hours resulted in 150 deaths and 300 injuries. The control of downtown was at stake. Moslem-Progressive forces backed by Palestinian organizations were determined to eliminate any Phalangist presence West of the Martyrs Square. The new front was established on the axis Starco Hilton, while Phalangist militiamen faced assaults launched from the Riad El Solh and the Nejmeh Squares towards the Port area. In the Mountain where artillery duels continued, a common Palestinian Progressive breakthrough attempt was turned down in Mansourieh.

\_this day in full the books also date it 22 March 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf traces the line that went on dividing the city along the Damascus road and across Martyrs Square to the harbour. It was set once the Kataeb, losing the Holiday Inn, had no positions left in West Beirut.

April 2, 1976friday
A ten-day truce had bee decided, in order to elect a new President of the Republic after the expected departure of Sleiman Frangieh.

\_this day in full the books also date it 31 March 1976, 9 April 1976, 10 April 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Parliament used the truce to amend Article 73 of the constitution so that Frangieh's successor could be elected early: on 9 April according to Hanf, 10 April according to Yara El Khoury. The truce had coincided with the arrival on 31 March of the US envoy Dean Brown.

April 15, 1976thursday
Despite the extension of the truce, several fronts were set ablaze, including those in Beirut.
A new agreement, called the Damascus Agreement, was likely to be applied in the next 48 hours. Syrian and Resistance leaders had signed it. The agreement stipulated ending hostilities, reactivating the 'Supreme Military Committee', refusing the partition of Lebanon, rejecting American arrangements and plans in Lebanon, continuing the Syrian initiative and refusing the internationalization or the 'Arabization' of the Lebanese crisis. Also, an agreement had been reached stipulating the withdrawal of Syrian troops that entered the Bekaa region on April 10, back to the Masnaa borderline.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 April 1976, 11 April 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Traboulsi's chronology puts the Syrian-PLO accord to restore order in Beirut on 11 April. Around 9 April Syrian army tanks entered the Bekaa at Anjar, Judaydat Yabus and Bayadir al-Adas (Traboulsi), some forty in all according to Yara El Khoury, as Saiqa fighters set about ending the siege of Zahleh.

June 2, 1976wednesday
The residents of Beirut and its surroundings were living in the dark. The last cable supplying the capital with power had been broken. Daily life was very difficult.

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June 15, 1976tuesday
The Lebanese Front approved the application of the solutions of the sub-summit, concerning the dispatch, to Lebanon, of a peace force including Libyan, Algerian, Syrian, Sudanese, Saudi, and Palestinian contingents.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 June 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Picard (2016) dates to 9 June 1976 the Arab League Council resolution, taken in Cairo, that created an Arab peace force. Hanf has some 2,000 Sudanese arriving first, then Libyans; Picard (2002) says Tripoli sent 500 men in June.

September 15, 1976wednesday
One week before the expiry of his mandate, President Frangieh carried out a spectacular government reshuffling. Rachid Karameh was appointed Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture, Tourism, Housing, and Cooperatives; Camille Chamoun vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, Foreign Affairs, and National Defense; Addel Osseirane Minister of Justice, National Education, and Plan; Magid Arslane Minister of Public Works, Transportation, Hydraulic and Electric Resources, and Health; Ghassan Tueini Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Information, Industry and Oil; and Georges Skaff Minister of Finance, Economy and Trade, and Posts and Telecommunications.

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September 23, 1976thursday
Elias Sarkis, sixth President of the Republic, took the constitutional oath at the Park Hotel in Chtaura, in presence of 67 deputies.

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Syrian helicopters and armoured limousines carried the 67 deputies to the Park Hotel in Chtaura, in the Syrian-held Bekaa, where 2,000 Syrian soldiers and 40 tanks guarded the ceremony (Fisk). Sarkis used his address to declare that Lebanon itself had invited the Syrian army in (Hanf).

November 15, 1976monday
Phase 2 of the peace plan started.
The Arab Strike Force including mainly Syrians started to advance on various axes leading to the heart of the capital, as well as the Chouf, the Kesrouan, and Jbeil. 8,000 infantrymen and 250 armored vehicles converged towards the districts of Beirut and the front line.

\_this day in full the books also date it 14 November 1976, 16 November 1976 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Hanf puts the entry of about 6,000 Syrian soldiers, in the peace force's green helmets, into East and West Beirut on 14 November. Fisk's report in The Times of 16 November dated their occupation of the whole city to the previous morning, with 6,000 men and hundreds of tanks; the last firing, near the port, ended on 16 November, Fisk recounts.

January 23, 1977sunday
In Broumana and in presence of 25 delegates, the week of the Lebanese Forces was held under the sign of coexistence.
This three-day seminar adopted the principle of diversity in respect of heritage and cultures. The seminar emphasized the need to solve Lebanon's economic problem using modern solutions.

\_this day in full the books also date it 21 January 1977 \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne put the Lebanese Front's seminar at the Sayyidat al-Bir convent, not Broumana, on 21 January 1977. Its leaders, they report, judged the independence-era institutions obsolete, raised partition and defined a 'plurality of civilisational groups'. The body was the Lebanese Front, the Christian leaders' coalition, not the Lebanese Forces militia.

April 23, 1977saturday
The integrity of Southern Lebanon will be jointly guaranteed by Syria and the Soviet Union . This was the message that President Assad transmitted to President Sarkis, following recent meetings between Assad and Brejnev. He also said that a Lebanese force should insure security in Southern Lebanon.

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June 15, 1977wednesday
Charles Aznavour was the first star to come to Lebanon during the war. He sang in Byblos in front of a Lebanese audience trying to forget the nightmare of the last two years.

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August 2, 1977tuesday
The Saint-Georges Yacht Motor Club organized a water-ski competition, in presence of many foreigners; it was a come back of the Lebanon of yesterday.

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October 2, 1977sunday
President Chamoun declared to 3200 new NLP members: 'We should not be misled by a fake peace'.

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November 15, 1977tuesday
The performance of Joe Dassin at the Casino du Liban conquered the Lebanese.

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February 2, 1978thursday
Michel Sardou caused the walls at the Casino du Liban to vibrate.

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March 15, 1978wednesday
According to a report issued by the Ministry of Finance, the losses in the public sector were estimated at 7.5 billion Lebanese Pounds.

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March 23, 1978thursday
General Gour, from the Israeli army, affirmed that Israeli withdrawal from the South of Lebanon would start within a few days.

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\_what the books add

Fisk adds that during the invasion Gur declared that Israel would fall back to the Christian enclaves as a border 'security belt': the strip that became Major Haddad's.

April 23, 1978sunday
At the Villa Mansour, the committee of the ' Thirteen ', that included leaders from all parliamentary blocks, adopted a blueprint claiming the end of the Palestinian armed action on the entire Lebanese territory. The Parliament unanimously approved the resolution on the 27th of April.

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Neither parliament nor president could enforce the resolution, Hanf notes. The 74 deputies in attendance passed it without dissent: it reserved arms to the legitimate Lebanese forces, told the Palestinians and 'other parties' to end armed action, and applied Lebanese law to all on Lebanese soil.

May 2, 1978tuesday
A fight opposed the UNIFL and the Palestinians. The French barrack in Tyr was bombed and the commander of the French contingent was seriously injured.

\_this day in full \_on this day

\_what the books add

Colonel Jean Germain Salvan was badly hurt in both legs in early May, Fisk writes, when dissident PLO gunmen fired on the Fatah jeep carrying him, killing a French soldier and his Palestinian driver; Arafat called it a crime. Hanf adds that such losses made the French unit much more careful.

July 2, 1978sunday
Achrafieh was bombed. 130 shells hit the H™tel-Dieu hospital where 20 rooms were destroyed. At the same time, a huge fire ravaged the dock number 6 in the port.

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July 23, 1978sunday
Hadeth was savagely bombed.

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September 23, 1978saturday
After President Sarkis delivered a speech underlining the necessity to maintain the Arab Strike Force and guarantee the forthcoming withdrawal of Syrian forces, about 200 shells hit Achrafieh. The population panicked.

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\_what the books add

Schools, hospitals and factories were destroyed in the new bombardment, and Lebanese gendarmes logged 2,000 impacts a day in Achrafieh. Hanf links it to the Camp David agreement reached a few days before.

January 23, 1979tuesday
Considering the inflation and the depreciation of the Lebanese pound, new 250 LP bills were put in circulation starting February 1.

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March 23, 1979friday
Finally, 600 Lebanese soldiers replaced the Saudis in East Beirut in an atmosphere of popular emotion.

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\_what the books add

Ménargues: once the Saudis said in March 1979 they would hand their positions to the army, an army–militia clash looked inevitable; intelligence chief Johnny Abdo reopened contact with Bashir.

April 2, 1979monday
A rocket attack was launched against the American embassy in Beirut. Three missiles were shot from a car. Small damages were reported.

\_this day in full \_on this day

May 15, 1979tuesday
The Phalange Party and the LNP merged under the sign of cooperation with the State.

\_this day in full the books also date it 12 May 1979 \_on this day

\_what the books add

De Clerck and Malsagne date the start of the fighting between Kataeb and National Liberal Party militias to 12 May 1979, at Furn el-Chebbak; clashes recurred in various places until July 1980.

June 2, 1979saturday
50 polio cases were reported in Lebanon.

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July 2, 1979monday
President Elias Sarkis asked Selim El Hoss to form the government.

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July 23, 1979monday
A Lebanese cargo airplane from the freight company 'Trans Mediterranean Airway' crashed on one of the Beirut Airport runways. The six occupants of the four engine aircraft died.

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September 15, 1979saturday
Several hundreds of women gathered at the Arts and Crafts garden and head towards the office of the Prime Minister. Most of them were originally from the South and they were claiming peace.

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October 2, 1979tuesday
Linking the crisis with the settlement of the Palestinian problem, the Pope declared that Lebanon should remain a model of coexistence.

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October 23, 1979tuesday
Phalangist elements and the LNP fought in Beit Mery.

\_this day in full the books also date it 12 May 1979 \_on this day

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