39 news for the 2nd, 5th of April, June, September, November, December
with the booksNovember 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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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.
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.
\_this day in full \_on this day
April 5, 1977tuesday
The officials were satisfied with the ongoing excavations in the heart of the city where the most damaged sectors were located, for they exhumed valuable Phoenician, Roman and Byzantine vestiges.
\_this day in full \_on this day
November 5, 1977saturday
An odious murder was committed against Abdel-Hamid Ahdab. He was a strong defender of an inter-Lebanese dialogue in favor of an absolute allegiance to the country. The powerful explosion placed in Ahdab's residence killed his daughter and seriously injured him and his spouse. This criminal act was perpetrated against democracy, freedom of speech and reconciliation between the Lebanese.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 5, 1978monday
Ghassan Tueini proposed, at the UN General Assembly, an 'international neutrality to protect Lebanon, because this country has no longer any other future besides explosion or invasion'. A UN force would take in charge the protection of the territory, while the army would devote its efforts to internal security and reconstruction.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 5, 1978tuesday
The Arab tripartite committee including Saudi and Kuwaiti ambassadors and a Syrian general, met in Baabda in presence of the chief of State. The committee excluded any immediate resort to the army.
\_this day in full \_on this day
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
November 5, 1980wednesday
After Bechir Obeid and Kamal Kheir Beik, two leaders from the Social National Syrian Party, were killed in West Beirut, as well as a civilian called Mounir Fatha, bloody confrontations opposed the Mourabitoun to the SNSP.
\_this day in full \_on this day
April 2, 1981thursday
The Lebanese will remember this date for long time. Violence brought back to Beirut the darkest experiences of 1975-1976. Blind bombardments targeted the Eastern and Western sectors of the capital. Thousands of students were trapped in their schools and the population panicked. There were heavy casualties: 50 persons died and more than 200 were wounded.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Historians date the battle of Zahleh from this day, when Lebanese Forces fighters beat off a Syrian attack on the town and a siege of some 90 days began. Ménargues says Syrian heavy guns killed 50 and wounded over 200 that day in Zahleh and the Christian zone north of Beirut.
September 5, 1981saturday
Hamid Frangieh, one of the major figures of the Lebanese independence, died. Born in Ehden in 1907, he was the first Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Lebanese Independent State, in the 1943 cabinet of Riad Solh. He was deputy of Zghorta from 1943 to 1957. He negotiated in February 1948 the monetary convention with France. It was a big loss for Lebanon.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
According to Picard, Hamid Frangieh negotiated Lebanon's financial agreements with France, which she places in 1943 rather than 1948.
November 2, 1981monday
The Arab Strike Force launched a security operation in the West of the capital where Palestinian, Libyan and Iranian influence multiplied lately.
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 September 1981 \_on this day
June 5, 1982saturday
The South was burning. Over 150 persons killed and 250 wounded were reported while the Israeli artillery, navy and aviation bombarded 38 towns and localities.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
A Palestinian Katyusha killed an Israeli motorist in Galilee on 5 June, a day of some 50 Israeli raids by Fisk's count, which left civilians burning in cars on the coast road north of Damour. Picard's chronology and one passage of de Clerck and Malsagne date the start of the invasion to 5 June; the books' main chronologies give 6 June.
September 2, 1982thursday
November 2, 1982tuesday
Sister Theresa arrived in Beirut for a short visit of several days. She offered housing to 37 young Lebanese, providing them with everything they needed.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 2, 1982thursday
A wide meeting in Baabda reached an agreement on the creation of a Lebanese strike force in charge of reestablishing order and security in Aley and the Chouf.
\_this day in full \_on this day
November 2, 1983wednesday
At the Geneva conference, the Mai 17 agreement was the main subject of debates. A Gemayel-Frangieh reconciliation took place.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Geneva's leaders agreed on Lebanon's 'Arab identity'. Fisk saw two reconciliations: Camille Chamoun ended five years of silence with Suleiman Frangieh, and Frangieh's public embrace of Amin Gemayel seemed to close their families' feud.
September 5, 1984wednesday
September 5, 1985thursday
September 2, 1986tuesday
The first meeting of the Dialog Committee was held at the Beirut racecourse. The ten members of the government met for the first time since November 1985. The Ministers decided to elaborate a new National Pact.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
The meetings produced no agreement (Hanf).
November 2, 1986sunday
An American, David Jacobsen, detained by the Islamic Jihad since the 27th of May 1985, was finally released.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Fisk's account puts the kidnapping on 28 May 1985.
November 5, 1986wednesday
December 2, 1986tuesday
A general strike paralyzed the country. The Lebanese were unable to cope with the increase in prices. The leaders couldn't find any solution to the crisis. The popular discontent was on the rise.
\_this day in full \_on this day
December 5, 1986friday
Abou Melhem died. The great TV comedian, whose real name was Adib Haddad, became famous for playing, for many years, the character of a villager famous for his common sense. The grandfather of all the Lebanese had disappeared.
\_this day in full \_on this day
April 5, 1987sunday
An agreement was concluded between the National Palestinian Salvation Front and the Amal movement under the aegis of Ghazi Kanaan. This agreement stipulated a global cease-fire and the end of the camps' blockade in Beirut
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 September 1987, 18 January 1988 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Under the 5 April accord, reached by Amal, the PLO and the pro-Syrian Palestinian National Salvation Front with the Syrian general Ghazi Kanaan present, the blockade was to be lifted, the wounded taken out and the PLO was to leave three villages near Sidon. Food and medicine then reached Chatila and Bourj al-Barajneh, the first since March. Picard dates the end of the siege to an Amal-Palestinian agreement of 11 September 1987; Hanf has Amal lifting the blockade only on 18 January 1988.
June 5, 1987friday
The President of the National Assembly, Hussein Husseini, announces his resignation, thus increasing the institutional gap.
\_this day in full \_on this day
September 5, 1987saturday
November 5, 1987thursday
The CGTL announces an open general strike, followed a few days later by a mass demonstration in Beirut and in other Lebanese regions.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf: the union-backed peace movement peaked in November 1987. Police estimated 60,000 people from East and West Beirut at the Museum crossing, its largest rally; others took place in Tripoli, Jbeil, Sidon and Tyre (see addition 1987-11-museum-demonstration).
December 2, 1987wednesday
While credits are unblocked to buy fuel and service stations are reopened, Victor Cassir, Minister of Industry and Oil, authorizes private companies to import fuel subject to a previous authorization by the Ministry of Oil.
\_this day in full \_on this day
June 5, 1988sunday
2,200 tons of toxic waste were illegally brought in Lebanon and kept on waste grounds in the Kesrouan, after being rejected by Italy, Syria and Venezuela.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
De Clerck (p. 350) places the traffic in 1987 and implicates the Lebanese Forces. Its figures, from Greenpeace: 15,800 barrels and 20 containers from Italy, of which 5,500 barrels went back in 1988-1989; the rest was burned, dumped or buried, partly in the Kesrouan mountains.
April 5, 1989wednesday
Jean-Franois Deniau, emissary of the Quai d'Orsay, arrives in Beirut. He has to meet with General Aoun and President Hoss.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf: when Damascus protested, Paris called envoy Deniau's description of Syria as the aggressor in Lebanon his 'private opinion'.
November 5, 1989sunday
The 'dissolved' National Assembly met at the military base of Kleyate and elected Rene Moawad new President of the Republic. Angry demonstrators invaded the patriarchal office of Bkerke. The Patriarch took refuge in Dimane. He came back later at the request of General Aoun.
\_this day in full \_on this day
\_what the books add
On 5 November, Hanf says, 58 deputies met at the Qlayaat air base, seven kilometres from the Syrian border, 25 of them flown from Paris on Rafic Hariri's private plane. They returned Hussein Husseini as speaker, voted on Taif and chose René Moawad as president: 35 votes on the first ballot, 52 with 6 abstentions on the second. That evening demonstrators broke into the Bkerke patriarchate and made Patriarch Sfeir kiss a portrait of Aoun.
November 5, 1990monday
The Damascus agreement between the Hezbollah and Amal is a copy of the one agreed upon on January 30th 1989. The cease-fire takes effect in the Iqlim-el-Touffah.
\_this day in full the books also date it 6 November 1990, 9 November 1990 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Sources differ on dates. Picard has Damascus and Tehran imposing an Amal–Hezbollah ceasefire on 6 November 1990; de Clerck and Malsagne date the inter-Shi'i accord signed in Damascus to 9 November and, with Aoun's fall, treat it as formally ending the 'civil' war. Hanf says both movements withdrew their fighters from Iqlim al-Tuffah after drawn-out Syrian and Iranian mediation. That final round began in December 1989 (de Clerck and Malsagne, Confluences) or, in Hezbollah's official version, in July 1990, with an Amal siege of nearly 100 days.
December 5, 1990wednesday
The Lebanese Army controls the port of Beirut and the 5th dock is closed to the maritime traffic.
\_this day in full the books also date it 3 December 1990, 11 March 1991 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Hanf says 300 Lebanese Forces militiamen stayed at Karantina and the port after the December 1990 withdrawal, and dates the army's entry into the Fifth Basin and other militia ports to 11 March 1991.