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April 8, 1981wednesday
A shell storm fell on East Beirut particularly in Badaro, Ain El Remmaneh and Chyah. Several bombs hit H™tel-Dieu leaving important damages.
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April 9, 1981thursday
For the first time in Zahleh since the beginning of the confrontations, the Red Cross was able to evacuate 19 persons seriously injured.
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April 10, 1981friday
During his meeting in Strasbourg, the European Parliament called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon, except for the UNIFL.
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April 12, 1981sunday
Following several days of violent confrontations with the Phalange militia, the Arab Strike Force completed its occupation of the most strategic hills of Zahleh. The supply channels between the capital of the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon were closed.
\_this day in full the books also date it 10 April 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues writes that Syrian special forces, landed by helicopter at dawn on 10 April, soon took the heights of Qalaat Aramta and Deir Charfé around Zahleh, leaving its defenders almost encircled.
April 20, 1981monday
The situation was worsening in Lebanon. Violence unleashed in the South where artillery duels and air raids on Nabatyeh and Saida killed 16 and injured 33. Sporadic bombardments shred the silence in Zahleh. East Beirut was violently shelled and bombings spread to Nahr El Kalb causing five deaths and 32 wounded.
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April 22, 1981wednesday
The nightmare continued. The Lebanese authorities were completely powerless to stop the violence and the conflicting parties were unable to reach an agreement. The Beirut International Airport was closed to traffic and both dead and wounded victims continued to shed their blood on this agonizing Lebanese land.
\_this day in full the books also date it 11 May 1981 \_on this day
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According to Ménargues, Bashir Gemayel answered the collapse of a cease-fire on 22 April, which left 140 dead or wounded in Beirut within hours, by having the international airport shelled. On 11 May US ambassador John Gunther Dean urged the Lebanese Forces, via Alfred Madi, to let it reopen; that evening they dropped their objection.
April 28, 1981tuesday
While the Syrian Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdel Halim Khaddam met with President Chamoun, Pierre Gemayel and members of the Islamic Union at the Baabda palace, Israeli airplanes bombed new positions occupied by the Syrian Army on Mount Sannine's peak. The Israeli forces shot down two Syrian helicopters.
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Ménargues has two Syrian helicopters downed: a Mi-8 supply craft, hit by F-15s around noon just after leaving Rayak, and a French-built Alouette late in the day; in between, jets struck ADF positions around Sannine. Israel acted at Christian leaders' request once Syria held Sannine's summit; next day Syria answered with surface-to-air missiles in the Bekaa.
September 3, 1981thursday
A first encounter between Syrian officials and members of the Phalange Party in Baabda under the aegis of the Arab Committee resulted in the reopening of the roads.
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In Ménargues's account the Saudi and Kuwaiti foreign ministers proposed Syria–Lebanese Forces talks after seeing Khaddam in Beirut on 3 September. Next day at Baabda, Bashir Gemayel accepted the opening of crossing points. The Vigilance Committee's evening statement reserved arms imports to legal forces and set up a body to police the coast and ports; Bashir and the Lebanese Front rejected it.
September 4, 1981friday
The French ambassador, Louis Delamare, was cowardly assassinated 100 meters away from the Résidence des Pins.
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The 59-year-old ambassador was shot in his locked car at about 1.55 p.m., some 60 metres from a Syrian checkpoint (Malsagne), while heading home near the Résidence des Pins. Malsagne blames a pro-Syrian Shiite commando; the next ambassador, Paul-Marc Henry, saw a botched kidnapping ordered by Iranian intelligence. France was then moving closer to the PLO.
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.
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According to Picard, Hamid Frangieh negotiated Lebanon's financial agreements with France, which she places in 1943 rather than 1948.
September 11, 1981friday
The Museum roadway was officially reopened after several days of shilly-shallying.
\_this day in full the books also date it 12 September 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues sets the agreement at the Vigilance Committee meeting of 11 September, where Syria's Mohammad Ghanem came out for deploying the Lebanese Army from Sodeco to the port. The Museum crossing, almost completely shut for five months, reopened on 12 September.
September 15, 1981tuesday
The axes longing the downtown's ruins up to Berjaoui and Sodeco were on fire since 7 o'clock in the morning. Several bombs fell on residential areas.
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September 17, 1981thursday
Two explosive attacks killed 29 persons and injured 116 in Chekka and Saida. Terrorism spread its tentacles to the entire country.
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About 300 people died in bombings from 17 September to 2 October 1981, which de Clerck and Malsagne, citing Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman, put down to the 'Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners', formed by Israeli officers against the Palestinians and their allies.
September 21, 1981monday
A car bomb in Hamra and an attack in Tripoli proved that horror was still haunting Lebanon. It seemed that it would never end.
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September 28, 1981monday
Terrorism continued to spread in Lebanon. A car bomb exploded at Zrariyeh in the South killing 15 persons and injuring 50 others.
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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
November 27, 1981friday
Gerard Lenorman performed his famous song La ballade des gens heureux at the Casino du Liban in front of a public that still wanted to believe in happiness.
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November 30, 1981monday
The Arab Strike Force conducted a spectacular raid in West Beirut. Hundreds of persons were arrested and taken to a barrack for questioning.
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December 7, 1981monday
A Sadrist commando hijacked a Libyan airplane at the Beirut International Airport. The air pirates who held 43 hostages, injured a passenger and threatened to execute him in order to have the plane refueled. The aggressors called upon Khadafi to liberate the Imam.
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December 10, 1981thursday
December 15, 1981tuesday
A bomb attack destroyed the Iraqi embassy. 20 persons were killed including the ambassador and 100 were wounded.
\_this day in full the books also date it 16 December 1981 \_on this day
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Ménargues dates the bombing to 16 December. The six-storey embassy at Ramlet al-Baida was destroyed by an explosives-laden car driven by Shiite suicide attackers; a group nobody knew claimed it, and the ambassador's body took four days to find. It followed heavy fighting in West Beirut on 4 December between Amal and pro-Iraqi Baathists, and a Lebanese Forces visit to Baghdad.
December 19, 1981saturday
April 10, 1982saturday
The cease-fire in the South was fragile. Lebanon appealed to Washington, to the Security Council, and to the Arab League to stabilize the situation.
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April 14, 1982wednesday
A general war was raging between Amal and the Palestinians. Meanwhile, the fights continued in the South and reached Beirut and its suburbs where 15 deaths were reported.
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April 15, 1982thursday
Two employees of the French consulate were assassinated in their apartment in Beirut.
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The victims were Guy Cavallo, the French military attaché's cipher clerk, and his wife, murdered at their West Beirut home.
April 21, 1982wednesday
Six successive raids were reported within 90 minutes against Aramoun, Naameh and Damour, putting an end to a cease-fire that lasted 9 months. This new aggression claimed the lives of 80 victims.
\_this day in full the books also date it 22 April 1982 \_on this day
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Fisk, on the coast road when it began, dates the Damour raid to 22 April: Israeli jets struck for over two hours, killing at least 19 Palestinians; Israel cited the death of a soldier on a mine in the south. For Fisk it previewed the invasion.
April 23, 1982friday
13 people died and 12 were injured as a result of 24 hours of intermittent fights in Tripoli between the Iraqi Baas and the Communist Party militiamen.
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April 28, 1982wednesday
A general strike was observed by both sectors of Beirut, to protest against the assassination, on April 26, of Sheikh Ahmad Assaf, president of the Union of Islamic Associations and Institutions.
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September 1, 1982wednesday
The last Palestinian fighters left Lebanon. In 12 days, 10,876 Fedayin and 2,700 Syrian soldiers had left the Lebanese territory.
\_this day in full the books also date it 21 August 1982, 30 August 1982 \_on this day
\_what the books add
Counts of those evacuated between 21 August and 1 September differ: 14,398 Palestinians and Syrians, including 664 women and children of PLO cadres (de Clerck and Malsagne); 14,938 Palestinians by 30 August (Ménargues); about 15,000 by sea plus 6,500 Syrian and PLA soldiers by land (Hanf). On 1 September President Reagan announced his peace plan.
September 2, 1982thursday
September 4, 1982saturday
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