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February 20, 1983sunday
Even the weather seemed to conspire against Lebanon in the beginning of this year. The storm and the cold raging from the coast up to the peaks of Lebanon claimed several victims. 23 cadavers were discovered and tens of persons were reported missing in the region of Dahr El Baydar. Rescue teams had already succeeded in saving 200 persons; but tens of others, trapped in their cars or buried under the snow where they were attempting to find shelter, were fighting death. The final toll reached 60 deaths and tens of isolated villages.

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February 23, 1983wednesday
The American envoy Philip Habib returned to Beirut to speed up the withdrawal process.

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June 3, 1983friday
An earthquake of 5.3 magnitude on the Richter scale provoked panic but caused no victims.

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June 14, 1983tuesday
While the bombardments took a dangerous turn in the mountain as they reached residential areas, the Chamber of Deputies approved the ratification of the Mai 17 agreement with 62 votes against 2 and 4 abstentions.

\_this day in full the books also date it 15 June 1983 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Counts differ: Hanf has 64 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions among 70 deputies present (40 of 50 Christian and 24 of 41 Muslim members in favour); Traboulsi has 65 for, 2 against and 4 abstentions; Fisk puts the vote on 15 June. Traboulsi says the government formally renounced the agreement on 5 March 1984, Amine Gemayel never having signed it.

June 16, 1983thursday
Disguised armed elements fired on the crowd in Tripoli, killing 15 persons. The tensioned lasted several days in the capital of the North.

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June 20, 1983monday
Lebanon lost one of its major poets. Nadia Tueni left behind her pages of pure beauty, eternal words, an immortal poetry, a Lebanon on fire, a tearful family, and inconsolable friends.

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June 27, 1983monday
Violent combats were raging in the region of Mansouriet-Bhamdoun between the Lebanese Forces and the PSP militia. The bombs reached the Northern Metn.

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June 29, 1983wednesday
Philip Habib undertook a new tour in the region. The Lebanese officials informed him in Beirut of their opposition to any partial Israeli withdrawal from the mountain.

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September 1, 1983thursday
During the month of September, atrocious massacres were perpetrated against Christian and Druze civilians in the Chouf.

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Massacres were committed on both sides: Druze fighters killed Christians at Bmaryam, Bhamdoun, Ma'asir al-Chouf and many other villages, and Lebanese Forces fighters killed Druze at Kfarmatta and in villages on their line of retreat. For September to December 1983 de Clerck and Malsagne give more than 1,500 Christians and 207 Druze massacred, 324 PSP and 368 Lebanese Forces fighters dead, and over 163,000 Christians driven from the region. Traboulsi gives 62 villages destroyed, Hanf about sixty.

September 4, 1983sunday
Taking the Lebanese authorities by surprise, the Israeli Army began its withdrawal from the Chouf and Aley leaving face to face the militia of the PSP and the LF in a merciless battle. The combats raged mainly around Bhamdoun, Souk El Gharb and Kabr Chmoun. A dramatic situation unfolded in the mountain where thousands of people were forced out of their homes. 30 000 people found temporary shelter in Deir El Kamar. The rehousing of the displaced persons caused a complicated problem for the officials.

\_this day in full the books also date it 3 September 1983 \_on this day

\_what the books add

The Lebanese army had under 24 hours' warning, Fisk writes, before Israeli troops began leaving Aley and the Chouf on the evening of 3 September; by the morning of the 4th they had gone. De Clerck and Malsagne count more than 10,000 Christians from over 60 villages sheltering in Deir el-Qamar.

September 18, 1983sunday
Emir Magid Arslane died at the age of 79. Hero of the independence, deputy since 1931, and several times minister, Emir Magid became very early a true national leader, a perfect incarnation of the generation of men who have shaped the coexistence aspect of Lebanon.

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September 19, 1983monday
The American warships pounded the anti-governmental forces in the mountain confirming the American support to the legal authority.

\_this day in full the books also date it 18 September 1983 \_on this day

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From 19 September the destroyer John Rodgers, then the cruiser Virginia, shelled Druze positions at Souk el-Gharb. Washington cited US personnel's safety; Fisk and Hanf see entry into the civil war. Only the frigate Bowen had fired before, on 8 September, at a Druze battery hitting the Marine compound.

September 22, 1983thursday
It was the turn of the French to react. The super-standards bombarded the artillery positions in Dhour Choueir while a bomb shower fell on Greater Beirut.

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September 26, 1983monday
Prime Minister Chafic Wazzan presented the resignation of his government to the chief of State, who refused it.

\_this day in full the books also date it 5 February 1984 \_on this day

January 2, 1984monday
The year started like the previous one ended : everyone was talking about a new security plan for the mountain and the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Nevertheless, the fights continued intermittently in these regions between the Army and the Lebanese Forces on one side and the Progressive Socialist Party and Amal on the other.

\_this day in full the books also date it 29 January 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

On 29 January the Druze resumed attacking the army at Souk al-Gharb, after Shi'i militia sniping at the army and French troops from mid-January, Hanf's next escalation.

January 4, 1984wednesday
A double Israeli raid in the region of Baalbeck caused tens of victims and buried many persons under the debris. In Beirut, the electric power was severely rationed by the EDL due to damaged installations in the Iqlim El Kharroub. The acts of resistance against the Israeli occupation continued in South Lebanon. Until the end of 1984, not a single day passed without one, two or three killing attempts perpetrated against Israeli troops or the local militias that they created.

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Counts of attacks on the Israeli army vary by source and period: Fisk reports 15 ambushes a week on average by February 1984 and a hundred attacks in December 1984; de Clerck and Malsagne put suicide attacks at about a hundred a month in 1984.

January 9, 1984monday
An anti-French killing attempt at the Résidence des Pins killed a paratrooper and wounded two others. Attacks against US and French troops of the Multinational Force continued until their departure in March.

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January 12, 1984thursday
One person was killed and many others were wounded in Achrafieh in a blind bombardment of residential areas. These bombings continued until July 4, causing thousands of deaths and injuries. Meanwhile, the dollar broke a new record in Beirut, reaching 5.55 LP.

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Sources differ on when the shelling stopped: the original entry has it continuing until the security plan of 4 July, while de Clerck and Malsagne date the systematic bombardment of Christian residential districts from the 17 May 1983 agreement to its abrogation on 5 March 1984.

January 15, 1984sunday
Ships from the sixth US fleet were positioned off Beirut. They were retaliating to the bombing of Marines' headquarters in the capital.

\_this day in full the books also date it 9 January 1984 \_on this day

January 16, 1984monday
Saad Haddad, commander of the Army of Free Lebanon, died from a generalized cancer. He was 47 years old and was buried in his birthplace, Marjeyoun.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 January 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Sources disagree on the date of Saad Haddad's death: Ménargues gives 13 January 1984; Hanf and Fisk give January 1984; de Clerck and Malsagne give December 1983. No supplied book gives 16 January. Ménargues also gives his birth year as 1937 and his origin as Marjayoun, consistent with the age stated here.

January 16, 1984monday
Blind bombardments killed 16 persons and wounded 75 others in Beirut. Anxiety and fear prevailed. Schools and hospitals received their daily lot of bombs, amid international indifference. Panic reached the Lebanese stock exchange market where the Dollar amounted almost for six Lebanese Pounds.

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January 18, 1984wednesday
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the killing attempt that cost the life of Malcolm Kerr, President of the American University in Beirut, shot in front of his office.

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Hanf writes that Kerr was murdered by unknown assailants; Fisk says he was shot in the head by 'Islamic Jihad' on campus. De Clerck and Malsagne give 18 January 1984 in one chapter but list the murder among the reverses of 1983 in another. The wording 'killing attempt' understates it: Kerr was killed.

January 22, 1984sunday
Walid Joumblatt, president of the Progressive Socialist Party, requested the resignation of the Lebanese government.

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Hanf: Gemayel had undertaken at Geneva to negotiate a new agreement with Israel and had not; for that, Jumblatt and Berri demanded he resign at the end of January. Traboulsi cites Jumblatt, early in 1984, vowing to fight on until Gemayel's government went. Neither confirms the day, 22 January.

February 2, 1984thursday
The schools closed their doors in the Eastern sector of the capital due to the blind shelling of Beirut and its suburbs.

\_this day in full the books also date it 1 February 1984 \_on this day

February 5, 1984sunday
President Gemayel announced his intention to form a national union government and presented a program of 8 points to save the country. He also convoked a new conference for national reconciliation in Geneva on February 27. The resignation of the Wazzan government presented on September 26, 1983, was finally accepted.

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In Fisk's account Wazzan submitted his resignation that day, insisting it be accepted at once. This looks like a fresh resignation rather than acceptance of the one tendered on 26 September 1983, though Fisk also has the cabinet resigning in September 1983. Hanf has Berri appealing to Shi'i soldiers not to fire on their own people on the day the army began shelling the southern suburbs, at heavy civilian cost.

February 6, 1984monday
In a matter of hours, Amal took control over West Beirut. The capital was heavily bombed, while the Army gave up the control of the Western sector of the Capital to Amal and to the Islamic militias.

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The books describe a joint Amal and PSP (Druze) offensive, not Amal alone; the mainly Shi'i Sixth Brigade went over to Amal. Hanf dates the last Christian soldiers' withdrawal to the east, and so the completed division, to 7 February. De Clerck and Malsagne record the uprising's name, 'the 6 February movement'. About 50,000 Christians moved east, almost half the public radio's 400 staff left their posts, and Télé-Liban split. A later Sunni militia took its name from the date (Hanf).

February 8, 1984wednesday
The ' New Jersey ', the most powerful battleship in the world from the 6 US fleet, bombed for several hours anti-governmental positions in the mountain.

\_this day in full the books also date it 13 February 1984 \_on this day

\_what the books add

Druze militiamen in Tibiyat, east of Beirut, visited by Fisk on 13 February, said the New Jersey's shelling of the Metn and Chouf foothills had killed 24 civilians and wounded 115 (their figures). De Clerck and Malsagne note the ship's frequent misses and its Arabic nickname 'New Jersa' ('new shame').

February 9, 1984thursday
Foreign diplomats and nationals were evacuated form the Western regions where anarchy prevailed.

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February 11, 1984saturday
French porpoises and Internal Security forces took in charge the Museum crossing point.

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'Porpoises' is a literal rendering of the French 'marsouins', the nickname of the French marine infantry (troupes de marine).

February 14, 1984tuesday
Amal and PSP met in Khaldeh, while only Souk El Gharb was still controlled by the Army in the mountain.

\_this day in full the books also date it 15 February 1984 \_on this day

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De Clerck and Malsagne give 14 February 1984 for the PSP's capture of the Chahhar district, part of a week-long uprising in Beirut and the mountain.

February 15, 1984wednesday
Mechref and Damour fell under the control of the PSP, while violent combats raged around Souk El Gharb, the last obstacle in the mountain.

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Hanf counts some 15,000 Christian civilians leaving the coastal Chouf for Israeli-occupied territory; Mechref is not named.

February 17, 1984friday
The Marines withdrew from Beirut. The Italian contingent of the Multinational Force was soon to follow. The capital was left on its own.

\_this day in full the books also date it 7 February 1984, 31 July 1984 \_on this day

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Sources date the Marines' departure differently. Hanf: the US announced the 'redeployment' to the ships on 7 February. De Clerck and Malsagne: the evacuation ran from 7 to 26 February, and their chronology dates the MNF withdrawal 26 February - 31 March. Fisk: a last Marine detachment guarding the embassy left on 31 July 1984. The Italians left on 20 February (Hanf).

February 29, 1984wednesday
President Amine Gemayel visited Damascus. The observers expected a normalization soon after. Indeed, the Syrian President approved the opening of new round Israeli-Lebanese negotiations.

\_this day in full the books also date it 24 February 1984, 26 February 1984 \_on this day

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Ménargues gives two different days for this visit: 24 February in his prologue and 26 February in another passage. Hanf and Fisk both give 29 February. Fisk notes a 21-gun salute; Hanf says Gemayel told Assad he was ready to abrogate the 17 May agreement.

June 7, 1984thursday
It was impossible to put an end to the blind shelling. No one, neither a national union government, nor a 4-party military commission, was able to stop the bombardment of the residential areas which started 24 hours ago and had caused 5 dead and 37 injured persons so far.

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June 8, 1984friday
16 French observers positioned on the 888 hill and at Kalaat El Hosn in the mountain.

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June 11, 1984monday
This is one of the most violent days since 1976. No words are enough to describe the ongoing butchery. 90 persons lost their lives and 353 were wounded on this single day.

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June 12, 1984tuesday
While Lebanon was burying its dead, the Parliament voted the confidence by 53 votes against 15, and 3 abstentions. The Chamber extended its mandate for 2 years.

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June 18, 1984monday
As a result of marathon debates launched by Khaddam in Bickfaya, Gemayel, Karameh, Berri and Joumblatt agreed on a global security plan.

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June 23, 1984saturday
54 days after its formation, the Karameh government adopted a new security plan as well as a new defense law. A military council comprising six members was created and Michel Aoun was appointed commander in chief of the Army.
Michel Aoun was born in 1935 in Haret Hreik, in the Southern suburbs of Beirut. He started his military carrier in 1955 when he was 20 years old. He specialized in artillery, and accomplished several military trainings in France and the United States before spending 2 years, from 1978 to 1980, at the Ecole de Guerre (War Academy) in Paris. Back to Lebanon, he was promoted to corporal and, on the 24th of June 1984, he became commander in chief of the Army.

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De Clerck and Malsagne give 23 June 1984 for Aoun's appointment, which contradicts the '24th of June' in the entry's own biography text. Hanf calls Aoun, commander of the Souk al-Gharb front, well liked by soldiers of both religions, and says the security plan was accepted only once the six-member command council was in place.

June 27, 1984wednesday
The Israeli aviation and navy bombed the Rabbits Island off Tripoli. 15 fishermen were injured.

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