Chronography of Jewish history and the State of Israel
Also events relating to the Palestinian State
Page last
modified 19 November 2023
Jewish Virtual Library, useful links
here, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world#history
Demography of the Palestinian
Territories
Box
Index
14.0,
Recognition of Palestinian
State., 2009-14
13.0,
Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip
2006-10
12.5,
Israel-Hezbollah-southern
Lebanon conflict 2006
12.0,
Ariel Sharon administration,
2001-06
11.0,
Ehud Barak administration,
1999-2001
10.0,
Benjamin Netanyahu
administration, 1996-97
9.0,
Arab-Israeli Peace Deal
begins to unravel, 1994-96
8.0,
Movements towards
Arab-Israeli peace, 1993-95
7.4,
Israeli invasion of Lebanon
1977-85, to eradicate the PLO presence there
7.2,
Egypt and Israel make peace,
1974-82
7.0,
Entebbe Airport Rescue 1976
6.5, Golda Meir resigns, succeeded by
Yitzhak Rabin, 1974
5.0,
Israel wins Six Day War. Jerusalem
reunited, many Arabs dispossessed of land, 1967
4.0,
Capture, trial and execution
of Adolf Eichmann, 1961-62
3.8, Suez Crisis 1956-57,
3.0 Attempted invasion by Arabs of the new
State of Israel, failed, 1948-49
2.0,
British, UN, US, attempts to
determine the future of Palestine 1945-48
1.0 Concentration camps liberated,
despite Nazi attempts to erase them, 1945
0.0 Genocide of Parisian Jews, 1941-44
-1.0, Anne Frank
-2.0, Danish and Italian Jews saved from the
Nazis, 1940-43
-3.0, Nazi anti-Semitism across Europe 1939-44
-4.0, German Nazi anti-Semitism pre World
War Two, 1932-39
-5.0 British plans for Jewish Homeland in
Palestine, resisted by Arabs and Jews, 1905-39
-6.0 Fascism, anti-Semitism, in the UK, 1911-36
-8.0. Anti-Semitism in eastern Europe
1881-1908
-9.0.
Prussian/German anti-Semitism 1880-83
-10.0.
Reform Judaism Movement, 1817-1901
16 November 2023, Day 41. The
IDF said it had found an arms cache within al Shifa hospital, Gaza
14 November 2023, Day 39. The
US said it had intelligence that Hamas used tunnels below al-Shifa hospital, Gaza,
as a military HQ. The IDF attacked and occupied the hospital.
6 November 2023, Day 31 The Gaza Palestinian death toll passed 10,000
to reach 10,022, as Israeli forces cut the territory in two and
encircled Gaza City in an effort to eradicate Hamas.
27 October 2023, Day 21. Israeli tanks mounted a
ground offensive into Gaza then withdrew. Russia held talks with Hamas. The
estimate of hostages taken by Hamas rose to 229. Total Palestinians dead in Gaza now
totalled 7,326 by Gazan estimates; Israel cast doubt on these
figures.
17 October 2023, Day 11. An explosion at the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza killed 500.
The Palestinians said it was an Israeli missile, but the IDF said it was a
failed Hamas rocket launch that did the damage.
15 October 2023, Day 9. The anticipated Israeli
ground invasion of northern Gaza was delayed due to bad weather. Israeli air
raids on Gaza and Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel continued. Total Gazan
casualties now totalled 2,329 dead and 9,714 injured, with a further 33
Palestinians killed and 1,100 injured on the West Bank. Total Israeli civilian
casualties now totalled 1,300 dead and 3,400 wounded, also 279 Israeli
so0ldiers killed.
9 October 2023, Day 3. Total casualties to date in Israel amounted
to 900 killed and 2,616 injured amongst Israelis, and 687 Palestinians killed
and 3,726 injured. The UN deployed a peacekeeping force on the
Israel-Lebanon border, but Israeli jets made sorties into Lebanon after gunmen
infiltrated Israel from there., Qatar began negotiations between both sides for
the hostages� release. Russia called for a 2-State solution with security for
both sides. A number of countries including the UK, USA and Ukraine, also the
EU, expressed solidarity with Israel. The EU immediately halted all aid to the
Palestinian Territories, but later reversed this policy.� Israel cut off food and electricity to the
Gaza Strip (population 2.3 million), and began a massive air assault to
eliminate Hamas, with a ground offensive planned for later.
7 October 2023, Day 1. A large scale Palestinian
attack on Israel was launched from the Gaza Strip. Hostages were taken back
into Gaza. There were allegations that
Iran was behind the attack. It was also suggested that Israel�s improving
relations with Saudi Arabia had precipitated the assault, as the Palestinians
were afraid of being marginalised and wanted to derail Israeli-Arab relations.
Major
assault by Hamas, Gaza Strip, Palestinians against Israel
10 May 2021, As Israel commemorated
Israel Day, a national holiday marking Israeli victory in the Six Day War,
Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. Hamas rockets killed 12
Israelis, and Israeli retaliation into Gaza killed 227. The violence continued
for 11 days.
13 August 2020, Israel and the United Arab Emirates created
diplomatic links; Israel undertook not to �annex more� of the West Bank. Palestinians were disappointed. Israel
and the Sunni Arab world have been united by a mutual fear of Shia Iran.
9 April 2019, Benjamin Netanyahu won a record fifth term as
President. He intended to take a hard line on the issue of Israeli settlements
on the West Bank.
19 February 2019, 80 Jewish graves in eastern France
were desecrated, in a rising tide of anti-Semitism that had seen a rise of 74%
in such attacks in 2018 over 2017.
27 October 2018, Robert Bowers, a
white-supremacist, entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh, USA,
and shot dead 11 worshippers.
6 December� 2017, President
Donald Trump of the USA officially recognised Jerusalem as the capital
of Israel, and announced that he would move the US Embassy there, from Tel Aviv.
There were protests from Palestinians.
14 July 2017, Two Israeli policemen were shot by Palestinians
near the Temple Mount, Jerusalem. Israel imposed security measures including
metal detectors on Muslim
worshippers at the Haram al Sharif Mosque. These measures were seen as part of
the Israeli occupation and sparked further protests and riots in Jerusalem.
6 February 2017, The coalition
Israeli Government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, passed a Bill that
legalised certain Israeli settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land.
28 September 2016, Shimon Peres, Labour leader of Israel from 1977, died aged 93.
14.0 Recognition of
Palestinian State, 2009-14
17 December� 2014, The European Parliament voted to
recognise the Palestinian State by 498 votes to 88.
13 October 2014, The British
Parliament voted by 274 to 12 to recognise the Palestinian State. The vote had
little real impact and was essentially symbolic; it followed a similar vote by
the Swedish Parliament earlier in October 2014.
3 October 2014, Sweden
became the first EU country to recognise the Palestinian State. Israel withdrew
its ambassador in protest.
29 November 2012,
The United Nations granted Palestine non-member observer status.
31 October 2011,
UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member; 107 members were in support, and 14
opposed.
28 October 2009, UN
Secretary Ban
Ki Moon stated that Jerusalem must be the capital both of Israel and
a Palestinian State if peace were to be achieved in the region.
22 July 2014, A Palestinian rocket landed within 2 kilometres of
Israel�s Ben Gurion Airport (see 8 July 2014), causing many airlines to cancel
flights to Israel.
8 July 2014, Israel launched a major attack on the Gaza Strip,
firing in rockets, followed by a ground invasion, following a series of rockets
launched into Israel from Gaza.
2 July 2014, In revenge for the killing of three
Israeli teenagers on 30 June 2014, a Palestinian youth was murdered by Israeli
settlers.
11 January 2014, Former Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon died, aged 85, after eight years in a coma. See 4 January 2006.
13.0 Israeli attacks on Gaza
Strip 2006-10
31 May 2010, 9 activists
died when Israeli naval forces raided a flotilla of ships
attempting to break the Gaza blockade.
21 January 2009,
Israel completed its withdrawal from the
Gaza Strip. Air strikes by both sides continued.
3 January 2009,
Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, as Hamas
fired rockets into Israel.
27
December� 2008,
Israel mounted military strikes against the Gaza Strip.
29 February
2008, After Hamas fired rockets into Israel, Israeli
troops began a 22-dau assault against Gaza.
23 January 2008,
Palestinian militants blew up the
border wall between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah; thousands of Palestinians fled
into Egypt.
15 December� 2006, Clashes in Gaza between Fatah and Hamas
after Fatah was accused of trying to murder PM Ismail
Haniya.
1 October 2006, 8 died and 60 were injured in a gun battle between
factions in Gaza. The fight began over unpaid Government wages.
28 June 2006,
Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip.
6 September 2007,
Israeli warplanes struck a suspected nuclear site in Syria.
12.5
Israel-Hezbollah-southern Lebanon conflict 2006
14 August 2006, Israel accepted a UN-brokered ceasefire in the
Lebanon conflict.
13 August 2006, Israeli troops mounted a ground offensive in
Lebanon north towards the Litani River, reaching 30km north of the Israeli
border.
6 August 2006, Violence continued to escalate between Israel and Lebanon, in defiance
of a UN ceasefire resolution, Hezbollah rocket attacks killed 15 Israelis and
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon killed 19.
2 August 2006, Hezbollah fired more rockets into Israel, killing 1 and injuring 123,
after Israeli patrols penetrated as far as the town of Baalbek, in the Bekaa
valley, Lebanon, killing 10 Hezbollah and capturing 5 ,more. One Hezbollah
rocket reached 70km into Israel, the furthest so far.
1 August 2006, Israel stepped up ground operations in southern Lebanon. So far, since
12 July, some 624 to 750 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and some 54 Israelis, 18
of them civilians, had been killed.
30 July 2006, Israel agreed to suspend air strikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours. This
followed international outrage after 54 civilians, including 37 children, had
been killed in an Israeli air attack on Qana.
25 July 2006, An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon hit a UN observer post,
killing 4 UN personnel.
24 July 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
visited Lebanon and then Israel to try and settle the current outbreak of
violence. She called for peace and democracy in the Middle east, and for
Hezbollah to withdraw in Lebanon to north of the Litani River, 20km north of
the Israeli border .So far since the conflict began on 12 July 2006, 378
Lebanese and 41 Israelis had been killed.
19 July 2006, Lebanon suffered its worst day of violence since the Israeli
bombardment began on 12 July 2006, with 61 killed in air strikes, all but one
were civilians.
16 July 2006, Hezbollah rockets killed 8 Israelis in Haifa, whilst in Lebanon Israeli
air strikes killed 40 civlinans, including 16 in the Lebanese port of Tyre.
14 July 2006, Israel bombed Beirut Airport as it stepped up attacks on Hezbollah,
partly in response to a Hezbollah ambush on an Israeli border patrol 2 days
earlier in which 8 Israeli soldiers were killed and 2 taken captive. Hezbollah
demanded as ransom the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
condemned this as �extortion�. Israel also blockaded :Lebanese ports. 50
Lebanese civilians were killed in the air attacks. On 15 July 2006 Hezbollah
rockets hit Haifa, their most southerly strike to date, and in retaliation
Israel fired missiles into districts of Beirut where Hezbollah operatives
lived, having warned civilians there to evacuate.� Israel threatened to re-invade southern
Lebanon, from where they had pulled out in 5/2000. However Israeli military
leaders were reluctant to get bogged down in southern Lebanon again.
12 July 2006, Hezbollah guerrillas ambushed an Israeli border patrol (see 14 July 2006),
starting a new round of attacks by Israel on Lebanon.
26 January 2006,
Hamas won elections in Palestine.
12.0
Ariel Sharon administration, 2001-06
4 January 2006, Former Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a
major stroke; after 8 years in a� coma he
died on 11 January 2013, aged 85.
20 September 2005, Nazi-hunter, Simon Weisenthal, died.
12 September 2005, Israel withdrew from the
Gaza Strip, ending 38 years of occupation.
28 August 2005, A
terrorist attack at Beersheba bus station, Israel, injured 52.� Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
23 August 2005, Israel�s unilateral withdrawal from 25 settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (see 17 August 2005) ended.
17 August 2005, The first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers
began, as part of a unilateral withdrawal from Arab territories.�
8 February 2005, An
Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire was announced.
4 January 2005, Mahmoud Abbas
became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
30
September 2004, After continued violence in Gaza, Israeli PM Ariel Sharon
announced a military campaign to re-occupy the north of the Strip.
21 April 2004, Mordecai
Vanunu, who revealed details of the
Israeli nuclear programme in the 1980s, was released from an Israeil prison
after an 18-year term for treason.
17
April 2004, Israeli security forces assassinated the new Hamas leader, Abdul Aziz al Rantissi.
22
March 2004, Israeli forces assassinated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of
the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas),
whom Israel regarded as a terrorist, responsible for hundreds of Israeli
deaths.
19
February 2004, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal was awarded an honorary
knighthood for �services to humanity�.
15 November 2003, Two suicide
bombings at Istanbul synagogues killed at 25 people, mostly Turks. Islamic
fundamentalists claimed responsibility.
1
September 2003, Israel began a policy of targeted killings of
Palestinian opponents, and called for the PLO to disarm militant groups.
30
April 2003, The so-called �Road Map� to peace, drawn up by The
USA, the UN the EU and Russia, was presented to Israeli PM Ariel Sharon.
28 January 2003, The Likud Party won the Israeli elections; Ariel Sharon
became Prime Minister.
28 November 2002, Three suicide
bombers blew themselves up outside the Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel in Mombasa.
Ten Kenyans and three Israeli tourists died. On the same day a surface-to-air
missile narrowly missed an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa Airport.
17 November 2002, Abba
Eban, Israeli Foreign Affairs
Minister (born 1942), died.
11 April 2002, A suicide
bomber set off a lorry full of explosives outside an ancient synagogue on the
Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 21, mostly German tourists.
6
April 2002, Israeli forces, having reoccupied the whole West Bank,
now began a campaign to enter the Jenin refugee camp, which they suspected of
harbouring terrorists. There were international protests at the destruction of
Palestinian property.
2
April 2002, A siege began at the Church of the Nativity,
Bethlehem, after 200 armed Palestinians took over the building and held 200
nuns and priests as hostages. The siege lasted 38 days before a release plan
was negotiated with the Israeli Army.
29 March 2002, Israeli
tanks and bulldozers smashed into the headquarters of the PLO in Ramallah on
the West Bank, forcing Yasser Arafat
to shelter in a basement with no electricity or communications. This was in
retaliation for a suicide bomb attack by Hamas who had walked into a banquet
hall in Netanya where some 250 Israelis were celebrating Passover; the
explosion killed 22 and injured 130 people. This was the worst attack in 18 months of terrorism and retaliatory
attacks by the Israelis that had left a total of 400 Israelis and 1,247
Palestinians dead. Arafat was effectively held prisoner until an agreement
brokered by the UK and USA secured an Israeli withdrawal in May 2002. However
in June 2002 the Israelis returned to Ramallah and completely demolished the
PLO headquarters.
25 January 2002, 52
Israeli reservists refused to serve on the West Bank on moral grounds, the hard
line taken by Israel against the Palestinian threat was proving divisive.
16 September 2001. Israeli tanks and troops entered the
Palestinian city of Ramallah as truce talks ended.
27 August 2001, In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Israeli
security forces assassinated Abu Ali Mustafa,
deputy head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
13 June 2001, In response to the suicide bombing of 1 June 2001,
Israeli forces launched drone attacks intended to kill militants and demolish
West Bank homes.
1 June 2001, A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21, mainly
teenagers, in the Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv.
7 February 2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel. Labour
leader Ehud
Barak lost power. Sharon was a former Army General with a
hard-line reputation. Sharon was Israel�s 5th Prime Minister in 6
years. Barak
refused to serve as Defence Minister under Sharon�s coalition Government.
11,0 Ehud Barak administration, 1999-2001
27
January 2001, The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held in Britain, to
mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27 January 1945.
28 September 2000, Start of the Palestinian �Intifada�, or uprising. It was
triggered by a visit by Ariel Sharon to the
Temple Mount in Jerusalem, leading several hundred armed Israelis.
This area is known to hard-line Jews as the Lost Jewish Temple of Jerusalem,
which they wish to rebuild at the expense of Muslim holy places.
14
August 2000, Swiss banks approved a final settlement of US$ 1.3
billion to compensate Holocaust victims or their surviving relatives whose
assets had been seized and deposited in those banks since World War Two.
25
May 2000. Israel withdrew the
IDF (Israeli Defence Force) troops from Lebanon
after 22 years occupation.
4 January 2000, As part of the Middle East
Peace Process, Israel agreed to transfer land on the occupied West Bank to
Palestinians.
27 May 1999, In Israel, former Premier Binyamin Netanyahu resigned as leader of the opposition Right-wing Likud Party, and was
replaced by Ariel Sharon.
17
May 1999, Ehud Barak (Labour)
was elected President of Israel. He renewed the peace process with the
Palestinians and Syria.
10.0 Benjamin Netanyahu administration,
1996-97
30 July 1997, Hamas suicide bombers killed
13 in Jerusalem. Peace talks were jeopardised as Israel took retributive action
against the Palestinian economy.
25 April 1997, The UN Security Council voted
4-1 against the new Israeli building in east Jerusalem (see 18 March 1997), but
the US vetoed the Resolution.
18 March 1997, Palestinians, already angry
at the slow pace of Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank,
were further enraged when a new Jewish building project began in Arab east
Jerusalem. See 25 April 1997.
23 January 1997, Following the discovery of
Nazi gold in Swiss banks, the Swiss Government established a fund to compensate
Holocaust victims.
19
January 1997, Yasser Arafat returned
to Hebron after an absence of over 30 years.�
There were major celebrations as the Israelis handed over the last
Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
15 January 1997, A belated agreement for the
withdrawal of Israeli forces from the West bank city of Hebron was signed by
PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. However Arab-Israeli tensions remained high.
11/1996, Under the terms of a September 1995 Peace Agreement, Israel began
withdrawing troops fro hebron. However renewed violence between Arabs and
Israelis slows down the withdrawal process.
18 June 1996, In Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu formed a Likud-dominated coalition government with some smaller
religious Parties.
29 May 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu was
elected Prime Minister of Israel, narrowly defeating Shimon Peres of the Labour Party. Netanyahu was a hard-line Right-winger of the
Likud Party, who did not subscribe to Labour�s land for peace policy. This
imperilled the future of the peace process.
9.0 Arab-Israeli Peace Deal begins to
unravel, 1994-96
18 April 1996, Israeli helicopters attacked
Qana refugee camp, Lebanon, an alleged Hezbollah base. This, and an earlier
attack (11 April 1996) Hezbollah bases in Beirut, Lebanon, was in retaliation
for Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel.
5 March 1996, Further Hamas suicide
bombings killed 32 people in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (see 25 February 1996). In
revenge for these attacks, Israel declared all-out war on Hamas. This put the
Peace Process in jeopardy.
25 February 1996, In revenge for the killing
of Yayah Ayyash (6 January 1996), Hamas suicide bimbers killed 26 people in Jerusalem
and Ashkelon. See 3 March 1996.
15 February 1996, Hamas suicide bomber attacks
on Jerusalem and Ashkelon, killing 25. The
Palestinians wished to derail a Peace Agreement that would leave them with just
a fraction of their former lands.
20
January 1996, Yasser Arafat was
re-elected President of the PLO.
6 January 1996, Palestinian bomb-maker Yahya Ayyash was killed, allegedly by Israeli security forces, see 25 February 1996.
4
November 1995. Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Labour Prime Minister, was
assassinated by an Israeli extremist Moments after attending a peace rally in
the Square of the Kings, he was killed
by a 27 year old Jewish law student, Yigal Amir. Mr Rabin had been the target
of a hate campaign since he shook hands with Mr Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, on the steps of the White House. Rabin�s successor, Shimon Peres, promised to continue the peace process. The
assassin, Yigal
Amir, was sentenced on 11 April 1996, to
life imprisonment.
9/1995, Israel agreed to hand over the West Bank city of Hebron to Palestinian
authpority by March 1996.
22 January 1995. 22
Israelis died in Tel Aviv in a suicide bombing by Palestinians.
18 July 1994, A bomb killed 194 at the Jewish Mutual
Association, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
5 July 1994, Yasser Arafat
became the first President of the Palestinian Authority, which had been created
under the Cairo Agreement of 1994.
1 July 1994, PLO
leader Yasser
Arafat returned to Gaza to lead the new Palestinian Authority. it
was the first time he had been in Palestine for 25 years.
13 May 1994, Israel
began to withdraw its forces from Jericho and the Gaza Strip, in accordance
with the Israeli-Palestinian agreement of 13 September 1993.
25 February 1994. Kahanist Baruch
Goldstein opened fire in the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron,
killing 29 Muslims, before worshippers overpowered him and beat him to death.
8.0 Movements towards Arab-Israeli peace,
1993-95
24
September 1995. Israel and the PLO
agree to extend self-rule to most of the West
Bank.
31/10.1994, The Duke
of Edinburgh became the first member of the British Royal Family to visit
Israel.
26 October 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a
symbolic peace treaty, ending 46 years of war, at a ceremony attended by US
President Clinton.
14 October 1994. The Nobel Peace prize was awarded jointly to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres,
and Yasser
Arafat.
25 July 1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, formally ending a state of
war between them that had existed since 1948.
30 December�
1993,
Israel and The
Vatican recognised each other.
13 September 1993, Israel and the PLO signed a peace accord in Washington. Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister,
shook hands with Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO deputy chief, and Palestinian
self-rule was promised. Then the PLO leader, Yassser Arafat, held out his
hand to the Israeli PM, Yitzhak Rabin. After a slight hesitation and a
nudge from the US President, Bill Clinton, the two shook hands. On 14
September 1993 Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to negotiate a peace
treaty.
9 September 1993, Israel and the PLO
recognised each other�s right to exist, a major step forward in the peace
process.
30 August 1993, The Israeli Government approved the granting of self-rule to
Palestinians living on the West Bank and in Jericho. The PLO signed this plan
on 9 September 1993.
20 August 1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo
Peace Accord.
13 February 1993, A second three-day meeting between the PLO and Israel in Oslo, Norway,
concluded with a draft Declaration of Principles. See 23 January 1993 and 20
August 1993.
23 January 1993, A three-day secret meeting between representatives of the PLO and
Israel concluded in Oslo, Norway. See 13 February 1993.
25 July 1993. Israeli air strikes on pro-Iranian Hizbullah
positions in southern Lebanon.
24 June 1993. Israel
announced plans to build a US$ 13 million fence around the Occupied Territories.
17 February 1993. Heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and
pro-Iranian guerrillas.
16 December� 1992. Israel ordered the deportation of 415
Palestinians to Lebanon. The
intifada, or Palestinian uprising, was now in its sixth year. However Lebanon
refused to accept the deportees and they
remained stranded in a no-mans-land between Lebanon and the barbed wire border
of Israel�s self-declared security zone.
7 December� 1992. Three Israeli soldiers were shot by
Islamic militants on the Gaza Strip.
25 October 1992. Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin confirmed that Israel did
not intend to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
18 October 1992. More violence on the West Bank, as a Palestinian
killed an Israeli woman and injured nine other Israelis.
16 February 1992, Sheikh Abbas al Mussawi, Shiite leader of the
militant wing of Hezbollah in Lebanon, was killed along with his wife, son and
several bodyguards when his motorcade was attacked by Israeli helicopters near
Jibchit, southern Lebanon.
17 March 1992. A suicide bomber with a 200lb bomb destroyed the Israeli
Embassy in Buenos Aires. Islamic Jihad
claimed responsibility, saying the attack was in revenge for the killing of
Sheikh Abbas Mussawi in an Israeli helicopter ambush last month. 29 were killed
and 242 injured.
9 March 1992, Menachem Begin, Israeli politician, died.
22 September 1991, The Dead Sea Scrolls, the only surviving
Biblical documents from before 100 CE, were made publically available for the
first time by Huntington Library, California.
25 May 1991, 15,000 Black Ethiopian Jews (Falashas) were
transported to Israel because of unrest in Ethiopia.
4 January 1991, The UN unanimously voted to condemn Israeli
treatment of Palestinians.
8 October 1990. 21 Arabs killed in rioting on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem.
7 October 1990, Israel began handing out gas masks to all its
citizens.
20 May 1990 , Intifada rioting
in the Palestinian Territories.
14 May 1990, Anti-Semitism resurfaced in France,
with the desecration of a Jewish grave in Carpentras.
13 April 1989, Israeli soldiers attacked Arab villagers in the
West Bank, killing 6 Palestinians. The soldiers claimed they were attacked by
rioting youths, but an investigation in 5/1989 found the soldiers had acted
without provocation.
15 December� 1988, The USA resumed contacts
with the PLO, after a 13-year boycott.
14 December� 1988, Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, renounced terrorism and accepted Israel�s right to exist within
secure borders.
7 December� 1988. Yasser Arafat recognised the existence of Israel.
14 November 1988, In Algiers, the Palestine National Council
declared a Palestinian State on the
West Bank and Gaza.
31 July 1988, King Hussein of Jordan announced that he is
ceding the Israeli-controlled West Bank to the PLO.
25 April 1988, In Israel, John Demanjuk, known as Ivan the Terrible, was
sentenced to death for war crimes relating to the gas chambers at Treblinka
concentration camp.
16 April 1988, The
Palestine Liberation Organisation�s chief military commander, Khalil al Wazir,
was assassinated at his Tunis home; the
PLO blamed an Israeli hit squad. Mr Wazir had
organised many attacks from Lebanon into Israel, and orchestrated the
Palestinian intifada in the Occupied Territories.
2 April 1988. Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, the highest
total in a single day so far. On 6 April 1988
the first Israeli civilian victim of the fighting died, a 15-year old girl.
24 March 1988, In Israel, Mordecai Vanunu
was found guilty of revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to the Sunday Times.
4 March 1988. Israel banned all foreign journalists as the Arab
unrest continued.
1 February 1988. Two Arab youths were shot dead by Israeli settlers
as the violence in Israel continued, from January 1988.
20 January 1988. The Israeli
Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, cracked
down hard on the Palestinians.
Beatings were routine and charity aid to the strike-hit West Bank and Gaza
Strip was banned by Israel.
15 January 1988. Arab
uprising in Israel began. Sporadic violence had occurred on 8 January 1988.
8 January 1988. Violence in Gaza and Jerusalem as young
Palestinians protested after Friday prayers. See 15 January 1988.
3 January 1988. An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon killed 21
people.
25 December� 1987, Israeli security forces cracked down
on Arab rioters.
9 December� 1987, The Intifada, the popular Palestinian
uprising against Israeli authority, began. The protests were soarked
when an Israeli truck was deliberately driven into a passenger vehicle in Gaza,
killing 4 Palestinians. The incident was a revenge attack for the fatal
stabbing of n an Israeli a few days earlier. However Arab tensions wree already
high� after over 20 years Israeli
occupation of Palestinian lands. The Intifada continued until the Peace Process
of 1993.
6 December� 1987, A P\alestinian stabbed and
killed an Israeli shopper in Gaza. This provoked a revenge attack, which
started the Intifada, see 9 December� 1987.
16 February 1987, John
Demanjuk, also known as
Ivan the Terrible, a former car worker who had lived in the US for 40 years,
went on trial in Israel accused of murdering hundreds of Jews at Treblinka� He was the second war criminal to be tried in Israel
after Adolph Eichmann.
9 November 1986, Israel
announced that Mordechai
Vanunu, 31, was in �lawful detention� in Haifa but denied he was
kidnapped from Britain. On 5 October 1986 the Sunday Times had printed Vanunu�s revelations about Israel�s
nuclear arsenal at Dimona, backed up with his photographs. He never collected
his money, and was probably lured into a honeytrap by a female Mossad agent,
then sent in diplomatic baggage to Jerusalem.
20 October 1986, Yitzhak Shamir succeeded Shimon Peres as Israeli Prime
Minister.
6 September 1986. Arab terrorists killed 21 at
an Istanbul synagogue.
1 October 1985, The Israeli Air Force bombed the PLO HQ in Tunis.
10 June 1985, Israel withdrew from most of southern Lebanon,
except for a security zone in the far south which it still occupied.
20 May 1985, Israel freed
1,150 Palestinians in exchange for three Israelis.
3 January 1985, Ethiopian Jews
settled in Israel.
20 September 1984, 40 died when a suicide bomber attacked the US Embassy in
Beirut.
14 September 1984. After Israeli elections on 23 July 1984 produced
no overall winner, with Shimon Peres� :Labour Party taking 44 seats
and Yitzhak
Shamir�s Right Wing Likud Party taking 41 seats, no party had a
clear majority. This day a coalition
arrangement was made, with each leader alternating for 25 months. Shimon Peres started the first 25 month leadership
period this day.
Start
of alternating Peres � Shamir leadership
30 January 1984, West German chancellor Helmut Kohl concluded a 5-day
visit to |Israel. His visit had been disrupted by demonstrations.
23 October 1983 A suicide truck bomber destroyed the US
Marine Corps barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 US
servicemen.
10 October 1983. Shamir became Prime Minister in Israel.
2 September 1983. Israel�s Prime
Minister Menachem Begin resigned, and
was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir.
26 June 1983. Yasser
Arafat was expelled from Syria.
9 October 1982, In an attack on a synagogue in Rome, 1 died.
7.4, Israeli invasion of Lebanon 1977-85, to
eradicate the PLO presence there
16 February 1985, Israel began to withdraw
from Lebanon.
26 February 1984, US marines pulled out of
Beirut.
17 May 1983, Israel,
Lebanon, and the US signed an agreement on
Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.
31 March 1983, President
Reagan of the
US halted further sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Israel until it
fully withdrew from Lebanon.
26 September 1982, US President
Reagan sent marines into Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission; Italian
and French troops were also to arrive, and Syrian and Israeli forces would
leave Lebanon. In Israel, 300,000
Israelis had demonstrated against their country�s involvement in the massacres
(see 17 September 1982).
25 September 1982, 400,000
people marched in Israel demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
17 September 1982. Lebanese Christian militia massacred
hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Chatila refugee camps in
Lebanon. This was in revenge for the assassination of Christian president-elect
Bashir
Gemayel, replaced by his brother Amin.
16 September 1982, Israeli
troops now controlled all of Beirut.
15 September 1982, In
response to the assassination of the Lebanese President, Israeli troops fought their way into West Beirut.
14 September 1982, Mr Bachir Gemayel,
President-elect of Lebanon, was killed when a terrorist bomb destroyed his
party HQ in Christian East Beirut.
2 September 1982, The
Israeli Government totally rejected President Reagan�s new Middle East Peace
Plan, and on 5 September 1982 announced that 13 new settlements were to be built in Gaza and the West Bank.
31 August 1982. Israel
ousted the PLO from Beirut, Lebanon.
20 August 1982, A multinational force landed in Beirut to
oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. French troops arrived on 21st
August, and US Marines on the 25th.
12 August 1982. Israeli
jets bombed West Beirut. The city
was divided by the Green Line.
4 August 1982, The UN
censured Israel, as its troops were still in Lebanon.
27 July 1982, Israeli
jet fighters attacked West Beirut, killing 120 including civilians.
17 July 1982, Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem
Begin gave the PLO a deadline of 30 days to leave Lebanon. On 30
August 1982 Yasser Arafat left for Tunisia.
3 July 1982, In Israel,
Peace Now organised a protest against the war in Lebanon; 100,000 Israelis took
part. However a counter-demonstration was organised by supporters of the war,
with 200,000 people, many bussed in from distant Israeli towns.
10 June 1982, Israeli
forces invading Lebanon reached the edge of Beirut.
9 June 1982, Israeli
forces in Lebanon were just 3 kilometres south of Beirut Airport and had
reached the Beirut to Damascus Highway, where they were fighting against Syrian
forces.
6 June 1982. Israel invaded Lebanon, eventually
penetrating as far north as Beirut.�
The UN Security Council demanded that Israel withdraw.
4 June 1982, Israeli
jets bombed guerrilla bases in Lebanon in retaliation for the Argov shooting.
9 May 1982, Israeli
planes attacked the PLO bases south of Beirut.
21 April 1982, Menachem Begin,
Israeli Prime Minister, ordered the Israeli Army to attack PLO bases in
Lebanon, in retaliation for a breach of a 1981 ceasefire agreement.
17 July 1981, Israeli bombers destroyed the PLO HQ in
Beirut.
14 March 1978, Israeli
forces, under Operation Litani, invaded
Lebanon. This was in
retaliation for the bus hijacking on 11 March 1978. Israeli forces occupied a 6
mile deep strip of territory into Lebanon.
9 November 1977, The
Israelis resumed the bombing of Lebanese
villages, after a two-year break, in retaliation for Lebanese tolerance of
the PLO in their country.
3 June 1982, Israeli Ambassador, Argov, was shot by Palestinians.
14 December� 1981, Israel formally annexed
the Golan Heights, a strategic area formerly part of Syria but occupied by
Israel since 1967.
16 October 1981, Moshe Dayan,
Israeli military leader, died in Tel Aviv.
30 June 1981, Menachem Begin�s Likud Party
did well in Israeli elections. The Israeli air strike at Osirak, Iraq, had
helped him.
7 June 1981. Israeli planes bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor then
under construction at Osirak, Iraq.
1980, Israel replaced the Pound with a new currency, the Shekel.
3 October 1980. Terrorists bombed a Paris
synagogue.
30 July 1980. Israel declared
that the undivided city of Jerusalem
was its capital.
8 October 1979, In Israel, the new Tehiya (Renaissance) Party was
launched, to resist any further territorial concessions by Israel for peace.
9 May 1979, Israeli forces pursued
into Lebanon some Palestinian guerrillas who had attacked a Jewish settlement.
Conflict in the area looked likely to escalate again.
18 January 1979, A Palestinian bomb
explo0ded in Jerusalem. In retaliation, Israeli forces� oved into south Lebanon. A truce was agreed
on 24 January 1979.
7/2, Egypt and Israel make peace,
1974-82
25 April 1982. Israel withdrew from the
Sinai, after 15 years of occupation.
26 January 1980,
Israel and Egypt established diplomatic
relations. Other Arab nations strongly objected.
2 April 1979, Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem
Begin became the first
Israeli leader to make an official visit to Egypt.
26 March 1979. In
Washington, USA, Mr Begin of Israel and President Sadat of Egypt signed a peace treaty.
President
Carter oversaw the signing.
10 December� 1978. Presidents Menachim Begin of
Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt shared
the Nobel Peace Prize.
8 December� 1978. Golda Meir, Prime Minister of
Israel 1969-1974, died, aged 80, in Jerusalem.
27 October 1978, Menachem Begin and Anwar
Sadat were joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
18 September 1978. President Menachim
Begin of Israel and
President Anwar Sadat of Egypt signed the Camp David peace agreement in America, with President Carter of the US. See 10
December� 1978. Other Arab leaders were appalled.
5 September 1978, The Camp David Accords; Menachim Begin
and Anwar
Sadat began peace talks at the Camp in Maryland.
24 December� 1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
began peace discussions with President Sadat of Egypt.
5 December� 1977, Egypt broke with Syria, Libya,
Algeria, and South Yemen.
20 November 1977. President Sadat
of Egypt became the first Arab leader to
visit Israel. He met Israeli PM Menachem Begin in the Knesset in Jerusalem,
seeking a permanent peace settlement. This
outraged many Arabs.
10 October 1976, Israel promised Egypt that
Israeli forces would withdraw from occupied Sinai.
1 September 1975, Kissinger arranged an
accord between Israel and Egypt on Sinai.
18 January 1974, Henry Kissinger, US
Secretary of State, brokered a peace deal between Egypt and Israel. Israel
would withdraw from the east bank of the Suez Canal, and Egypt would reoccupy
the west bank. Israell then, in June 1974, agreed to withdraw from Syria and
parts of the Golan Heights.
20 August 1978. Gunmen opened fire on an El Al airline bus in London.
20 May 1978. 5 terrorists and 2 policemen were killed at Orly Airport,
Paris, after terrorists fired at passengers boarding an Israeli plane.
11 March 1978, A PLO unit sailed from the south coast of Lebanon, landed
in northern Israel, and hijacked a bus. 39 of the passengers were killed near
Tel Aviv.
Likud,
Menachem Begin, defeats Labour in elections, 1977
26 July 1977, Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem
Begin defied a plea from US President Jimmy Carter and ordered more settlements to be built on the
West Bank.
18 May 1977. Menachem Begin became President of Israel after his centre-right Likud
party coalition won elections, ending 29 years of Labour rule in Israel.
17 May 1977, In Israel, Menachem Begin�s Likud Party won 43 seats in
the 120-seat Knesset (Parliament), defeating the incumbent :Labour Party which
lost 19 of its 51 seats. Begin took a more hawkish line on Israeli settlements
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, casting doubt on peace negotiations in the
region.
8 May 1977, Dutch
art dealer Peter Menten went on trial,
charged with murdering Polish Jews in 1941 for financial gain.
7.0 Entebbe Airport Rescue 1976
3 July 1976. Israeli
commando raid at Entebbe Airport, Uganda, freed 103 hostages from a hijacked
aircraft. An Air France airbus had been hijacked there by Palestinian
guerrillas, on 27 June 1976, from Athens, on a flight to Paris, with 246
passengers and 12 crew. The Israeli commandos flew 2,500 miles and landed in
three large transport aircraft in the dark. In just 35 minutes they had killed all the hijackers and the 20 Ugandan troops guarding them as
hostages. 31 lives were lost; 3 hostages, 1 Israeli, 20 Ugandan
soldiers, and 7 hijackers. 11 Ugandan aircraft, Russian-made Migs, were destroyed, as the
Israelis and the 103 rescued hostages made for Nairobi, where they refuelled
and flew to Tel Aviv. In response the Ugandans murdered Dora Bloch, a hostage
who had been removed to a Kampala hospital after choking whilst on board the
aircraft.
29 July 1976, The hijackers (see 27 June 1976 and 3 July 1976) demanded the release
of 53 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the 98 Jewish hostages they were
holding in Entebbe.
27 June 1976, An Air France airbus on a flight from Athens to Tel Aviv was hijacked
by terrorists from the �Popular Front For The Liberation Of Palestine� and
forced to fly to Libya, where all non-Jewish passengers were released. The
hijackers then flew to Entebbe, Uganda, see 29 July 1976 and 3 July 1976.
27 January 1976, A UN Resolution calling
for Israel to withdraw from all territories occupied since 1967and for a
Palestinian State was vetoed by the US delegate.
10 November 1975, The UN General
Assembly passed by 72 votes to 35 a resolution defining Zionism as �a form of
racism and racial discrimination�. Some 32 nations abstained.
4 July 1975, A Palestinian bomb in
Jerusalem killed 14.
5 March 1975. Palestinian guerrillas raided a hotel at Tel Aviv, taking
30 hostages. Israeli troops stormed the hotel, killing 7 of the 8 terrorists,
and 11 other lives were lost.
2 December� 1974, Israel announced that it possessed the capability of manufacturing nuclear
weapons.
19 November 1974, Three Arab terrorist attacked the Israeli
town of Beth Shean, killing 4 and wounding 38 before being shot themselves.
30 October 1974, All Arab States recognised the Palestinian
Liberation organisation (PLO) as the �sole representative of the Palestinian
people�.
9 October 1974, Oskar Schindler, German businessman who saved
the lives of many Jews in World War Two, died.
20 June 1974, Israeli aircraft attacked a Palestinian refugee
camp in southern Lebanon, killing 16.
13 June 1974, Palestinian terrorists killed three Israeli women in
Kibbutz Shamir.
11 April 1974, Palestinian terrorists killed 18 Israelis, mainly women
and children, in a raid on Kiryat Shemona.
31 May 1974, Israel signed a
truce with Syria. Israel returned the city of Kuneitra, occupied since the Yom
Kippur War of October 1973, to Syria.
12 April 1974. Israeli soldiers
destroyed several houses in Lebanon in retaliation for an Arab guerrilla attack on the Israeli
town of Kiryat Shemona in which 18 people died.
6.5, Golda Meir resigns, succeeded by
Yitzhak Rabin, 1974
3 June 1974, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister of Israel.
22 April 1974, The
Israeli Labour Party voted by 298 votes to 254 for General Yitzhak Rabin to
succeed Golda Meir as Prime Minister.
10 April 1974.
Golda Meir
resigned as Israeli Prime Minister. Yitzhak Rabin of the Labour party replaced her
on 22 April 1974.
20
February 1974, In Israel, Golda Meir formed a minority
Government after the National Religious Party withdrew its support.
1 January 1974, Golda Meir
was re-elected Prime Minister of Israel.
30 December� 1973, In London,
Joseph Seiff, Jewish head of Marks and Spencer, was shot and injured by an Arab
terrorist.
17 December� 1973. 31 people died after Arab guerrillas
hijacked a West German airliner
at Rome Airport.
1 December� 1973. Death of Israeli statesman David Ben
Gurion. Born in 1886 he was one of the founders of the State of
Israel and its first President from 1948
to 1963.
21 February 1974, The last Israeli military units left the west bank of the Suez Canal.
15 February 1974, Fierce
fighting on the Golan Heights
between Israel and Syria.
15 November 1973, Egypt and
Israel exchanged prisoners of war.
11 November 1973. Egypt and Israel
signed a ceasefire agreement.
5 November 1973, United
States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger began his shuttle diplomacy
initiative to facilitate the cessation of hostilities following the Yom Kippur
War.
24 October 1973, Syria
accepted a ceasefire, and fighting ceased on both fronts.
16 October 1973, Israeli
forces crossed the Suez Canal into Egypt.
15 October 1973, Moscow announced it would give all help possible
to Arab nations to assist them to recover territory lost to Israel in the Six Day War.
12 October 1973. Israeli forces advanced to within 29 km of Damascus.
11 October 1973, Israeli forces counterattacking on the Golan heights began
to invade Syrian
territory. They advanced almost halfway from the Golan towards the Syrian
capital Damascus.territory.
6 October 1973.Egypt launched the Yom
Kippur War. Syria also attacked Israel on a second front. Israeli civilians
had to be mobilised before the Syrians could be halted. Israel was heavily outgunned
on the Golan, with its 2 brigades, 11 artillery batteries and 180 tanks facing
a Syrian force of 5 divisions, 188 artillery batteries and 1,300 tanks. Only
with mass mobilisation of its reserve forces did Israel tuen the tide on 8
March 1973, forcing Syrians back beyond their initial positions by 10 October 1073.
Meanwhile on the Egyptian front, Arab forces possessed state of the art SAM
missiles that were highly effective at destroying Israeli fighter planes, in
contrast to 1967. The Egyptians captured the Israeli / Sinai town of Qantara on
8 October 1973; they actually advanced too far, beyond air defence range,
enabling Israeli aircraft to destroy their ground forces. On 16 October 1773
the Israeli General
Sharon crossed on to the Egyptian side of the Suez Canal and cut off
the Egyptian 100,000 � strong Third Army.�
Fighting ceased on 23 October 1973.�
This war strained relations between the USA and the USSR, who backed
Israel and the Arabs respectively.� The
USSR was forced to threaten �unilateral military action� if the USA did not
enforce a ceasefire, when it was clear the Israelis were winning.
13 September 1973, Major air battle between Israel and Syria.
20 July 1973. A Japanese Boeing 747
with 123 passengers and 22 crew was hijacked over Holland and forced to fly to
Dubai. Later, at Benghazi, the aircraft was blown up by the hijackers. A girl
hijacker was killed by a grenade explosion, but all passengers and crew escaped.
7 June 1973, The West German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited
Israel.
3 June 1973, Israel freed 96 Arab prisoners in exchange for 3
pilots.
9 April 1973. Arab terrorists attempted to
hijack an Israeli plane at Nicosia. One Arab was killed and 7 captured.
14 February 1973, An Israeli fighter jet shot down a Libyan
passenger plane over the Sinai Desert, killing 74 passengers and crew.
2 March 1973, Palestinian terrorists murdered the US
ambassador to the Sudan, citing �US collusion with Israel� as their motive.
12 January 1973. Yasser Arafat was re-elected leader of the PLO.
29 October 1972, Black September terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa aircraft and successfully negotiated the release of
the three terrorists being held in Germany for
the Munich bombing.
8 September 1972. In retaliation for Munich, Israeli jets
attacked 10 guerrilla bases in Lebanon.
5 September 1972. Arab
terrorists from the Black September terrorist group massacred 11 Israeli
athletes at the Munich Olympics.
Initially 2 athletes were killed and 9 taken hostage as the terrorists broke
into dormitory, and after negotiations with the German Chancellor, Willy
Brandt, the kidnappers and their hostages were flown to Furstenfeld military
airfield, 25 miles from Munich. Later the terrorists were stormed by German
police, and all 9 hostages were killed plus a German policeman and 5
terrorists. 3 terrorists were captured; one terrorist escaped. Police had
stormed the kidnappers as they attempted to board a waiting aircraft. The
Munich Olympic Games continued.
30 May 1972, Terrorists
opened fire on passengers at Lod Airport, Israel, killing 26 and injuring
hundreds. Two of the terrorists were shot dead by security guards, and the
third was arrested. 116 passengers had just arrived on the Air France plane and
filed into the airport baggage area; amongst them were three Japanese belonging
to the �Red Army�, a terrorist organisation with links to the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). They opened their luggage which contained
submachine guns, ammunition and grenades and proceeded to sweep the airport
with gunfire, throwing grenades into huddled groups of passengers, as security
guards struggled to respond. The massacre lasted four minutes. Two terrorists
died in the baggage hall, one killed by his own grenade. The third ran out onto
the runway, discarding his weapon, but was caught by an El-Al mechanic.
9 May 1972, Israeli
troops stormed a hijacked jet at Jerusalem, freeing 92 passengers held hostage
by Black September Palestinian terrorists.
17 January 1972, 350 Soviet
Jews arrived in Israel.
7 October 1971, Israel refused entry to 21 Jewish Black Americans.
1 February 1971. Israeli
troops made a raid into Lebanon.
5 October 1970. Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt,
succeeding Abdel
Nasser.
30 September 1970, Britain swapped hijack hostages seized by the PLO for the
Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.
28 September 1970. President Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt since 1954, died of a heart attack aged 52,
after mediating in the Jordan civil war.
27 September 1970, PLO leader Yasser Arafat signed a truce with King Hussein
of Jordan after the PLO had been ejected from Jordan in a 10-day fight known to
the PLO as Black September.
12 September 1970. Palestinians blew up three hijacked planes. The hijacked
British, Swiss, and American planes were taken by the PFLP (Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine) and flown to Dawson�s Field, a remote desert
airstrip outside Amman, Jordan. After days of negotiation, the 300 passengers
were released in exchange for 7 Arab detainees. In response King Hussein of
Jordan declared martial law and ordered the Palestinian Liberation Organisation
to be ejected from his country.
6 September 1970. In one day, 4 aircraft were hijacked in Europe by Arabs.
A Swissair DC-8 and a Trans-World 707 were forced to fly to Jordan; a Pan-Am
jumbo was blown up in Cairo; and am El-Al 707 hijacking failed after a
terrorist was shot dead. On 9 September 1970 a BOAC VC-10 was hijacked en route
from Bombay to London. It was forced to land and refuel at Beirut and then fly
to Jordan to join the other 2 planes held hostage there.
7 August 1970, Egypt and Israel, both exhausted by their War of
Attrition throughout 1970, agreed a ceasefire. Israel remained in occupation of
Sinai up to the east bank of the Suez Canal. Egypt retained the west bank of
the Canal, and agreed not to site any missiles within 20 miles of it. After a
few months Egypt reneged o the missile agreement and sited missiles close to
the Canal. Israel protested but took no further action. The strategic depth of
the Sinai itself made Israel feel secure.
8 April 1970, Israeli bombs fell on a primary school in the Nile
delta, killing 30 children. The bombs were intended for a military base but
fell off-target; it was a further reprisal for the sinking on 3 February 1970
of an Israeli ship near Eilat.
2 March 1970. Israel and Syria in the heaviest fighting since
the 6-Day War.
12 February 1970, Israeli raid on factories near Cairo; 70
civilians died. This was a further Israeli reprisal for the sinking on 3
February 1970 of an Israeli ship near Eilat.
9 February 1970, The PLO leader Yasser Arafat visited Moscow for
talks.
3 February 1970, Egyptian frogmen sank an Israeli supply
ship off the Israeli port of Eilat. In reprisal Israeli aircraft sank several
Egyptian minesweepers in the Gulf of Suez.
1969, Gadddafi,
President of Libya expelled the country�s Jewish population.
29 August 1969. Arab guerrillas hijacked a TWA
aircraft en route from Rome to Tel Aviv and force it to land in Damascus.
8 April 1969, Arab guerrillas attacked Eilat.
In retaliation, Israeli jets attacked Aqaba, Jordan.
11 March 1969. Golda Meir, aged 70, became Prime Minister of Israel after the
death of Levi
Eshkol. Mrs Meir remained Prime Minister until her resignation in
1974.
26 February 1969, Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel, died.
18 February 1969. At Zurich an Israeli aircraft was attacked by four Arabs,
injuring 6 passengers; one Arab was killed.
3 February 1969. In Cairo, Yasser
Arafat became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the
PLO.
28 December� 1968. Israeli commandos in
helicopters raided Beirut Airport, destroying 13 Lebanese aircraft.� This was in retaliation for alleged Lebanese
toleration of guerrilla raids into northern Israel.
26 December� 1968. Two Arab gunmen attacked an Israeli Boeing
707 in Athens, killing one passenger
29 November 1968, Arab guerrillas attacked a potash plant on the Dead Sea.
Israeli jets retaliated by blowing up two bridges in Jordan.
23 July 1968. An Israeli Boeing 707, flying from
Rome to Tel Aviv, was hijacked and flown to Algeria.
5.0 Israel wins Six Day
War. Jerusalem reunited, many Arabs dispossessed of land, 1967
22 November 1967. The UN passed the famous
Resolution 242. It promised secure Israeli borders in exchange for an
Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, and stated the need for a
solution to the Palestinian refugee problem. However no timetable was given for
achieving these aims.
24 October 1967. Israeli artillery destroyed
a petrol refinery at Port Suez.
21 October 1967, The Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missiles
15 July 1967, Israel said it would not comply with the UN request to
withdraw from East Jerusalem (4 July 1967) and also would not give up the
strategically-important Golan Heights.
28 June 1967, Israel declared the annexation of East Jerusalem.
4 July 1967, The United Nations asked Israel to withdraw from Arab East
Jerusalem.
10 June 1967, The White House, Washington, received a threat from the
USSR over the �hotline� that Russia would get involved in the Israel-Arab
conflict to prevent a total Israeli victory. Moscow, ally of Egypt, had moved naval forces from the Black Sea into
the Mediterranean and was planning an invasion of Israel from the coast.
The world was in danger of a new World War between the USSR and USA, Israel�s
ally. Russia�s ultimate failure to intervene caused it to lose some credibility
with its other allies such as Cuba. This daya Moscow severed diplomatic
relations with Israel.
9 June 1967, As Egypt
was heavily defeated in the Six Day war, Nasser
resigned.
7 June 1967, Israeli forces captured Arab East Jerusalem.
8 June 1967, The Israeli Air Force, during the Six-Day War, attacked and
severely damaged a US research ship, the USS Liberty. Israel maintained that
the attack was an accident, the ship having been mistaken for an Egyptian one.
5 June 1967. 8.00am local time; The Six Day War began
between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq. Israel routed the armies of three Arab nations and occupied an area
larger than the entire State of Israel in just six days. The war began
after Colonel Nasser, having formed a pact with Syria and Jordan, moved his
forces into Sinai and closed the Straits
of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Early on the morning of 5 June 1967 Israel
made lightning strikes against Arab airbases, and within 24 hours the Egyptian
and other Arab air forces were destroyed. Three Israeli tank divisions moved
into the Sinai Desert. The Sinai capital
El Arish fell on 6 June 1967 and by then the Egyptian army was in total
disarray. By 7 June 1967 King Hussein's Jordanian forces were also routed
and most of the West bank, including the Old City of Jerusalem, was in Israeli
hands. On 9 June 1967, amid calls for a ceasefire, Israeli forces pressed on to the Suez Canal. Israel also launched an
attack on the Golan Heights and by 10 June 12967 had taken these from Syria.
1 June 1967. Moshe
Dayan appointed the Israeli Defence
Minister.
31 May 1967. The
President of Iraq stated, �The existence of Israel is an error that must be
rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy that has been with
us since 1948. Our goal is clear � to wipe Israel off the map�.
27 May 1967.
President
Nasser, nine days before the Six
Day War �began, declared, �Our objective will be the
destruction of Israel�.
22 May 1967, Egypt began to
blockade the Straits of Tiran, the only sea access to the Israeli port of Elat.
19 May 1967, The UN began
to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the Gaza Strip, at the request of
Egypt.
13 June 1965, Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli Jewish
philosopher, died aged 87.
12 May 1965. West Germany established diplomatic relations with
Israel.
14 March 1965, The Israeli Cabinet formally approved the setting up
of diplomatic relations with West Germany.
20 January 1965, General
Franco of Spain met with Jewish
representatives to discuss legitimisiung Jewish communities in Spain,
2 June 1964. The PLO
was created in Jerusalem.
16 January 1964, Arab
leaders announced a plan to divert the headwaters of the River Jordan away from
Israel. Israel had previously announced its National Water Carrier Plan to make
greater use of the Jordan waters. The issue threatened another Arab-Israeli
war., until the Arabs dropped their diversion plan in May 1964.
4 January 1964, Michael Brenner,
German-Jewish
historian, was born.
28 June 1963, Ahmed
Hilmi Pasha, Palestinian leader and one time
Prime Minister of the All-Palestine Government, died aged 84.
16 June 1963, Ben Gurion,
Israeli Prime Minister, resigned aged 76. He
was replaced by Levi Eshkol.
1961, The authoriries
closed Moscow�s synagogues.
7 February 1960, Israeli
archaeologists announced the discovery of scrolls
from the Dead Sea area.
4.0 Capture, trial and execution of Adolf
Eichmann, 1961-62
31 May 1962, Adolf
Eichmann was executed inside
Ramleh Prison, Tel Aviv, for his part in the mass killing of millions of Jews
during World War Two.
15 December� 1961, Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official responsible for the execution of
millions of Jews, was sentenced to death after a four-month trial in Jerusalem.
11 April 1961, The trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf
Eichmann, opened in Jerusalem.
23 May 1960. The
Israelis announced the capture of the war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Israeli Mossad agents snatched
Eichmann on 11 May 1960 as he returned home after work, and he was taken
to a secret hiding place outside Buenos Aires. He was living under the name Ricardo Klement.
On 21 May 1960 he was disguised in the uniform of an El Al flight attendant and
bundled on board a flight to Tel Aviv. Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes
by a court in Jerusalem, on 15 December� 1961,
and hanged on 31 May 1962 at Ramleh Prison, Jerusalem. He remains the only
person ever executed by due legal process in Israel, after a trial involving
210 witnesses over 14 weeks. His last words were �long live Germany, long live
Argentina, long live Austria, I shall not forget them�.
24 December� 1959, Anti-Semitic riots in Cologne.
26 July 1959. President Nasser of Egypt announced in a speech in Alexandria
�I announce from here, on behalf of the United Arab
Republic people, that this time we will exterminate Israel�.
25 February 1959, Norway and Israel signed an agreement
providing Israel with heavy water, crucial to Israel's atomic program.
8 May 1958, The Supreme Religious Centre for World Jewry was
established in Jerusalem.
22 July 1957. Shell
and BP announced they would pull out of Israel to pacify some Arab nations, who
refused to accept the very existence of Israel.
20 April 1957, The US resumed aid to Israel, which had been
suspended on October 1956.
3.8, Suez Crisis 1956-57, See also Egypt
for more events of Suez Crisis 1950s
21 February 1957. The 70 year old Israeli President, David Ben Gurion, defied US and UN calls to leave
the Gaza Strip. In Jerusalem,
thousands of Israelis protested on the streets against the UN�s call for
withdrawal. On 22 January 1957 Israeli
troops left the Sinai Peninsula, and on 6 March 1957 handed the Gaza Strip over
to the UN.
6 February 1957, Israel
undertook to evacuate the Sinai but only on the understanding that the Gulf of
Aqaba would not be closed to Israeli shipping. If that happened, Israel said it
would go to war again.
25 January 1957, The UN
ordered Israel to quit Aqaba and Gaza.
6 November 1956, �Israeli
forces reached Sharm El Sheikh.
29 October 1956. 5.pm.
Israeli troops invaded the Sinai
Peninsula and troops pushed on towards the Suez Canal, ostensibly to
destroy guerrilla strongholds, coming within 20 miles of the Canal. 30,000
tank-supported Israeli troops invaded Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, in
retaliation �for Egyptian attacks on land and sea communications near Gaza�.
Israeli forces wanted to reach the gun batteries at Sharm El Sheikh at the tip
of the Sinai peninsula which were closing the Straits of Tiran to Israeli
shipping. These batteries were destroyed on 5 November 1956.
This was part of the Suez Crisis in which President Nasser nationalised the
canal. See 16 November 1869, 26 July 1956, and 23 June 1956. On 30 October 1956
Britain and France issued an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel to stop fighting and
on 31 October 1956 France and Britain
invaded the Suez area �to stop the Israeli-Egyptian fighting. Nasser closed
the canal by sinking 47 old ships full of concrete in it. In fact this move had been pre-planned with Israel�s co-operation. On 25 October 1956 the� British, French, and Israeli PMs, Anthony
Eden, Guy Mollet, and David Ben Gurion, had met in secret at Sevres. On 6
November 1956 Anglo-French forces, 600 British and 487 French paratroopers,
seized the Canal itself, having landed at Port Said. The UN ordered a ceasefire
on 8 November 1956. The US condemned the
invasion and the UN saw the rare sight of US and USSR delegates voting
together. The US had threatened not to defend Sterling against a run on
international markets against it unless the UK pulled out of Suez.
Because of the fighting,
backed by Britain and France, and ended by a UN ceasefire, the Canal was closed
for more than six months, blocked by sunken ships. UK petrol rationing began on
23 November 1956, see this date. The Canal closed again during the Arab-Israeli
war of 1967 and did not reopen until 1975. However by then very large oil
tankers had been developed that were too deep to pass through the canal. It is
hoped that plans to deepen the Canal and reduce fees will revive the enterprise
(2001).
See Egypt for
more events of Suez Crisis 1950s
10 October 1956, Two Israeli regiments bombarded a Jordanian
police barracks for three hours.
11 September 1956. After sporadic attacks by Jordan along the
Israeli frontier, Israel retaliated. A battalion of Israeli troops attacked a
Jordanian police post at Rahwa, killing 5 policeman and ten soldiers and
destroying the building.
14 January 1956, Truce agreed between Israel and Jordan.
2 November 1955, Ben Gurion formed the new government in
Israel.
28 March 1955. Israeli made raids on the Gaza Strip.
13 February 1955, Israel obtained four of the seven Dead Sea
Scrolls.
20 July 1953, The USSR and Israel restored diplomatic relations.
2 February 1953. The USSR broke off relations with Israel.
8 December� 1952, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi became the new President of Israel, succeeding Chaim Weitzmann.
9 November 1952, Chaim Weitzmann, first President
of Israel, died aged 77.
10 September 1952, West Germany offered Israel US$ 540 million
in compensation for Nazi atrocities.
21 July 1952, The Chief Rabbi of France, Isaie Schwartz, died aged 76.
13 September 1951. UN peace talks between Israel and the Arabs
failed.
13 March 1951, Israel demanded 6.2 billion Deutsche marks (1.47
billion US$) compensation from Germany.
14 February 1951. In Israel, Ben Gurion
dissolved Parliament after an election defeat.
5 July 1950, Israel passed the Law of return, stating that all
Jews have the right to settle in Israel.
27 April 1950. Britain
recognised the State of Israel
24 April 1950. King Abdullah of Jordan annexed Arab
Palestine, the West Bank.
December 1949, Ben Gurion created a new agency for intelligence operations
outside Israeli borders. He called it The Institute for Intelligence and
Special Operations; it is commonly known just as �the Institute�, or Mossad.
13 December� 1949, Israel officially moved
its capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was in defiance of a UN
Resolution.
5 December� 1949, David
Ben Gurion, Israel�s first prime
minister, proclaimed Jerusalem as
Israel�s capital.
23 February 1949, Jews in Berlin
protested at the portrayal of Jewish character Fagin in Alec Guinness�s film Oliver Twist.
3.0 Attempted
invasion by Arabs of the new State of Israel, failed, 1948-49
20 July 1949, Syria signed an armistice with Israel.
11 May 1949. Israel was voted into the UN.
3 April 1949, Jordan signed an armistice with Israel.
23 March 1949, Lebanon and Israel signed an armistice.
24 February 1949, Egypt and Israel signed an armistice.
16 February 1949, Chaim
Weizmann was sworn in as first President of Israel.
14 February 1949, Egypt and Israel signed an armistice.
25 January 1949. Ben
Gurion's Mapai Party won the Israeli elections.
16
January 1949, Israel evacuated four Lebanese border towns seized
in October 1948, as armistice talks opened with Lebanon and Transjordan.
2 January 1949, The Battle of
the Sinai in the Arab-Israeli War ended when Israeli forces withdrew from the
Sinai Peninsula.
15 November 1948, Israeli
airline El Al was founded.
21
September 1948, The Irgun dissolved and handed over its arms to the
Israeli government in response to an ultimatum to either disband or be labelled
a terrorist organization.
20
September 1948, In Israel, the Stern Gang was declared illegal.
18
September 1948, 200 arrests were made in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in
connection with the assassination of Count Bernadotte.
17 September 1948. Jewish
terrorists assassinated Count Folke
Bernadotte, Swedish UN mediator, in Jerusalem.
15 July 1948. The UN ordered a ceasefire in Palestine.
30
June 1948, The last British troops left Palestine.
15
June 1948, The Israeli Herut Party was founded by Menachim Begin.
27
May 1948, The Israeli Air Force, the Chel Ha�vir, was founded
today. The newly formed State of Israel was under attack from the Arabs, but
both Israelis and Arabs were very short of planes for aerial operations. The
Arabs could muster only ten Spitfires. The Israelis had a dozen Auster
air-observation planes. Due to many international arms dealers being unwilling
to supply� military hardware to Israel,
the Israelis had to use considerable ingenuity in assembling an air force. However
they were aided not just by Jews and Zionists abroad but by foreign volunteers,
mahals, who wanted a fair deal for
the race that Hitler attempted to exterminate. The Israelis had previously
registered planes (that could be used by their air force) as �sports planes�,
and they were very efficient at scouring scrap yards and air crash sites for
any spare parts, which could be assembled into a plane that could fly. Another
ruse was to form a film company, that was making war epic films, that needed
military aircraft for the filming.
26
May 1948, The Israeli Defence Force was set up on the orders of Defence Minister
David Ben Gurion, formed out of the paramilitary group Haganah.
25 May 1948, Moshe
Dayan assisted Israeli General Yigael
Yadin mount a counter offensive against Arab troops, checking their
invasion.
24 May 1948, The Battle of
Yad Mordechai ended in a successful Israeli delaying action.
22 May 1948, By a vote of
8-0, the United Nations Security Council ordered a ceasefire in Palestine
within 36 hours from midnight, New York time.
21 May 1948, Egyptian forces were reported to be only 4
miles from Bethlehem.
20 May 1948, Egyptian forces captured Beersheba.
17 May 1948, The USSR recognised the State of Israel.
16 May 1948. Chaim Weitzmann was named first
President of Israel.
15 May 1948, �Egyptian forces
invaded Israel.
14 May 1948. The State of Israel was
created (see 16 February 1949, 27
April 1950), after the British Mandate ended in Palestine, and the first Arab-Israeli war began. Arab forces invaded
from Jordan. See also 2 November 1917, Balfour Declaration. Ben Gurion
was the head of the provisional Israeli Government. The nation�s 400,000 Jews
at once opened the country to unrestricted Jewish immigration, which had been
banned since 1944. US President Harry Truman immediately recognised the new
State. On 15 May 1948 the British left Palestine, and
Egypt invaded, as did Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The
30,000-strong Israeli defence force, the Haganah,
assumed a war footing. However the Arab
attacks were uncoordinated and by the end of 1948 the Israeli Army, by then
100,000 strong, had achieved conclusive victory.
13 May 1948, The
Kfar Etzion massacre. After a 2-day battle in which Jewish Kibbutz
residents and Haganah militia defended Kfar Etzion from Arab forces. 129 Jews
were killed and the kibbutz was looted and razed to the ground.
2.0 British,
UN, US, attempts to determine the future of Palestine 1944-48
22 April 1948, Jews gained control of
Haifa.
11 April 1948, The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was announced.
9 April 1948, The Irgun, under Begin, massacred between 116 and 254 Palestinians in
the village of Deir Yassin. Three days later a retaliatory attack killed 77
Jews.
11 March 1948. The offices of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem were
blown up.
8
March 1948, Johnathan Sacks, British Orthodox Jew, Chief
Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013,
was born.
5
January 1948, In
Jerusalem, the Arab-owned Semiramis Hotel was destroyed by a bomb explosion; 20
people were killed.
29
November 1947, The United Nations voted to partition Palestine between Jewish and Arab areas.
2 October 1947, The
Jewish Agency for Palestine gave conditional approval to a plan to partition Palestine into a
Jewish and Arab state.
18 July 1947, In
Palestine the British authorities blocked refugees from landing from the ship
Exodus.
15
May 1947 The United Nations set up a special committee to
decide the future of Palestine.
4 May 1947, The
Jewish terrorist organisation Irgun attacked a prison in Palestine, freeing 250
inmates.
24 April 1947, In
Palestine the Zionist Stern Gang attacked a police barracks at Sarona, near Tel
Aviv; 4 were killed.
2
April 1947. Britain passed the Palestine problem to the UN.
7 February 1947. Britain proposed dividing Palestine
into Jewish and Arab zones but both sides rejected the plan.
2 February 1947. The RAF
began evacuating Britons from Palestine.
31 January 1947, British
High Commissioner for Palestine Lt. General Alan Cunningham ordered all
non-essential British civilians to evacuate the province, so military
operations in Palestine would not be hindered.
20 December� 1946, Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv.
17 November 1946, Jewish
terrorists stepped up their bombing campaign in Palestine.
22 July 1946. The King David Hotel, Jerusalem, HQ of the
British Palestine Army, was destroyed by a Zionist bomb planted by Irgun,
killing 91 and injuring 45. Many
Jews wanted Britain to withdraw so a Jewish State could be established.
3 May 1946, Arabs
rioted in Jerusalem over British plans to partition Jerusalem.
2 December� 1945, The Arab world began a general boycott of Israel, to geographically
isolate the country. The boycott was to cover not just companies trading with
Israel or with Israeli companies but also companies doing business with these companies.
In 1977 the US, under President
Carter, declared it illegal
for US companies to participate in this boycott. In the 1990s Israel
insisted upon the dismantling of the boycott, which was estimated to have cost
the country some US$ 40 billion, as part of the Peace Process. In 2001,
however, the Arab League�s Boycott Office resumed activities as part of its
support for the Palestinians during the Intifada.
14 November 1945, Riots
broke out in Tel Aviv over the U.S.-British statement on Palestine, killing two
and wounding 57.
13 November 1945. Britain
and the USA announced the creation of a joint committee to decide the future of
Palestine.
13 August 1945, The World Zionist Congress
demanded the admission of 1 million Jews to Palestine.
5 November 1944. The Zionist Stern Gang
assassinated Lord
Moyne, British Resident Minister in the Middle East. With the end of
the War in sight, some Zionists were determined to prevent renewed British
control over Palestine.
1.0 Concentration
camps liberated, despite Nazi attempts to erase them, 1945
28 April 1945, US General George Patton ordered that German civilians be taken to see
the Dachau concentration camp.
18 April 1945, Dachau concentration camp was liberated by the Allies
15 April 1945. The Allies captured the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.�
11 April 1945, Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar,
was liberated by US forces.
27 January 1945. The Red Army captured Auschwitz.
They found 8,000 prisoners remaining there; a further 80,000 had been forced to
leave on a death march. However, of the 1.3 million who had entered Auschwitz
during World war Two, 1.1 million died there; 6,000 a day were murdered there.
See France-Germany
for main European events of World War Two
27 November 1944, The crematoria at Auschwitz were blown up
by retreating Nazi forces.
27 August 1944. Polish and Russian officials showed the news media the Maidenek
concentration camp.
0.0 Genocide of Parisian Jews,
1941-44
31 July 1944. The last scheduled deportation of Parisian Jews from Drancy. By now gunfire could be heard
in Paris and liberation seemed very close.
Nazi Army commanders wanted to requisition the deportation trains for moving
their own troops back to safer positions.
18 September 1943, Mass deportations
began of French Jews in Paris, with 1,150 being shipped in
railroad freight cars to the Buchenwald concentration camp.
17 July 1942, Operation Spring Wind in Paris came to a conclusion, with the roundup of some
7,000 Jews, almost all of those remaining in the city. Some Jews escaped,
others committed suicide; in fact Spring
Wind, which intended to capture 28,000 Jews, in fact seized just 12,884.
The detainees were initially sent to Drancy or the
Velodrome D�Hiver. Nazi action against the French Resistance also
intensified at this time. Non-Jewish Parisians were not without sympathy for the
Jews, especially the children.
29 May 1942. Jews in Paris were ordered to wear the Yellow Star of David. The
Nazis ordered 5,000 metres of yellow material from a French company so the
requisite number of stars, some 400,000, could be produced. However some
Parisian non-Jews
disliked this order, and many made a point of respecting the star, giving up
their seats on the Metro for wearers for example. Additionally, some French
Catholics wore the star also. French
university students wore a badge reading �JUIF�, said to stand for Jeunesse
Universitaire Intellectuelle Francaise.
21
May 1942, 4,300 Jews were deported from the town of Chelm to the
death camp at Sobibor.
27 March 1942, 1,112 Jews were deported from Drancy, Paris, to an undisclosed destination.
12 December� 1941. More Jews were
arrested in Paris. This time it was the
professional members of the community � doctors, academics, scientists and
writers � who were detained and sent to Drancy.
2 October 1941. The Nazi occupiers of Paris blew up Jewish synagogues across the city. Six
were destroyed, a seventh explosive failed to detonate but the� building was destroyed anyway the next day.
31 August 1941, Nazi persecution of the Jews in Paris intensified. On this day all radios belonging to Jews were confiscated.
Then their bicycles were taken. The Post Office was ordered to disconnect all
phones belonging to Jewish households, and Jews were forbidden to use public
phone boxes. Jerws were barred from cinemas, Jewish lawyers were forbidden to
practise, and it was made illegal for Jews to change address. Jews could only
use the last carriage of the Paris Metro trains.
20 August 1941, A further mass arrest of Parisian Jews took place, this time mainly affecting the artisan Jews of the 11th
Arrondissement. These detainess were held at a large unfinished public housing
complex at Drancy on the outskirts of Paris.
14 May 1941. The first of a series of mass arrests of Parisian Jews took place, affecting 4,000 non-French Jews. SS officer Dannecker, who had arrived in Paris in
September 1941 to oversee the �Jewish Question�, sent these detainees to the
prisons at Pithiviers and Beaune la Rolande.
14 July 1946, Jews who had
survived World War Two were massacred in a pogrom at Kielce, Poland.
-1.0 Anne Frank
14 May 1986, Anne Frank�s
complete diary was published.
19 August 1980, Otto Frank,
father of Anne Frank, died.
12 March 1945. The young
Jewish diarist Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen
concentration camp.
3 September 1944. Anne Frank
and her family were transported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, see 14
June 1943.
4 August 1944, Anne Frank
and her family, who had gone into hiding from the Nazis on 6 July 1942 (see
also 14 June 1943) were discovered by the Nazis, see 3 September 1944.
14 June 1943, Anne Frank
(born 12 June 1929) began to write her famous diary. She was born in Frankfurt,
Germany, to Otto
and Edith
Frank; Otto was a German Army officer in World War
One. Anne
had a sister called Margot. In 1933, as the Nazis came to power,
the Frank
family moved to Amsterdam where they hoped to be safe from Hitler�s
anti-Semitic policies. However Germany invaded The Netherlands in May 1940.
6 July 1942, Anne Frank
and her family went into hiding from the Nazis (see 14 June 1943).
12 June 1942, Anne Frank
received a diary for her 13th birthday, which she kep writing as her
family hid in an Amsterdam attic unti;l discovered by the Gestapo in 1944.
12 June 1929. Birth of Anne Frank,
Dutch
Jewish schoolgirl who wrote her famous dairies before going to her death in a
Nazi concentration camp.
-2.0 Danish and Italian Jews saved from the
Nazis, 1940-43
16 October 1943, Nazi German forces
began to round up Jews from Rome for deportation to the death camps. 1,200 Jews
were deported, of whom only 15 survived the War. However Giovanni Borromeo,
head of the Fatebenefratelli Hospital in Rome, rapidly admitted many Jews and
other anti-fascists with so-called K Syndrome. The Nazis took this to mean Koch
Syndrome (tuberculosis) and feared to enter the hospital, on an island in the
Tiber, saving many from the Nazi extermination camps.
3 October 1943, SS General Dr. Werner Best
declared Denmark to be �judenfrei�, although most of the nation's Jews had learned of the
impending mass arrests and were in hiding, awaiting the chance to flee to
Sweden.
1 October 1943, Hitler ordered
that all Danish Jews be arrested and deported. However the Danes largely thwarted this
move, see 9 April 1940.
28 September 1943, Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz, a German
diplomat in Nazi-occupied Denmark, secretly warned leaders of the Danish
resistance of an order from Berlin for the arrest and deportation of the
Kingdom's Jewish citizens, to begin on October 1. Over the next two weeks,
Danish residents helped most of the nation's 8,000 Jews elude capture;
Denmark's fishermen used their boats to ferry 7,200 people to neutral Sweden.
9 April 1940. Germany began the invasion
of Denmark and Norway. In September 1943 Danes became aware that the Nazis were
about to round up all Danish Jews. The Danes then began a massive effort to
save the Jews. Jewish names on doors were changed to common Danish ones such as
Jensen or Hansen, and hundreds of these �Jensens� were suddenly admitted to
hospital, or hidden by Danes in their flats and houses. Then some 7,200 Jews,
along with 680 non Jews, many married to Jews, were secreted aboard fishing
boats and smuggles across to neutral Sweden. Only 447 Danish Jews were captured
by the Germans and overall less than 25 of Denmark�s Jews died in the Holocaust.
Danish resistance continued until Allied
forces liberated Denmark on 5 May 1945.
-3.0. Nazi anti-Semitism
across Europe 1939-44
9 July 1944. The last train carrying Jews to the concentration camps left from
Budapest
29 May 1944, In
Poznan, Himmler
promised Hitler
that �Before the end of the year the Jewish problem will be solved once and for
all�.
5 April 1944. The Germans began deporting Jews from Hungary.
5 December� 1943, Italian Jews were interned for
the first time at the Fossoli di Carpi concentration camp.
2 September 1943. Inmates of the concentration camps in Poland were being used for
medical experiments.
16 August 1943. Jews in
the ghetto at Bialystock, Poland, rose up.
25 June 1943, The
Jewish ghetto at Czestochowa, Poland, was annihilated and its inhabitants sent
to Auschwitz after an abortive attempt at resistance.
19 May 1943, Goebbels
declared that Berlin was �free of Jews�.
15 May 1942, The Slovak
parliament retroactively legalized the deportation of Jews from Slovakia.
19 April 1943. Polish
Jews in Warsaw put up a major fight against the Nazis. This was the first case
of serious resistance by the Jews to the Nazis, en masse. The Jews could not
win, but they seriously hampered German operations. The Nazis retook
the ghetto on 20 April 1943, and massacred the Jews.� The Warsaw ghetto was totally erased from the
city.
17 April 1943, Hitler and Ribbentrop demanded that
Hungary round up its Jews for extermination in concentration camps; part of the
�final solution�. Hungary initially delayed
but Germany exercised considerable political influence within Hungary.
17 March 1943, The Bulgarian
Parliament voted unanimously against any mass deportation of Bulgarian Jews, as
demanded by Germany.
2 September 1942. German SS troops deported and murdered 50,000 Jews from the ghetto in
Warsaw.
30
April 1942, The Dzyatlava massacre. About 1,100 Jews were massacred
by German authorities in the Kurpiesze forest, near Dzyatlava.
27
April 1942, All Jews in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands were ordered to
wear the yellow badge.
26
March 1942. Germany began deporting Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp.
13 March 1942, The Nazi death camp at Belzec, Poland, opened with a transport
of 6,000 Jews from Mielec.
20 January 1942. Reihard Heydrich proposed his �final solution� �
to exterminate all of Europe�s 11 million Jews.
See France-Germany for main European
events of World War Two
30 November 1941, The first day of the Rumbula massacre near Riga, Latvia. Around 25,000
Jews were killed between this day and December 8.
15 October 1941, The Jewish population of Lubny, Ukraine, and neighbouring towns were
ordered to report for relocation. The 1,900 Jews who obeyed the order were
taken to an antitank trench outside the town and shot.
29 September 1941. A Nazi death squad murdered
30,000 Russian Jews in Kiev, following the fall of Kiev to the Nazis on 19 September
1941.
15 September 1941, The Nazis began testing the gas
chambers at Auschwitz.
31 July 1941. Goering issued an order to Heydrich, a subordinate of Himmler, to draw up a plan for the total extinction of all
non-Russian Jews.
Heydrich
called a conference on 20 January 1942 at Wannsee,
a picnic area outside Berlin. Reich administrators were to arrange for this
genocide via the concentration camps. Jews were to be forced to labour
building roads and many were expected to die of over-work.
17 July 1941, Hitler gave Himmler full authority for
�police security� in the newly-occupied areas of Russia. This meant that all
Jews in these areas were to be massacred.
6 July 1941, Over 2,500 Jews were murdered by
Lithuanian militia under German direction.
16 April 1941, German
forces entered Sarajevo and demolished the last Jewish synagogiue there.
5 September 1940, Luxembourg was made subject to the German Nuremberg Laws of 1935,
reducing Jews to second-class citizens, and all 555 Jewish-owned businesses in
Luxembourg were seized by the Nazis.
3 October 1940, 150,000 Jews living across Warsaw were ordered to move into a ghetto
area where 250,000 Jews already lived. They were only allowed to take what they
could carry in hand carts.
31 May 1941, Expropriation of Jewish property began in Belgium.
1 May 1940, The Germans converted a small area od Lodz, Poland, into a prison for
the city�s 160,000 Jews, with gross overcrowding and limited water supplies.
7 March 1941. Compulsory labour for German
Jews began.
28 November 1940. In Berlin a
film, Der ewige Juden (The Eternal Jew), purpoting to show their �evil
influence�, was released.
15 November 1940. Warsaw�s 35,000 Jews were confined to the ghetto.
22 October 1940, German Jews were deported from the regions of Baden, Saar, and
Alsace-Lorraine.
18 October 1940, A Second Nazi Ordinance was issued in Paris relating to the city�s Jews (see 27 September 1940).� Jews were now excluded from a number of
occupations, including banking.
27 September 1940. The Nazi Governor of Paris, Helmut Knochen, issued an Ordinance relating to
the city�s Jews. A census of Jews was to be taken, all Jewish households had to
report to the Prefecture of Police by 20 October 1940 (149,734 Jews registered)
and all Jewish owned businesses had to put up a sign indicating Jewish ownership,
in both French and German; Enterprise
Juif and Judisches Geschaft. See
18/10.1940.
10 August 1940, Romania
passed anti-Semitic laws.
27 March 1940, In Poland, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a
concentration camp at Auschwitz (formerly known by its Polish name of
Osweicim). This location was originally intended as a punishment camp for
rebellious Poles.
12 February 1940, Deportation of Jews from Germany began, mainly from the Pomerania
region.
26 January 1940, Germany ordered that Polish Jews remain in their place of residence and
could not travel. This created the �ghettos� which were in effect temporary
concentration camps.
See France-Germany World War Two for main
European events of World War Two
11 December� 1939, Germany declared
that all Jews living in German-occupied Poland were now liable for 2 years
forced labour.
30 October 1939. London published the horrors of the German concentration camps.
28 October 1939. All German Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David.
10 October 1939. Nazis deported Polish Jews to
the Lublin ghetto.
23 September 1939. All wireless sets owned by Jews in Germany were confiscated.
1 September 1939. In Germany, Jews were put under a curfew from 8pm in winter and 9pm in
summer.
2 May 1939, Slovakia deprived 30,000 Jews of their citizenship.
23 February 1939. The Nazis confiscated jewels and
precious metals from the Jews.
17 January 1939. In Germany, Jews were banned from driving.
26 September 1940, Walter Benjamin,
48, German Jewish philosopher and social critic, committed suicide.
13 June 1939, The
Inter-governmental Committee of Refugees announced an agreement to keep the 907
Jewish refugees aboard the St. Louis from having to return to Germany. Belgium
agreed to grant temporary refuge to 250, the Netherlands 194, France about 200
and Britain the rest.
13 May 1939, �A ship with 937 Jews left Hamburg, many of
them former concentration camp inmates, to seek asylum in Cuba. However the
Cuban Government declined to take them as did the USA and Dominica. Eventually
the ship was ordered back to Germany, and arrived at Antwerp on 17 June 1939.
Belgium took 214 of the refugees, France 224, The Netherlands 1821 and the UK
288. The British and French contingents left aboard the cargo ship Rhakotis for
Boulogne and Southampton. Only the British bound Jews survived the war.
2 December� 1938, 206 German-Jewish schoolchildren arrived in
Britain as refugees. This was the so-called Kindertransport:
by the end of August 1939 9,354 such children had arrived by boat-train at
Harwich from Germany and Austria. For many, their adult families
remained.probably to die in the concentration camps. A few adults did manage to
obtain visas for England or the USA.
-4.0, German Nazi anti-Semitism pre World War
Two, 1932-39
19 November 1939, An official German
communique announced that barricades had been erected around the Warsaw Ghetto
and that Jewish districts would be placed under strict control.
14 November 1938. In Germany, Jews were
expelled from colleges.
12 November 1938, The Jewish community was ordered to pay a
collective fine of 1,250 million Marks, and in addition pay for all the damage
resulting from the Kristallnacht of a few days earlier.
10 November 1938. Anti Semitic laws passed in Italy.
3 December�
1938,
Heinrich
Himmler ordered all driver's licenses of German Jews invalidated.
8 November 1938, Kristallnacht in Germany, when the Nazis burned 267 synagogues and
destroyed 7,000 Jewish homes and businesses.�
35,000 Jews were arrested throughout Germany, and 36 people killed. The
Nazis prohibited insurance payments to the affected premises; however the glass
had to be repaired, and much was sourced from abroad, draining German foreign
currency reserves.
7
November 1938, A half-crazed
young Jew whose parents of Polish origin had just been deported from Germany
fatally shot the Third Secretary of the German Embassy in Paris. This provided Germany with a pretext to
further mistreat the Jews.
See also France Germany
for cultural developments in Germany undetr the Nazis, 1930s
28 October 1938. 17,000
Polish Jews domiciled in Germany were expelled.
5 October 1938, In Germany, passports held by Jews had to
have the letter J stamped in them.
10 August 1938, The synagogue in Nuremberg was destroyed.
23 July 1938, Jews in
Germany were ordered to report to police by 31 December 1938 to receive special
identification cards that would be required for all dealings with government
officials.
14 July 1938. Italy
officially adopted anti-Semitism.
27 June 1938. All Austrian-Jewish employees given 2 weeks
notice to quit by their employers.
9 June 1938, The synagogue in Munich was destroyed.
7 April 1938. The Nazis
seized Baron
Rothschild�s bank, and arrested him.
6 April 1938. Leading Jewish figures in Austria were sent
to Dachau concentration camp.
15
September 1935. Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews of German citizenship. Marriages between Jews and
non-Jews were forbidden. On 14 November 1935 the definition of a �Jew� was
extended to include the children of Jewish and a non-Jewish parents, these
offspring known as �mischlinges�
15 November 1933. Germany�s new Reichstag opened. Women and
Jewish members were excluded.
26 October 1933, The
German Government took over directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. This made the players into civil servants,
meaning that Jewish players could be barred as Jews were forbidden form working
for the civil service.
29 August 1933. It was
officially confirmed that German Jews
were being sent to concentration camps.
25 August 1933, The Haavara (�transfer�) Agreement was
signed between the Nazi German Government and Zionist Jews. It provided for the
relocation of Jews from hostile Germany to what was then British Mandated
Palestine, and for these Jews to take some assets that would otherwise have
been confiscated by Germany. Advantages to Nazi Germany included the removal of
Jews from their territory and a possible easing of sanctions on the country
which had been imposed by Jews in the rest of Europe, which were a threat to
the still-fragile German economy. The Agreement was cancelled in 1939 after Hitler invaded Poland. Hitler
inititally opposed the Haavara Agreement, but supported it in the period 1937-9.
23 July 1933. Germany decreed that importing banned books was punishable with death.
9 May 1933. Hitler
ordered the burning of more than 25,000 books. �Un-German� volumes were thrown onto a huge bonfire outside Berlin
University. Other similar fires took place in other German cities and over 1 million books may have been burned
altogether.
5 May 1933. Hitler
proposed a ban on mixed marriages between Jews and Aryans, and to begin sterilisations.
7 April 1933, Germany banned Jews from government
employment.
1 April 1933. Nazis
seized Jewish bank accounts.
28 March 1933. Hitler
ordered a boycott of Jews and Jewish
shops. Jewish-owned shops were
closed, Jewish professors thrown out
of universities, and school textbooks re-written to include �racial
science�. Officials of trades unions and employer�s organisations were sacked
and replaced by Nazis. The boy scouts were dissolved and replaced by the Hitler
Youth organisation, run by the anti-Semitic
Baldur Von Schirach.
20 July 1933, 20,000
Jews protested in Hyde Park, London, against Nazi anti-Semitism.
22 March 1933. The Dachau concentration camp was opened on
the site of an old munitions factory in Munich
to detain Communists and other �political undesirables�. This was the first German
concentration camp.
15 March 1933. Hitler proclaimed the Third
Reich, which he said would last for a thousand years. Many Jews fled Germany, as Kosher food and left-wing newspapers were
banned.
See France/Germany
1933 for rise of German Nazi Party
14 March 1933. The Nazis banned Kosher meat.
4 October 1932. Hungary formed a Nationalist and anti-Semitic government.
Nazi German anti-Semitism from 1933
-5.0 British plans for Jewish Homeland in
Palestine, resisted by Arabs and Jews, 1905-39
25 November 1940, The ship Patria, carrying
illegal Jewish migrants, sank in the port of Haifa, 200 died.
19 June 1939, A market in Haifa was
bombed, killing 18 Arabs and wounding 24. A Jew in a nearby street was stabbed
to death minutes later.
23 May 1939. The British Parliament agreed a plan for the independence of Palestine
by 1949. This plan was denounced by both Arabs and Jews.
17 May 1939. In the
UK government, MacDonald
attempted to limit Jewish migration to Palestine. Jewish numbers were to be
limited to 10,000 a year for five years, with an additional 25,000 in the first
year; 75,000 in all. No further migration was to be allowed without Arab
consent. A year earlier MacDonald had talked of Jewish migration of
400,000 but the UK Foreign Office had steadily reduced the number. Britain knew that in a war with Germany, UK
Jews were bound to side with Britain but the Arabs had to be persuaded.
9 November 1938, The
British Government called a conference on the future of Palestine.
19
October 1938, British troops stormed Old Jerusalem, evicting the
Arabs who had been occupying it. The UK abandoned plans to partition Palestine
between Jews and Arabs.
18
October 1938, As terrorist violence escalated in Palestine,
British troops imposed martial law.�
4 January 1938. Britain
postponed plans to partition Palestine.
20 October 1937. The
British tried to limit Jewish migration into Palestine.
26 September 1937. The
British Commissioner for Galilee was murdered by Arabs.
8 September 1937. A
Pan-Arab conference rejected the British Peel plan to partition Palestine.
2 August 1937. The
Zionists endorsed the British Peel plan to partition Palestine.
7 July 1937. Britain published a plan issued by the Peel
Commission to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs. Two-thirds was to
be Arab, the rest Jewish, but the cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Nazareth
were to be under permanent British control. Trans Jordan would receive a
�2million grant and Arab landowners would be compensated.� Most Arabs and Jews rejected the idea.
29 September 1936, Britain
declared martial law in Palestine to counter an Arab revolt.
25 April 1936, The
Arab Higher Committee was formed to co-ordinate Arab resistance in Palestine.
19 April 1936, An Arab
revolt began in Palestine against British rule and Jewish immigration.
27 October 1933, In
Palestine, a State of Emergency was declared in coastal towns after rioters
protested at Jewish immigration.
21 October 1930, The
Hope Simpson Enquiry on Palestine was released.
20 October 1930. Zionist
leaders protested against a British plan to partition Palestine into Arab and
Jewish areas. They said it went against the Balfour Declaration which promised a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
The British attempted to halt Jewish immigration to Palestine.
25 August 1929. Britain declared martial law in Jerusalem
as Arabs and Jews continued fighting. Arabs killed 8 Jews and then burned
whole streets of houses; the rioting was sparked by Arab hostility to Jewish
access to the Wailing Wall, situated in the heart of Arab east Jerusalem. Order
was not restored by the British until 31 August 1929.
24 August 1929, Yasser Arafat,
Palestinian leader, was born.
1 April 1925, The
Hebrew University at Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, was opened by Lord Balfour.
29 September 1923. The
British Mandate in Palestine officially began.
24 August 1922. Arabs
at Nablus rejected the British Mandate for Palestine.
30 May 1921,
Anti-Jewish riots in Palestine.
25 April 1920, The UN
confirmed the British mandate to control Palestine and Mesopotamia.
1 July 1920, The British civil administration of
Palestine began.
4 April 1920, Rioting broke out in Jerusalem (then under
British control) as fighting occurred between Arabs and Jews. The Arabs
were angry at the arrival of Jewish immigrants, and anti-Zionist speeches led
to unrest. Martial law was declared as 5 Jews and 4 Arabs died in the riots,
and 281 Jews, 18 Arabs, and 7 British soldiers were injured.
30 June 1918, The
first meeting between the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann and Arab Revolt leader Prince Faisal
took place at Faisal's
headquarters in Aqaba in an attempt to establish favourable relations between
Arabs and Jews in the Middle East.
11 February 1918, Chaim Weizmann
was appointed to head a commission on Jewish colonies in Palestine.
9 November 1917. Arthur Balfour,
the British
Foreign Secretary, unveiled plans for a
Jewish national homeland in Palestine. The message was conveyed to the
Zionist representative, Baron Rothschild. The British War cabinet, under David
Lloyd George, believed that Zionist
support would help the war effort, especially against the Ottoman Turks. Arabs outnumbered Jews by ten to one in
Palestine but Zionist leaders like Dr Chaim Weizmann would try and build up their
numbers.
2 November 1917. UK
foreign secretary Arthur Balfour stated British support for a
Jewish homeland in Palestine, to Lord Rothschild. The Balfour Declaration gained Jewish support during World War I, and
in 1945 sparked a flood of Jewish refugees to Palestine after World War II.
This led to clashes with both Arabs and the British administration. Britain
withdrew in 1948; the State of Israel
was proclaimed on 14 May 1948.
10 February 1917. Weizmann
and the British Government discussed plans for a Jewish homeland.
1909, The first Kibbutz was set up, at the Jordan River
Valley village of Degania Aleph, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
11 April 1908, Tel Aviv,
Israel, was founded by 60 settlers.
1905, The term �Palestinian� was first used, to apply to Jews who
wanted to go and live in Palestine, which was the� part of the Ottoman Empire. It signified any
resident of the British-mandated territory of Palestine after 1920, the land
west of the River Jordan which has become Israel. By the 1970s it signified
Arabs who had left the area which came under Israeli rule.
-6.0 Fascism, anti-Semitism, in the UK, 1911-36
11 October 1936, An anti-Fascist group of
100,000 Jews and non-Jews blocked a march by the British Union of Fascists
through London�s
East End. In
revenge, a week later, gangs of Fascists smashed up Jewish shops in the Mile
End Road area.
8/1936, The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, as an international
federation of all Jewish organosations and communities.
19 November 1935, The University of Budapest closed for a day due
to anti-Semitic rioting.
24 December�
1933,
The Codex Siniaticus arrived in
London.
7 May 1933. Jews and Fascists
fought in the East End of London.
6/1917, A crowd several thousand strong destroyed homes
and shops in the Jewish quarter of Leeds. Some Jews were suspected
of links to Germany or of avoiding military service, due to their east European
origins.
See France-Germany
for main European events of World War One
1914, Between 1880 and 1914,
some 120,000 to 150,000 east European Jews settled permanently in the UK, many
fleeing persecution. Many were poor, and around two thirds of them settled in
London�s East End. More Jews came to Britain but then moved on to the USA; due
to competition on transatlantic shipping routes, it was cheaper to sail from
northern Europe to Hull or Grimsby, then sail on from Liverpool to the US, than
to make the direct sea journey. Accurate figures of Jewish arrivals to the UK
were not kept.
In 1914, 80%
of British Jews were found in just three cities; London (180,000), Manchester (30,000)
and Leeds (20,000). A further 7-8% were accounted for by the communities in
Liverpool (8,000), Glasgow (7,500) and Birmingham (6,000).
Compare 1851 when England and Wales was
home to just 35,000 Jews; 2,500 in Liverpool, 1,100 in Manchester, under 1,000
in Birmingam., less than 100 in Leeds (but 2,250 in Leeds by 1880).
23 August 1911, Violent anti-Semitic riots in Wales.
Working class mobs destroyed Jewish shops in Tredegar and ten smaller centres,
causing damage estimated at between �12,000 and �16,000.
16 August 1923, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel 1984-86, was
born in Poland.
16 August 1921. The Times exposed as a fake the �Protocols of the Elders of Zion�,
which purported to be a manifesto for a Jewish conspiracy for world domination.
25 August 1918. The
Hungarian government expelled the Jews and confiscated their assets.
20 May 1915, Moshe Dayan, Israeli military commander and politician, was
born in Deganya.
1914, Jews had achieved a significant position iu� Vienna. From 1848, many had come here
fleeing persecution in eastern Europe, and between 1848 and 1914 their
population in Vienna rose from 5,000, 1% of the population then, to 175,000, or
9% of the population at that time. By the 1880s they accounted for 33% of
Vienna�s university students. By 19154 they accounted for 26% of Law students
and 41% of Medical students. By 1910 they accounted for 41% of the Viennese
university teaching faculty. By 1936 some 62% of Viennese lawyers, and 62% of
its doctors, were jewish.
1913, the Anti-Defamation League was foundedby Chicago lawyer Sigmund
Livingston, with sponsorship by the B;nai B�rith, to combat
anti-Semitism in the USA. This was spreading, culminating in the
lynching in 1915 in Georgia of Leo Frank, a Jew falsely accused of murder.
16 August 1913, Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel 1977-83, was born in
Russia.
�4 August 1912, Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat, was
born to a wealthy family in Stockholm.�
He is famed for saving Jews scheduled for Nazi death camps by giving
them Swedish documentation, enabling them to flee to that neutral country. In
1945 he was taken from Budapest as the Soviets occupied the city; he was
suspected of espionage and his fate has never been determined.
7 November 1911, Walter Schlomo Gross, Jewish journalist, was
born.
18 July 1911, Hermann Adler, British chief rabbi (born 30
May 1839) died.
1910, Jews acquired civil rights in Portugal.
31 December� 1908, Simon Weisenthal, noted hunter
of Nazi war criminals, was born; he died in 2005.
28 April 1908, Oskar Schindler, Austrian-German industrialist
who saved many Jews from death, was born.
12 July 1935, Alfred Dreyfus, French Army
Officer who was accused of selling military secrets to Germany, then imprisoned
and later pardoned, died aged 75.
28 July 1911, The French Chief of Staff resigned over the Dreyfus Affair.
4 June 1908. An attempt
was made to assassinate Major Alfred Dreyfus.
22 July 1906, Captain Dreyfus
was formally reinstated in the French Army and given the Legion of Honour.
12 July 1906. In France,
Captain
Dreyfus was rehabilitated after being publicly disgraced 11 years
earlier over spying and treason charges.�
Dreyfus had been imprisoned on Devil�s Island.
24 October 1904,
Four French officers were charged with lying in the Dreyfus
case.
5 March 1904, A new
enquiry into the Dreyfus case began in France.
6 April 1903. The Dreyfus documents were proved to be forgeries by the army, in Paris.
29 September 1902. The writer
Emile Zola,
and valiant champion of Captain Dreyfus, died, accidentally gassed by
charcoal fumes.
22 December 1900, French
writer Emile
Zola, who had done much to prove the innocence of Dreyfus,
protested at a French move to grant an amnesty to those involved in the
fabrications against Dreyfus.
19 December�
1900, France
granted an amnesty to all those involved in the Dreyfus Affair.
2 June 1900, The
French Senate voted an amnesty for Alfred Dreyfus, who had been pardoned earlier
(September 18, 1899) by President Loubet. Not until July 19, 1906, was
the verdict against Dreyfus set aside.
19 September 1899. France
finally granted a pardon to Alfred Dreyfus
in an attempt to end the controversy over anti-Semitic
allegations that threatened the political stability of France. Dreyfus insisted
on a total clearing of his name.
7 August 1899. The guilt
of Captain
Alfred Dreyfus,
condemned and deported for treason in 1894, was confirmed by a court-martial at Rennes.
23 February
1898, Emile Zola was imprisoned for the publication of his letter, �J�Accuse�, which accused the French Government of anti-Semitism and of wrongly
imprisoning Captain
Dreyfus.
13 January 1898.
The Dreyfus affair in France
escalated with the famous novelist Emile Zola accusing the French war office of
judicial crime in an open letter on the front page of L�Aurore newspaper. Commandant Ferdinand Esterhazy had been acquitted of
betrayal of France�s military secrets to Germany even though his handwriting
had been identified as that on a note in the German embassy. Moreover, Georges Picquart,
the intelligence chief who made the Esterhazy connection, was reposted to Africa.
11 January 1898,
In Paris, Major
Esterhazy was wrongly
acquitted of forging documents used to establish the guilt of French Army
Officer Captain
Alfred Dreyfus.
22 December� 1894. The Dreyfus case opened.�
Alfred
Dreyfus, French artillery officer, was convicted of selling army
secrets to Germany, and imprisoned on Devil�s Island.� Later
he was pardoned and completely exonerated
15 October 1894. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army
officer, was arrested� for betraying military secrets to Germany. A
French agent had discovered evidence of betrayal of French secrets in the German
embassy. Suspicion fell on Dreyfus; he was ordered to take a handwriting test,
his hand shook, and he was arrested. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on
Devils Island.
Aged 34 Dreyfus was an unlikely spy. Cold, serious, punctilious in his
duties, he had no money problems because his father was a wealthy textile
manufacturer. He was however Jewish
and so was disliked by the militant
Catholics who dominated the officer corps. Anti-Semitism was growing in France. At his court-martial evidence
was thin and his lawyers were barred from court.
-8.0. Anti-Semitism in
eastern Europe 1881-1908
13 February 1908, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was encouraging anti-Semitism.
9 September 1906. 100 Jews massacred in Siedlce, Poland.
12 June 1906, Anti-Semitic riots in
Bialystok.
8 November 1905. In Odessa, Russia, 1,000 Jews were killed when a mob
of 50,000 went on the rampage stabbing Jewish men, women, and children.
12 August 1905,
Under Russian direction a pogrom of Jews occurred in Bialystock, Poland; 38
were killed and over 200 wounded.
24 May 1905. Anti Semitic riots in Warsaw, many
Jews killed.
11 September 1903, A pogrom
at Czetochowa, Poland, many Jews were killed.
8 April 1903,
Anti-Semitic riots in Kishinev.
4 June 1903. A Russian
decree restricted Jewish ownership of property.
19 April 1903, A pogrom
began in Kishinev, in which 50 Jews were killed.
5 August 1900,
Anti-Semitic riots in Odessa.
1892, Increasing
restrictions on the civil rights of Jews in Russia led many to emigrate to
Argentina; Baron Hirsch facilitated their resettlement.
15 April 1881, Three days of anti-Semitic violence broke
out at Elizavetgrad, Russia, rapidly spreading to Kiev, Kishinev, Yalta and
Odessa.
13 March 1881, Alexander II,
Tsar of Russia since 1855, aged 62, died from injuries sustained when a bomb
was thrown at him near his palace, by a Polish student. The assassination was
devised by a group of Nihilists headed by Sophia Perovskaya. He was succeeded by his
36-year old son, Alexander III, who reacted to the assassination with great
severity, determined to root out sedition in Russia. He also authorised a systematic campaign against Russian Jews, imposing
severe restrictions on their worship from 5/1882 onwards. Millions of Jews
emigrated from Russia over the next three decades.
3 July 1904. Hungarian-born
Zionist Theodor
Herzl (1860-1904) died in Vienna.�
He was a journalist, and the founder
of Zionism.� He rejected territories
such as Uganda for a Jewish homeland, insisting
on Palestine.
2 November 1901, Magda Trocme, Italian-born French humanitarian
who, along with her husband Pastor Andre Trocme, saved 3,500 Jewish
refugees in Nazi-occupied France during WW2, was born in Firenze (died 1971)
7 October 1900. Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler was born in Munich. He controlled the concentration camps
in which millions of Jews, communists,
trade unionists, Jehovah�s Witnesses, and others, died.
13 August 1900, The
Fourth Zionist Congress was held in London. Concerns included a rise in
antisemitism in Europe in the 1890s, and financing the settlement of Jews in
Palestine, an aim for which money was short.
1 April 1899, Maurice de Hirsch, German Jewish
philanthropist, died (born 9 December� 1831).
3 May 1898, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969-74, was born.
31 August 1897. World Jewish
leaders met in Basle, Switzerland to discuss their hopes for a Jewish homeland
in Palestine. 200 delegates from all branches
of Judaism came, mainly from east and Central Europe.
1896, Theodor Herzl
published �Der Judenstaat�, the start of the Zionist movement.
1893, The Jewish Historical Society of Britain was founded; in part to defend
British Jews from prejudice through research that emphsasised their role in
British history and society.
3 May 1893, Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, was born in Kiev, Russia, as Golda Mabovitch, daughter of a
carpenter.
1890, The Catholic Church
in Italy distributed to� every parish in
the country a booklet asserting that Jews were the sworn enemies of all other
nations and did not merit equal treatment with other citizens.
21 January 1890, Nathan Marcus Adler, British chief rabbi (born 15 January
1803) died.
16 October 1886, David Ben Gurion, the first Prime
Minister of Israeli in 1948, was born in Plonsk, Poland, as David Green.� He changed his
name to Ben Gurion because of its Biblical connotations.
28 July 1885, Sir
Moses Haim Montefiore, Jewish philanthropist, died
(born 24 October 1784).
-9.0. Prussian/German anti-Semitism 1880-83
13 February 1883. German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner
died in Venice aged 69, from a heart complaint. He was infamous for his anti-Semitism.
13 April 1882, The Anti-Semitic
League was founded in Prussia.
1880, Revival of antisemitism in Prussia. The
Judenhetze (hounding of the Jews) began.
1882, The first Aliyah (migration)
of Jews to Palestine began. This laid the foundations of the modern State of
Israel. The second Aliyah (1904-14)
was focussed on �redemption of the soil� and personal labour; the co-operatove
movement which developed into the Kibbutz began here. The third Aliyah was aimed at establishing a �national home� for the
Jews, and the fourth Aliyah (1925)
was aimed at escaping Jewish persecution in eastern Europe, especially Poland. The
fifth Aliyah (1932) was� the flight from Nazi persecution in Germany.
15 May 1877, Jews in Switzerland were
granted full citizenship by the Emancipation Law enacted this day.
1875, Extremely traditional
Orthodox Jews founded the Mea Sharim (�Hundred Gates�) district just outside
Jerusalem. They do not recognise the State of Israel as it is secular rather
than religious, so refuse to pay taxes or do military service, and have their
own schools rather than State schools. Rules on dress are strict and only
Yiddish is spoken as Hebrew, the language of prayer, is deemed too sacred to
use in ordinary speech.
-10.0. Reform
Judaism Movement, 1817-1901
1901, Jewish Progressive (Liberal) Movement began.
1873, Britain�s third Reform synagogue
was established, in Bradford.
1870, Reform
Judiasm had become very popular in the USA, where many of the 200 synagogues there had
adopted some Reform principles. The Reform movement was making less headway
(against Orthodoxy) in Britain. It was not that most British Jews
tended towards strict Orthodoxy, but that the external pressures for Reform
present in Germany and the US � to fit in more with secular society � were
absent in the UK. Victorian Britons venerated �tradirtional� religion, such as
the Church of England, more than they did Non-Conformist branches.
1856, Britain�s second Reform synagogue was established, in Manchester.
1840, The first non-Orthodox
(i.e. Reform) synagogue in Britain
was founded; the West London Synagogue.
1828, Death of Israel Jacobson
(1768-1828). He believed in integrating Jewish traditions more to the host
country (Germany, here), and incorporated
many German elements in worship at the synagogue.
1817, Edward Kley founded a �temple�
(not, synagogue) in Hamburg where major reforms
to Judaism were instituted. Prayers
were �for all humanity�, not for a �messianic state in Palestine� (because,
said Kley,
the Jews could not ask for a State in Palestine when they wanted to become full
German citizens. By 1822 Jewish
�confirmation� services were being held, modelled on Protestant ones, and separate
seating for males and females was abolished. Rabbis in Hamburg strongly
objected and even appealed to the Prussian Government to get these �temples�
closed down.
1870, The last Jewish ghetto in
Europe, in Rome,� was removed (until the
ghetto system was revived by Nazi Germany in the 1940s). Jews were forbidden to
leave the ghetto between sunset and sunrise, and on Sundays and Christian Holy
Days. Within the ghetto, the Jews were self-governing. Where necessary for
their trades, the Jews could hold a market just outside the ghetto, e.g. the
Tandelmarkt of Prague. The ghetto was generally very densely built up, and
highly destructive fires were common. For fear of plunder, the Jews often
refused outside assistance to extinguish the fire on these occasions. Most
ghettos had disappeared from European cities by the 1850s.
1867, Jews were granted full citizenship in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, under a new constitution.
1860, Norway
allowed Jews to settle there.
2 May 1860, Theodor Herzl, Hungarian Jew who was the founder of Zionism and first President
of the World Zionist Organisation in 1897, was born in Budapest.
9 October 1859, Alfred Dreyfus, French army office noted for the �Dreyfus Treason Affair�, was born in
Alsace to Jewish parents.
1858,
Lionel de
Rothschild, aged 41, became the first Jewish MP in British Parliament.
23 July 1858, In Britain, the Oath of Allegiance was modified so as to
allow Jews to sit in Parliament.
1854, The Oxford University Reform Act allowed
Jews to take a degree, a process that had only been open to
chapel-attending Christians until then. A similar Act was passed relating to
Cambridge University in 1856.
However individual Colleges at these universities remained averse to the
admittance of Jews as students.
1848, Jews acquired civil rights in Italy,
1845, Britain passed the Jewish Municipal Relief
Act, allowing Jews to take up all municipal offices without taking a
Christian oath.
12 October 1843, Twelve Jewish men met in a New York cafe to
establish the B�Nai� Brith, or �Sons of the Covenant�, to provide
assistance to Jewish widows, the elderly, orphans, and victims
of persecution. In 1908 the B�Nai
Brith had 35,870 membersacross the USA, Germany, Austro-Hungary, Romania,
Egypt and Palestine. A UK branch was established in 1910.
1841,
The Jewish
Chronicle began publication in London. It was founded by Isaac Valentine
(1793-1868).
30 May 1839, Hermann Adler, British chief rabbi, was born
(died 18 July 1911).
1837, Spain granted civil rights to the Jews.
1835, The UK
Parliament quickly passed the Sheriff�s Declaration Act. This
allowed David
Salomons (1797-1873), a Jewish banker, who had just been elected as
one pf the two Sheriffs of the City of London, to take office without having to
take the Christian Oath.
1835, Moses
Montefiore became President of the Jewish Board of Deputies in the
UK.
1833, In Britain, the
barrister profession was opened to Jews. Until this year the
requirement for a Christian-based oath at Lincoln�s Inn had debarred this
profession to Jews, but in 1833 Francis Henry Goldsmid (1807-78) was allowed
to take a modified oath.
9 December� 1831, Maurice de
Hirsch, German Jewish philanthropist, was born (died 1 April 1899).
1814, Denmark granted equality of citizenship to Jews.
11 March 1812, Prussia awarded equal
citizenship rights to its Jewish population.
17 March 1808, In France, Napoleon imposed economic sanctions on the Jews (The �Infamous
Decrees�), ruining many. This followed accusation made in 1806 by Louis Count Mole, Napoleon�s Commissioner,
that French Jews were evading conscription and fleecing the population through
usurious moneylending.
1806, In France, Emperor
Napoleon summoned a Jewish �Sanhedrin�, in order to ascertain the
suitability of Jews for full French citizenship.
27 September 1791. France granted citizenship to its Jews. This was as a result of the French Revolution.
12 July 1790, French Jews were granted civil liberties.
24 October 1784, Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, Jewish
philanthropist, was born (died 28 July 1885).
1782, Emperor Joseph II of Austria gave
civic rights to the Jews. However they could not own land in Austria
until 1860, with all restrictions removed by 1868.
1763, Touro Synagogue opened in
Newport, Rhode Island, USA, for the local Sephardic Jews. It had a sand floor
to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.
1760, The Board of Deputies of British Jews was established in London.
1760, Israel ben Eliezer, charismatic Polish
founder of Hasidism, died aged 60.
7 July 1753, British Parliament passed the Jewish
Naturalisation Act to end legal discrimination against Jews in Britain. However
the measure was widely opposed and was repealed in 1754.
1746, Sweden
allowed Jews to settle there � so long as they were wealthy.
1743, The Jews were expelled from Russia, by Empress
Elizabeth. Later readmitted to Russia by Emperor Alexander I, who
extended their civil rights in 1805 and 1809 however see 1892.
6 September 1729, Moses Mendelssohn, Jewish philosopher, was
born in Dessau, Anhalt, Germany.
14 June 1711, The
Jewish quarter of Frankfurt was destroyed in what was one of the largest fires
in Germany before the 20th century.�
1701, Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue in
Britain, in London EC3, was built for Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Jews.
4 March 1699, The Jews were expelled from Lubeck, Germany.
21 February 1677, Benedict Spinoza, Jewish philosopher, died.
20 November 1657, Manasseh ben Israel (Manoel Dias Soeiro), founder
of the modern Jewish community in England, died in Middelburg, Netherlands.
20 April 1657, Jews in New Amsterdam (now, New York) were
granted freedom of worship.
27 July 1656, Jewish religious
authorities in Amsterdam excommunicated 24 year student Benedict Spinoza for maintaining
that the Bible did not support the idea of an immortal soul, or that God has no
body, or that angels exist. The secular authorities also banished Spinoza
from Amsterdam for a short period. The
Jewish community was concerned as Jews still did not have full citizenship
rights in Amsterdam.
24 April 1656, The Jews petitioned Cromwell to be allowed to live and trade in England. This was
permitted, although� they were
denied legal toleration by the Puritan clergy of England.
The first synagogue was built in Creechurch Lane, London, 1657, and the second
(which still exists today) was the Spanish/Portuguese synagogiue at Bevis
Marks, London, built 1701. Jewish civil
rights increased only gradually in England. In 1723 they were able to give
evidence in Court, when the words �on the
true faith of a Christian� were dropped from the oath. In 1753 they were
awarded full rights of naturalisation but under popular protest this was
speedily revoked.� Until 1828 the maximum
number of Jewish brokers in the City of London was limited to 12, and these
were heavily taxed. From 1833 an English Jew could become a barrister, and from
1847 Jewish marriages gained the same legal recognition as Christian ones. From
1853 they could become Alderman and Lord Mayor. In 1846 Jewish schools gaimned
the same legal standing as dissenting Protestant schools, and in 1871 the
University Test Act allowed Jews to graduate at British universities. In 1858
the British Parliamentary Oath was modified to allow Jews to become MPs. In
1885 the first Jew became a member of the House of Lords, when Baron Rothschild
became a peer.
1655, The last Auto-da-Fe
in Portugal, a burning alove of supposedly
converted Jews (to Christianity) who were suspected of still being secret Jews.
1655, Sephardic Jews from Brazil
established a congregation in New Amsterdam (New York), despite the efforts of Dutch Governor Peter
Stuyvesant to exclude them.
15 October 1655, The Jews of Lublin, Poland, were massacred.
1654, The colony of Martinique gave sanctuary to
300 Jews who had been expelled from Brazil.
27 January 1654, Some 150 Sephardic Jewish families fled
Brazil for the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (now, New York). The colony mamnager
Peter
Stuyvesant wanted to expel these Jews, but the company refused.
1648, Greek Orthodox peasants in Ukraine began a
massacre of all Jews who would not convert to Christianity. Politically,
Ukraine was seeking independence from Poland; the Polish nobility owned much
land along the Dneiper River, and employed Jews as tax collectors.
24 November 1632, Benedict Spinoza, Jewish philosopher, was born
in Amsterdam.
1 February 1620, Mario de Calasio, scholar of the Hebrew Bible,
died (born 1550).
1603, The Jews were permitted to settle in
Holland; however they did not acquire full citizenship rights until
1796.
13 August 1599, Johannes Buxtorf, Hebrew scholar, was born
(died 1664).
1588, Pope Sixtus V allowed the Jews to settle in the Papal States.
1573, The Jews were expelled from Brandenberg.
1567, The first Jewish University (Yeshiva)
was established, in Poland.
25 December� 1564, Johannes Buxtorf, German
Jewish scholar, was born (died 1629).
12 July 1555, The Jewish Ghetto in Rome was created, on the
orders of Pope Paul IV.
1553, The Jews were expelled from Bavaria.
1551, Persecution of the Jews began in Bavaria.
1550, The Jews were allowed to settle in Bayonne
and Bordeaux.
27 November 1518, Daniel Bomberg completed the Rabbinical Bible.
1516, In Venice, the city
established a special area for Jews to live. Built on the site of a former
ironworks, it was called the ghetto nuovo,
the Italian
for �casting� being getto. Jews
specialised in finance, and were a useful source of tax revenue. The Italian
word getto itself derives from the
Latin jactus or iactus, casting or founding iron. An alternative derivation
(Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910, vol.11, p.920) is from the Italian borghetto, dimutive of borgo, a borough.
Meanwhile many other Jews had moved to the Muslim
areas of North Africa or the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire.
1509, Persecution of the Jews in Germany
began, led by a
former Jew now converted, Johann Pfefferkorn, under the leadership of
Maximillian I.
1506, In riots in Lisbon, almost 4,000 Jews were
massacred.
5 December� 1497, King Manuel I of Portugal proclaimed an edict in which he demanded that
Jews convert to Christianity or leave the
country.
1494, The Jews were expelled from Tuscany.
1492, 80,000 Spanish
Jews who had refused to convert to Christianity were given asylum in Portugal by King Joao II.
31 December� 1492, About 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily.
30 March 1492. The Jews were
expelled from Spain by edict of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella unless they agreed to convert to Roman
Catholicism. Under the Moslem rule, the Jews had benefited from tolerant Arab rulers. But the last
Moslem state was conquered by Christian Spain on 2 January 1492 when Granada
fell. On 30 March
1492 �the 150,000 strong Jewish community
was ordered out by Queen Isabella and her husband Ferdinand.
Urban
anti-Semitism in Spain had been growing for years, and the Spanish Inquisition, founded in 1487,
made things worse. See 12 February 1502.
1489, The Jews were expelled from Milan and Lucca.
1488, The Jews were expelled from Parma.
1486, The Jews were expelled from Vicenza.
14 March 1486, Queen Isabella of Castile decreed
that150,000 Jews within Spain must convert to Christianity or be expelled.
1485, The Jews were expelled from Perugia, Italy.
1 January 1483, Jews were expelled from Andalusia.
1476, The Jews were expelled from Ratisbon.
1454, The Jews were expelled from the cities of
Moravia.
5 October 1450, Jews were expelled from Lower Bavaria by order of Ludwig IX.
1424, The Jews were expelled from Cologne.
1421, The Jews were expelled from Vienna and Linz.
1396, Date of oldest known
document in the Yiddish language.
17 September 1394, King Charles VI of France ordered the expulsion of all Jews from France.
1391, The Jews were expelled from Prague.
5 August 1391, Anti-Jewish riots spread to Toledo, Spain
and Barcelona. Many Jews left Barcelona after the following massacres, though
many remained in the city.
6 June 1391, Anti-Jewish
riots broke out in Seville, Spain. Many thousands of Jews were massacred and
the violence spread throughout Spain and Portugal. Some 200,000 Spanish Jews
were forcibly �converted� to Chrstianity. Many others were burnt alive.
1390, The Jews were expelled from Nuremburg.
5 November 1370. King Casimir III of Poland died in a hunting accident, aged
60, after a 30 year reign. He had repulsed a Mongol invasion, annexed Galicia,
and encouraged
the immigration of Jews to serve as bankers and tax collectors. He
founded the University of Cracow, and codified
the law and administration.
21 March 1349, Many of the 900 strong Jewish community of Erfurt (Germany) were�
murdered by the rest of the population which accused them �of causing of the Black Death. Pope Clement VI issued two Bulls declariung the Jews innocent,
but the
persecution continued, with many fleeing to Poland and other regions of eastern
Europe.
14 February 1349, 2,000 Jews were burned to death in Strasbourg.
9 January 1349,
The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland
was rounded up and incinerated, believed by
the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black
Death. See Medical, 1347, 1348.
1334, King Casimir III of Poland began to encourage Jewish immigration, granting
the Jews extensive priveliges.
24 June 1322, Jews were expelled from France for third time.
1306, Jews were expelled from France by King Philip IV.
1301, In Valencia, Spain,
11,000 Jews were compelled to become baptised as Christians on pain of death.
Elswehere in Spain, the entire Jewish population of towns were massacred.
20 April 1298, Beginning of the Rintfleisch-Pogrom, the Jews of R�ttingen
were burned en masse, other Jewish communities were destroyed later in the year.
1293, Jewish communities in southern Italy had almost been destroyed after three years of
persecution.
18 July 1290, King Edward I of England ordered all Jews (then numbering around 16,000)
to leave England by November 1 (All Saints Day). This enabled him to seize their assets, and
not repay debts owed to them. London�s Jews were expelled; they
had lived in the area known as Old Jewry. The Italians, who wished
to handle English banking, had persuaded Edward I to take this move.
17 November 1278, In England, 680 Jewish people
were imprisoned in the Tower of London for coin-clipping, out of a total Jewish
population in England at that time of around 3,000. 293 of them were executed a
year later. Christians accused of coin-clipping were treated much more
leniently, with often just a fine imposed.
1275, King Edward I of England
ordered that all Jews above the age of 7 wear a yellow patch on their clothes 6
inches by 3 inches.
19 June 1269, King Louis IX of France
ordered all Jews
found in public without an identifying round yellow badge to be fined ten
livres of silver. This had led to accusations that Louis IX
was the inspiration for the Nazi anti-Semitic policies of the 1930s.
1255,
The Jews were
expelled from Leicester, England.
1252,
Louis IX of France expelled the Jews.
1243, The Jews were expelled from Brandenburg.
6/1242, Louis IX of
France organised a major book burning of 24 cartloads of Jewish books, mainly
copies of the Talmud.
1241, The Jews were expelled from Frankfurt.
In England the
Earl of Leicester expelled the Jews from Leicester.
1232, In London the Domus Conversorum was
established. It was a hostel to accommodate impoverished Jews who, in the face
of growing
anti-Semitism,
were seeking to convert to Christianity.
1225, The Jews were expelled from Mecklenburg.
1222, In England the Synod of Oxford confirmed the
anti-Semitic measures of the Fourth Lateran council (1215). Jews were also prohibited
from holding public office.
1215, The Fourth Lateran Council in Rome set out
anti-Semitic measures that included forcing Jews to wear distinctive clothing
and a yellow Star of David. This was to prevent
marriages between Jews and Christians. 28 January 1167, Abraham ben
Meir Ibn Ezra, Jewish scholar, born in Toledo, Spain, ca. 1092, died.
1163, First confirmed presence
of Judaism in China. A synagogue was established at Kaifeng in 1163.
1103, Henry IV,
Holy Roman Emperor, protected the Jews within his realm.
13 December� 1204. The Jewish rabbi, lawyer,
and philosopher Maimonides died, aged
69 (born 1135), in Cairo.
1196, The Jews were expelled from Vienna.
8 May 1190. After some six months of increasing persecution, 500 Jews were massacred in York after they had
taken refuge in the Castle there. The Jews were killed by groups of young men
after a three day siege before these men were due to depart on a Crusade, backed by people who were deeply in debt to
Jewish moneylenders. Because certain professions like moneylending were
forbidden to Christians, these came to be dominated by Jews. King Richard I, crowned on 2
September 189, showed his dislike of the Jews� by
forbidding any to attend his coronation feast, and anti-Semitism
was on the rise in England from then.
1182, The Jews were expelled from Paris by order of King Philip II of France.
The persecution of the Jews across Europe coincided with
the start of the climatic cooling known as the Little |Ice Age, ca. 1200 � 1800,
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
1163,
A synagogue
was founded at Kaifeng, China.
1140,
Spanish Rabbi Judah
ben Samuel ha�Levi died aged 55.
30 March 1135,
The great Jewish teacher Moses
ben Maimon (Maimonedes)
was born in Cordoba. See 13 December� 1204.
850,
German Jews began to develop a new language, Yiddish. This was an amalgam of German, Jewish and other languages.
9 November 694, Hispano-Visigothic
King Egica
accused the Jews of aiding the Muslims, and sentenced all Jews to slavery. From 711 these Spanish Jews were freed by the Arabs.
637,
Jerusalem was captured by Arab forces
under Omar. However until the city�s capture by the Seljuk Turks in 1071,
Christian pilgrims were well tolerated. For the history of Jerusalem from 637 onwards see
Christian History.
619,
Jerusalem was sacked by the Persians.
499,
Rabbi Abina II,
head of the Sora Academy 437-499,
died.
427,
Rabbi Ashe
(375 � 427), head of the Jewish Academy of Sora
in Babylonia, died.
279,
The Jewish Rabbi (teacher) Johanan
died in Tiberias. In Tiberias, Jewish scholars published a collection of Jewish
laws and customs, known as the The
Talmud; this comprised the Mishnah, plus commentaries known as the Gemara.
219,
Death of Rabbi Jehuda
ha Nasi (born 135). He put in writing the previously oral
Jewish interpretations known as the
Mishnah,
189,
Rabbi Yehuda
codified the sayings of Moses
and the Mishnah.
135,
A Jewish uprising under Bar
Kokhba ended (began in 122). After this was suppressed by
the Romans, Judea was deliberately razed, with almost all former Jewish/Judean
towns and villages, some 985 places altogether, flattened and the countryside
depopulated. The city of Jerusalem was changed to the pagan city of Aelia
Capitolina, and no Jew permitted to enter there.
115, Jewish revolt in Cyrenecia
against Roman rule.
Jewish revolt and Roman suppression, destruction
of Jerusalem, 66-73.
15 April 73, To escape enslavement the male Jewish
defenders of Masada,
about to be overwhelmed by the Romans, killed the women and children and then
committed suicide.
6/71, Titus celebrated victory over
the Jews, although some 960 of them still�
held out at Masada.
8 September 70. Jerusalem was stormed� by the Romans.
This ended a revolt by the Jews that began in 66. Only in Masada did the Jews
still hold out for a while. See Roman Empire Titus
allowed his soldiers., after the capture of Jerusalem, �to burn the Upper City of Jerusalem and
slaughter the inhabitants. He took some 97,000 captive, and claimed to have
killed some 1,100,000 Jews, a possibly implausibly high figure.� Titus looted treasures from the Temple,
including a golden table, musical intruments, and a large Menorah. Opinion is
divided on whether Titus wanted the Temple preserved, or burnt down, or was
simply indifferent as to its fate. Some accounts say the soldiers held back
from burning the temple due to superstition, but that Titus wanted it destroyed
so as to toally eradicate the Jewish religion, so he could claim total triumph
in Palestine. However some Jews had escaped the siege and
Judaism was reconstituted at a new base, the town of Iamnia (now, Yavneh),
where Johanan ben Zakai supervised the
writing down of the Torah and a replacement of animal sacrifice rituals with
prayer.
68, Gaius Julius Vindex, Governor of
Gallia Lugdunensis (souttherb France) was followed by the suicide of Emperor Nero
(9 June 68). Nero�s
death precipitated a struggle for the throne, and Vespasian was one of the
candidates. Vespasian
left his son Titus
to complete the capture of Jerusalem. The logistics were forbidding; to feed
his army of 48,000 infanttry and 8,000 cavalry would require some 60 tonnes of
food and 100,000 litres of water, every day. Titus, however, took his time to
prepare elaborare siege works, to attack a city defended by some 23,400 Jewish
Zealots, Idumaeans and Galileans. It took Titus 4 months to capture Jerusalem. 10/67, The Romans now
besieged and captured Gamala, Golan Heights, and then made preparations for
besieging Jerusalem itself. However see 68.
Spring
67, Vespasian
gathered an army at Ptolemais (now Acre/Akko) of 60,000 soldiers who marched
into Lower Galilee and massacred all resistance. Only the fortress town of
Iotapata and Gamala resisted. Iotapata withstood a 1-month siege then the
Romans broke through. Most of the defenders committed suicide but Josephus
and a companion surrendered to the Romans. Josephus was then utilised by the Romans to
try and persuade his fellow Jews to surrender in other poarts of Palestine; he
was unsuccessful.
66, Anger grew between the Jewish population of Palestine and the Romans.
The trouble began in Spring 66 when a Greek citizen ritually defiled a Jewish
temple in Caesarea by sacrificing some birds there. The Roman Governor of
Palestine, Gessius
Florus, refused to intervene. And the Jews were further angered when
Florus appropriated the large sum of 15 talents of silver from the Treasury in
Jerusalem, to fund the rebuilding of Rome after the disastrous fire of 18 July 64.
Some Jews began to mock Florus, going round with begging bowls for
spare change, and Florus ordered the sacking of the Upper Agora
of Jerusalem. 3.600 Jews were massacred. An initial peaceful protest followed,
the cessation of the sacrifices that had been made since the reign of Augustus
(27 BCE � 14 CE) for the Roman Emperor and people.
A number of Jews now attacked a Roman
garrison and massacred the soldiers. In response to this, Cestius Gallus, Roman Governor
of Syria, marched down from Antioch in late summer 66 with an army of 29,400.
The Jews ambushed them at Beit Horon and killed 515; the Romans suffered a
further 5,300 infantry and 480 cavalry killed on the retreat form Jerusalem,
having failed to suppress the Jewish rebellion.
37, Josephus, Jewish historian, was
born.
Roman conquest of Jerusalem, 63 BCE � 26 CE
26, Pontius Pilate appointed as
Prefect of Judea. Ruled to 36,
18, Caiaphas became High Priest in
Jerusalem.
Jesus, 2 BCE � 33 AD, see Christianity.
For
Roman conquest of Palestine see also Roman Empire
4 BCE
-6 CE Reign
of Archeleus.
10 BCE, Herod I completed a major
seaport at Caesarea.
20 BCE, The Temple in Jerusalem
was rebuilt by Herod
the Great, reigned 37 � 4 BCE, who had converted to Judaism as a youth.
38 BCE, Anti-Jewish pogroms in Alexandria; many
synagogues were destroyed.
63 BCE, The Romans under Pompey conquered Jerusalem.
67 BCE,
King
Hyrcanus II deposed; the Antipater family gained control.
67 BCE,
Hyrcanus II
beame ruler of Judea; civil war broke out between him and his brother Aristobulus II.
76 BCE,
Salome
Alexandria became ruler of Judea.
103 BCE, Aristobulus I died aged 38 and was succeeded by
his brother Alexander Janneus. Janneus, a
selfish and cruel character, made further conquests for Judea and ruled iuntil
76 BCE. One of Janneus� first acts as King was to murder his
brother, a rival clamant for the throne.
104 BCE, John Hyrcanus died after a 30-year reign. He was
succeeded by his 37-year-old son who ruled briefly as Aristobulus I.
he completed the conquest of Galilee and Judaised the people of Hurae.
110 BCE, The Jewish military leader John Hrycanus conquered Samaria.
112 BCE, Emergence of the Sadducees
and Pharisees in Palestine.
134 BCE, Simon
Maccabbeus
was assassinated by his son-in-law, the Governor of Jericho. Simon�s
sons, Mattathias
and Judah, were also killed, but he
was succeeded by his one surviving son, John Hyrcanus, who ruled
Judea until 104 BCE. Hyrcanus extended Judean
rule into Samaria, Idumea, and lands east of the Jordan.
135 BCE, Simon
Maccabbeus,
successor to Jonathan
Maccabbeus,
expelled the Syrians from Jerusalem again.
141 BCE, Judea was completely liberated from Syrian rule whilst Demetrius
was occupied with conquering Babylon. Judea
remained independent until 63 BCE.
142 BCE, The boy ruler Antiochus VI died and was succeeded by the son
of Demetrius
I Soter, who ruled as Demetrius II Nicator.
143 BCE, A usurper to the Syrian throne, Tryphon, killed Jonathan Maccabbeus;Jonathan was succeeded by his
older brother, Simon
Maccabbeus,
who succeded in driving the Syrians out of Jreuslaem and making it virtually an
independent state. Judea began to mint its own coins and sent an ambassador to Rome.
145 BCE, In Syria, Alexander Balas was killed in battle near
Antioch, by forces under Demetrius II, and Ptolemy VI Philometor and his
son by Cleopatra
Thea. The son became ruler as Antiochus VI until 142 BCE under a regent.
150 BCE, The Syrian usurper Alexander Balas, claiming to be a son of Antiochus IV
Epiphanes, overthrew Demetrius I Soter in battle and killed him. Balas
was supported by the Romans and ruled until 145 BCE.
162 BCE, Antiochus
V of Syria was deposed and killed by his cousin, Demetrius I
Soter, who ruled until 150 BCE.
163 BCE, Antiochus
IV of Syria died and was succeeded by his 10-year-old son who
briefly ruled as Antiochus V under the regency of Lydia. Peace was made with the
Jews.
165 BCE, Judas
Maccabbeus
reconsecrated the Temple at Jerusalem after expelling the Syrians. There was
only enough oil in the Temple Lamp to burn for one day but somehow the lamp
stayed alight for eight days. This is commemorated today in the Jewish festival
of Chanukah.
167 BCE, The Jewush priest Mattathias of Modin escaped from the
persecution of Antiochus
IV into the mountains near Lydia with his five sons and began a
Jewish revolt. He died in 166 BCE but his sons continued the rebeillion. His
third son, Judas,
revoved the name Maccabeus, �The Hammerer�.
168 BCE, King
Antiochus IV, whilst persecuting the Jews,
destroyed the Temple at Jerusalem. He outlawed Judiasm and tried to Helenise the
Jews by erecting staues of Greek gods for worship across Judea. Previously, the
historian and priest Manetho had spread his anti-Jewish ideas across ancient Greece.
198 BCE, Antiochus
III, King of Syria, took Palestine from Egypt.
255 BCE, The Septuagint, the Greek
version of the Old Testament, was written. Anti-Jewish polemics were written in Egypt.
305 BCE, The Seleucid Empire, which ruled Babylonia and Syria until 64 BCE,
was established by Seleucus (Nicator) (then aged 53).
307 BCE, Antigonus
I was killed at the Battle of the Kings at Ipsus. Palestine reverted
to Egyptian
rule.
312 BCE, Antigonus
I became King of Judea.
314 BCE, Palestine came under the rule of the Seleucids of Syria.
350 BCE, Revolt by Persian Jews against the rule of King Artaxerxes III.
409 BCE, Renegade Jews (Samaritans) built a rival Temple to Jehovah on
Mount Gerizim, to rival the one in Jerusalem.
440 BCE, Judean Law forbade intermarriage beteeen Jews and non-Jews.
445 BCE, Nehemiah
completed the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah wrote the book of Nehemiah
(16). The book of Malachi (39) also completed about this time. This
completes the generally accepted 39 books of the Old (Hebrew) Testament.
See Christianity
for books of the New (Christian/Greek) testament.
458 / 457 BCE, The Jewish prophet Ezra travelled to Jerusalem to restore the Law
of Moses.
455 BCE, The command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, issued by Nehemiah
and Ezra.
Ca. 460 BCE, Ezra
wrote the books of 1 Chronicles (13), 2 Chronicles (14), Ezra
(15). The book of Psalms (19) was also completed
about this time.
Ca. 475 BCE, Mordecai
wrote the book of Esther (17).
See Iran for events in Persia from
499 BCE onwards.
Temple rebuilt in Jersusalem, 515 BCE
10 March 515 BCE, Proposed date for the completion of
the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. If this was the end of the �Seventy
years of desolation�, it would correlate with a Babylonian exile date of 586
BCE.
Note also that the numbers �forty� and
�seventy� in the Bilbe may refer to specific time periods, or may symbolise,
respectively, an extended period of testing or trial and a �complete period�.
In reconstructing Bible chronology it is important but very difficult to
determine which instances are literal and which are symbolic of �many years�.
520 BCE,
The books of Haggai (37), Zechariah (38) were completed about this time.
521 BCE, Persian nobles chose Darius I �(Hystapes) as successor to his father-n law, Cambyses II,
after a period of civil war
522 BCE, Death of King Cambyses II, som of King Cyrus, King of Persia 529 �
522 BCE. Cambyses
II conquered Egypt in 525 BCE.
529 BCE, Death of Cyrus.
537 BCE, The Jews returned to Israel, Media and Persia having conquered Babylon
in 539. BC. They were allowed to return by Cyrus the Great of Persia (550 � 529 BCE).This
ended the �Seventy years desolation
[of Jerusalem]� noted in the Bible. If this was a literal Seventy Years, this puts the
destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians as 607 BCE. However �seventy� may
also mean, in the Bible, �a divinely ordained complete period of time� (which
may not necessariy be a literal 70 years). The book of Daniel
(27) was completed about this time (end of exile).
Spring 538, Cyrus
decreed that the Jews exiled in Babylon could now return to Jerusalem.
Persians conquer Babylon overnight, 539 BCE
Babylonian State, 620-539 BCE
5 October 539 BCE. Persian soldiers were
encamped outside Babylon. Late in the night they invaded Babylon
across the partly-dried up bed of the river; the city�s gates had been left
open. The river itself had been diverted by the Persians upstream of Babylon
into a nearby depression (maybe, dried-up lake?).
547 BCE, Cyrus
the Great of Persia (553-529 BCE) overthrew Croesus, last King of Lydia
(561-547 BCE).
549 BCE, Death of the last Median King, Astyages
(acceded 584 BCE).
Under his reign,Median armies had campaigned as far afield as Azerbaijan and
Lydia (in Turkey); however by the 550s BCE Media was under pressure
both from Babylon
to the south and from Persia to the east.
See also Iran
556 BCE, Accession of Nabonidus, last King of Babylon (to 539 BCE). He moved
the royal court to the Arabian oasis of Tema. Popular discontent by the Babylonians
rose under his reign.
560 BCE,
Evil-Merodach was deposed and killed. He had released the Jewish
King Jehoiachim from captivity.
585 BCE, Death of the prophet Jeremiah.
He authored the books of 1 Kings (11), 2 Kings (12), Jeremiah (24)
Ca. 582-BCE, King
Nebuchadnezzar II died. He was succeeded by his son, Evil-Merodach
(Amelmarduk).
580 BCE,
The book of Ezekiel (26) was completed.
Final end of the Assyrian State. The Two Babylonian
Exiles, end of the Davidic Line of Judean Kings.Remnant left in Mizpah, then
fled to Egypt, 609-586 BCE
586. BCE. The Second
Babylonian Exile. Soon after this exile began, Jeremiah wrote the book of Lamentations (25).
The book of Obadiah� (31)
was also completed about this time.
The Babylonians did not entirely destroy/deprt the Judenn nation; it was in
their interests to leave in autonomous community in place, of those who had not
been anti-Babylonian, to act as a bulwark against any future Egyptian advance.
This community, including Jeremiah, was centred on Mizpah, just north of
Jerusalem, with Gedaliah,
grandson of Josiah�s
Chancellor, as Governor. However the Ammonites under King Baalis resented the
existence of this community, since they awnted t annext the territory.
Accordingly Gedalaiah was assassinated, and the Babylonian garrison at Mizpah
was also attacked. Fearing reprisals from Babylon, the Jews of Mizpah fled
south to Egypt, taking Jeremiah woith them, although he had no wish
to associate himself with that country. However there were already established
Jewish communities in Lower and Upper Egypt, as Jews, in trhe role of traders,
mercenaries and slaves had long before had dealings with Egypt.
588 BCE, King
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon now determined to put an end to Egyptian
resistance forever. He established a military HQ at Riblah (modern Rablah,
west-central Syria, close to NE Lebanon). He sent part of his army to secure
Tyre, and despatched his main force south to Jerusalem, which he started
besieging in Winter 588/7 BCE.� Then an
Egyptian army advanced towards Jerusalem and the Babylonian forces were
compelled to raise their siege to deal with this threat. Jeremiah then began to make his
way home NE from Jerusalem to Anathoth, but was arrested on charges of
deserting to the enemy. Jeremiah continued to urge a prudent surrender
to |Babylon but the prevailing politics was for war against them. Nebuchadnezzar
beat back the Egyptians and returned to renew the siege of Jerusalem. In 586 BC the Babylonian
siege engines managed to break through the walls of Jerusalem. The city,
including the Temple and the Royal palace, was to be stripped of its treasures
then razed to the ground.
589 BCE, Apries
(4th ruler, 26th Dynasty) became Pharoah of Egypt. He was also known as 'Wahibre
Haaibre' and was identified in the Bible Book of Jeremiah as 'Hophra.'
He ruled until 570 BCE. Apries/Hophra was more active
than his predecessor in attempting to push back Babylonian hegemony in the
eastern Mediterranean, and he invaded Phoencia; Zedekia of Judah somewhat
reluctantly then backed Egypt.
590 BCE, The Medes, over whom the Scythians had assisted the Assyrian
conquest of, now turned on the Scythians
and pushed them back north into the steppelands.
594 BCE, The Judean Royal Court received emissaries from Edom, Ammon, Moab,
Tyre and Sidon, who all wanted to form an anti-Babylon alliance. Jeremiah urged
a course of prudence, of avoiding such insurrection against Babylonian
hegemony.
597-587 BCE, Reign of the last Davidic King
of Judah, King
Zedekiah, also a son of Josiah. Zedekiah was a weak ruler, and his court was
split politically between those who favoured allegiance to Babylon and those
who wanted to ally with Egypt to break free from Babylon. Both these factions
brought in elements of pagan worship, from Babylon and Egypt respectively, into
Judean religious practices..
598 BCE, In repudiation of his oath of
601 BCE, King Jehoiakim of Judah now broke with Babylon. Babylon invaded
Judah, King
Jehoiakim was killed during a Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, and
succeeded by his son Jehoiachin.�
Nebuchadnezzar
arrived in person to direct the siege, and Jehoiachin immnediaterly surrendered. The
Babylonians now took away to Babylon the Judean royal family, the Judean army
(7,000-strong), the Judean nobility, 1,000 Judean craftsmen and their families,
and large amounts of treasure from the Temple and royal palace at Jerusalem. This was the
First Babylonian Exile.
601 BCE, King
Jehoiakim of Judah swore allegiance to Babylon. He realised that
Ehypt was now powerless to resist the rising power of Babylon.
605 BCE, Pharaoah
Necho II and his Assyrian
alliess attacked the Babylonians, and atempted to cross the
River Euphrates, but they were beaten back by Babylonian forces at Carchemish (Karkamis) in the upper
Euphrates Valley.
608 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon took control of
Judah.
609 BCE, A small remnant of the Assyrian Empire had clung on �around Harran.
A new Assyrian
ruler, Ashuruballit,
had emerged and attempted to rally his people, but this attempt failed. This
year this Assyrian
remnant too fell to Babylon. Newly-acceeded Pharaoh Necho
II of Egypt sent forces to aid Assyria against all its enemeies and
rebel provinces.
King Josiah of Judah died 609 BCE� in battle
against these Egyptian forces, who wetre marching northwards through Judean
territories, and bein reisted by both Judea and Philistia, who were concerned
for their independence. King
Josiah was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz, who continued his father�s policies.
However after just a few months reign Jehoahaz was summoned to the Assyrian-Egyptian
battle headquarters at Riblah in Syria, where he was put in chains and taken as
prisoner to Egypt, where he died. Pharaoah Necho II installed Jehoiakim
(originally, Eliakim),
brother of Jehoahaz,
as the new King of Judah. Jehoiakim ruled 608-598 BCE.
Fall of Nineveh (Assyrian capital), 612 BCE
612 BCE, Battle of Nineveh. The Assyrian
capital Nineveh itself was sacked by
Baylonian
forces.
615 BCE, The Scythians had until this point been allies of Assyria,
assisting the Assyrians to conquer Media; Scythian King Bartatua
had even been given an Assyrian princess as wife. However this
year the Scythians switched sides and began to support Babylon against Assyria.
Ca. 617 BCE, Daniel
and Ezekiel
taken to Babylon.
Ca. 620 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II became King of Babylon
Ca. 620 BCE, Babylon
, allied with the Medes, conquered Assyria
and sacked Nineveh (in 612 BCE). The books
of Nahum (34), Habakkuk (35), Zephaniah (36) were completed about this time.
Period of Assyrian State, ca. 1120 BCE � 626 BCE
Reigns of King Esrahaddon, King Ashurbanipal 681-627
BCE, accession of King Josiah of Judah. Assyria now
in steep decline.
626 BCE, �Death of King Ashurbanipal
Ca. 626 BCE, Jeremiah (born ca. 650 BCE, died
ca. 570 BCE) commissioned as a prophet.
630 BCE, Assyria
having never
recovered from its disastrous over-extension into Egypt (670s-660s),
was now in
retreat on many fronts. The Scythians were now marauding across
western Asia, threatening both Assyria and Egypt. Fortunately for Judah, these
raiding Scythians kept close to the easten Mediterranean seaboard, not
venturing up towards Jerusalem. The strength of the Scythian threat even made former
enemies Assyria and Egypt into allies. Egypt now hoped to come to an
agreed co-existence with Assyria.
638 BCE, Josiah, now 8
years old, became King of Judah (died 609 BCE), He succeeded his father, King
Amon.
Josiah
began to restore pure Mosiac worship, with the aid of a buried copy of the
Torah found during temple renovations that had escaped the destructions of King
Manasseh.
638 BCE, King Manasseh
of Judah died. His son Amon began a brief reign; he continue dthe
poagan practices of his father, He was soon deposed and killed by his servants.
645
BCE, Assyrian
power began a rapid decline. Egyptian ruler Psammetichus �(reigned 664-609 BCE) renounced his allegiance to Assyria. The Medes had already revolted and set up their own independent kingdom
under Deioces,
and the Cimmerians in the northern Caucasus were only being held down with the
help of Scythian troops.
652 BCE, A Babylonian rebellion threatened the Assyrian Empire, but was
suppressed in 649 BCE. The rebellion was led by Shamash-Shuma-Ukin, against his
younger brother, Ashurbanipal. Although the rebellion was suppressed, it
weakened Assyrian
power, also that of their allies the Elamites..
By 630 BCE Assyria
had lost control over Egypt and Palestine, and in 626 BCE Babylon again recovered its
independence.
Assyria conquers Egypt; Assyrian power now at its
peak
662 BCE, The Assyrians returned to Egypt and sacked Thebes. This was the
zenith of Assyrian
power.
666 BCE, The Egyptian city of Thebes was captures by the Assyrians.
668 BCE, Memphis, Egyptian capital,was again captured by the Assyrians
under King Ashurbanipal.
Egypt had supported
Syrian rebels against Assyria.
669 BCE, Ashurbanipal
became King of Assyria. (reigned 669-626 BCE). He was the son of Esarhaddon.
The last ruler of the Sargonid Dynasty,
which governed for over a century, his rule brought great prosperity to
Assyria. However after his death, 626 BCE, Assyria crumbled and was invaded by Babylon.
671 BCE, Assyrian King Esarhaddon captured Memphis, the capital
of Egypt.
681-669 BCE, Reign of King Esarhaddon. He was the son of Sennacherib.
Reigns of Hezekiah and Manasseh of Judah, 720-638
BCE, and Sennacherib of Assyria, 705-681 BCE
681 BCE, Sennacherib
was assassinated by his two sons, Adrammalech and Sharezer; they in turn were
defeated by their brother Esar-Haddon, who then became King of Assyria.
Esar-Haddon
subsequently conquered Egypt, driving out its Ethiopian ruler, Tirhakah.
Egypt, however, proved to be an over-extension of Assyrian power and they
withdrew in the 660s.
682 BCE, Judah fell to the Assyrians.
697 BCE, Manasseh (born 709 BCE) became King
of Judah. He acceded at age 12, and reigned 692-638 BCE. �Isaiah wrote the book of Isaiah (23) about
this time. Manasseh reintroduced pagan practices, even to the extent of
child sacroifices by fire in te valley of Hinnom, just outside Jerusalem; there
were also Temple prostitutes, divination, and all copies of the Torah were
destroyed if not hidden. Manasseh was complient to Assyria, paying
tribute, and even sending Judean troops to fight alongside Assyria in Egypt.
693 BCE, Sennacherib,
King of Assyria.
destroyed Babylon.
The city was later rebuilt under King Esar-Haddon, and became a major
commercial centre. This increased status led to its rebellion against Assyria
in 652 BCE.
705 BCE, Sennacherib (reigned
705-681 BCE) became King of Assyria. He moved the Assyrian capital to Nineveh. He had to deal with
rebellions in Syria. It was one of these expeditions, to plunder and subdue
Judah (which had again become rebellious agsainst Assyria) in 701 BCE, that is
referred to in the Bible at 2 Kings 19:35 where it says �The Angel of Jehovah killed 185,000 Assyrians overnight�. Perhaps
an epidemic? The Assyrians account
says that the Assyrians withdrew
because King
Hezekiah agreed to pay more tribute; Sennacherib may also have
returned to Assyiria to put down a revolt �or perhaps the revolt was caused by
his military failure. In any event
Jerusalem and the Temple were spared destruction. The book of Micah
(33) was completed about this time.
711 BCE, Rebellion by King Azuri of Ashdod suppressed by Assyria,
and the population deported. Hekekiah had been minded to support Azuri,
in the hope of further support form Egypt, but Isiiah dissuaded him from this
policy.
714 BCE, King
Sargon II of Assyria defeated Urartu and sacked its main religious city of Musasir.
720 BCE, King
Hezekiah acceded in Judah, as vassal King to Assyria (reigned 720-692
BCE). He reformed and purified the religion so as to be more faithful to Mosaic
ideals.Many pagan emblems and elements were removed from the Temple at
Jerusalem, siuch as the Brazen Serpent, although Hezekiah did not risk the
wrath of his Assyrian overlored by removing the sun-horses erected by hs
father. He was very cautious of offending Assyria, although awaiting an opportune
moment to brek free from them. Hezekiah prepared Jeruslaem for a posisbe future
siege by diverting the Upper Gihon stream through a circuitous tunnel,
Hezekiah�s Tunnel, into a pool west of the old City of David.
Sargon defeats further rebellions against Assyrian
hegemony, deports indigenous population and replaces with new �Samaritans�,
727-721 BCE
721 BCE, The Kingdom of Israel was
conquered by the Assyrians under King Sargon II. Its Ten Tribes were deported
to central Asia where they vanish from the historical record; the Lost Tribes of Israel.
722 BCE, Sargon
II became King of Assyria (to 705 BCE). He defeated a combined
Egyptian-Gazan force of rebels against vassalage to Assyria in 719 BCE.
Meanwhile
Israel, who had stopped paying tribute taxes to again when Tiglath Pileser III
died, was invaded by the Assyrians
who killed Hoshea
and installed a Governor. Tens of thousands of Israelites were deported, to
work on irrigation and agricultural projects across Assyria. Sargon, to prevent a recurrence of the Gazan-Egyptian
rebellion, �repopulated Samaria with a
mixture of Arabians and Babylonians, who beceme known as Samaritans. The
Samaritan religion came to be a mixture of Judaism and of Babylonian/Arabic
religious elements.
727 BCE, King Tiglath-Pileser III
died. King
Shalmaneser V (727-722 BCE) became King
of Assyria.
He campaigned against Persia, �blockaded
Tyre for five years and also attacked Samaria, but died before they
surrendered. 729 BCE, King
Tiglath-Pileser III was now free to attack
Babylon. After a siege, the victorious Tiglath-Pileser III
entered Babylon in 729 BCE to become its new King
Israel and Judah become vassal states to Assyria.
Anti-Assyrian rebellion, crushed by Tiglath-Pileser III, 740-732 BCE
740 BCE, King Uzzah (Azariah) of Israel died of leprosy. Jotham his son had been acting as Regent
but also died soon after, in 736 BCE. Jotham was
succeeded by King Ahaz (reigned 735-720 BCE), who
was just 20 years old when he acceded. Under Ahaz, Judah
became a Vassal-State to Assyria, with elements of the Assyrian� religion now present in Judea.
740 BCE, The Israelite General Pekah, son of Remaliah, assassinated
King Pekahiah and installed the pro- Assyrian King Hoshea instead, However within Israel the anti-Assyrian lobby was gaining support. King Hoshea remained loyal to Assyria whilst King Tiglath-Pileser III reigned, but when Shalmaneser V soon acceded in Assyria, Hoshea made a bid for independence and
moved politically towards Egypt. Egypt was
weak and could only offer moral support against Assyria. However Tiglath
Pileser III began attacks on Persia and now Armenia (Ararat) started an
uprising against Assyria, giving hope to anti-Assyria factions in Israel.
Israel, Damascus, the Arab Queen Shamsi, and some Philistine towns
all began action against Assyria. However the Phoenicians, the
Hittites, and in the south, Judah, Moab, Ammon, Edom and some of Philistia
declined to support the anti- Assyrians, The armies of Israel and Damsacus now attacked Judah. Meanwhile In
retaliation, Assyria destroyed Damascus in 732 BCE,
after a two-year siege (Syrian King Rezin was then executed)� and annexed Gilead and NE Galilee, the most
fertile northern regions of Israel. The population of these regions was
deported to Assyria. Isreal, much reduced in
size, was now subdued, if not totally pacified.
Decline, then recovery of Assyria. End of Jehu Dynasty
in Israel, which becomes a Vassal State of Assyria, 783-744 BCE
744 BCE, King Zecharaiah succeeded his father Jeroboam II as King of Israel. However he reigned just 6 months before
being assassinated by Shallum. This ended the Dynasty of Jehu. However
one month later Shallum himself was deposed by Menahem. Shallum had favoured an alignment with Egypt but Menachem (744-737
BCE) favoured alliances with Assyria. With Assyria now in the ascendancy again, Menachem seemed
vindicated. Menachem submitted to a tribute
payment to Assyria of 1,000 silver talents, this
being raised by taxing 60,000 of the wealthiest men in Israel 50 shekels each.
745 BCE, Tiglath-Pileser III
became ruler of Assyria. He ruled until 727 BCE. He recovered earlier Assyrian
territorial losses. The northern Syrian city of
Arpad became once again Assyrian, and Kings Rezin of Damascus and Hiram of Tyre submitted to Assyria voluntarily.
783-745 BCE, Assyria endured a period of
instability, when the rule of the kings was weak, there were frequent coups,
and rival rulers vied for power.
Decline, then recovery, of Israel and Judah, assisted
by Assyrian attrition of Syrian power, 837-748 BCE
750 BCE, Amos prophesied
in Israel. Books of Hosea (28), Joel (29), Amos (30)
completed about this time. Amos prophesied a warning that Judah and Israel would soon face disaster due
to its unfaithfulness to Jehovah and the Mosiac Law.
772-748 BCE, The prosperity of Israel was assisted by
Syrian weakness caused by further Assyrian attacks against it, during the
reigns of Syrian Kings Ashurdan III (772-755 BCE) and of Ashuir-Nirari IV (755-746 BCE).
785-745 BCE, King Jeroboam II reigned, successor to King Jehoash of Israel. Both Israel and Judah now enjoyed political
stability and prosperity, and regained lost territories, almost to the extent
enjoyed under Kings Davod and Solomon. The book of Jonah (32)
was completed about this time.
800-785 BCE,
Reign of King
Jehoash of Israel, son of Jehoahaz. Jehoash of Israel enjoyed military success against Syria, especially at Aphek,
and recovered some territories from Syria. He was helped in this by the victory
of King
Adadnirari IV (810-783) of Assyria against Syria, Damascus and Israel submitted to an annual tribute
poayment to Assyria.
816-800 BCE,
Reign of King Jehoahaz of Israel, son of Jehu. The decline of Israel continued.
842-816 BCE, An Israelite soldier, Jehu, founded as new dynasty, and
reigned until 816 BCE. �Jehu, however,
moved away from the insistence on pure Mosaic worship demanded by the
priesthood, and by 842 BCE began to make a strategic political alliance with King Shalmaneser III of Assyria who was campaigning against
Syria. Israel began to deliver tribute to Assyria . However the Assyrian campaign
of 842 BCE, and a furher such offensive in 839 BCE, failed. King Hazael of Syria now attacked Israel, and then began to threaten Judah too. King Jehoash was forced to buy off the Syrians with an annual tribute, giving up
treasures from the Temple. The declining
pooitical power of Israel and Judah encouraged raids by smaller surrounding
nations, the Ammonites, Edomites, Moabites, Philistines and Tyrians, who took
many Judean and Israeli village inhabitants as slaves.
837-798 BCE
Reign of King
Jehoash of Judah. In 798 Jehoash of Judah was assassinated and his som King Amaziah (798-780)
began reigning. Amaziah defetaed the Edomites at a location
SW of the Dead Sea, and took over their fortress at Jothkeel. This opened up
trade routes for Judah into Arabia to the south. King Amaziah, flushed
with success, now challenged King Jehoash of Israel
militarily. Judah lost badly, and Israel imp[osed humiating peace terms,
including the deliverance to Israel of Judean hostrages as guarantee of good
behavious., Dissafcted citizens in Jerusalem rebelled against Amaziah, who fled
to Lachish, SW of Jerusalem, but was overtaken and killed there. King Amaziah of Judea was succeeded by his son Azariah (Uzziah), reigned 780-740 BCE. Uzziah recovered the port of Elath (Eilat) from the Edomites
King Ahaziah, King Jehoram, Queen Athaliah. Athaliah
assassinated and Mosaic worship restored in Judah, 853-837 BCE
837 BCE, Queen Athaliah of Judah was assassinated by the temple Priests, Baal worship was eliminated and
its priests slain, and Jehoash installed as King of Judah.
843-837 BCE, Queen Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel and King Ahab of Israel,
following the death of her son King Ahaziah of Judah at the
hands of Jehu, now seized power as Queen of Judah. Athaliah sought to
preserve the pagan religion and influence of Tyre. She therefore set about
massacring all males of the royal line of Judah she could, including her own
grandchildren. However the infant son of Ahaziah, Jehoash, was saved by his aunt Jehosheba. She hid him in the Temple at
Jerusalem during the reign of Athaliah.
851-844 BCE, Jehoram, brother of Ahaziah, succeeded Ahaziah as King of
Israel. Jehoram tried to recover sovereignty over Moab but failed.
853 BCE, �Moab, a kingdom immediately east of the Dead
Sea, and important for Israeli-Arabian trade, threw off Israelite domination
and repudiated the obligation it had been under to pay a large annual tribute,
in the form of sheep and wool, to King Ahab. Moab�s
example also encouraged Edom (south of the Dead Sea) to declare its own
independent dynasty.
853-852 BCE, King Ahaziah succeeded his father Ahab as King of Israel, then died in an
accident,
Kings Omri and Ahab of Israel (also Jehosophat of
Judah). Defeat and death of Ahab in battle against Assyria, 887-853
853 BCE, King Shalmaneser III of Assyria (ruled 860-825 BCE) won the Battle of Qarqar (fought in the Orontes
Valley., modern NW Syria) against a coalition led by the King of Damascus. This
coalition was also joined by Osorkon II of
Egypt. The Battle of Qarqar ushered in effectively the end of the independence
of both Syria and of Palestine for some twenty seven centuries. King
Ahab was killed in battle.
854 BCE, The
threat to Israel from both Syria (under King Ben-Hadad II)
and from Assyria was mounting. Ahab succeeded in defeating the Syrians, but Ahab did not kill Ben Hadad II; rather he began to forge
military and commercial alliances with him (e.g. concessions to set up
Israelite bazaars in certain streets of Damascus) against the greater Assyrian threat they both faced from the north.�
Northern Syria had already been overrun by Assyrian King
Shalmaneser III (ruled 860-825 BCE)
875 -854 BCE, Accession of King Ahab of
Israel. To please his Phoenician
(Tyrian) wife he bought in ivory to beautify his palace; he also introduced worship of the god Baal-Melkarth (Lord of the City).
This alienated his Mosaic priests. Jezebel ordered the priests to be killed en
masse, but Obadiah, Household Minister of Ahab, hid 100 of them in a cave to ensure their safety. The priesthood was
determined to preserve purity of Mosaic worship, regardless of the exigencies
of statecraft. A three-year drought and consequent famine now hit Israel, which
the prophet Elijah attributed to Jehovah�s anger
against Ahab. Elijah accused Ahab of being the source of Israel�s
woes; Ahab retorted that Elijah was the troublemaker. There ensued a
�religious contest� on Mount Carmel, with both religious factions erecting
altars. The �Fire of Jehovah� came down and consumed Elijah�s sacrifice, but nothing happened with the Baalite alter, despite much
worship and waling by that faction. Upon this the people now immediately
declared allegiance with Elijah, and 450 priests of Baal were
slaughtered at the River Kishon. The drought now ended with a downpour. Jezebel was now determined to kill Elijah, but he escaped by way of Beer-Sheba
into the Negev (southern desert). Ahab further alienated the Israelite
people by attempting to buy some land owned by Naboth, a
Jezreelite, and when Naboth refused to sell, Ahab trumped up false charges of blasphemy against him and had him killed. Elijah now passed his priestly ;leadership ro;le ro Elisha.
875-851 BCE,
Reign of King
Jehosophat of Judah. Jehosophat sought to renew
Solomon�s trading and diplomatic links with Ophir, a region further south along
the Red Sea. However his fleet was wrecked off Ezion-Geber in the Gulf of
Aqaba.
887-876, Reign of King Omri of Israel. He subdued the Philistine threat. However Syria continued to
menace him from the north. To counter this, Omri allied
with the Phoemians. To cement this alliance, Ahab, hier to
the throne, married Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, King of Tyre. The coastal Phoenicians gained an inland market for
their goods, and both Kingdoms sought to form a counterweight against Syria. Assyria, however, had ambitions to
rule the area, and even penetrate further south against Egypt.
Kings of Judah and Israel; Abijah, Nadab, Baasa, Asa,
917-875 BCE
875, King Asa of Judah died of gout, in old age. Asa
had made efforts to restore the purity of Mosaic worship in Jerusalem,
elimninating practices such as religious sodomy and Worship of the Queen-Goddess Astarte. However some non-Mosaic
religious practices continued to persist outside of Jerusalem
888-887, Reign of King Elah of Israel (son of Baasa). He was assassinated by one of his
Captains, Zimri, who now assumed the throne. However General Omri then
mounted a successful coup against Zimri, who committed suicide by burning
down his palace and immolating himself. Tibni, son of Ginath, now also attempted a coup. However Omri gained the
upper hand and Tibni was killed.
915-875 BCE,
Reign of King
Asa of Judah.
911-888 BCE,
Reign of King
Baasa of Israel. Whilst Nadab was away besieging the Philistine fortress of Gibbethon, Baasa, a General, mounted a coup. Baasa attempted to forge an alliance with King Hadad of Syria, but was outbid by King Asa of Judah. Syria occupied some northern
areas of Israel, and Judah became more secure, with the fortifications around
Jerusalem strengthened.
912-911 BCE,
Reign of Nadab, son of Jeroboam, as King of Israel.
917-915 BCE,
Reign of Rehoboam�s son, Abijah, as King of Judah. Judah made an
alliance with the Syrian King, Hadad son of Tabrimmon, in order
to harass Israel.
Rise of Assyria to peak power, dominates Middle East,
912-853 BCE
853 BCE, King Shalmaneser III of Assyria (ruled 860-825 BCE) won the Battle of Qarqar (fought in the Orontes
Valley., modern NW Syria) �against a
coalition led by the King of Damascus. The Battle of Qarqar ushered in effectively the end of
the independence of both Syria and of Palestine for some twenty seven centuries.
860 BCE, The death of King Assur-Nazir-Pal of Assyria.
Under his rule, Assyria had become the principal world power. He was succeeded
by his son, Shalmaneser II,
who conquered Babyon. He also exacted tribute from Damascus and Israel (Kings Ahab and Jehu).
878 BCE, King Assur-Nazir-Pal of Assyria
had conquered most of the eastern Mediterranean, including Phoenicia. Assyria
would give vassal State Kings an offer they couldn�t refuse; accept our
overlordship, and we leave you in peace, or resist and we put you to death
cruelly. Vassal States could even keep their own religion, so long as they
�acknowledged� that Ashur, chief God of Assyria, was divine overlord over their
Gods too. Rebellion against Assyria then became a religious as well as
political crime, so was punished severely.
880 BCE,The city
of Nimrud was made capital of the Assyrian
Empire.
912 BCE, Death of Assyrian King Ashur-Dan II. Under his
rule Assyria
regained power and prosperity; agriculture was promoted. His successor, Adad-Nirari II,
increased the extent of the Assyrian Empire, regaining lands that had been part
of the Middle Assyrian Empire in the 1200s BCE.
Rise of Assyria to peak power, dominates Middle East,
912-853 BCE
Reigns of Jeroboam I and Rehoboam I. Attempted
invasion by Egypt, bought off, 933-912 BCE
912 BCE, Jeroboam I,
first King of Israel, died.
917 BCE, Rehoboam I,
first King of Judah, died.
926 BCE, Sheshonk I of Egypt attempted an invasion of
Israel and Judah, but failed. He had initially been invited in by Jeroboam I,
who, facing military threats from Judah, had moved his capital across the River
Jordnn from Shechem to Penuel. Jeroboam I also set up centres of Mosaic
worship at Dan and Bethel, to distance his p[eople from Jerusalem. However he
then introduced elements of Canaanite calf-worship there, alienating his Jewish
priests. Pharaoh
Sheshonk (Shishak) invaded as far north as Jerusalem,
but was then bought off by Rehoboam I with treasures from the Temple
there. Rehoboam
I then fortified the southern cities of Judah, against any further
Egyptian attack.
933 BCE, Accession of Rehoboam I, over Judah only. He ruled until
917 BCE.
933 BCE, Accession of Jeroboam I, over Israel only. He ruled until 912
BCE
King Solomon accedes, reigns
40 years, revolt and split after his death, 973-933 BCE
933 BCE, �Solomon died. Israel split into kingdoms of Israel
and Judah, when 10 northern tribes,
out of the 12 seceded from Judah to form Israel; they were protesting at high taxation, paid in produce or in forced
labour. Rehoboam
I became ruler of Judah; Jeroboam I became ruler of Israel.
934 BCE, The Assyrian State began to
revive after a 100-years �dark ages�. Royal records recommenced under King Ashur-Dan
II.
973 BCE, King Solomon
began construction of the Temple in Jerusalem. He also about
this time wrote the books of Ecclesiastes
(21), Song of Solomon (22) and contributed to the book of Proverbs (20).
973 BCE King Solomon
began ruling, for 40 years, to 933.
King Solomon accedes, reigns
40 years, revolt and split after his death, 973-933 BCE
Judges of Israel. Expansion of Assyria
1005 BCE. King David
(died 973) began reigning in Jerusalem. He succeeded Saul.
Ca.1015 BCE, King David born.
Ca. 1025 BCE (1020?), Samuel anointed Saul
as first King of Israel. The Bible books of 1 Samuel (9). 2 Samuel (10) were written
Ca. 1250 � 1020 BCE, Period
of the Judges. Peace and unity prevailed amongst the 12 Tribes of Israel.
The Bible books of Judges (7),
Ruth (8), were written.
Ca. 1120 (1100?) BCE, King Tiglath Pileser I of Assyria enlarged
his Empire to extend from the Mediterraneam to the Persian Gulf and the
Caspian.
Period of Assyrian State, ca.
1120 BCE � 627 BCE
1146 BCE, King Nebuchadnezzar I began a 23 year long
reign of Babylon.
(1254??
BCE) Joshua
died.
Hittitte Kingdom, 1650-1200 BCE
Ca. 1200 BCE, Hittite capital of
Hattusas
was destroyed by invaders.
1258 BCE, The Hittites advanced
down the eastern Mediterranean coast towards Egypt, but did not invade there as
they fought battles with the Assyrians and also with Greek
adventurers in what is now northern Turkey. A peace treaty was signed between Pharoah Ramses II and the
new Hittite
ruler, Hattusilis III.
Ramses II
took two Hittite
princesses in marriage, making a total of around seven wives in total.
1274 BCE, Major
battle at Kadesh (now in northern Lebanon) between the Hittites and the Egyptians. Pharaoh Ramses II
blundered into a trap and barely managed to escape; he retreated back to Egypt. The Hittites retained
control of northern Levant.
1300, The Hittites had
absorbed Arzawa, a kingdom in SW Turkey.
1320-1350?, The Hittites (central
Turkey; from whose name, Hatay) and
the Assyrians
had between them taken over the kingdom of Mittani (which lay between them).
1590 BCE, Death of King Mursilis of the Hittites; acceded ca. 1620 BCE,
1595 BCE, The Hittites
sacked Babylon. However this
victory was short lived; they were soon beaten back and their area of control
shrank back westwards again.
1650 BCE, The Hittites
had assembled an extensive kingdom in central Anatolia, with its capital at Hattusas.
Israelites in Egypt, ca. 1728 BCE � ca. 1473 BCE
Ca. 1473 BCE, Moses died. Joshua
succeeded Moses as leader, and began to write the book of Joshua (6).
Ca. 1513 BCE. Exodus. The Jews left Egypt after the
10 Plagues. Moses
began to write the Pentateuch; the books
of Genesis (1), Exodus (2), Leviticus (3), Numbers (4), Deuteronomy
(5). He also wrote the book of Job (18).
The date of the Exodus is highly
uncertain and has been reckoned between 1513 and 1220 BCE
Ca. 1593 (Jerome) BCE, Moses born. See also Egypt.
Ca. 1711 BCE, Jacob
died
1725 BCE, Unrest destroyed the stability of the Middle Kingdom
in Egypt.
Start of the Second Intermediate Period, until
ca. 1550 BCE.
Ca. 1728 BCE, �Jacob moved his family to Egypt. See also Egypt.
Babylonian Kingdom, 1964-1750 BCE
1750 BCE, Death of Hammurabi, 6th King of the 1st Dynasty of Babylon, ruler from 1792 BCE. He is noted
for the comprehensive legal system, containing 282 laws, which he drew up.
1755 BCE, King
Hammurabi of Babylon conquered most of northern
Mesopotamia, capturing the city of Eshunna after diverting its water supply.
1762 BCE, King
Hammurabi of Babylon defeated the kingdoms of Elam to
the west and Larsa/Sumer to the south.
1781 BCE, Death and end of the reign of Shamshi-Adad I; acceded 1813 BCE. He
conquered northern Mesopotamia to create the Kingdom of Upper Mesopotamia,
with its capital at Shubat-Enlil. This kingdom later became the Assyrian
Empire. Shamshi-Adad was succeeded by his son, Ishme Dagan, during whose reign Assyria
declined, allowing the ascendancy of Babylon in the region. Babylon
had formerly been a vassal state of Assyria.
Ca. 1843 BCE Abraham
died.
1964 BCE, Founding of the 1st
Dynasty of Babylon.
2004 BCE, The city of Ur fell to the Elamites; end of the Kingdom of Ur.
2047 BCE, King
Shulgi of Ur died. His country started disintegrating. The
Amorites (from modern-day Syria) made
constant raids, despite a 150 km wall built by Ur to
keep them out. By 2028 BCE Ur�s cities were no
longer paying taxes to the centre, and the state finances collapsed. In 2004 BCE raiders sacked Ur and took its last king
into slavery. Egypt, however,
continued as a viable state.
2094 BCE, Shulgi
became King of Ur.
2095 BCE, End of the reign of Ur-Nammu, of Ur
(reign began ca. 2112 BCE?-founder of the 3rd Dynasty).
2112 BCE, Ur gained ascendancy in the Middle East; it
came to rule much of the former Sumerian Empire.
By 2100 BCE Ur had a probable population of around
100,000.
Sumerian Kingdom, 2334-2150 BCE
1700 BCE, Sumerian crop yields in 2400 BCE had been at 2,500
litres of barley per hectare, but by 1700 BCE had fallen to 90 litres per
hectare. Salinisation caused by irrigation was to blame.
2150 BCE, The mountain people of Gutium (nomads living in the mountains on what
is now the Iran/Iraq border) attacked the Akkadian
Empire. Former Sumerian-ruled States such as
Kish, Ur and Lagash asserted their independence.
2190 BCE, As the climate
dried and agricultural yields fell, the Akkadian / Sumerian
state began to disintegrate.
2334 BCE, King
Sargon founded the city of Akkad (probably near modern-day Baghdad).
He then subjugated other Sumerians to become ruler of the Sumerian
Empire.
2750 BCE, The Phoenician city of Tyre
(now Lebanon) was founded.
7 October 3761 BCE, Starting date for the Jewish
calendar.
Ca. 7000 BCE, The city of Jericho was
founded; settlers were attracted by the permanent spring there.