Beirut Timeline of Events

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Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan area, which consists of the city and its suburbs...

Timeline of Events

1759

11.25.1759

An earthquake hits the Mediterranean destroying Beirut and Damascus and killing 30,000-40,000.

1941

7.7.1941

World War II: Beirut is occupied by Free France and British troops.

1978

8.13.1978

150 Palestinians in Beirut are killed in a terrorist attack during the second phase of the Lebanese Civil War.

1982

6.6.1982

1982 Lebanon War begins: Forces under Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon invade southern Lebanon in their "Operation Peace for the Galilee", eventually reaching as far north as the capital Beirut.

8.20.1982

Lebanese Civil War: a multinational force lands in Beirut to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's withdrawal from Lebanon.

9.11.1982

The international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees following Israel's 1982 Invasion of Lebanon leave Beirut. Five days later, several thousand refugees are massacred in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.

1983

4.18.1983

A suicide bomber destroys the United States embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 63 people.

7.20.1983

The Israeli cabinet votes to withdraw troops from Beirut but to remain in southern Lebanon.

10.23.1983

Lebanon Civil War: The U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut is hit by a truck bomb, killing 241 U.S. Marines. A French army barracks in Lebanon is also hit that same morning, killing 58 troops.

1984

2.26.1984

US troops withdraw from Beirut. President Ronald Reagan had sent the troops as a peacekeeping force in August 1982.

3.16.1984

William Buckley, the CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, is kidnapped by Islamic fundamentalists and later dies in captivity.

9.20.1984

A suicide bomber in a car attacks the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing twenty-two people.

1985

3.8.1985

A failed assassination attempt on Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah in Beirut, Lebanon, kills at least 45 and injures 175 others.

3.16.1985

Associated Press newsman Terry Anderson is taken hostage in Beirut. He is released on December 4, 1991.

6.30.1985

Thirty-nine American hostages from the hijacked TWA Flight 847 are freed in Beirut after being held for 17 days.

1989

11.22.1989

In West Beirut, a bomb explodes near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad, killing him.

1991

12.4.1991

Journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut. He was the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.

2005

2.14.2005

Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon Rafik Hariri killed, along with 21 others, when explosives equivalent of around 1,000 kg of TNT were detonated as his motorcade drove near the St. George Hotel in Beirut.

2.28.2005

Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister, Omar Karami, resigns amid large anti-Syria street demonstrations in Beirut.

3.14.2005

Cedar Revolution, where hundreds of thousands of Lebanese went into the streets of Beirut to demonstrate against the Syrian military presence in Lebanon and against the government.

2006

11.21.2006

Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel is assassinated in suburban Beirut.