events-Judaism and Israel

Bible Books (number in brackets is the generally accepted order of the book within the modern Bible)

13/8/2020, 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.

9/4/2019, 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.

19/2/2019, 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.

27/10/2018, Robert Bowers, a white-supremacist, entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh, USA, and shot dead 11 worshippers.

6/12/2017, 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.

14/7/2017, 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.

6/2/2017, The coalition Israeli Government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, passed a Bill that legalised certain Israeli settlements built on privately-owned Palestinian land.

28/9/2016, Shimon Peres, Labour leader of Israel from 1977, died aged 93.

17/12/2014, The European Parliament voted to recognise the Palestinian State by 498 votes to 88.

13/10/2014, 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.

3/10/2014, Sweden became the first EU country to recognise the Palestinian State. Israel withdrew its ambassador in protest.

22/7/2014, A Palestinian rocket landed within 2 kilometres of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport (see 8/7/2014), causing many airlines to cancel flights to Israel.

8/7/2014, 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.

2/7/2014, In revenge for the killing of three Israeli teenagers on 30/6/2014, a Palestinian youth was murdered by Israeli settlers.

11/1/2014, Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died, aged 85, after eight years in a coma. See 4/1/2006.

29/11/2012, The United Nations granted Palestine non-member observer status.

31/10/2011, UNESCO admitted Palestine as a member; 107 members were in support, and 14 opposed.

31/5/2010, 9 activists died when Israeli naval forces raided a flotilla of ships attempting to break the Gaza blockade.

28/10/2009, 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.

21/1/2009, Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Air strikes by both sides continued.

3/1/2009, Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, as Hamas fired rockets into Israel.

27/12/2008, Israel mounted military strikes against the Gaza Strip.

29/2/2008, After Hamas fired rockets into Israel, Israeli troops began a 22-dau assault against Gaza.

23/1/2008, Palestinian militants blew up the border wall between Egypt and Gaza at Rafah; thousands of Palestinians fled into Egypt.

6/9/2007, Israeli warplanes struck a suspected nuclear site in Syria.

28/6/2006, Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip.

26/1/2006, Hamas won elections in Palestine.

4/1/2006, Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a major stroke; after 8 years in a coma he died on 11/1/2013, aged 85.

20/9/2005, The Nazi-hunter, Simon Weisenthal, died.

12/9/2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, ending 38 years of occupation.

28/8/2005, A terrorist attack at Beersheba bus station, Israel, injured 52. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

23/8/2005, Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from 25 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (see 17/8/2005) ended.

17/8/2005, The first forced evacuation of Israeli settlers began, as part of a unilateral withdrawal from Arab territories.

8/2/2005, An Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire was announced.

4/1/2005, Mahmoud Abbas became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

21/4/2004, 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.

15/11/2003, Two suicide bombings at Istanbul synagogues killed at 25 people, mostly Turks. Islamic fundamentalists claimed responsibility.

28/1/2003, The Likud Party won the Israeli elections; Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister.

28/11/2002, 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.

17/11/2002, Abba Eban, Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister (born 1942), died.

11/4/2002, 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.

29/3/2002, 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.

16/9/2001. Israeli tanks and troops entered the Palestinian city of Ramallah as truce talks ended.

1/6/2001, A Hamas suicide bomber killed 21, mainly teenagers, in the Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv.

7/2/2001, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister of Israel.

27/1/2001, The first Holocaust Memorial Day was held in Britain, to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on 27/1/1945.

28/9/2000, 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.

25/5/2000. Israel withdrew the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) troops from Lebanon after 22 years occupation.

17/5/1999, Ehud Barak (Labour) was elected President of Israel. He renewed the peace process with the Palestinians and Syria.

19/1/1997, 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.

20/1/1996, Yasser Arafat was re-elected President of the PLO.

4/11/1995. Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli 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.

24/9/1995. Israel and the PLO agree to extend self-rule to most of the West Bank.

22/1/1995. 22 Israelis died in Tel Aviv in a suicide bombing by Palestinians.

31/10.1994, The Duke of Edinburgh became the first member of the British Royal Family to visit Israel.

14/10/1994. The Nobel Peace prize was awarded jointly to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat.

18/7/1994, A bomb killed 194 at the Jewish Mutual Association, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

25/7/1994, Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty, formally ending a state of war between them that had existed since 1948.

5/7/1994, Yasser Arafat became the first President of the Palestinian Authority, which had been created under the Cairo Agreement of 1994.

25/2/1994. 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.

30/12/1993, Israel and The Vatican recognised each other.

13/9/1993, 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 14/9/1993 Israel and Jordan signed an agreement to negotiate a peace treaty.

30/8/1993, 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 9/9/1993.

20/8/1993, Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo Peace Accord.

25/7/1993. Israeli air strikes on pro-Iranian Hizbullah positions in southern Lebanon.

24/6/1993. Israel announced plans to build a US$ 13 million fence around the Occupied Territories.

17/2/1993. Heavy fighting in Lebanon between Israeli forces and pro-Iranian guerrillas.

13/2/1993, A second three-day meeting between the PLO and Israel in Oslo, Norway, concluded with a draft Declaration of Principles. See 23/1/1993 and 20/8/1993.

23/1/1993, A three-day secret meeting between representatives of the PLO and Israel concluded in Oslo, Norway. See 13/2/1993.

16/12/1992. 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.

7/12/1992. Three Israeli soldiers were shot by Islamic militants on the Gaza Strip.

25/10/1992. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin confirmed that Israel did not intend to withdraw from the Golan Heights.

18/10/1992. More violence on the West Bank, as a Palestinian killed an Israeli woman and injured nine other Israelis.

17/3/1992. 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.

9/3/1992, Menachem Begin, Israeli politician, died.

4/1/1991, The UN unanimously voted to condemn Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

8/10/1990. 21 Arabs killed in rioting on the Temple Mount, Jerusalem.

7/10/1990, Israel began handing out gas masks to all its citizens.

20/5/1990 , Intifada rioting in the Palestinian Territories.

14/5/1990, Anti-Semitism resurfaced in France, with the desecration of a Jewish grave in Carpentras.

15/12/1988, The USA resumed contacts with the PLO, after a 13-year boycott.

14/12/1988, Yasser Arafat, PLO leader, renounced terrorism and accepted Israel’s right to exist within secure borders.

7/12/1988. Yasser Arafat recognised the existence of Israel.

14/11/1988, In Algiers, the Palestine National Council declared a Palestinian State on the West Bank and Gaza.

25/4/1988, 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.

16/4/1988, 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.

2/4/1988. Israeli troops killed six Palestinians, the highest total in a single day so far. On 6/4/1988 the first Israeli civilian victim of the fighting died, a 15-year old girl.

24/3/1988, In Israel, Mordecai Vanunu was found guilty of revealing Israeli nuclear secrets to the Sunday Times.

4/3/1988. Israel banned all foreign journalists as the Arab unrest continued.

1/2/1988. Two Arab youths were shot dead by Israeli settlers as the violence in Israel continued, from January 1988.

20/1/1988. 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.

15/1/1988. Arab uprising in Israel began. Sporadic violence had occurred on 8/1/1988.

8/1/1988. Violence in Gaza and Jerusalem as young Palestinians protested after Friday prayers. See 15/1/1988.

3/1/1988. An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon killed 21 people.

25/12/1987, Israeli security forces cracked down on Arab rioters.

9/12/1987, The Intifada, the popular Palestinian uprising against Israeli authority, began.

16/2/1987, 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.

9/11/1986, Israel announced that Mordechai Vanunu, 31, was in ‘lawful detention’ in Haifa but denied he was kidnapped from Britain. On 5/10/1986 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.

20/10/1986, Yitzhak Shamir succeeded Shimon Peres as Israeli Prime Minister.

6/9/1986. Arab terrorists killed 21 at an Istanbul synagogue.

1/10/1985, The Israeli Air Force bombed the PLO HQ in Tunis.

20/5/1985, Israel freed 1,150 Palestinians in exchange for three Israelis.

16/2/1985, Israel began to withdraw from Lebanon.

3/1/1985, Ethiopian Jews settled in Israel.

20/9/1984, 40 died when a suicide bomber attacked the US Embassy in Beirut.

14/9/1984. Shimon Peres became Prime Minister in Israel.

26/2/1984, US marines pulled out of Beirut.

23/10/1983 A suicide truck bomber destroyed the US Marine Corps barracks at Beirut International Airport, killing 241 US servicemen.

10/10/1983. Shamir became Prime Minister in Israel.

2/9/1983. Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin resigned, and was replaced by Yitzhak Shamir.

26/6/1983. Yasser Arafat was expelled from Syria.

17/5/1983, Israel, Lebanon, and the US signed an agreement on Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon.

31/3/1983, President Reagan of the US halted further sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Israel until it fully withdrew from Lebanon.

9/10/1982, In an attack on a synagogue in Rome, 1 died.

26/9/1982, 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 17/9/1982).

25/9/1982, 400,000 people marched in Israel demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

17/9/1982. 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.

16/9/1982, Israeli troops now controlled all of Beirut.

15/9/1982, In response to the assassination of the Lebanese President, Israeli troops fought their way into West Beirut.

14/9/1982, Mr Bachir Gemayel, President-elect of Lebanon, was killed when a terrorist bomb destroyed his party HQ in Christian East Beirut.

2/9/1982, The Israeli Government totally rejected President Reagan’s new Middle East Peace Plan, and on 5/9/1982 announced that 13 new settlements were to be built in Gaza and the West Bank.

31/8/1982. Israel ousted the PLO from Beirut, Lebanon.

20/8/1982, A multinational force landed in Beirut to oversee the PLO withdrawal from Lebanon. French troops arrived on 21^st August, and US Marines on the 25^th.

12/8/1982. Israeli jets bombed West Beirut. The city was divided by the Green Line.

4/8/1982, The UN censured Israel, as its troops were still in Lebanon.

27/7/1982, Israeli jet fighters attacked West Beirut, killing 120 including civilians.

3/7/1982, 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.

9/6/1982, 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.

6/6/1982. Israel invaded Lebanon, eventually penetrating as far north as Beirut. The UN Security Council demanded that Israel withdraw.

4/6/1982, Israeli jets bombed guerrilla bases in Lebanon in retaliation for the Argov shooting.

3/6/1982, Israeli Ambassador, Argov, was shot by Palestinians.

25/4/1982. Israel withdrew from the Sinai, after 15 years of occupation.

16/10/1981, Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader, died in Tel Aviv.

17/7/1981, Israeli bombers destroyed the PLO HQ in Beirut.

30/6/1981, Menachem Begin’s Likud Party did well in Israeli elections. The Israeli air strike at Osirak, Iraq, had helped him.

7/6/1981. Israeli planes bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor then under construction at Osirak, Iraq.

1980, Israel replaced the Pound with a new currency, the Shekel.

3/10/1980. Terrorists bombed a Paris synagogue.

30/7/1980. Israel declared that the undivided city of Jerusalem was its capital.

26/1/1980, Israel and Egypt established diplomatic relations. Other Arab nations strongly objected.

8/10/1979, In Israel, the new Tehiya (Renaissance) Party was launched, to resist any further territorial concessions by Israel for peace.

2/4/1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin became the first Israeli leader to make an official visit to Egypt.

26/3/1979. In Washington, USA, Mr Begin of Israel and President Sadat of Egypt signed a peace treaty. President Carter oversaw the signing.

10/12/1978. Presidents Menachim Begin of Israel and Anwar Sadat of Egypt shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

8/12/1978. Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969-1974, died, aged 80, in Jerusalem.

27/10/1978, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat were joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

18/9/1978. 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 10/12/1978. Other Arab leaders were appalled.

5/9/1978, The Camp David Accords; Menachim Begin and Anwar Sadat began peace talks at the Camp in Maryland.

20/8/1978. Gunmen opened fire on an El Al airline bus in London.

20/5/1978. 5 terrorists and 2 policemen were killed at Orly Airport, Paris, after terrorists fired at passengers boarding an Israeli plane.

14/3/1978, Israeli forces, under Operation Litani, invaded Lebanon. This was in retaliation for the bus hijacking on 11/3/1978. Israeli forces occupied a 6 mile deep strip of territory into Lebanon.

11/3/1978, 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.

24/12/1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin began peace discussions with President Sadat of Egypt.

5/12/1977, Egypt broke with Syria, Libya, Algeria, and South Yemen.

20/11/1977. 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.

9/11/1977, The Israelis resumed the bombing of Lebanese villages, after a two-year break, in retaliation for Lebanese tolerance of the PLO in their country.

26/7/1977, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin defied a plea from US President Jimmy Carter and ordered more settlements to be built on the West Bank.

18/5/1977. Menachem Begin became President of Israel after his centre-right Likud party coalition won elections, ending 29 years of Labour rule in Israel.

8/5/1977, Dutch art dealer Peter Menten went on trial, charged with murdering Polish Jews in 1941 for financial gain.

3/7/1976. 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 27/6/1976, 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.

29/7/1976, The hijackers (see 27/6/1976 and 3/7/1976) demanded the release of 53 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the 98 Jewish hostages they were holding in Entebbe.

27/6/1976, 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 29/7/1976 and 3/7/1976.

1/9/1975, Kissinger arranged an accord between Israel and Egypt on Sinai.

5/3/1975. 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.

2/12/1974, Israel announced that it possessed the capability of manufacturing nuclear weapons.

30/10/1974, All Arab States recognised the Palestinian Liberation organisation (PLO) as the ‘sole representative of the Palestinian people’.

13/6/1974, Palestinian terrorists killed three Israeli women in Kibbutz Shamir.

3/6/1974, Yitzhak Rabin became Prime Minister of Israel.

31/5/1974, Israel signed a truce with Syria. Israel returned the city of Kuneitra, occupied since the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, to Syria.

12/4/1974. 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.

11/4/1974, Palestinian terrorists killed 18 Israelis, mainly women and children, in a raid on Kiryat Shemona.

10/4/1974. Golda Meir resigned as Israeli Prime Minister. Yitzhak Rabin of the Labour party replaced her on 22/4/1974.

21/2/1974, The last Israeli military units left the west bank of the Suez Canal.

15/2/1974, Fierce fighting on the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria.

1/1/1974, Golda Meir was re-elected Prime Minister of Israel.

30/12/1973, In London, Joseph Seiff, Jewish head of Marks and Spencer, was shot and injured by an Arab terrorist.

17/12/1973. 31 people died after Arab guerrillas hijacked a West German airliner at Rome Airport.

1/12/1973. Death of the 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.

15/11/1973, Egypt and Israel exchanged prisoners of war.

11/11/1973. Egypt and Israel signed a ceasefire agreement.

24/10/1973, Syria accepted a ceasefire, and fighting ceased on both fronts.

16/10/1973, Israeli forces crossed the Suez Canal into Egypt.

15/10/1973, 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.

12/10/1973. Israeli forces advanced to within 29 km of Damascus.

11/10/1973, 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.

6/10/1973.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 8/3/1973, forcing Syrians back beyond their initial positions by 10/10/1073. 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 8/10/1973; they actually advanced too far, beyond air defence range, enabling Israeli aircraft to destroy their ground forces. On 16/10/1773 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 23/10/1973. 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.

13/9/1973, Major air battle between Israel and Syria.

20/7/1973. 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.

7/6/1973, The West German Chancellor Willy Brandt visited Israel.

3/6/1973, Israel freed 96 Arab prisoners in exchange for 3 pilots.

9/4/1973. Arab terrorists attempted to hijack an Israeli plane at Nicosia. One Arab was killed and 7 captured.

14/2/1973, An Israeli fighter jet shot down a Libyan passenger plane over the Sinai Desert, killing 74 passengers and crew.

2/3/1973, Palestinian terrorists murdered the US ambassador to the Sudan, citing ‘US collusion with Israel’ as their motive.

12/1/1973. Yasser Arafat was re-elected leader of the PLO.

29/10/1972, Black September terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa aircraft and successfully negotiated the release of the three terrorists being held in Germany for the Munich bombing.

8/9/1972. In retaliation for Munich, Israeli jets attacked 10 guerrilla bases in Lebanon.

5/9/1972. 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.

30/5/1972, 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.

9/5/1972, Israeli troops stormed a hijacked jet at Jerusalem, freeing 92 passengers held hostage by Black September Palestinian terrorists.

17/1/1972, 350 Soviet Jews arrived in Israel.

7/10/1971, Israel refused entry to 21 Jewish Black Americans.

1/2/1971. Israeli troops made a raid into Lebanon.

5/10/1970. Anwar Sadat became president of Egypt, succeeding Abdel Nasser.

30/9/1970, Britain swapped hijack hostages seized by the PLO for the Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled.

28/9/1970. President Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt since 1954, died of a heart attack aged 52, after mediating in the Jordan civil war.

27/9/1970, 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.

12/9/1970. 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.

6/9/1970. 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 9/9/1970 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.

7/8/1970, 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.

8/4/1970, 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 3/2/1970 of an Israeli ship near Eilat.

2/3/1970. Israel and Syria in the heaviest fighting since the 6-Day War.

12/2/1970, Israeli raid on factories near Cairo; 70 civilians died. This was a further Israeli reprisal for the sinking on 3/2/1970 of an Israeli ship near Eilat.

9/2/1970, The PLO leader Yasser Arafat visited Moscow for talks.

3/2/1970, 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.

29/8/1969. Arab guerrillas hijacked a TWA aircraft en route from Rome to Tel Aviv and force it to land in Damascus.

8/4/1969, Arab guerrillas attacked Eilat. In retaliation, Israeli jets attacked Aqaba, Jordan.

11/3/1969. 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.

26/2/1969, Levi Eshkol, Prime Minister of Israel, died.

18/2/1969. At Zurich an Israeli aircraft was attacked by four Arabs, injuring 6 passengers; one Arab was killed.

3/2/1969. In Cairo, Yasser Arafat became leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the PLO.

28/12/1968. 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.

26/12/1968. Two Arab gunmen attacked an Israeli Boeing 707 in Athens, killing one passenger

29/11/1968, Arab guerrillas attacked a potash plant on the Dead Sea. Israeli jets retaliated by blowing up two bridges in Jordan.

23/7/1968. An Israeli Boeing 707, flying from Rome to Tel Aviv, was hijacked and flown to Algeria.

22/11/1967. 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.

24/10/1967. Israeli artillery destroyed a petrol refinery at Port Suez.

21/10/1967, The Israeli destroyer Eilat was sunk by Egyptian missiles

15/7/1967, Israel said it would not comply with the UN request to withdraw from East Jerusalem (4/7/1967) and also would not give up the strategically-important Golan Heights.

28/6/1967, Israel declared the annexation of East Jerusalem.

4/7/1967, The United Nations asked Israel to withdraw from Arab East Jerusalem.

10/6/1967, 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.

9/6/1967, As Egypt was heavily defeated in the Six Day war, Nasser resigned.

7/6/1967, Israeli forces captured Arab East Jerusalem.

8/6/1967, 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.

5/6/1967. 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 5/6/1967 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 6/6/1967 and by then the Egyptian army was in total disarray. By 7/6/1967 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 9/6/1967, amid calls for a ceasefire, Israeli forces pressed on to the Suez Canal. Israel also launched an attack on the Golan Heights and by 10/6/12967 had taken these from Syria.

1/6/1967. Moshe Dayan appointed the Israeli Defence Minister.

31/5/1967. 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”.

27/5/1967. President Nasser, nine days before the Six Day War began, declared, “Our objective will be the destruction of Israel”.

22/5/1967, Egypt began to blockade the Straits of Tiran, the only sea access to the Israeli port of Elat.

19/5/1967, The UN began to withdraw its peacekeeping forces from the Gaza Strip, at the request of Egypt.

13/6/1965, Martin Buber, Austrian-born Israeli Jewish philosopher, died aged 87.

12/5/1965. West Germany established diplomatic relations with Israel.

14/3/1965, The Israeli Cabinet formally approved the setting up of diplomatic relations with West Germany.

2/6/1964. The PLO was created in Jerusalem.

16/1/1964, 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.

4/1/1964, Michael Brenner, German-Jewish historian, was born.

16/6/1963, Ben Gurion, Israeli Prime Minister, resigned aged 76. He was replaced by Levi Eshkol.

31/5/1962, Adolf Eichmann was executed inside Ramleh Prison, Tel Aviv, for his part in the mass killing of millions of Jews during World War Two.

1961, The authoriries closed Moscow’s synagogues.

15/12/1961, Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official responsible for the execution of millions of Jews, was sentenced to death after a four-month trial in Jerusalem.

11/4/1961, The trial of the Nazi war criminal, Adolf Eichmann, opened in Jerusalem.

7/2/1960, Israeli archaeologists announced the discovery of scrolls from the Dead Sea area.

23/5/1960. The Israelis announced the capture of the war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Israeli Mossad agents snatched Eichmann on 11/5/1960 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 21/5/1960 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 15/12/1961, and hanged on 31/5/1962 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’.

26/7/1959. 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”.

25/2/1959, Norway and Israel signed an agreement providing Israel with heavy water, crucial to Israel's atomic program.

8/5/1958, The Supreme Religious Centre for World Jewry was established in Jerusalem.

22/7/1957. Shell and BP announced they would pull out of Israel to pacify some Arab nations, who refused to accept the very existence of Israel.

20/4/1957, The US resumed aid to Israel, which had been suspended on October 1956.

21/2/1957. 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 22/1/1957 Israeli troops left the Sinai Peninsula, and on 6/3/1957 handed the Gaza Strip over to the UN.

25/1/1957, The UN ordered Israel to quit Aqaba and Gaza.

6/11/1956, Israeli forces reached Sharm El Sheikh.

29/10/1956. 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 5/11/1956.

This was part of the Suez Crisis in which President Nasser nationalised the canal. See 16/11/1869, 26/7/1956, and 23/6/1956. On 30/10/1956 Britain and France issued an ultimatum to Egypt and Israel to stop fighting and on 31/10/1956 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 25/10/1956 the British, French, and Israeli PMs, Anthony Eden, Guy Mollet, and David Ben Gurion, had met in secret at Sevres. On 6/11/1956 Anglo-French forces, 600 British and 487 French paratroopers, seized the Canal itself, having landed at Port Said. The UN ordered a ceasefire on 8/11/1956. 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 23/11/1956, 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

10/10/1956, Two Israeli regiments bombarded a Jordanian police barracks for three hours.

11/9/1956. 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.

2/11/1955, Ben Gurion formed the new government in Israel.

28/3/1955. Israeli made raids on the Gaza Strip.

20/7/1953, The USSR and Israel restored diplomatic relations.

2/2/1953. The USSR broke off relations with Israel.

8/12/1952, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi became the new President of Israel, succeeding Chaim Weitzmann.

9/11/1952, Chaim Weitzmann, first President of Israel, died aged 77.

10/9/1952, West Germany offered Israel US$ 540 million in compensation for Nazi atrocities.

13/9/1951. UN peace talks between Israel and the Arabs failed.

13/3/1951, Israel demanded 6.2 billion Deutsche marks (1.47 billion US$) compensation from Germany.

14/2/1951. In Israel, Ben Gurion dissolved Parliament after an election defeat.

27/4/1950. Britain recognised the State of Israel

24/4/1950. King Abdullah of Jordan annexed Arab Palestine, the West Bank.

12/1949, 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.

5/12/1949, David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Attempted invasion by Arabs of the new State of Israel, failed

20/7/1949, Syria signed an armistice with Israel.

11/5/1949. Israel was voted into the UN.

3/4/1949, Jordan signed an armistice with Israel.

23/3/1949, Lebanon and Israel signed an armistice.

16/2/1949, Chaim Weizmann was sworn in as first President of Israel.

14/2/1949, Egypt and Israel signed an armistice.

25/1/1949. Ben Gurion's Mapai Party won the Israeli elections.

2/1/1949, The Battle of the Sinai in the Arab-Israeli War ended when Israeli forces withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula.

15/11/1948, The Israeli airline El Al was founded.

17/9/1948. Jewish terrorists assassinated Count Folke Bernadotte, Swedish UN mediator, in Jerusalem.

15/7/1948. The UN ordered a ceasefire in Palestine.

30/6/1948, The last British troops left Palestine.

15/6/1948, The Israeli Herut Party was founded by Menachim Begin.

27/5/1948, 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.

26/5/1948, The Israeli Defence Force was set up on the orders of Defence Minister David Ben Gurion, formed out of the paramilitary group Haganah.

25/5/1948, Moshe Dayan assisted Israeli General Yigael Yadin mount a counter offensive against Arab troops, checking their invasion.

24/5/1948, The Battle of Yad Mordechai ended in a successful Israeli delaying action.

22/5/1948, By a vote of 8-0, the United Nations Security Council ordered a ceasefire in Palestine within 36 hours from midnight, New York time.

21/5/1948, Egyptian forces were reported to be only 4 miles from Bethlehem.

20/5/1948, Egyptian forces captured Beersheba.

17/5/1948, The USSR recognised the State of Israel.

16/5/1948. Chaim Weitzmann was named first President of Israel.

15/5/1948, Egyptian forces invaded Israel.

14/5/1948. The State of Israel was created (see 16/2/1949, 27/4/1950), after the British Mandate ended in Palestine, and the first Arab-Israeli war began. Arab forces invaded from Jordan. See also 2/11/1917, 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 15/5/1948 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.

British, UN, US, attempts to determine the future of Palestine

11/4/1948, The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls was announced.

9/4/1948, 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.

11/3/1948. The offices of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem were blown up.

8/3/1948, Johnathan Sacks, British Orthodox Jew, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, was born.

5/1/1948, In Jerusalem, the Arab-owned Semiramis Hotel was destroyed by a bomb explosion; 20 people were killed.

29/11/1947, The United Nations voted to partition Palestine between Jewish and Arab areas.

15/5/1947 The United Nations set up a special committee to decide the future of Palestine.

2/4/1947. Britain passed the Palestine problem to the UN.

7/2/1947. Britain proposed dividing Palestine into Jewish and Arab zones but both sides rejected the plan.

2/2/1947. The RAF began evacuating Britons from Palestine.

20/12/1946, Uri Geller was born in Tel Aviv.

22/7/1946. 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.

2/12/1945, 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.

14/11/1945, Riots broke out in Tel Aviv over the U.S.-British statement on Palestine, killing two and wounding 57.

13/11/1945. Britain and the USA announced the creation of a joint committee to decide the future of Palestine.

13/8/1945, The World Zionist Congress demanded the admission of 1 million Jews to Palestine.

Concentration camps liberated, despite Nazi attempts to erase them

28/4/1945, US General George Patton ordered that German civilians be taken to see the Dachau concentration camp.

18/4/1945, Dachau concentration camp was liberated by the Allies

15/4/1945. The Allies captured the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

11/4/1945, Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, was liberated by US forces.

27/1/1945. 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

27/11/1944, The crematoria at Auschwitz were blown up by retreating Nazi forces.

27/8/1944. Polish and Russian officials showed the news media the Maidenek concentration camp.

12/3/1945. The young Jewish diarist Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

3/9/1944. Anne Frank and her family were transported to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland, see 14/6/1943.

4/8/1944, Anne Frank and her family, who had gone into hiding from the Nazis on 6/7/1942 (see also 14/6/1943) were discovered by the Nazis, see 3/9/1944.

31/7/1944. 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.

9/7/1944. The last train carrying Jews to the concentration camps left from Budapest

5/4/1944. The Germans began deporting Jews from Hungary.

16/10/1943, 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.

1/10/1943, Hitler ordered that all Danish Jews be arrested and deported. However the Danes largely thwarted this move, see 9/4/1940.

18/9/1943, Mass deportations began of French Jews in Paris, with 1,150 being shipped in railroad freight cars to the Buchenwald concentration camp.

2/9/1943. Inmates of the concentration camps in Poland were being used for medical experiments.

16/8/1943. Jews in the ghetto at Bialystock, Poland, rose up.

19/6/1943. Goebbels declared Berlin to be ‘free of Jews’.

14/6/1943, Anne Frank (born 12/6/1929) 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.

19/4/1943. 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 20/4/1943, and massacred the Jews. The Warsaw ghetto was totally erased from the city.

17/4/1943, 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.

2/9/1942. German SS troops deported and murdered 50,000 Jews from the ghetto in Warsaw.

17/7/1942, 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.

6/7/1942, Anne Frank and her family went into hiding from the Nazis (see 14/6/1943).

29/5/1942. 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.

30/4/1942, The Dzyatlava massacre. About 1,100 Jews were massacred by German authorities in the Kurpiesze forest, near Dzyatlava.

27/4/1942, All Jews in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands were ordered to wear the yellow badge.

27/3/1942, 1,112 Jews were deported from Drancy, Paris, to an undisclosed destination.

26/3/1942. Germany began deporting Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp.

20/1/1942. 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

12/12/1941. 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.

30/11/1941, The first day of the Rumbula massacre near Riga, Latvia. Around 25,000 Jews were killed between this day and December 8.

2/10/1941. 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.

29/9/1941. A Nazi death squad murdered 30,000 Russian Jews in Kiev, following the fall of Kiev to the Nazis on 19/9/1941.

15/9/1941, The Nazis began testing the gas chambers at Auschwitz.

31/8/1941, 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.

20/8/1941, A further mass arrest of Parisian Jews took place, this time mainly affecting the artisan Jews of the 11^th Arrondissement. These detainess were held at a large unfinished public housing complex at Drancy on the outskirts of Paris.

31/7/1941. 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 20/1/1942 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.

6/7/1941, Over 2,500 Jews were murdered by Lithuanian militia under German direction.

14/5/1941. 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..

7/3/1941. Compulsory labour for German Jews began.

25/11/1940, The ship Patria, carrying illegal Jewish migrants, sank in the port of Haifa, 200 died.

15/11/1940. Warsaw’s 35,000 Jews were confined to the ghetto.

22/10/1940, German Jews were deported from the regions of Baden, Saar, and Alsace-Lorraine.

18/10/1940, A Second Nazi Ordinance was issued in Paris relating to the city’s Jews (see 27/9/1940). Jews were now excluded from a number of occupations, including banking.

27/9/1940. 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 20/10/1940 (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.

9/4/1940. 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 5/5/1945.

27/3/1940, In Poland, Heinrich Himmler ordered the construction of a concentration camp at Auschwitz.

12/2/1940, Deportation of Jews from Germany began, mainly from the Pomerania region.

26/1/1940, 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 for main European events of World War Two

30/10/1939. London published the horrors of the German concentration camps.

28/10/1939. All German Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David.

10/10/1939. Nazis deported Polish Jews to the Lublin ghetto.

23/9/1939. All wireless sets owned by Jews in Germany were confiscated.

1/9/1939. In Germany, Jews were put under a curfew from 8pm in winter and 9pm in summer.

23/2/1939. The Nazis confiscated jewels and precious metals from the Jews.

17/1/1939. In Germany, Jews were banned from driving.

2/12/1938, 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.

14/11/1938. In Germany, Jews were expelled from colleges.

12/11/1938, 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.

10/11/1938. Anti Semitic laws passed in Italy.

3/12/1938, Heinrich Himmler ordered all driver's licenses of German Jews invalidated.

8/11/1938, 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.

7/11/1938, 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.

28/10/1938. 17,000 Polish Jews domiciled in Germany were expelled.

5/10/1938, In Germany, passports held by Jews had to have the letter J stamped in them.

10/8/1938, The synagogue in Nuremberg was destroyed.

14/7/1938. Italy officially adopted anti-Semitism.

27/6/1938. All Austrian-Jewish employees given 2 weeks notice to quit by their employers.

9/6/1938, The synagogue in Munich was destroyed.

7/4/1938. The Nazis seized Baron Rothschild’s bank, and arrested him.

6/4/1938. Leading Jewish figures in Austria were sent to Dachau concentration camp.

1/8/1937. Germany opened a new concentration camp at Buchenwald. Over the next 8 years, 56,500 were to die there.

15/9/1935. Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws, depriving Jews of German citizenship.

15/11/1933. Germany’s new Reichstag opened. Women and Jewish members were excluded.

29/8/1933. It was officially confirmed that German Jews were being sent to concentration camps.

25/8/1933, 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.

23/7/1933. Germany decreed that importing banned books was punishable with death.

9/5/1933. 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.

5/5/1933. Hitler proposed a ban on mixed marriages between Jews and Aryans, and to begin sterilisations.

7/4/1933, Germany banned Jews from government employment.

1/4/1933. Nazis seized Jewish bank accounts.

28/3/1933. 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.

20/7/1933, 20,000 Jews protested in Hyde Park, London, against Nazi anti-Semitism.

22/3/1933. 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.

15/3/1933. 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

14/3/1933. The Nazis banned Kosher meat.

4/10/1932. Hungary formed a Nationalist and anti-Semitic government.

Nazi German anti-Semitism from 1933

1917 – 1939; British plans for Jewish Homeland in Palestine, resisted by Arabs

23/5/1939. The British Parliament agreed a plan for the independence of Palestine by 1949. This plan was denounced by both Arabs and Jews.

17/5/1939. 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.

9/11/1938, The British Government called a conference on the future of Palestine.

19/10/1938, British troops stormed Old Jerusalem, evicting the Arabs who had been occupying it. The UK abandoned plans to partition Palestine between Jews and Arabs.

18/10/1938, As terrorist violence escalated in Palestine, British troops imposed martial law.

4/1/1938. Britain postponed plans to partition Palestine.

20/10/1937. The British tried to limit Jewish migration into Palestine.

26/9/1937. The British Commissioner for Galilee was murdered by Arabs.

8/9/1937. A Pan-Arab conference rejected the British Peel plan to partition Palestine.

2/8/1937. The Zionists endorsed the British Peel plan to partition Palestine.

7/7/1937. 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.

29/9/1936, Britain declared martial law in Palestine to counter an Arab revolt.

21/10/1930, The Hope Simpson Enquiry on Palestine was released.

20/10/1930. 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.

25/8/1929. 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 31/8/1929.

29/9/1923. The British Mandate in Palestine officially began.

24/8/1922. Arabs at Nablus rejected the British Mandate for Palestine.

25/4/1920, The UN confirmed the British mandate to control Palestine and Mesopotamia.

1/7/1920, The British civil administration of Palestine began.

4/4/1920, 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.

9/11/1917. 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.

2/11/1917. 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 14/5/1948.

10/2/1917. Weizmann and the British Government discussed plans for a Jewish homeland.

11/10/1936, 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.

19/11/1935, The University of Budapest closed for a day due to anti-Semitic rioting.

12/7/1935, Alfred Dreyfus, French Army Officer who was accused of selling military secrets to Germany, then imprisoned and later pardoned, died aged 75.

24/12/1933, The Codex Siniaticus arrived in London.

7/5/1933. Jews and Fascists fought in the East End of London.

12/6/1929. Birth of Anne Frank, Dutch Jewish schoolgirl who wrote her famous dairies before going to her death in a Nazi concentration camp.

1/4/1925, The Hebrew University at Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, was opened by Lord Balfour.

16/8/1923, Shimon Peres, Prime Minister of Israel 1984-86, was born in Poland.

16/8/1921. 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.

25/8/1918. The Hungarian government expelled the Jews and confiscated their assets.

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

20/5/1915, Moshe Dayan, Israeli military commander and politician, was born in Deganya.

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).

16/8/1913, Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel 1977-83, was born in Russia.

4/8/1912, 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.

7/11/1911, Walter Schlomo Gross, Jewish journalist, was born.

23/8/1911, 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.

18/7/1911, Hermann Adler, British chief rabbi (born 30/5/1839) died.

28/7/1911, The French Chief of Staff resigned over the Dreyfus Affair.

1910, Jews acquired civil rights in Portugal.

1909, The first Kibbutz was set up, at the Jordan River Valley village of Degania Aleph, then part of the Ottoman Empire.

31/12/1908, Simon Weisenthal, noted hunter of Nazi war criminals, was born; he died in 2005.

4/6/1908. An attempt was made to assassinate Major Alfred Dreyfus.

11/4/1908, Tel Aviv, Israel, was founded by 60 settlers.

13/2/1908, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was encouraging anti-Semitism.

9/9/1906. 100 Jews massacred in Siedlce, Poland.

22/7/1906, Captain Dreyfus was formally reinstated in the French Army and given the Legion of Honour.

12/7/1906. 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.

8/11/1905. In Odessa, Russia, 1,000 Jews were killed when a mob of 50,000 went on the rampage stabbing Jewish men, women, and children.

12/8/1905, Under Russian direction a pogrom of Jews occurred in Bialystock, Poland; 38 were killed and over 200 wounded.

24/5/1905. Anti Semitic riots in Warsaw, many Jews killed.

24/10/1904, Four French officers were charged with lying in the Dreyfus case.

3/7/1904. 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.

5/3/1904, A new enquiry into the Dreyfus case began in France.

11/9/1903, A pogrom at Czetochowa, Poland, many Jews were killed.

4/6/1903. A Russian decree restricted Jewish ownership of property.

19/4/1903, A pogrom began in Kishinev, in which 50 Jews were killed.

6/4/1903. The Dreyfus documents were proved to be forgeries by the army, in Paris.

29/9/1902. The writer Emile Zola, and valiant champion of Captain Dreyfus, died, accidentally gassed by charcoal fumes.

1901, Jewish Progressive (Liberal) Movement began.

19/12/1900, France granted an amnesty to all those involved in the Dreyfus Affair.

7/10/1900. 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.

13/8/1900, 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.

2/6/1900, 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.

19/9/1899. 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.

7/8/1899. The guilt of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, condemned and deported for treason in 1894, was confirmed by a court-martial at Rennes.

1/4/1899, Maurice de Hirsch, German Jewish philanthropist, died (born 9/12/1831).

3/5/1898, Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel 1969-74, was born.

23/2/1898, 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.

13/1/1898. 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.

11/1/1898, In Paris, Major Esterhazy was wrongly acquitted of forging documents used to establish the guilt of French Army Officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

31/8/1897. 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.

22/12/1894. 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

15/10/1894. 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.

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.

3/5/1893, Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister, was born in Kiev, Russia, as Golda Mabovitch, daughter of a carpenter.

1892, Increasing restrictions on the civil rights of Jews in Russia led many to emigrate to Argentina; Baron Hirsch facilitated their resettlement.

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.

21/1/1890, Nathan Marcus Adler, British chief rabbi (born 15/1/1803) died.

16/10/1886, 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.

13/2/1883. German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner died in Venice aged 69, from a heart complaint. He was infamous for his anti-Semitism.

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.

15/4/1881, Three days of anti-Semitic violence broke out at Elizavetgrad, Russia, rapidly spreading to Kiev, Kishinev, Yalta and Odessa.

13/4/1882, The Anti-Semitic League was founded in Prussia.

13/3/1881, 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.

1880, Revival of antisemitism in Prussia. The Judenhetze (hounding of the Jews) began.

15/5/1877, 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.

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 externalpressures for Reform present in Germany and the US – to fir 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.

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.

2/5/1860, Theodor Herzl, Hungarian Jew who was the founder of Zionism and first President of the World Zionist Organisation in 1897, was born in Budapest.

9/10/1859, Alfred Dreyfus, French army office noted for the ‘Dreyfus Treason Affair’, was born in Alsace to Jewish parents.

1858, Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jewish MP in British Parliament.

23/7/1858, In Britain, the Oath of Allegiance was modified so as to allow Jews to sit in Parliament.

1856, Britain’s second Reform synagogue was established, in Manchester.

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.

12/10/1843, 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).

1840, The first non-Orthodox (i.e. Reform) synagogue in Britain was founded; the West London Synagogue.

30/5/1839, Hermann Adler, British chief rabbi, was born (died 18/7/1911).

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.

9/12/1831, Maurice de Hirsch, German Jewish philanthropist, was born (died 1/4/1899).

1828, Death of Israel Jacobson (1768-1828). He believed in integrating Jewish traditions more to the host country (Germany, here), and incorporate dmany 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.

1814, Denmark granted equality of citizenship to Jews.

1812, Jews in Prussia gained civil rights. By 1848 Prussian Jews had gained full civil rights.

17/3/1808, 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.

27/9/1791. France granted citizenship to its Jews. This was as a result of the French Revolution.

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.

1760, The Board of Deputies of British Jews was established in London.

1760, Israel ben Eliezer, charismatic Polish founder of Nasidism, died aged 60.

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.

14/6/1711, The Jewish quarter of Frankfurt was destroyed in what was one of the largest fires in Germany before the 20^th century.

1701, Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue in Britain, in London EC3, was built for Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Jews.

4/3/1699, The Jews were expelled from Lubeck, Germany.

21/2/1677, Benedict Spinoza, Jewish philosopher, died.

27/7/1656, 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.

24/4/1656, 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. 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.

15/10/1655, The Jews of Lublin, Poland, were massacred.

1654, The colony of Martinique gave sanctuary to 300 Jews who had been expelled from Brazil.

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.

24/11/1632, Benedict Spinoza, Jewish philosopher, was born in Amsterdam.

1/2/1620, 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.

13/8/1599, 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.

25/12/1564, Johannes Buxtorf, German Jewish scholar, was born (died 1629).

12/7/1555, 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.

27/11/1518, 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.

5/12/1497, 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.

31/12/1492, About 100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily.

30/3/1492. 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 2/1/1492 when Granada fell. On 30/3/1492 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 12/2/1502.

1489, The Jews were expelled from Milan and Lucca.

1488, The Jews were expelled from Parma.

1486, The Jews were expelled from Vicenza.

1485, The Jews were expelled from Perugia, Italy.

1/1/1483, Jews were expelled from Andalusia.

1476, The Jews were expelled from Ratisbon.

1454, The Jews were expelled from the cities of Moravia.

5/10/1450, 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.

17/9/1394, King Charles VI of France ordered the expulsion of all Jews from France.

1391, The Jews were expelled from Prague.

5/8/1391, Anti-Jewish riots spread to Toledo, Spain and Barcelona. Many Jews left Barcelona after the following massacres, though many remained in the city.

6/6/1391, 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.

5/11/1370. 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.

21/3/1349, 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.

14/2/1349, 2,000 Jews were burned to death in Strasbourg.

9/1/1349, 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.

24/6/1322, 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.

20/4/1298, Beginning of the Rintfleisch-Pogrom, the Jews of Röttingen 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.

18/7/1290, 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.

17/11/1278, 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 Edawrd I of England ordered that all Jews above the age of 7 wear a yellow patch on their clothes 6 inches by 3 inches.

19/6/1269, King Louis IX of France ordered all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.

1252, Louis IX of France expelled the Jews.

1243, The Jews were expelled from Brandenburg.

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.

28/1/1167, 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 1164.

1103, Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, protected the Jews within his realm.

13/12/1204. The Jewish rabbi, lawyer, and philosopher Maimonides died, aged 69 (born 1135), in Cairo.

1196, The Jews were expelled from Vienna.

8/5/1190. 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 2/9/189, 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.

30/3/1135, The great Jewish teacher Moses ben Maimon (Maimonedes) was born in Cordoba. See 13/12/1204.

850, German Jews began to develop a new language, Yiddish. This was an amalgam of German, Jewish and other languages.

9/11/694, 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 te 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.

15/4/73, 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.

8/9/70. Jerusalem was stormed by the Romans after a two year siege. 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

37, Josephus, Jewish historian, was born.

26, Pontius Pilate appointed as Prefect of Judea.

18, Caiaphas became High Priest in Jerusalem.

Jesus, 2 BCE – 33 AD, see Christianity.

For Roman conquest of Palestine see also Roman Empire

10 BCE, Herod I completed a major seaport at Caesarea.

20 BCE, The Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt by Herod the Great, 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.

10/3/515 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).

5/10/539 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.