Timeline: Egypt - A chronology of key events

[DJKeefy]

circa 7,000 BC - Settlement of Nile Valley begins.

circa 3,000 BC - Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt unite. Successive dynasties witness flourishing trade, prosperity and the development of great cultural traditions. Writing, including hieroglyphics, is used as an instrument of state. Construction of the pyramids - around 2,500 BC - is a formidable engineering achievement.

669 BC - Assyrians from Mesopotamia conquer and rule Egypt.

525 BC - Persian conquest.

332 BC - Alexander the Great, of ancient Macedonia, conquers Egypt, founds Alexandria. A Macedonian dynasty rules until 31 BC.

31 BC - Egypt comes under Roman rule; Queen Cleopatra commits suicide after Octavian's army defeats her forces.

642 AD - Arab conquest of Egypt.

969 - Cairo established as capital.

1250-1517 - Mameluke (slave soldier) rule, characterised by great prosperity and well-ordered civic institutions.

1517 - Egypt absorbed into the Turkish Ottoman empire.

1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte's forces invade but are repelled by the British and the Turks in 1801. Egypt once more becomes part of the Ottoman empire.

1859-69 - Suez Canal built.

1882 - British troops take control of Egypt.

1914 - Egypt becomes a British protectorate.

1922 - Fu'ad I becomes King of Egypt and Egypt gains its independence.

1928 - Muslim Brotherhood founded by Hasan al-Banna.

1936 - April - Faruq succeeds his father as King of Egypt .

1948 - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria attack the new state of Israel.

1949 February - Hasan al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood is assassinated.

1949 - Committee of the Free Officers' Movement formed.

1952 January - At least 20 people are killed in anti-British riots in Cairo.

1952 - King Faruq abdicates in favour of his son Fu'ad II.

1952 - Gamal Abdul Nasser leads a coup by the Free Officers' Movement, now known as the July 23 Revolution, which results in Muhammad Najib becoming President and Prime Minister of Egypt.
Republic declared

1953 June - Egypt is declared a Republic by Najib.

1954 - Nasser becomes prime minister and later, in 1956, president.

1954 - Evacuation Treaty signed. British forces, who began a gradual withdrawal in 1936 finally leave Egypt.

1956 July - Nasser nationalises the Suez Canal to fund the Aswan High Dam.

1956 October - Tripartite Invasion of Egypt by Britain, France and Israel due to the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. A ceasefire is declared in November.

1958 February - Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic (UAR) in the first step of their aim for Arab unity.

1961 - Syria withdraws from the union with Egypt but Egypt remains known as the UAR.

1965 March - King Faruq dies in Rome.
Six-day war

1967 May - Egypt, Jordan sign defence pact. Israel says it increases danger of war with Arab states.

1967 June - Egypt, Jordan and Syria go to war with Israel and are defeated. Israel takes control of Sinai, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the West Bank. It is known as the Six-Day War.

1970 September - Nasser dies and is replaced by his Vice-President, Anwar al-Sadat.

1971 - Treaty of Friendship between Egypt and the Soviet Union is signed.

1971 - Egypt's new constitution is introduced and the country is renamed the Arab Republic of Egypt.

1971 - The Aswan High Dam is completed. It proves to have a huge impact on irrigation, agriculture and industry in Egypt.
Yom Kippur

1973 October - Egypt and Syria go to war with Israel during Israel's celebration of Yom Kippur to reclaim the land they lost in 1967. Egypt begins negotiations for the return of Sinai after the war.

1975 June - The Suez Canal is re-opened. It had been closed since the 1967 war.

1976 - Anwar al-Sadat ends the Treaty of Friendship with the Soviet Union.

1978 September - Camp David Accords for peace with Israel are signed.

1979 March - The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel is signed. Egypt is then condemned by other Arab nations and excluded from the Arab League.

Sadat assassinated
1981 6 October - Anwar al-Sadat is assassinated by Jihad members.

1981 October - A National Referendum approves Husni Mubarak as the new president.

1987 October - Mubarak begins his second term.

1989 Egypt rejoins the Arab League.

1993 October - Mubarak begins his third term in office.

1995 June - Mubarak is the target of an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, upon his arrival at a summit of the Organisation of African Unity.

1997 - 58 tourists are killed by gunmen in front of the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor. It is alleged that Egypt's Islamic Group (al-jama'ah al'islamiyah) is responsible.

1999 October - Mubarak begins his fourth term in office.

2000 December - Egypt, Lebanon and Syria agree on a billion-dollar project for a pipeline to carry Egyptian gas under the Mediterranean to the Lebanese port of Tripoli.

2002 February - Hundreds of passengers are killed after their train catches fire south of Cairo.
Sinai bomb

2004 October - Bomb attacks target Israeli tourists on Sinai peninsula; 34 people are killed.

2005: Winds of change blow through Egypt politics

2004 November - Funeral of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is held in Cairo.

2005 February-April - Pro-reform and opposition activists mount anti-government demonstrations.

2005 May - Referendum vote backs a constitutional amendment that will allow multiple candidates to stand in presidential elections.
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005 23 July - Scores of people are killed in bomb attacks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh.

2005 September - President Mubarak is re-elected for a fifth consecutive term.

2005 December - Parliamentary polls end with clashes between police and supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood. The National Democratic Party and its allies retain their large parliamentary majority. Muslim Brotherhood supporters, elected as independents, win a record 20% of seats.
More than 20 Sudanese migrants die after police break up a protest camp outside the UN offices in Cairo.

2006 February - Up to 1,000 people die when a ferry carrying about 1,400 passengers from Saudi Arabia to Egypt sinks in the Red Sea.

2006 April - Bomb attacks in the Red Sea resort of Dahab kill more than 20 people.

2006 August - Egypt praises the way the guerrilla group Hezbollah held out in the war with Israel in Lebanon after earlier questioning its judgement.

2006 November - Egypt is one of at least six Arab countries developing domestic nuclear programmes to diversify energy sources, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports.
President Mubarak promises democratic and constitutional reform in an address to parliament. Opponents are sceptical.

2006 November - Upsurge in arrests of Muslim Brotherhood members.

2007 March - Referendum on constitutional amendments. The authorities say 76% of voters approve changes, opposition groups say the poll was rigged.

2007 April - Amnesty International criticises Egypt's record on torture and illegal detention.
More than 30 members of the Muslim Brotherhood go on trial, the first time in seven years that members of the group have been tried under military jurisdiction.

2007 June - Parliamentary elections. Governing National Democratic Party wins most votes.
Press harassed

2007 October - Independent, opposition newspapers protest against "government harassment" after seven journalists are imprisoned and an editor is put on trial.

2007 November - National Democratic Party (NDP) votes to retain President Mubarak as party leader.

2008 March - Al-Dustur newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa sentenced to six months in jail for reporting rumours about President Mubarak's health. Rights groups demand change to law on reporting "false information".

2008 April - Independent unions fail to gather much support for nationwide strike against rising prices and low wages. Heavy police presence prevents factory lock-ins.

2008 April - Military courts sentence 25 leading Muslim Brotherhood members to jail terms in crackdown targetting the organisation's funding. More than 800 arrested over a month. Brotherhood boycotted municipal elections after only 20 candidates allowed to stand.

2008 September - Nearly 100 people are killed by a landslide in the Cairo slum district of Duwayqa.