History of Israel Time Line
Israel history milestones from Abraham to modern israel: Moses & Exodus, King David, Roman Empire, Jesus, Islam, Crusades, Ottoman Empire, Napoleon, British & Modern Israel
B.C.E. (Before the Common Era)
1800 BCE Abraham from Ur in Mesopotamia to Promised Land of Canaan
1200 BCE Exodus & Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai
1000 BCE King Saul then King David who conquers Jerusalem
950 BCE King Solomon builds the Temple in Jerusalem
850 BCE King Ahab & Jezebel; Elijah the Prophet
701 BCE Hezekiah fortifies Jerusalem; Isaiah the Prophet
586 BCE Babylonian destruction of Temple & Exile; Jeremiah the Prophet
516 BCE Return to Zion under Cyrus the Persian & building of Second Temple
450 BCE Ezra & Nehemiah in Judea
332 BCE Alexander the Great & spread of Greek Hellenist culture
167 BCE Maccabees defeat Greek Seleucids and rededicate Temple (Hannukah)
37 BCE Herod rules Judea
4-6 BCE Birth of Jesus
C.E. (Common Era)
30 Death of Jesus
70 Destruction of the Second Temple
132 Bar Kochba Revolt in Judea
324 Byzantine rule
638 Muslim rule
1099 Crusades conquer Jerusalem
1187 Saladin defeats Crusaders
1250 Mamluks
1516 Ottoman Turks rule
1917 British Mandate over Palestine
1948 Israel Independence
Israel modern history (1882-present)
1882 1st Aliya Jewish farming villages founded
1897 Theodore Herzl’s 1st Zionist Conference in Basel
1904 Death of Theodore Herzl
1909 Founding of Tel Aviv & Degania (1st kibbutz)
1917 British conquer Palestine; Balfour Declaration
1920 Histadrut labor union & Haganah army founded
1921 British appoint Abdullah I as Emir of Transjordan
1922 British mandate over Palestine
1922 Egypt declaration of independence
1925 Hebrew University opened on Mt. Scopus in Jerusalem
1929 Arab massacre of Hebron Jews
1933-39 Fifth Aliya wave- Jews from Germany
1936-39 Arab riots and violence against Jewish community in Palestine
1939 British White Paper restricts Jewish immigration to Palestine
1939-45 WWII and the Holocaust
1946 Jordan’s independence under Hashemite King Abdullah I
1947 UN partition Jewish state & Palestinian state
1948 British withdrawal- Israel War of Independence
1948 May 14 British Mandate in Palestine ends
1948 May 14 Declaration Israel independence
1948-1949 Formation of IDF – Israel Defense Forces Israel War of Independence
1949 July Armistice agreement with Egypt, Lebanon Jordan, Syria;
1948-49 700,000 Palestinian refugees in wake of war
1948-1950’s 1+ million Jewish refugees from Mideast & Europe
1948-1953 David Ben Gurion Prime Minister of Israel
1951 King Abdallah I of Jordan assassinated in El Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem
1952 Hussein, age 17, King of Jordan
1953 Egypt Republic declared
1953-64 Build 130 km National Water Carrier Galilee to Negev
1954 Moshe Sharett Prime Minister
1954 End of British military presence in Egypt
1955-1963 David Ben Gurion Prime Minister Israel
1956-1970 Abdul Nasser president of Egypt
1956 Israel Sinai Campaign
1963-69 Levi Eshkol Israel Prime Minister
1964-67 Syria & Lebanon diversion Jordan river headwaters
1965 Fathah PLO military arm begins operations against Israel
1967 May Egypt expels UN from Sinai & blockade Israel Red Sea access
1967 June Six Day War with Yitzhak Rabin IDF Chief of Staff and Moshe Dayan Minister of Defense. Jerusalem reunited, capture of West Bank, Golan, Sinai.
1968-70 War of Attrition along Suez Canal
1969-74 Golda Meir Prime Minister Israel
1970 Egypt president Nasser dies, Anwar Sadat replaces
1973 October Yom Kippur War
1974-77 Yitzhak Rabin Prime Minister (Labor party)
1977-83 Menahem Begin Prime Minister (Likud party)
1977 President Sadat, Egypt comes to Jerusalem
1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty signed
1981 President Sadat of Egypt assassinated
1981 Israel air force destroys Iraq nuclear reactor
1983 Operation Peace for Galilee- PLO driven out of Lebanon
1983-84 Yitzhak Shamir Prime Minister (Likud party)
1984-86 Shimon Peres Prime Minister (Labor party)
1984 Operation Moses airlifts ~6000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel
1986-92 Yitzhak Shamir Prime Minister (Likud party)
1987 First Intifada- widespread violence in the West Bank
1989 Soviet Premier Gorbachev lifts restrictions on emigration
1990-95 550,000 Jewish immigrants from Russia
1991 Gulf war; Madrid conference
1991 Operation Solomon airlifts 14,000 Ethiopian Jews in 16 hours
1992-95 Yitzhak Rabin Prime Minister (Labor party)
1993 Oslo Accords begin between Israel and PLO under Yasser Arafat
1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty
1994 Oct. 19th Palestinian terror kills 22 in Tel Aviv
1995 Prime Minister Rabin assassinated
1995-96 Shimon Peres Prime Minister (Labor party)
1996 Escalation of terror.
1996-99 Benjamin Netanyahu Prime Minister (Likud party)
1999 Death King Hussein (Jordan) son Abdullah II replaces
1999-2001 Ehud Barak Prime Minister (Labor party)
2000 Visit of Pope Paul II; El-Aqsa intifada breaks out
2001-05 Ariel Sharon Prime Minister (Kadima party)
2006-09 Sharon has stroke; Ehud Olmert Prime Minister
2008 Gaza Operation “Cast Lead” (Dec. 27, 2008-Jan. 18, 2009)
2009 Benjamin Netanyahu elected Prime Minister (Likud)
2012 Gaza Operation “Pillar of Defense” (Nov. 14-21, 2012)
2014 Gaza Operation “Protective Edge” (began July 8, 2014)