Oil Flows From Eilat to Haifa
August 2, 1968 Oil reaches the Mediterranean Sea port of Haifa from the Red Sea port of Eilat by land for the first time through a pipeline that provides an alternative to the Suez Canal….
Pregnancy Test Developer Zondek Is Born
July 29, 1891 Bernhard Zondek, the obstetrician-gynecologist who creates one of the first reliable pregnancy tests, is born in Wronke, Germany, now in Poland. Zondek moves to Berlin for his medical studies and earns his…
Channel 1 Starts Broadcasting
May 2, 1968 Israel’s first general-interest television network begins broadcasting at 9:30 a.m. with an image of a menorah, followed by an aerial view of Jerusalem and, at 9:40, the national Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day)…
Naharayim Power Plant Opens
March 9, 1932 Pinhas Rutenberg and the Palestine Electric Co. open a hydroelectric power plant at Naharayim. It supplies much of the electricity in Palestine until its destruction by Iraqi troops during the 1948 War…
Doctors Begin 4-Month Strike
March 2, 1983 One of Israel’s largest and longest labor actions begins when the Israel Medical Association launches a strike to protest the government’s refusal to grant doctors a substantial pay raise after nearly 11…
Labor Politician Aharon Zisling Born
February 26, 1901 Aharon Zisling, one of Israel’s founding fathers, is born in the Russian Empire in Minsk, now the capital of Belarus. He immigrates to Palestine in 1914 during the Second Aliyah and emerges…
Israel Joins CERN as Full Member
January 15, 2014 Israel is admitted as the 21st member state of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by the French acronym CERN. Israel is the first new member since 1999 and is the…
Google Buys Waze
June 11, 2013 Google reportedly outbids fellow tech giants Apple and Facebook and buys Israel-based social-mapping service Waze for roughly $1 billion, adding the user-generated data of the app to the market-leading Google Maps software….
Fashion Designer Leah Gottlieb Dies
Israeli businesswoman and fashion pioneer Leah Gottlieb passes away in her Tel-Aviv home at the age of 94.
March of the Million Challenges Cost of Living
Demonstrating against the rising costs of living and economic inequalities in Israel, more than 450,000 protestors fill the streets throughout the country. It is the largest demonstration in Israel’s history.
British Zionist Leader Arieh Handler Dies
Handler moves to Israel in 1948, taking a leadership role in Hapoel Ha-Mizrahi. In 2006, at the age of ninety, he makes Aliyah to Israel for a second time.
Carmel Tunnels Open in Haifa
November 30, 2010 The Carmel Tunnels open, giving vehicles the chance to drive across Haifa in eight minutes, compared with the 30 minutes required in even good traffic conditions. The tunnels — one set running…
Israel Is Invited to Join OECD
May 10, 2010 The 31 member nations of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development unanimously vote to invite Israel to join the organization, reflecting Israel’s economic strength and importance in the world economy. Israel,…
Bridge of Strings Opens
June 25, 2009 Jerusalem holds a $500,000 extravaganza to inaugurate the Chords Bridge, also known as the Bridge of Strings, at the main entrance to the city. Its designer, Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, has built…
Ex-President Ephraim Katzir Dies
Ephraim Katzir immigrated to Palestine with his family at the age of 9. He goes on to serve as Chief Scientist of the Israel Defense Forces and later as President of Israel.
Amos-3 Satellite Is Launched
April 28, 2008 The MBT Space Division of Israel Aerospace Industries successfully launches the Amos-3 satellite from Kazakhstan five days after the originally scheduled launch date, a delay caused by a mechanical problem with the…
Shuttle Columbia Launches With Israeli Astronaut
The Columbia space shuttle takes off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 10:39 AM. The shuttle explodes while reentering the earth’s atmosphere two weeks later, killing all on board. Among the seven-member crew is Ilan Ramon, an Israeli Air Force pilot and the country’s first astronaut.
American Venture Capitalists Purchase Stake in Israeli Water Company
Aqua International Partners, a San Francisco-based venture fund, purchases a 25% stake in Israeli bottled water company Mayanot Eden (Eden Springs).
M-Systems Patents USB Flash Drive
April 5, 1999 Kfar Saba-based M-Systems files a U.S. patent application for the USB flash drive, which has a storage capacity of 8 megabytes, five times the memory of most floppy disks at the time….
El Al Flight 1862 Crashes
El Al flight 1862, a 747 cargo plane flight bound from New York to Tel Aviv, crashes into an apartment complex in Bijlmermeer, an Amsterdam suburb.
First Israeli Scales Mount Everest
May 12, 1992 Doron Erel, the 33-year-old son of Holocaust survivors who made aliyah on the Exodus 1947, becomes the first Israeli to reach the summit of Mount Everest in an expedition with 13 other…
Israel Launches Ofek 1 Satellite
Israel launches its first space satellite, Ofek 1, from an undisclosed location near the Mediterranean Sea.
Cabinet Halts Lavi Production
August 30, 1987 On a 12-11 vote, the Israeli Cabinet decides to end production of the Lavi fighter jet, under development since 1980 by Israel Aerospace Industries and first flown as a prototype in December…
Arabs Stage National Equality Strike
June 24, 1987 Arabs across Israel hold an Equality Day strike, organized by the National Committee of Local Arab Council Heads, to demand an end to all discrimination against Israel’s 700,000 Arabs, who at the…
