April 17, 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser, 36, is appointed the prime minister of Egypt. Nasser’s interest in politics goes back to age 12 when he accidentally participated in an ultranationalist protest calling for the overthrow…
March 7, 1965 Egyptian authorities release details about the arrest Feb. 22 of German-Israeli spy Wolfgang Lotz and his wife, Waldrud, on espionage charges. Some reports say Lotz’s arrest was part of a roundup of…
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser feared that Israeli troops would gather on the Egyptian border and felt compelled to uphold the mutual defense pact he had signed with Syria. On May 19, Nasser banned the 3,500 UNEF troops from Sinai so that he could mobilize Egyptian forces without interference.
Delivering a Labor Day speech in Cairo that is broadcast on Egyptian radio, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak discusses issues relating to the peace process.
August 12, 1991 Yeruham Cohen, an Israeli intelligence officer known for his friendship with Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, dies at age 75. Cohen was born into a Yemeni family in Tel Aviv in 1916 and…
Moshe Dayan, Israel’s iconic military and political leader, passes away from a heart attack in a Tel Aviv hospital at the age of 66.
Sixteen months after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s historic visit to Jerusalem and Knesset address, the Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty is signed at the White House in Washington.
Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan conducts secret talks with Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister Hassan Tuhami in Morocco.
After a breakdown in diplomatic talks between Gerald Ford and PM Yitzhak Rabin, seventy-six Senators sign a letter to the President stressing the importance of both military and economic assistance to Israel.
Convened under the co-chairmanship of the United States and Soviet Union, the Geneva Middle East Conference is “aimed at establishing a just and durable peace in the Middle East.”
Israel, Jordan and Egypt finally signed a ceasefire, ending the 1967-1970 War of Attrition.
August 23, 1969 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who has adopted devout Muslim observance since losing the June 1967 war to Israel, responds to the arson attack on Al-Aqsa mosque two days earlier by calling…
The Fourth Arab League Summit convenes in Khartoum, Sudan. Participants agree that all measures should be taken to regain lands controlled by Israel after the War, and that the oil-rich countries would finance an increased Arab military presence in the region.
May 16, 1967 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser requests that the United Nations withdraw its peacekeeping troops from the Sinai, clearing an obstacle to war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Six-Day War begins…
November 4, 1966 Egypt and Syria sign a mutual defense treaty and create a joint military command. The move comes amid constant low-level violence on the Israeli-Syrian border, characterized by Syrian guerrilla raids and shelling…
Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigns as a result of the controversial, covert operation in Egypt, setting the stage for new elections in the summer of 1961.
April 8, 1960 U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold for the first time publicly criticizes Egypt’s confiscation of Israeli cargo on ships going through the Suez Canal. The Egyptian closure of the Straits of Tiran and the…
July 14, 1958 Iraqi army officers stage a coup and overthrow and kill King Faisal. Also killed is Iraq’s crown prince, whose body is left hanging outside the Defense Ministry. Iraqis celebrate, but Western powers…
The Knesset debates Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s announcement that Israeli troops would withdraw from Sinai following the 1956 Suez War.
September 27, 1955 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser uses a speech at a military exhibition to announce that Czechoslovakia will supply heavy Soviet weaponry to his nation. The deal is said to be worth more…
Two Israeli paratrooper platoons made up of approximately fifty IDF soldiers storm an Egyptian army camp in Gaza. The raid is a reprisal for continued fedayeen (Palestinian militants) attacks against Israeli civilians.
May 11, 1953 U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles arrives in Cairo at the start of a 2½-week fact-finding trip to Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Turkey and Libya. Dulles emphasizes…
Born into a family of thirteen children in Mit Abu al-Kum, Egypt, Sadat is a member of the Free Officers movement that overthrew Egypt’s monarchy in 1952. As Egypt’s President, he signs a historic peace agreement with Israel in 1979.
Shmuel Katz, a leader of Revisionist Zionism and a founder of the Herut Party in Israel, is born in Johannesburg, South Africa.
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