There are three different types of color-coded dates in this timeline of history in Iraq:
| Timeline of History in Iraq |
| c. 6750 BCE | Pigs are domesticated in modern Iraq. |
| c. 3500 BCE | Known as Mesopotamia, the world's first civilization developed in Sumer, a region now in southeastern Iraq. |
| 0633 | Muslims conquered Syria and Iraq. |
| 0680 | Tragedy of Karbala (in modern Iraq): Troops from Umayyad caliph Yazid I (645 - 683) murdered Husayn (c. 626 - 680) who, for the Shiites, was really the legitimate successor to the caliphate. This triggered the Shi'ites' open and violent revolt against Umayyad rule, with the anniversary of Husayn's death becoming a Shi'ite day of mourning. |
| 0685 - 0687 | Shi'ite Muslims staged a revolt in Iraq. |
| 0750 | The Abbasids assumed command of the Islamic world (except Spain, which fell under the control of a descendant of the Umayyad family) and moved the capital to Baghdad in Iraq. |
| 0945 | A Shi'ite group invaded Baghdad and the Abbasid Empire was reduced to a powerless symbol. Legitimate authority reverted to the Muslim community. Until the sixteenth century, rule of Islamic civilization was decentralized with different sects being ruled by different leaders. |
| 0950 | Al-Farabi, the greatest of the faylasufs (Arabic for philosopher), lived most of his life in Baghdad and taught that an enlightened individual could perfect his life through philosophyBaghdad |
| 1076 | The Mizamiyya mosque-university was established in Baghdad. |
| February 10, 1258 | Baghdad fell to Mongol invaders The Mongols had tried and failed to take Baghdad in 1245. Now, after a series of devastating floods, the city's defenses were weakened, and Hülegü, grandson of Genghis Khan, led the victorious invasion. Thus began a long period of economic, political, and cultural decline in Iraq that was only overcome in the sixteenth century. |
| March 11, 1917 | British troops occupied Baghdad, Iraq. |
| April 1920 | At the San Remo Peace Conference of Allied Powers, French and British control over the Levant (former Turkish territory) was affirmed. Britain was given the mandate in Palestine, Transjordan and Mesopotamia (renamed Iraq, a territory created out of the Ottoman provinces of Basra, Baghdad and Mosul). France was given a mandate over Syria and Lebanon to France as well as 25% of the proceeds from Iraqi oil. |
| June 1920 | A tribal revolt was launched throughout Iraqi territory after Arnold Wilson, the High Commissioner to Iraq, refused to allow for the possibility any amount of Iraqi self-government. Before long Wilson was replaced by Percy Cox who adopted a more conciliatory position towards tribal leaders and the prospects of self-government. |
| December 16, 1925 | The League of Nations sets the border between Turkey and Iraq, putting the Mosul region in Iraq rather than Turkey despite the wishes of the local Kurdish population. |
| October 03, 1932 | Iraq was created as independent state under the monarchy of Faisal I. As a condition for independence from British control, Iraq had to allow an RAF presence, give Britain land and resources, and coordinate foreign policy with the British government for the next 25 years. |
| September 08, 1933 | King Faysal I of Iraq died. He was succeeded by his son, Ghazi, but there was much popular support among the Iraqi people for leadership under General Bakr Sidqi. |
| October 1936 | Counting on his great popular support and promises of social reform, General Bakr Sidqi launched a military coup in Iraq . |
| April 28, 1937 | Saddam Hussein, former dictator of Iraq, was born. |
| August 11, 1937 | General Bakr Sidqi, who came to power in Iraq in 1936 through a violent coup, was himself assassinated in Mosul. |
| December 1938 | Another coup was launched in Iraq by a group known as "The Seven." Nuri al-Sa'id was named Prime Minister. The following year, Nuri al-Sa'id was forced out of office by the coup leaders. |
| April 01, 1941 | Once again, "The Seven" announced a coup in Iraq. Rashid 'Ali al-Kaylani was made head of the government and he indicated that he intended to abide by the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty which set the conditions for Iraq's independence, but soon "The Seven" broke the treaty by refusing to allow passage of British troops through Iraqi territory and the government began to express support for Germany. |
| May 02, 1941 | British troops invaded Iraq to install a pro-British government. Iraqi leader Rashid 'Ali requested German support for his government, but Germany refused to intervene and 'Ali was forced to flee to Iran. |
| June 1941 | Despite the British occupation of Iraq, British ambassador Kinahan Cornwallis refused to allow British troops to enter Baghdad and put a stop to the looting, rioting, or pogrom that had been launched against the Jewish population. In the end, as many as 600 Jews were killed and over 2000 were injured. |
| May 02, 1953 | Feisal II became king of Iraq. |
| February 24, 1955 | Iraq, Turkey, Britain, Pakistan, and Iran signed a treaty pledging economic and military cooperation. This agreement was technically called the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO), but became more popularly known as the "Baghdad Pact" and produce quite a bit of strife in the Middle East because many nations viewed it as a thinly veiled attempt to split Arab nations apart. It was, in fact, part of the efforts of the United States to create a string of treaties around the world similar to NATO and for the purpose of containing communist expansion from the Soviet Union and China. This treaty was open to any nation except Israel and in March, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria joined an alliance as a counter-move. |
| December 19, 1955 | In Jordan, the Cabinet resigned in response to the riots that broke out in response to Jordan's participation in the Baghdad Pact - a defense alliance originally created between Turkey and Iraq against the U.S.S.R. |
| March 12, 1956 | In response to the pro-Western Baghdad Pact, representatives from Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Egypt signed an agreement to defend one another against aggression from Israel. |
| December 01, 1956 | King Faisal II of Iraq declared martial law and suspended the parliament. |
| July 14, 1958 | Iraq's monarchy was overthrown in a coup led by General Abd-al-Karim Qassim and Colonel Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif. The coup leaders declared Iraq a republic and Qassim was named prime minister. King Faysal II, Nuri As-Said and the crown prince of Iraq were all killed. |
| March 08, 1959 | In Iraq, an attempted coup was launched by Colonel Abdel Wahab Shawaf. Backed by units of the army, Shawaf alleged that the government of Abd-al-Karim was dominated by communists. |
| March 24, 1959 | Iraqi leader Abd-al-Karim announced that his country was withdrawing from the Baghdad Pact. |
| October 07, 1959 | Ba'athist rebels attempt a coup against Iraqi leader General Abd-al-Karim Qassim, but they fail. Qassim was injured and the driver of his car was killed. Later 78 Ba'athists were tried for their parts in the plot but one of them, Saddam Hussein, escaped from Iraq to Syria. |
| June 19, 1961 | Kuwait, a British protectorate since 1899, declared independence. This made leaders in Iraq very unhappy as they long harbored the hope that Kuwait would be integrated into Iraq. |
| June 25, 1961 | Iraqi leader General Abd-al-Karim Qassim officially called for "the return of Kuwait to the Iraqi homeland." |
| September 1961 | General Abd-al-Karim Qassim rejected efforts to establish political autonomy for Kurds in northern Iraq and launched a major military campaign against them. |
| February 08, 1963 | The Arab Socialist Baath Party (ASBP), led by Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif, launched a successful coup in Iraq. Arif was an Iraqi colonel who originally overthrew the Iraqi monarchy with Kassim in 1958 and installed himself as president of the new government. |
| February 09, 1963 | Iraqi Premier Abdel Karem Qassim was executed by firing squad by the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (ASBP). |
| February 11, 1963 | The United States granted official recognition to the new Ba'athist government of Iraq. |
| November 18, 1963 | The Ba'ath government of Iraq, which came to power in February of this year by assassinating Iraqi Premier Kassim, was itself overthrown by its own president, Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif, and a group of military officers. Arif created a new non-Ba'athist, pro-Nasserist government. |
| May 13, 1965 | Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, and three other members of the Arab League severed diplomatic relations with West Germany because that country had established formal diplomatic ties with Israel. |
| April 16, 1966 | Abd-al-Salam Muhammad Arif, President of Iraq, died in a helicopter crash. He was succeeded by his elder brother, Major General Abd-al-Rahman Muhamad Arif. |
| June 26, 1966 | Iraqi Prime Minister Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz accepted a cease fire with the Kurds of northern Iraq, ending a 6 year conflict. Under the agreement, the Iraqi government officially recognized the Kurdish language and provided for Kurdish representation in civil government. Unfortunately, the agreement would break down by the end of the year. |
| July 17, 1968 | Baathists once again a coup against the Iraqi government was launched, this time ousting Abd-al-Rahman Muhamad Arif. General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr became president and Saddam Hussein was named vice president. |
| February 09, 1970 | At the end of a three-day meeting, representatives of Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and the United Arab Republic "affirm anew their determination to liberate violated Arab territory" from Israel. |
| March 09, 1972 | Iraq and the Soviet Union signed a 15-year treaty of "friendship and cooperation." |
| October 06, 1973 | Syria attempted to recapture the Golan Heights by sending three armored infantry divisions and two armored divisions across the cease fire lines. At the same time, the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal and attack Israeli forces in the Sinai. This became known as the Yom Kippur War because October 6th was Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement. By the next day, with support from Moroccan and Iraqi troops, Syria had reached the pre-1967 border with Israel - but the Egyptians failed to take advantage of the surprised and didn't get far. By the 9th, however, Israel counter-attacks had turned back the Syrian advance - with Israeli forces closing to within 25 miles of Damascus itself. Combat ended only when Syrian accepted a U.N. brokered cease-fire on October 25th. |
| December 05, 1977 | Egypt broke off diplomatic relations with Syria, Algeria, Southern Yemen, Libya, and Iraq because of those governments' efforts to undermine the peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt. |
| July 16, 1979 | Ahmad Hasan Bakr was replaced by Saddam Hussein as President of Iraq. Bakr's health was cited as the reason for his stepping down and he was placed under house arrest. Bakr would died in 1982, allegedly due to poisoning. |
| September 22, 1980 | The war between Iran and Iraq began when Iranian and Iraqi air and naval forces clashed over disputed territory escalates. This conflict would last most of the next decade. |
| June 07, 1981 | Israeli jets destroyed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor. |
| July 16, 1982 | Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr resigns, allegedly due to ill health, and names General Saddam Hussein as his successor. |
| November 26, 1983 | President Ronald Reagan signed a secret order instructing the government to do "whatever was necessary and legal" to ensure that Iraq was not defeated in its war with Iran. At this time, the administration knew full well that Iraq was in possession of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" and it was using chemical weapons almost daily against Iran. In December, Donald Rumsfeld would be sent by Reagan to Iraq to meet with Saddam Hussein and offer whatever assistance might be required. |
| February 11, 1984 | The 40-month old war between Iran and Iraq escalated when Iran launched a major offensive; 500,000 troops engaged in battle. |
| May 17, 1987 | An Iraqi jet fired rockets at the U.S.S. Stark, killing 37 American sailors. Iraq later apologized for what it called a tragic mistake. |
| July 20, 1988 | Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini agreed to a cease fire with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. After eight years of war, the two sides entered negotiations to end a conflict that had cost the lives of over 100,000 Iraqis and about one million Iranians. |
| August 02, 1990 | Iraq invaded Kuwait. UN Security Council Resolution 660 condemned the invasion and called for full withdrawal, but Saddam Hussein ignores this. |
| January 17, 1991 | A coalition of forces led by the United States launched an attack on Iraq in order to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and prevent it from launching similar wars of aggression again in the future. |
| February 27, 1991 | President Bush announced the cessation of military operations in teh first Persian Gulf War, with all of Kuwait retaken and Iraqi forces completely defeated. |
| March 03, 1991 | The government of Iraq officially accepts the terms of the cease fire agreement after its army was driven out of Kuwait by American and coalition forces. |
| April 10, 1992 | The coalition of forces led by the United States officially ended its hostilities with Iraq after having driven Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. |
| June 27, 1993 | In retaliation for an assassination attempt against former American president George Bush, the United States launches air strikes against known bases of the Iraq intelligence service. |
| November 10, 1994 | In a decree signed by Saddam Hussein , the Iraqi National Assembly officially acknowledged Kuwait's sovereignty. |
| August 07, 1995 | Two of Saddam Hussein's sons-in-law, Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamil and Saddam Kamil defected to Jordan with Saddam's daughters. Hussein had been in charge of Iraqi development of Weapons of Mass Destruction and brings along with him extensive evidence of development of banned weapons. |
| February 23, 1996 | Repeatedly shunned and rejected by international Iraqi opposition groups, defectors Hussein and Saddam Kamil were enticed to return to Iraq - where they are quickly executed. |
| January 29, 2002 | During his State of the Union speech, President George Bush lists Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Syria as part of an "axis of evil." According to Bush, "by seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger." |
| March 17, 2003 | Speaking on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson expressed his support for the separation of church and state when the "church" in question involved a religion other than Christianity: "If the United States tries nation building [in Iraq], it's got to [have] at the very top of its agenda a separation of church and state. There has to be a secular state in there [Iraq] and not an Islamic state... So it's going to be absolutely imperative to set up a constitution and safeguards that say we will maintain a secular state... |
| March 19, 2003 | American and British ground forces invade Iraq via Kuwait in the second Gulf War, this time with the goal of ousting Saddam Hussein and his Baathist government once and for all. |
| March 20, 2003 | Around 2:30 GMT the United States begins its invasion of Iraq by launching a series of air strikes against Baghdad in the hopes of quickly killing leaders of the Iraqi government. |
| March 29, 2003 | For the first time, US servicemen are killed by a suicide bomber in Iraq. The four soldiers died at a checkpoint ner Najaf at the hands of someone described bas a non-commissioned officer in the Iraqi army, but they wouldn't be the last killed in such a manner over the coming years. Iraqi vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan announced that they would become "routine military policy." |
| April 03, 2003 | American troops of the 3rd Infantry Division capture Saddam Hussein international airport, located just 10 miles from the center of Baghdad, Iraq. |
| April 05, 2003 | For the first time, US forces enter cross the city limits of Baghdad, Iraq when they make a brief foray into a suburb of Baghdad. |
| April 09, 2003 | Baghdad falls to the U.S. forces which had invaded Iraq in January. |
| May 01, 2003 | President Bush declared victory and announced the end of the major combat operations in Iraq. |
| July 14, 2003 | The U.S. - appointed Iraqi interim council met for the first time. |
| July 22, 2003 | Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein's sons, were killed by U.S. troops in northern Iraq. |
| December 13, 2003 | Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces. He was discovered in a mud hole by a remote farmhouse near his home city of Tikrit, Iraq. |
| February 16, 2004 | L. Paul Bremer, United States administrator of Iraq, declared that he would veto any interim constitution that would have made Islam "the chief source of law", as opposed to "a source of inspiration for the law." Many Iraqi women expressed fears that their civil rights under Iraq's secular system could be denied them under an the interim constitution where Islam was "the chief source of law." |
| March 02, 2004 | Over 180 people were killed by explosions at Shiite shrines in Baghdad and Karbala (Iraq) on the Shia festival of Ashura. |
| March 07, 2004 | The headquarters of the US-led coalition in Baghdad was attacked by rockets fired by Iraqi guerillas, just one day before the new Iraqi temporary constitution was to be signed. |
| March 08, 2004 | Iraq's governing council unanimously approved the nation's new constitution. |
| March 09, 2004 | Abu Abbas, founder of the Palestine Liberation Front and leader of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro, died in Iraq while in U.S. custody. Anonymous American officials reported that he had died of natural causes . |
| March 31, 2004 | Four mercenaries, all U.S. civilian contractors, are killed in a grenade attack on their vehicle by guerrillas in Fallujah, Iraq . After the attack, a violent mob moved in to pull out and mutilate the charred bodies. Two were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. |
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