Languages
Page last updated at 09:19 GMT, Saturday, 8 May 2010 10:19 UK

Timeline: Jordan

A chronology of key events:

1948 - State of Israel created in British-mandate Palestine. Thousands of Palestinians flee Arab-Israeli fighting to West Bank and Jordan.

Ancient capital of Petra
Petra: Ancient capital of Nabatean kingdom
Fabled "rose-red city" was rediscovered in 1812
Valley is enclosed by sandstone cliffs

1950 - Jordan annexes West Bank.

1951 20 July - King Abdullah assassinated by Palestinian gunman angry at his apparent collusion with Israel in the carve-up of Palestine.

1952 11 August - Hussein proclaimed king after his father, Talal, is declared mentally unfit to rule.

1957 - British troops complete their withdrawal from Jordan.

1967 - Israel takes control of Jerusalem and West Bank during Six-Day War, major influx of refugees into Jordan.

1970 - Major clashes break out between government forces and Palestinian guerrillas resulting in thousands of casualties in civil war remembered as Black September.

1972 - Attempted military coup thwarted.

1974 - King Hussein recognises PLO as sole legitimate representative of Palestinian people.

1986 - Hussein severs political links with the PLO and orders its main offices to shut.

Hussein backs uprising

1988 - Hussein publicly backs the Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli rule.

Late Jordanian King Hussein and Queen Noor
King Hussein ruled Jordan for 46 years
Enthroned in 1953
Married four times, fathered 11 children
Died 7 February 1999

1989 - Rioting in several cities over price increases.

1989 - First general election since 1967, contested only by independent candidates because of the ban on political parties in 1963.

1990 - Jordan comes under severe economic and diplomatic strain as a result of the Gulf crisis following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Peace deal signed

1994 - Jordan signs peace treaty with Israel, ending 46-year official state of war.

1996 - Food price riots after subsidies removed under economic plan supervised by the International Monetary Fund.

1997 - Parliamentary elections boycotted by several parties, associations and leading figures.

1998 - King Hussein treated for lymphatic cancer in United States.

1999 January - After six months of treatment King Hussein returns home to a rousing welcome, but flies back to the US soon after for further treatment.

King Hussein dies

1999 February - King Hussein returns home and is put on a life support machine. He is pronounced dead on 7 February. More than 50 heads of state attend his funeral.

Amman skyline
Amman is one of world's oldest continuously inhabited cities
Population: 1.3 million
Built on seven hills
Known in ancient times as Rabbath-Ammon and Philadephia

1999 7 February - Crown Prince Abdullah ibn al-Hussein is sworn in as king.

2000 September - A military court sentences six men to death for plotting attacks against Israeli and US targets.

2001 March - King Abdullah and presidents Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt inaugurate a $300m (£207m) electricity line linking the grids of the three countries.

2002 January - Riots erupt in the southern town of Maan, the worst public disturbances in more than three years, following the death of a youth in custody.

2002 August - Spat with Qatar over a programme on Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV which Jordan says insulted its royal family. Jordan shuts down Al-Jazeera's office in Amman and recalls its ambassador in Qatar.

2002 September - Jordan and Israel agree on a plan to pipe water from the Red Sea to the shrinking Dead Sea. The project, costing $800m, is the two nations' biggest joint venture to date.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (left) with King Abdullah, Washington, March 2005
Kingdom's close ties with the US are unpopular among some Jordanians

2002 October - Senior US diplomat Laurence Foley is gunned down outside his home in Amman, in the first assassination of a Western diplomat in Jordan. Scores of political activists are rounded up.

2003 June - First parliamentary elections under King Abdullah II. Independent candidates loyal to the king win two-thirds of the seats.

2003 August - Bomb attack on Jordan's embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad kills 11 people, injures more than 50.

2003 September - Jordan's Central Bank retracts its decision to freeze accounts belonging to leaders of Hamas.

2003 October - A new cabinet is appointed following the resignation of Prime Minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb. Faisal al-Fayez is appointed prime minister. The king also appoints the three female ministers.

2004 February - Jordan's King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad launch the Wahdah Dam project at a ceremony on the River Yarmuk.

Terror

2004 April - Eight Islamic militants are sentenced to death for killing a US government official in 2002.

Authorities seize cars filled with explosives and arrest several suspects said to be linked to al-Qaeda and planning chemical bomb attack on intelligence services HQ in Amman.

2005 March - Jordan returns its ambassador to Israel after a four-year absence. Amman recalled its envoy in 2000 after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.

2005 April - A new cabinet is sworn in, led by Prime Minister Adnan Badran, after the previous government resigns amid reports of the king's unhappiness over the pace of reforms.

2005 August - Three missiles are fired from the port of Aqaba. Two of them miss a US naval vessel; a third one lands in Israel. A Jordanian soldier is killed.

HOTEL BLASTS
A soldier guards one of the three hotels hit by suicide bombers
Suicide bombings at three Amman hotels killed 60, including members of a wedding party

2005 November - Sixty people are killed in suicide bombings at three international hotels in Amman. Al-Qaeda in Iraq claims responsibility. Most of the victims are Jordanians. A day of mourning is declared.

2006 8 June - Iraq's prime minister announces that Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been killed in an air strike.

2006 August - King Abdullah criticises the United States and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon.

2006 September - A gunman opens fire on tourists at the Roman amphitheatre in Amman, killing a British man.

2007 July - First local elections since 1999. The main opposition party, the Islamist Action Front, withdraws after accusing the government of vote-rigging.

2007 November - Parliamentary elections strengthen position of tribal leaders and other pro-government candidates. Fortunes of the opposition Islamic Action Front decline. Political moderate Nader Dahabi appointed prime minister.

2008 August - King Abdullah visits Iraq. He is the first Arab leader to visit the country since the US invasion in 2003.

2009 July - Military tribunal sentences an Al-Qaeda militant to death for his involvement in the 2003 killing of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman.

2009 December - King Abdullah appoints new premier to push through economic reform.



Print Sponsor


video and audio news
1956: King sacks the British head of Jordan's army


1958: King Hussein announces death of Iraqi royals


1967: King Hussein on Jordan's defeat in the Six-Day War





A GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE EAST

 

 

Compiled by BBC Monitoring

FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

Americas Africa Europe Middle East South Asia Asia Pacific