1187 - Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt, captures Jerusalem. Jews are allowed to enter the city.
1517 - The Ottoman Empire conquers the Mamluk Sultanate and takes control of Israel. Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilds much of Jerusalem. The Ottoman Empire will rule until the 1900s.
Modern Day Israel
1914 - World War I begins.
1917 - The Ottoman Empire is defeated by the British.
1920 - The British take over Israel as part of the Palestine Mandate.
1939 - World War II begins. During the war 6 million Jewish people will be killed by Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany in the Holocaust.
1945 - World War II comes to an end.
1948 - The independent country of Israel is declared. The first Prime Minister of Israel is David Ben-Gurion.
Golda Meir
1948 - Israel is attacked by a coalition of Arab countries including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon in the first Arab-Israeli War. The Israelis win the war.
1949 - The first Knesset (Israeli assembly) is held. Israel becomes a member of the United Nations.
1956 - The Suez Crisis occurs when Egypt takes control of the Suez Canal.
1967 - The Six-Day War is fought between Israel and a group of Arab nations including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. Israel won the war and took control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights.
1969 - Golda Meir is elected Prime Minister. She is the first woman prime minister of Israel.
1973 - The Yom Kippur War takes place when Egypt and Syria attack Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Israel was able to push back the Egyptian army.
1979 - Israel signs a peace treaty with Egypt at Camp David in the United States.
1980 - The Shekel becomes the official currency of Israel replacing the Israeli lira.
Begin and Sadat
1991 - The Gulf War occurs. Israel is hit by Scud missiles from Iraq.
2009 - Benjamin Netanyahu is elected prime minister.
Brief Overview of the History of Israel
The land which is today the country of Israel has been sacred to the Jewish people for thousands of years. Today the land is also sacred to other religions such as Christianity. In 2000 BC, the Jewish Patriarch Abraham was promised the land of Israel by God. Abraham's descendents became the Jewish people. The Kingdom of Israel emerged around 1000 BC and was ruled by great kings such as King David and Solomon.
Over the next 1000 plus years various empires would take control of the land. These included the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Empires.
In the 7th century the land was taken over by the Muslims. Later, the land would change hands a few times until the Ottoman Empire took control in 1517. The Ottoman Empire ruled until the 1900s.
During the rule of the Arabs and the Ottoman Empire, the Jewish nation had dispersed throughout the world. Many millions lived in European countries. During World War II, Nazi Germany had hoped to exterminate the Jewish people through the Holocaust. Millions of Jewish people were executed and killed in concentration camps.
After the end of World War II the United Nations divided up Israel between Arab and Jewish states. The Arabs rejected this division. On May 14, 1948 the Jewish people in the area proclaimed independence, naming their country Israel. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon immediately attacked and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War began. After a year of fighting a ceasefire was declared and temporary borders were established.
Hostilities continued between the Arabs and the Israelis in a series of wars including the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Today the tensions and hostility still exists between the two.
