1689

February

• February 25 – Khushal Khan Khattak the Warior Afghan Poet dies (1613-1689) and buried near Akora Khattak in present day NWFP.

1722

• Ahmad Shah Abadali, the founder of Durrani Empire born sometime in between 1722 and 1723.

1739

• At the age of 16, Ahmad Shah commands a 4,000-strong cavalry contingent in support of Nader Shah’s invasion of India.

1762

• Ahmad Shah wins his most famous military battle defeating the Marathas at Panipat

1919

Afghanistan regains independence after third Anglo-Afghan war against British forces trying to bring country under their sphere of influence.

Febraury

• Febraury 19 1919 – Amanullah becomes the Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan.

1926

Amanullah proclaims himself Shah (King) and concerned that Afghanistan has fallen behind the rest of the world, Amir Amanullah Khan begins a rigorous campaign of socioeconomic reform which lead to opposition from conservative forces.

1929

January

• January 13 1929 – Amanullah Khan is desposed by Habibullah Kalakani with the help of various Pashtun tribes who opposed the King’s Modernization plans. Habibullah Kalakani becomes the Amir himself.

October

• October 17 1929 – Habibullah Kalakani is overthrown by Mohammed Nadir Shah and executed.

1933

November

• November 8 1933 – King Mohammed Nadir Shah is shot dead by a teenager named Abdul Khaliq Hazara while he was distributing awards to high-school graduates at Bala-e-sar. Zahir Shah becomes the king and brings a semblance of stability to the country and he rules for the next 40 years.

1934

The United States formally recognizes Afghanistan.

1947

Britain withdraws from India, creating the predominantly Hindu but secular state of India and the Islamic state of Pakistan.

1953

General Mohammed Daud becomes prime minister. Turns to Soviet Union for economic and military assistance. He also introduces a number of social reforms including allowing women a more public presence.

1956

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev agrees to help Afghanistan, and the two countries become close allies.

1957

As part of Daud’s reforms, women are allowed to attend university and enter the workforce.

1960

Amanullah Khan died in Zurich Switzerland.

1963

Mohammed Daud forced to resign as prime minister.

1964

Constitutional monarchy introduced – but leads to political polarisation and power struggles.

1965

The Afghan Communist Party secretly forms. The group’s principal leaders are Babrak Karmal and Nur Mohammad Taraki.

1673

Khan overthrows the last king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, in a military coup. Khan’s regime, the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan, comes to power. Khan abolishes the monarchy and names himself president. The Republic of Afghanistan is established with firm ties to the USSR.

1975-1977

Khan proposes a new constitution that grants women rights and works to modernize the largely communist state. He also cracks down on opponents, forcing many suspected of not supporting Khan out of the government.

1978

General Daud is overthrown and killed in a coup by leftist People’s Democratic Party. But party’s Khalq and Parcham factions fall out, leading to purging or exile of most Parcham leaders. At the same time, conservative Islamic and ethnic leaders who objected to social changes begin armed revolt in countryside.

1979

American Ambassador Adolph Dubs is killed. The United States cuts off assistance to Afghanistan. A power struggle between Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin begins. Taraki is killed on Sept. 14 in a confrontation with Amin supporters. The USSR invades Afghanistan on Dec. 24 to bolster the faltering communist regime. On Dec. 27, Amin and many of his followers are executed. Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal becomes prime minister. Widespread opposition to Karmal and the Soviets spawns violent public demonstrations. By early 1980, the Mujahadeen rebels have united against Soviet invaders and the USSR-backed Afghan Army.

1980

Babrak Karmal, leader of the People’s Democratic Party Parcham faction, is installed as ruler, backed by Soviet troops. But anti-regime resistance intensifies with various mujahideen groups fighting Soviet forces. US, Pakistan, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia supply money and arms.

1982

Some 2.8 million Afghans have fled from the war to Pakistan, and another 1.5 million have fled to Iran. Afghan guerrillas gain control of rural areas, and Soviet troops hold urban areas.

Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship bridge is built by the Soviet Army across the river Amu Darya connecting the Uzbek city of Termez with the city of Jeyretan in the Balkh Province of northern Afghanistan.

1984

Although he claims to have traveled to Afghanistan immediately after the Soviet invasion, Saudi Islamist Osama bin Laden makes his first documented trip to Afghanistan to aid anti-Soviet fighters. The United Nations investigates reported human rights violations in Afghanistan.

1985

Mujahideen come together in Pakistan to form alliance against Soviet forces. Half of Afghan population now estimated to be displaced by war, with many fleeing to neighbouring Iran or Pakistan. New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev says he will withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

1986

US begins supplying mujaheddin with Stinger missiles, enabling them to shoot down Soviet helicopter gunships. Babrak Karmal replaced by Najibullah as head of Soviet-backed regime.

1988

In September, Osama bin Laden and 15 other Islamists form the group al-Qaida, or “the base”, to continue their jihad, or holy war, against the Soviets and other who they say oppose their goal of a pure nation governed by Islam. With their belief that the Soviet’s faltering war in Afghanistan was directly attributable to their fighting, they claim victory in their first battle, but also begin to shift their focus to America, saying the remaining superpower is the main obstacle to the establishment of a state based on Islam.

1989

The U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union sign peace accords in Geneva guaranteeing Afghan independence and the withdrawal of 100,000 Soviet troops. Following Soviet withdrawal, the Mujahadeen continue their resistance against the Soviet-backed regime of communist president Dr. Mohammad Najibullah, who had been elected president of the puppet Soviet state in 1986. Afghan guerrillas name Sibhatullah Mojadidi as head of their exiled government.

1991

US and USSR agree to end military aid to both sides.

1992

The Mujahadeen and other rebel groups, with the aid of turncoat government troops, storm the capital, Kabul, and oust Najibullah from power. Ahmad Shah Masood, legendary guerrilla leader, leads the troops into the capital. The United Nations offers protection to Najibullah. The Mujahadeen, a group already beginning to fracture as warlords fight over the future of Afghanistan, form a largely Islamic state with professor Burhannudin Rabbani as president.

1993

Mujahideen factions agree on formation of a government with ethnic Tajik, Burhanuddin Rabbani, proclaimed president.

1994

Factional contests continue and the Pashtun-dominated Taliban emerge as major challenge to the Rabbani government.

1995

Continuing drought devastates farmers and makes many rural areas uninhabitable. More than 1 million Afghans flee to neighboring Pakistan, where they languish in squalid refugee camps.

February

• February 11 – Taliban control nine of 30 provinces.
• February 18 – Taliban present their conditions for joining interim government of Afghanistan. Conditions include that the interim government should be a neutral force made up of Taliban, that only good Muslims should participate, and that all 30 provinces must be represented.

March

• March 7 – Taliban move into southern Kabul.

April

• April 4 – Taliban capture part of Shindana air base near Herat.
• April 29 – Government forces push Taliban back 80 miles from Shindand.

July

• Saudi deputy intelligence chief visits Afghanistan on peace mission and meets with Taliban.

September

• Taliban seize Shindand and Herat. Pakistani embassy in Kabul sacked. Iran warns Taliban not to cross its border.

October

• Taliban move 400 tanks from Kandahar to Kabul.

November

• November 11 – Taliban launch rockets on Kabul.
• November 26 – Intense bombing blitz by Taliban on Kabul. Taliban are pushed back by government forces.

1996

Taleban seize control of Kabul and introduce hard-line version of Islam, banning women from work, and introducing Islamic punishments, which include stoning to death and amputations. Rabbani flees to join anti-Taliban northern alliance.

1997

The Taliban publicly executes Najibullah. Ethnic groups in the north, under Masood’s Northern Alliance, and the south, aided in part by Hamid Karzai, continue to battle the Taliban for control of the country. Taliban are recognised as legitimate rulers by Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Most other countries continue to regard Rabbani as head of state. Taliban now control about two-thirds of country.

May

Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Friendship bridge closed by the taliban.

1998

February

• February 4 – Earthquake occurs in nothern Afghanistan in the Tajikistan border region. Approximately 4000 dead, 10,000 injured and 15,000 homeless.

May

• May 30 – Another Earthquake occurs in northern Afghanistan in Takhar Province. Aproximetely 4000-4500 people died and 45,000 homeless.

August

• Up to 80 cruise missiles were fired at Afghanistan and Sudan. UNOCAL hoping to a build a pipeline through Tajekistan and Afghanistan withdraw their funding from some American-funded training projects in Afghanistan.

1999

By now considered an international terrorist, bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, where he is cultivating thousands of followers in terrorist training camps. The United States demands that bin Laden be extradited to stand trial for the embassy bombings. The Taliban decline to extradite him. The United Nations punishes Afghanistan with sanctions restricting trade and economic development.

January

• January 2 – The US launched an attack on camps in Afghanistan run by Saudi Dissident Osama Bin Laden, who had allegedly masterminded the bombing of US embassies in East Africa.

2001

January

UN imposes further sanctions on Taliban to force them to hand over Osama bin Laden.

March

Taliban blow up giant Buddha statues in defiance of international efforts to save them.

April

Mullah Mohammad Rabbani, the second most powerful Taliban leader after the supreme commander Mullah Mohammad Omar, dies of liver cancer.

May

Taliban order religious minorities to wear tags identifying themselves as non-Muslims, and Hindu women to veil themselves like other Afghan women.

September

• September 4 – The taliban put eight foreign aid workers on trial in the Supreme Court for promoting Christianity. This follows months of tension between Taliban and aid agencies.
• September 9 – Ahmad Shah Masood, leader of the main opposition to the Taliban, is killed, apparently by assassins posing as journalists.
• September 11 – Hijackers commandeer four commercial airplanes and crash them into the World Trade Center Towers in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field, killing thousands. Days later, U.S. officials say bin Laden, the Saudi exile believed to be hiding in Afghanistan, is the prime suspect in the attack.

October

• October 7 – Following unanswered demands that the Taliban turn over bin Laden, U.S. and British forces launch airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan. American warplanes start to bomb Taliban targets and bases reportedly belonging to the al-Qaida network. The Taliban proclaim they are ready for jihad.

November

• November 13 – After weeks of intense fighting with Taliban troops, the Northern Alliance enters Kabul. The retreating Taliban flee southward toward Kandahar.

December

• December 5 – Afghan groups agree deal in Bonn for interim government.
• December 7 – Taliban fighters abandon their final stronghold in Kandahar as the militia group’s hold on Afghanistan continues to disintegrate. Two days later, Taliban leaders surrender the group’s final Afghan territory, the province of Zabul. The move leads the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press to declare “the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan has totally ended.”
• December 9 – Afghanistan-Uzbeksitan Friendship bridge re-opened.
• December 22 – Hamid Karzai, a royalist and ethnic Pashtun, is sworn in as the leader of the interim government in Afghanistan. Karzai entered Afghanistan after living in exile for years in neighboring Pakistan. At the U.N.-sponsored conference to determine an interim government, Karzai already has the support of the United States and by the end of the conference is elected leader of the six-month government.

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