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First Anglo-Afghan War |
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1838, October |
Lord Auckland, Governor-General of India, proposes the ‘Simla Manifesto’. |
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1839, July |
The British ‘Army of Indus’ reaches and sacks the fortress city of Ghazni. |
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August |
Dost Mohammad flees as the British army occupies Kabul. |
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1841, November |
An Afghan mob attacks the British Residency and kills its resident, Sir Alexander Burnes. |
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23 December |
Sir William Hay Macnaghten negotiates with Akbar Khan but is murdered. |
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1842, 6 January |
Start of the retreat from Kabul. |
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13 January |
The only British survivor from the retreat from Kabul, Dr William Brydon, staggers into the British garrison at Jalalabad. |
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5 April |
Shah Shuja is murdered by his countrymen. |
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23 April |
Sir William Elphinstone dies in captivity. |
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September |
A British force of retribution under Sir George Pollock relieves the garrisons at Jalalabad and Kabul. |
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Second Anglo-Afghan War |
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1878, August |
The British insist on a resident within Kabul and are rebuffed by Sher Ali, Amir of Afghanistan. |
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1879, February |
Advancing in three columns, the British take Jalalabad, Kandahar and Kabul. |
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21 February |
Sher Ali dies and is succeeded as Amir by his son, Yakub Khan. |
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May |
Afghanistan and Britain sign the Treaty of Gandamak. |
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July |
British envoy, Pierre Louis Cavagnari, arrives in Kabul. |
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3 September |
Cavagnari is murdered. |
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October |
Frederick Roberts leads an occupying force into Kabul and subdues the local population. |
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1880, 27 July |
British troops defeated in the Battle of Maiwand. |
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9 August |
Roberts leads the Kabul to Kandahar March to relieve the British garrison based in Kandahar. |
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31 August |
Roberts’ column enters Kandahar. |
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1 September |
Battle of Kandahar, in which Roberts defeats Yakub Khan. The British leave Afghanistan. |
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Third Anglo-Afghan War |
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1919, 3 May |
Afghan forces cross into India and occupy the town of Bagh. |
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24 May |
The RAF bomb the presidential palace in Kabul. |
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8 August |
Britain and Afghanistan sign an armistice resulting in the Treaty of Rawalpindi, which annuls the Treaty of Gandamak. |
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19 August |
Declared Afghan Independence Day. |
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Mid-Twentieth Century |
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1933 |
Zahir Shah becomes king of Afghanistan and rules for the next four decades. |
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1953 |
Mohammad Daoud, the king’s cousin and brother-in-law, becomes prime minister. |
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1963 |
Daoud is forced to resign as prime minister. |
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1973 |
Daoud seizes power in a coup and declares Afghanistan a republic. |
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1977 |
Daoud severs ties with Moscow. |
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1978 |
The April or ‘Saur’ Revolution – Daoud is overthrown and killed in a coup by the Communist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. Nur Muhammad Taraki names himself president. |
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1979, September |
Hafizullah Amin removes Taraki from power and has Taraki murdered. |
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Soviet War in Afghanistan |
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1979, December |
Soviet Union launches invasion of Afghanistan and assassinates Amin. |
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1980 |
Soviet Union installs Babrak Karmal as president. |
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1985 |
New Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, intensifies Soviet effort in Afghanistan. |
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1986 |
US begins supplying Mujahideen with Stinger missiles. The Soviet Union replaces Babrak Karmal as president with Mohammad Najibullah, former head of secret police. |
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1988 |
Soviet Union begins pulling out its troops from Afghanistan. |
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1989, February |
Last Soviet troops leave. |
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Afghan Civil War |
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1991 |
US and the Soviet Union agree to end military aid to Afghanistan. |
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1992, April |
Najibullah resigns and, failing to escape the country, seeks sanctuary in the UN compound in Kabul. |
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April |
The Pashawar Accords agree an interim government containing different factions of the Mujahideen, with Sibghatullah Mojadeddi its first interim president. |
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1994 |
Formation of the Taliban. |
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The Taliban Years |
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1996, September |
Taliban seizes control of Kabul and executes Najibullah. |
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1997 |
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognise the Taliban as legitimate rulers but the UN does not. |
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1998, August |
US president, Bill Clinton, orders missile strikes at suspected Afghan bases of Osama bin Laden, following the bombings of US embassies in Africa. |
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2001, March |
Taliban detonate giant statues of Buddha in Bamyan in central Afghanistan. |
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7 September |
Ahmad Shah Massoud, guerrilla leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated. |
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9 September |
The ‘9/11’ attacks on America. |
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October |
US and UK launch Operation Enduring Freedom, their attack against the Taliban. |
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November |
Taliban forces flee Kabul as United Front moves in. |
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Post-Taliban Afghanistan |
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2001, 5 December |
The Bonn Agreement: Afghanistan agrees conditions for an interim government. |
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22 December |
Hamid Karzai is sworn in as chairman of an interim authority. |
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2002, April |
Former king Zahir Shah returns to Afghanistan. |
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July |
Karzai’s vice president, Haji Abdul Qadir, is assassinated in Kabul. |
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September |
Karzai survives an assassination attempt in Kandahar. |
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2003, August |
A NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) provides security, NATO’s first mission outside Europe. |
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2004, January |
The Loya Jirga (meeting of tribal elders) adopts new constitution. |
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October–November |
First democratic elections: Hamid Karzai is elected with 55.4 per cent of the vote. |
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2005, September |
Parliamentary elections. |
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2006, April |
UK defence secretary, John Reid, visits Afghanistan, saying: ‘We would be perfectly happy to leave in three years and without firing one shot because our job is to protect the reconstruction.’ |
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2007, July |
Former king Zahir Shah dies. |
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2009, August |
Presidential elections tainted by Taliban attacks, poor turnout and allegations of election fraud. |
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October |
A run-off election due in November is cancelled when Karzai’s opponent withdraws. Karzai is declared winner for a second term. |
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December |
US president Barack Obama announces an additional 30,000 US troops for Afghanistan and that the US will begin withdrawing its forces by July 2011. |
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2010, January |
London conference on the future of Afghanistan attracts leaders from over seventy countries. |
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November |
NATO announces plans to pass control of security to the Afghan army and police force by the end of 2014. |
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2011, February |
Suggestions that the US government is open to having talks with the Taliban. |
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The Afghan defence minister appeals to the US to provide security assistance beyond 2014. |
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2 May |
US forces kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. |