Yasser Arafat

Aug 4, 1929: Birth of Arafat, whose full name was Mohammed Abdel-Rawf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussaini. Official accounts say he was born in Jerusalem, but biographers have established that it was in fact in Cairo.

1948: Arafat takes part in the war that breaks out shortly after the state of Israel is created. The young Arafat had already taken part in gun-running to Palestinian groups opposed to the creation of a Jewish state.

1959: After leaving Egypt for Kuwait, he founds the Fatah movement, along with Khalil al-Wazir, Faruq Khaddumi, Salah Khalaf and Mahmud Abbas. The latter is today president of the Palestinian Authority.

1964: Creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization at an Arab League summit in Jerusalem. The group is based in Jordan.

1965: First guerrilla attacks against Israel.

June 1967: Israel scores a resounding military victory over the Arab states, seizing the West Bank from Jordanian administration, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, Golan Heights from Syria and east Jerusalem.

February 1969: Under the nom-de-guerre of Abu Ammar, Arafat is elected to chair the PLO, of which his Fatah group is a major component.

September 1970: The PLO is violently expelled from Jordan, in what becomes known as "Black September". It moves to Beirut.

September 1972: In one of several deadly attacks during the 1960s and 1970s, a Palestinian splinter group takes Israeli athletes hostage at the Olympic Games in Munich. Eleven Israelis and a German are killed, along with most of the attackers.

October 1973: A new Arab-Israeli war results in a stalemate.

November 1974: The United Nations grants observer status to the PLO. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand," Arafat tells the UN General Assembly.

April 1975: Start of the Lebanese civil war, which embroils the PLO.

August 1982: Israel, which has invaded Lebanon, pushes Arafat and his supporters out. The PLO later moves its HQ to Tunis.

December 1987: Start of the first intifada, or uprising, in the occupied territories.

December 1988: Arafat recognizes Israel's right to exist.

January 1992: Marries Suha Tawil, with whom he has a daughter in 1995.

1993: After secret negotiations in Oslo, the PLO and Israel reach an agreement on autonomy for large parts of the territories occupied in 1967. On Sept 13, Arafat shakes hands with Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin on the White House lawn in Washington.

July 1, 1994: The autonomy deal implemented, Arafat makes a triumphant return to Palestinian lands after 27 years in exile.

October 1994: He is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Israeli leaders Rabin and Shimon Peres.

Jan 20, 1996: Arafat is elected the first president of the Palestinian Authority.

December 2001: After a series of Palestinian suicide attacks, Israel confines Arafat to his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

March 2002: In a new offensive, the Israeli army demolishes most of Arafat's Ramallah HQ.

Oct 29, 2004: Seriously ill, Arafat is flown to a hospital near Paris.

Nov 11, 2004: Arafat dies, but the French doctors who tended him do not say what caused his death. The following day he is buried at his Muqataa headquarters in Ramallah.

AFP