1947: The United Nations General Assembly, driven by the United States and the Soviet Union, approves the Partition of Palestine into a Jewish and a Palestinian state by Aug. 1, 1948 and the end of the British mandate over Palestine by that date. The pan calls for the establishment of Jewish and Arab militias in the separate states, but no intervention by foreign powers. Arabs had pressed for a federal, unified state. The vote was 33-13, with 10 abstentions. The delegations of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Egypt vote against the plan and walk out of the assembly in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
1977: The United Nations sets Nov. 29 as International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, to coincide with the 1947 UN vote partitioning Palestine. Since 2005, the UN’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights has been responsible for organize an annual exhibit on Palestinian rights or a cultural event as part of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity. The observance, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said in 2007, “comes at a time when Palestinians continue to suffer the indignities and violence of occupation and conflict, but also at a time when a new beginning has been made in efforts to achieve a two-State solution to the conflict.”
1982: Without mentioning the Soviet Union by name, the United Nations General Assembly adopts Resolution 37/37 calling “for the immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Afghanistan.” It’s the fourth time since the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that the UN calls for Soviet withdrawal. The vote is 114 in favor, 21 against and 13 abstentions.
1982: Lebanese President Amin Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, asks the United States, France and Italy to increase the size of their multinational force in Lebanon as fighting between Christian and Muslim militiamen deteriorates. The Reagan administration’s decision to abandon the peacekeeping mission of U.S. Marines and instead order them to join the fight on Gemeyel’s side would prove fateful in the following year as Muslim militias turn their guns, and their suicide bombers, on American and French targets, including the multinational force.
- Hezbollah and the 1983 Bombing of the U.S. Marine Barracks in Beirut
- The 1983 Suicide Attack on US Marines in Beirut
- Timeline: The Lebanese Civil War (1975-1980)
1983: In Lebanon, Shiite Muslim militiamen hold 60 Christian employees of Lebanon's Middle East Airlines hostage for two hours in Beirut while Druze artillery shells Lebanese army positions in Christian east Beirut, killing six civilians and wounding 30. The U.S. Marine base in Beirut is shelled heavily as well.
1983: In Washington, D.C., sand-filled dump trucks are parked at the White House’s wrought-iron gates to prevent attacks similar to the suicide bombing that demolished the Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241, that October. Concrete barriers eventually line the north side of the White House. In May 1995, Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House is permanently closed to all but foot traffic in fear of attacks.
1990: The United Nations Security Council passes Resolution 678 authorizing war against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein if Hussein doesn’t withdraw his army from Kuwait by Jan. 15, 1991. The vote on the 15-member council is 12-2, with Cuba and Yemen voting no. China abstains.
1996: CNN airs "Return to the Lion's Den," a document of the nearly seven years former Associated Press Beirut Bureau Chief Terry Anderson spent as a hostage of Hezbollah/Islamic Jihad in Lebanon from 1985 to 1991--and his return to Lebanon in 1996 to face the likely leaders of his captors.
- Terry Anderson: 2,455 Days as a Hostage in Lebanon
- Terry Anderson's Abduction
- Lebanon's Civil War: Timeline
- What Was the Arms-for-Hostages Iran-Contra Affair?
- CNN's "Return to the Lion's Den"
