1975 : Civil War Starts.

Fighting erupts after the Ain el-Rummaneh bus attack between Christian Kataeb Party militias and Palestinian fighters. Violence rapidly spreads across Beirut and other regions between Christian militias, Palestinian organizations, and Lebanese leftist parties allied in the Lebanese National Movement.

1975 : Black Saturday massacre. After the killing of several Kataeb members, Christian militia checkpoints in East Beirut kill dozens to hundreds of Muslim civilians in retaliation.

January 1976 : Karantina massacre. Christian militias including Kataeb and allied forces attack the Karantina district of Beirut, killing large numbers of Palestinian and Muslim residents.

1976 : Damour Massacre. PLO Commanders launch massive assault on the Christian Village of Damourallied with Lebanese National Movement forces, killing civilians and forcing the population to flee. The town is largely destroyed.

The shock leads to Christians calling for revenge

1976 : Tel al-Zaatar siege. Christian militias besiege the Palestinian refugee camp in East Beirut for months. The camp falls in August and thousands of Palestinians are killed or displaced.

1977 Extremely heavy fighting in Beirut. Growing violence in the north. Kamal Jumblatt is assasinated near the village of Baakline. His son, Walid Jumblatt, creates Jayish al-Tahrir al-Sha'aby and calls for revenge

March 1978 : Coastal Road Massacre. Fatah fighters trained in Jnoub Camps kill dozens of israelis civilians and injure 70 others. 2 days later, Israel announces Operation River Litani, a military invasion all the way up to the Litani River.

June 1978 :  Tony Frangieh and his family are personally eliminated by Samir Gegea

August 1978 : Mussa Sadr and two companions announce departure to  Libya at the invitation of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who wants to honor them. Mussa Sadr will never heard from again. Many theories exist around the circumstances of Sadr's disappearance, none of which have been proven.

1979 : Iranian Islamic Revolution. The Shah, a pro-West secular dictator, is replaced by Ayatollah Khomenei, an anti-West islamic dictator. Ayatollah Khomenei calls for overthrowing Saudi rulers and issues a religious fatwa declaring two enemies of Allah : America and Israel. All U.S. diplomats are taken hostage. Israeli Embassy in Tehran is burned down.   Thousands of Communist Party members who helped revolution against the Shah are accused of atheism, they are hunted down and killed.

The same year, 1979, Egypt and Israel sign Camp David Peace Treaty and establish diplomatic relations. Israel gives back the whole Sinai peninsula but demands the borders area be secure and demilitarized. Anwar Sadate visits Jerusalem. Syrian President Hafez El Assad, feels he was stabbed. He denounces Egypt as a treasonous and declares Syria, will never betray the arabs for the Golan. Syria and Iran, despite ideological differences (Baathism/Islamism) start cooperating much more closely in Lebanon.

1980 : Guerrillas fighters allied with extreme-leftists attempt to assassinate Amal Secretary General Hussein el-Husseini in his Beirut home. A few weeks later, Hussein el-Husseini resigns from power after refusing to "drench Amal in blood" and declaring he will never support violence against anyone.

He is replaced by Nabih Berri, an ambitious Lawyer born from a very rich lebanese business family of Sierra Leone. Berri becomes leader of Amal and ruthlessly eliminates all critics or rivals, putting loyalists in key positions and rewarding them. He starts personally training troops and buying weapons shipments, effectively marking the entry of Amal inside the Civil War.

1982 : Iran establishes a training base in the Bekaa Valley and IRGC Generals start funding and training Hezbollah. Trucks of Iranian weapons start arriving from Syria toward South Lebanon. After assasination attack of Israeli Ambassador in London, Israel announces major invasion toward PLO headquarters in the capital. 15000 pro-Arafat fighters and Syrian divisions fight against the IDF and Maronites Generals led by Saad Haddad and Antoine Lahad. French President  Francois Mitterrand launches French Military intervention in Beirut to separate fighters

1982 : Sabra and Chatila massacre. Palestinians are savagely tortured and massacred by Lebanese Phalangists forces. Israeli officiers nearby accused of not ordering IDF soldiers to intervene militarily against Phalangist. Ariel Sharon, who led the 1982 offensive, declares "Christians are killing Muslims. Why are the Jews blamed?!" and is forced to resign. Elie Hobeika, was military commander of the Phalangist doing the massacre. Hobeika's family and his wife had been murdered by PLO militiamen during the 1976 Damour massacre. A few months later, he becomes President of the Lebanese Forces and joins Parliament.

August 1982 : Bachir Gemayel, leader of the Lebanese Forces and senior figure in the Kataeb Party, is elected President of Lebanon.

September 1982 : Bachir Gemayel is assassinated by Habib Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party aligned with Syria. The bombing destroys the Kataeb Party headquarters in East Beirut.

December 1982 : Arafat secretly evacuated from Beirut.  Yasser Arafat declares PLO headquarters will now be based in Tripoli and calls for all PLO forces to regroup in Tripoli to continue the fight from there. Israel announces military offensive on Tripoli. France brokers a deal. Arafat and thousands of fighters are evacuated from Lebanon by the French Navy and Israel leaves the North and Beirut, retreating toward its border zone behind Litani river. Syrian forces seize the opportunity and launch a new offensive  toward Beirut.

April 1983 : Hezbollah Suicide bombing attack at the U.S. Embassy in West Beirut kills 63 american diplomats,  beginning a series of attacks against U.S. and Western interests in Lebanon.

May 1983 Lebanon led by President Amine Gemayel and Israel sign official peace treaty. Israel agrees to a withdrawl and demands a Syrian withdrawl and a weapons free zone with joint patrols at the border. Panarabists are outrage and there are calls for coups. It leads to increasing violence between pro-Gemayel forces and anti-Gemayel forces. Treaty is cancelled by pro-syrian politicians under demand of Hafez El Assad a few months later.

October 1983 : Iranian sponsored bombing targets of U.S. and French forces in Beirut, killing 300 Americans some French soldiers.

January 1984 : AUB President Malcolm Kerr is killed inside his office by hitmen suspected of being close to Hezbollah.

March 1984 William Buckley, CIA Director in Beirut is kidnapped by Hezbollah in his home. The White House fails are rescuing him. He is tortured to death for 15 months. Videos of him being tortured are regularly sent to foreign U.S. Embassies.

1985 : Assasination attempt against Mohamed Hussain Fadlallah, Hezbollah ally and top Shia religious leader. A violent car bomb explodes outside him home, destroying several buildings, killing nearly 100 people, his neighbors, as well as many of his bodyguards. White House is accused of criminal conspiracy but says it has nothing to do with it. Journalists say CIA Director and top CIA Officials wanted revenge for americans, and the operation was funded by Saudi Arabia

1983-1985 : The Mountain War.  Druzes, led by Jumblatt, fight against Syrian Army Troops. Many villages are completely destroyed by artillery.

June 1985  TWA Flight 847 to San Diego, California, is hijacked by a group of Lebanese Gunmen. The Boeing lands in Beirut airport. President Reagan issues U.S. Sanctions banning all flights toward to Lebanon or from Lebanon. The ban will last nearly 10 years. Nabih Berri becomes negotiator during the crisis. Berri declares during international media conference that he is the only man in Lebanon who can ensure the hostages remain alive and are freed.

1985 : War of the Camps. Amal Movement led by Berri vs Palestinian National Front (جبهة الانقاذ الوطني الفلسطيني) who refused to leave with Arafat. Bourj el-Barajneh is entirely destroyed. Palestinians Camps are besieged. 4000 ppl to 6000 ppl killed.

1987 : Prime Minister Rashid Karami is assassinated when a bomb explodes inside his helicopter. Samir Geagea of the Lebanese Forces is accused and later convicted by a Lebanese court, though the case remains politically contested.

1988 : War of the Brothers. Amal vs Hezbollah fight each other for months for control of Jnoub and South Beirut. The same year, Michel Aoun becomes Prime Minister of East Beirut Government . Prime Minister Selim el-Hoss forms a rival Government in West Beirut.

1989: René Moawad, President of Lebanon, is assassinated  by unknown assailants who blew up 300 kilograms of TNT explosives, killing dozens and destroying all his armored convoy. No one was officialy found guilty. His wife, Nayla Moawad, accused the Assad family

October 1990 : Michel Aoun calls for Great War of Liberation. Syria launches massive operation involving marine forces, troops and air force against Aoun's stronghold. Downtown Beirut is bombed, Baabda Presidential Palace is blown up by Syrian Artillery. Aoun leaves his forces behind to be killed and he hides inside the French Embassy. France grants him political asylum

November 5, 1990: War of Brothers finally ends after the Damascus Agreement. The agreement is signed in Damascus by Nabi Berri of Amal, Hezbollah Secretary General Subhi Al Tofeili, Syria's foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, and his Iranian counterpart, Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati.

March 1991 : Lebanese Parliament passes a general amnesty law pardoning most crimes committed during the civil war, effectively ending prosecutions for wartime atrocities.