28
March
  Advertisement
Home  /  Timelines  /  Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
Timeline of Events
1760
1.9.1760
Afghans defeat Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat.
1761
1.14.1761
The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marhatas. The Afghan victory changes the course of Indian History.
1919
8.19.1919
Afghanistan gains full independence from the United Kingdom.
1946
11.19.1946
Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations.
1973
7.17.1973
King Mohammed Zahir Shah of Afghanistan is deposed by his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan while in Italy undergoing eye surgery.
1979
2.14.1979
In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police.
8.5.1979
In Afghanistan, Maoists undertake an attempted military uprising.
12.27.1979
Soviet Union invades Afghanistan
1982
11.3.1982
The Salang tunnel fire in Afghanistan kills up to 2,000 people.
1983
11.29.1983
Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan.
1988
4.14.1988
In a United Nations ceremony in Geneva, Switzerland, the Soviet Union signs an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
5.15.1988
Soviet war in Afghanistan: After more than eight years of fighting, the Red Army begins its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
1989
1.30.1989
The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes.
2.15.1989
Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.
1990
7.13.1990
An earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan results in the greatest number of fatalities in a mountaineering accident in High Asian mountains when an avalanche kills 43 climbers in Camp I on Pik Lenina (Lenin Peak).
1996
9.27.1996
In Afghanistan, the Taliban capture the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.
1998
1.14.1998
An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
2.4.1998
An earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale in northeast Afghanistan kills more than 5,000.
5.30.1998
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing up to 5,000.
7.20.1998
Two hundred aid workers from CARE International, Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups leave Afghanistan on orders of the Taliban.
8.20.1998
U.S. embassy bombings: the United States launches cruise missile attacks against alleged al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and a suspected chemical plant in Sudan in retaliation for the August 7 bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
11.20.1998
A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
2001
2.26.2001
The Taliban destroys two giant statues of Buddha in Bamyan, Afghanistan.
9.9.2001
Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.
11.11.2001
Journalists Pierre Billaud, Johanne Sutton and Volker Handloik are killed in Afghanistan during an attack on the convoy they are traveling in.
12.22.2001
Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Afghan Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
2002
3.1.2002
U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda begins in eastern Afghanistan.
2003
8.11.2003
NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.
2004
1.26.2004
President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
2005
6.28.2005
War in Afghanistan: Three U.S. Navy SEALs and 16 American Special Operations Forces soldiers are killed during Operation Red Wing, a failed counter-insurgent mission in Kunar province, Afghanistan.
10.8.2005
2005 Kashmir earthquake: Thousands of people are killed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.