Libya

Events (18)

• 1801

  8/1 — First Barbary War: The American schooner USS Enterprise captures the Tripolitan polacca Tripoli in a single-ship action off the coast of modern-day Libya.

• 1911

  10/23 — First use of aircraft in war: Italo-Turkish War: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines.

• 1912

  10/19 — Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire.

• 1940

  6/17 — World War II: The British Army's 11th Hussars assault and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya, Africa from Italian forces.

• 1943

  1/23 — World War II: Troops of Montgomery's Eighth Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German-Italian Panzer Army.

• 1951

  12/24 — Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.

• 1955

  12/14 — Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ceylon, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania and Spain join the United Nations through United Nations Security Council Resolution 109.

• 1963

  4/26 — In Libya, amendments to the constitution transform Libya (United Kingdom of Libya) into one national unity (Kingdom of Libya) and allows for female participation in elections.

• 1969

  9/1 — A coup in Libya brings Muammar Gaddafi to power.

• 1970

  1/15 — Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

• 1977

  3/2 — Libya becomes the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya as the General People's Congress adopted the "Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People".

• 1977

  12/5 — Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.

• 1979

  12/16 — Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.

• 1986

  4/14 — In retaliation for the April 5 bombing in West Berlin in which two U.S. servicemen were killed, U.S. president Ronald Reagan orders major bombing raids against Libya, killing 60 people.

• 2001

  1/31 — In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

• 2002

  6/6 — Eastern Mediterranean event. A near-Earth asteroid estimated at ten meters in diameter explodes over the Mediterranean Sea between Greece and Libya. The resulting explosion is estimated to have a force of 26 kilotons, slightly more powerful than the Nagasaki atomic bomb.

• 2003

  9/12 — The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

• 2017

  6/5 — Six Arab countries - Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, accusing it of destabilising the region.