Timeline of Afghanistan

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This is a timeline of Afghanistan. To read about the background to these events, see History of Afghanistan. See also the list of leaders of Afghanistan and the list of years in Afghanistan.

This timeline is incomplete; some important events may be missing. Please help add to it.

[edit] 18th century

Year	Date	Event
1709	April 21	Mirwais Khan Hotak, the leader of the Ghilzai Afghans and mayor of Kandahar, killed the Persian-appointed governor Gurgin Khan and declared Kandahar independent.
1715		Mirwais Khan died of natural causes. His son, Mir Mahmud Hotaki, took the throne.
1722		The Afghan army captured the Persian capital, Isfahan. Mir Mahmud declared himself Shah of Persia.
1725	April 22	Mir Mahmud was murdered. His cousin Ashraf Khan succeeded him.
1729	September 29	Battle of Damghan: A Persian warlord, Nader Shah, defeated the forces of Ashraf Khan and forced them to retreat back into Afghanistan.
1747		Nadir Shah was assassinated. His former general, Ahmad Shah Abdali, was appointed king by loya jirga and established the Durrani Empire.

[edit] 19th century

Year	Date	Event
1809		The Afghan king Shuja Shah Durrani signed a treaty of alliance with the United Kingdom.
	May 3	Shuja was overthrown by his brother Mahmud Shah Durrani.
1826		Dost Mohammad Khan took the throne in Kabul, where he proclaimed himself amir.
1839	March	First Anglo-Afghan War: A British expeditionary force captured Quetta.
	August	First Anglo-Afghan War: Shuja was reinstated to the throne.
1841	November	First Anglo-Afghan War: A mob killed the British envoy to Afghanistan.
1842	January	Massacre of Elphinstone's army: A retreating British force of sixteen thousand was wiped out by the Afghans.
1857		Afghanistan declared war on Persia.
		Afghan forces captured Herat.
1878	January	Second Anglo-Afghan War: Afghanistan refused a British diplomatic mission, provoking a second Anglo-Afghan war.
1879	May	Second Anglo-Afghan War: To prevent British occupation of a large part of the country, the Afghan government ceded much power to the United Kingdom in the Treaty of Grandamak.
1880	July 22	Abdur Rahman Khan was officially recognized as amir of Afghanistan.

[edit] 20th century

Year	Date	Event
1901	October 1	Abdur Rahman died. His son, Habibullah Khan, became amir of Afghanistan.
1919	February 20	Habibullah was assassinated on the initiative of his son, Amanullah Khan, who declared himself king.
	May	Amanullah led a surprise attack against the British, beginning the third Anglo-Afghan War.
	August 19	Afghan Foreign Minister Mahmud Tarzi negotiated the Treaty of Rawalpindi, which fixed the Afghan-Indian border and secured Britain's recognition of Afghan independence.
1929		Amanullah was forced to abdicate in the face of a popular uprising. Amir Habibullah Kalakani took power. Kalakani was the Amir of Afghanistan for only nine months in 1929 after leading a successful revolt against King Amanullah with the help of various Pashtoon tribes, who were against the King's rapid modernization plans. After his defeat and execution by Mohammad Nadir, Kalakani was given the name: Bacha-i-Saqao, son of a water carrier. Kalakani was a Tajik from the Shamali area, and was probably born in 1890.He was the first Tajik to take power from Pahtoons in 350 years of the Pashtoon rule.
		The reactionary Mohammed Nadir Shah took control of Afghanistan.
1933	November 8	Nadir Shah was assassinated. His son, Mohammed Zahir Shah, was proclaimed king at the age of nineteen.
1964		A new constitution was ratified which instituted a democratic legislature.
1965	January 1	The Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) held its first congress.
1978	April 28	Saur Revolution: Military units loyal to the PDPA assaulted the Afghan Presidential palace, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan.
	May 1	Saur Revolution: The PDPA installed its leader, Nur Muhammad Taraki, as President of Afghanistan.
	July	A rebellion against the new Afghan government began with an uprising in Nuristan.
	December 5	A treaty was signed which permitted deployment of the Soviet military at the Afghan government's request.
1979	September 14	Taraki was murdered by supporters of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin.
	December 24	Soviet war in Afghanistan: Fearing the collapse of the Amin regime, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan.
	December 27	Operation Storm-333: Soviet troops occupied major governmental, military and media buildings in Kabul, including the Tajbeg Presidential Palace, and executed Prime Minister Amin.
1988	April 14	Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet government signed the Geneva Accords, which included a timetable for withdrawing their armed forces.
1989	February 15	Soviet war in Afghanistan: The last Soviet troops left the country.
1992	April 30	Civil war in Afghanistan (1989-1992): Forces loyal to Jamiat-e Islami took control of the capital, Kabul.
	June 28	Jamiat leader Burhanuddin Rabbani was proclaimed president.
1994		The Taliban movement began to form in a small village between Lashkar Gah and Kandahar.
1996	September 27	Civil war in Afghanistan (1996-2001): The Taliban militia forced President Rabbani and his government out of Kabul.
		Former DRA president Mohammad Najibullah, who had been living under UN protection in Kabul, was tortured, castrated and executed by Taliban forces.
1998	August	Civil war in Afghanistan (1996-2001): The Taliban took control of Mazar-e Sharif.

[edit] 21st century

Year	Date	Event
2001	September 11	September 11, 2001 attacks: Members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization, headquartered in Afghanistan, committed a series of terrorist attacks on the commercial and military centers of the United States.
	September 20	United States president George W. Bush demanded that the Afghan government turn over all resident al-Qaeda members to the United States and close all resident terrorist training camps.
	September 21	The government refused Bush's ultimatum.
	October 7	War in Afghanistan (2001–present): The United States began an aerial bombing campaign against the Taliban.
2003	December 14	2003 loya jirga: A 502-delegate loya jirga was convened to consider a new Afghan constitution.