TRIPOLI, Feb 24, 2011 (AFP) - Here are the key dates in Libya's history over the past 100 years, as the North African country undergoes an unprecedented popular revolt against the leadership of Moamer Kadhafi:
- 1911-1912: Italy conquers Libya, which had been under domination of the Ottoman Empire since 1551.
- 1912-1932: Armed resistance to Italian rule under the leadership of the Sanussi dynasty.
- 1934: Italy merges Libya's three historic regions -- Tripolitania, Fezzan and Cyrenaica -- into one colony. It becomes an Italian province in 1939.
- 1943: The World War II Allies drive Italy from Libya. In the post-war period, Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remain under British administration and the French control Fezzan.
- 1951: Libya becomes independent on December 24 with King Idriss al-Senussi head of state of a federal monarchy based on its three historic regions.
- 1958-1959: Oil discovered. Drilling starts in 1961.
- 1969: King Idriss deposed in a military coup led by Kadhafi.
- 1970-1971: Kadhafi introduces state socialism by nationalising most economic activity, including banks and oil companies.
- 1973: Libyan forces occupy the Aozou Strip in northern Chad until 1994. During this time Libya intervenes several times in the conflict in its neighbour.
- 1977: Kadhafi declares a "people's revolution" and sets up revolutionary committees.
- 1986: The United States bombs Libyan military facilities, killing 44, in retaliation for alleged Libyan involvement in the bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by US military personnel. Washington severs economic ties with Tripoli and calls on the world to treat Kadhafi as a pariah.
- 1992-1993: The United Nations imposes sanctions on Libya in a bid to force it to hand over two Libyans suspected of the bombing over the Scottish town of Lockerbie of a PanAm airliner in December 1988, in which 270 were killed.
- 2003: The normalisation of relations between Libya and the West, which began in 1999, is marked by the lifting of sanctions and the announcement by Tripoli that it is abandoning programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction.
- 2005: Major energy companies, notably from the United States, resume their activities in Libya, which were broken off in 1986.
- June, 2009: Kadhafi pays his first state visit to Italy after the signature of a treaty resolving colonial-era disputes between the two countries.
- February 15, 2011: The start of the bloody uprising against Kadhafi's regime.
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Copyright AFP 2011.
