– Suez Crisis 1961 – First Iraqi–Kurdish War erupts in north Iraq. 1963 – Ba'ath Party comes to power in Iraq under the leadership of General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr and Colonel Abdul Salam Arif 1964 – Abdul Rahman Arif stages military coup in Iraq against the Ba'th Party and brings his brother, Abdul Salam Arif, to power 1967 – Six-Day War, Israel occupies the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza Strip 1967 – Kurds revolt in Western Iran, the revolt is crushed 1968 – Ba'athists stage second military coup under General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, Saddam Hussein is made vice president of Iraq 1970 – Gamal Abdel Nasser dies; Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt 1971 – The Aswan High Dam is completed with Soviet help in finance and construction; independence of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE 1973 – Yom Kippur War 1974 – The PLO is allowed to represent the people of Palestine in the UN 1974 to 1975 – Second Iraqi–Kurdish War 1975 to 1990 – Lebanese Civil War 1976 – Syria invades Lebanon 1978 – Camp David Accords 1979 – Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq; Iranian Revolution; Egypt–Israel peace treaty 1981 to 1989 – Iran–Iraq War results in 1–1.25 million casualties, Iraq uses chemical weapons against Iran and rebel Kurds; large scale economic devastation and surge in oil prices affect the global world economy 1981 – Assassination of Anwar Sadat 1982 – Israel invades Lebanon 1987 to 1990 – First Intifada 1991 – The Gulf War 1993 – Oslo Accords 1994 – 1994 civil war in Yemen 3rd millennium AD 2000 – Israeli troops leave Lebanon 2001 – Members of al-Qaeda attacked sites in the U.S. 2003 – The 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq 2004 to present – Shia insurgency in Yemen 2005 – Syrian troops leave Lebanon as a result of the Cedar Revolution 2006 – The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict; Saddam Hussein executed for crimes against humanity. 2010 – Arab Spring, which culminates in the Syrian Civil War with involvement of many regional powers to either support the Syrian opposition or the ruling Ba'ath party 2012 – The first MERS outbreak. 2014 – ISIS rises in Iraq and Syria; rival groups try to overthrow Syrian president 2017 – ISIS is defeated in Raqqa and Mosul, all control of territories in Syria and Iraq cease by 2019 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic See also History