War in Iraq: Timeline, Facts, and Resources
Questions Answered Below About the War in Iraq
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Timeline and Facts About the War in Iraq
January 29, 2002: In President George W. Bush’s state of the union speech, he identifies Iraq, along with Iran and North Korea, as an “axis of evil.”
May 14, 2002: The UN Security Council revamps the sanctions against Iraq replacing them with “smart sanctions” meant to allow more civilian goods to enter the country while at the same time more effectively restricting military and dual-use equipment.
June 2, 2002: President Bush publicly introduces the new defense doctrine of preemption in a speech at West Point.
September12, 2002: President Bush addresses the UN, challenging the organization to swiftly enforce its own resolutions against Iraq.
October 11, 2002: Congress authorizes an attack on Iraq.
November 8, 2002: The UN Security Council unanimously approves resolution 1441 imposing tough new arms inspections on Iraq and precise, unambiguous definitions of what constitutes a “material breach” of the resolution.
November 18, 2002: UN weapons inspectors return to Iraq, for the first time in almost four years.
December7, 2002: Iraq submits a 12,000-page declaration on its chemical, biological and nuclear activities, claiming it has no banned weapons.
December21, 2002: President Bush approves the deployment of U.S. troops to the Gulf region. British and Australian troops will join them over the coming months.
January 16, 2003: UN inspectors discover 11 undeclared empty chemical warheads in Iraq.
January 27, 2003: The UN’s formal report on Iraqi inspections is highly critical with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix stating that “Iraq appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance of the disarmament that was demanded of it.”
January 28, 2003: In his state of the union address, President Bush announces that he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate.
February 14, 2003: In a February UN report, chief UN inspector Hans Blix indicated that slight progress had been made in Iraq’s cooperation. Both pro- and anti-war nations felt the report supported their point of view.
February 22, 2003: Hans Blix orders Iraq to destroy its Al Samoud 2 missiles by March 1. The UN inspectors have determined that the missiles have an illegal range limit.
February 24, 2003: The U.S., Britain, and Spain submit a proposed resolution to the UN Security Council that states that “Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity afforded to it in Resolution 1441,” and that it is now time to authorize use of military force. France, Germany, and Russia submit an informal counter-resolution to the UN Security Council that states that inspections should be intensified and extended to ensure that there is “a real chance to the peaceful settlement of this crisis,” and that “the military option should only be a last resort.”
March 1, 2003: Iraq begins to destroy its Al Samoud missiles.
February 24–March 14, 2003: The U.S. and Britain’s intense lobbying efforts yield only four supporters; nine votes out of fifteen are required for the resolution’s passage.
March 17, 2003: All diplomatic efforts cease when President Bush delivers an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein to leave the country within 48 hours or else face an attack.
March 19, 2003: President Bush declares war on Iraq.
March 20, 2003: The war against Iraq begins 9:30 PM EST, March 19, when the U.S. launches Operation Iraqi Freedom.
March 21, 2003: Heavy aerial attacks on Baghdad and other cities publicized in advance by the Pentagon as an overwhelming barrage meant to instill “shock and awe,”.
March 26, 2003: About 1,000 paratroopers land in Kurdish-controlled Iraq to open a northern front.
March 30, 2003: U.S. Marines and Army troops launch first attack on Iraq’s Republican Guard, about 65 miles outside Baghdad.
April 2, 2003: Special operations forces rescue Pfc. Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Nasiriya.
April 5, 2003: U.S. tanks roll into the Iraqi capital and engage in firefights with Iraqi troops.
April 7, 2003: British forces take control of Basra.
April 9, 2003: The fall of Baghdad: U.S. forces take control the city.
April 14, 2003: Major fighting in Iraq is declared over by the Pentagon, after U.S. forces take control of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace.
April 15, 2003: Gen. Jay Garner, appointed by the United States to run post-war Iraq until a new government is put in place.
May 1, 2003: The U.S. declares an end to major combat operations.
May 12, 2003: A new civil administrator takes over in Iraq.
May 22, 2003: The UN Security Council approves a resolution lifting the economic sanctions against Iraq and supporting the U.S.-led administration in Iraq.
May 30, 2003: U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell and British prime minister Tony Blair deny that intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction was distorted or exaggerated to justify an attack on Iraq.
June 15, 2003: Operation Desert Scorpion launched, a military campaign meant to defeat organized Iraqi resistance against American troops.
July 7, 2003: Bush administration concedes that evidence that Iraq was pursuing a nuclear weapons program by seeking to buy uranium from Africa, cited in January State of the Union address.
July 13, 2003: Iraq’s interim governing council is inaugurated.
July 16, 2003: Gen. John Abizaid, commander of allied forces in Iraq calls continued attacks on coalition troops a “guerrilla-type campaign” and says soldiers who will replace current troops may be deployed for year-long tours.
July 17, 2003: U.S. combat deaths in Iraq reach 147.
July 22, 2003: Saddam Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, die in a firefight in a Mosul palace.
August 9, 2003: U.S. combat and noncombat casualties reach 255 at 100-day mark.
August 19, 2003: Suicide bombing destroys UN headquarters in Baghdad.
August 29, 2003: A bomb kills one of Iraq’s most important Shi’ite leaders, Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim.
September7, 2003: Continued violence and slow progress in Iraq lead to President Bush’s announcement that $87 billion is needed to cover additional military and reconstruction costs.
October 2, 2003: According to an interim report by David Kay no WMDs have been found as yet.
October 16, 2003: The UN Security Council unanimously approves the U.S. and UK resolution on Iraq’s reconstruction, which supports an international force in the country under U.S. authority.
October 23–24, 2003: The Madrid Conference, an international donors’ conference of 80 nations to raise funds for the reconstruction of Iraq, yielded $13 billion in addition to the $20 billion already pledged by the United States.
October 27, 2003: Four coordinated suicide attacks in Baghdad kill 43 and wounded more than 200. Targets included the headquarters of the Red Crescent and three police stations.
November 2, 2003: In the single deadliest strike since the Iraq war began, guerrillas shoot down an American helicopter, killing 16 U.S. soldiers and injuring 21 others.
November 14, 2003: The Bush Administration reverses policy and in a deal with the Iraqi Governing Council, agrees to transfer power to an interim government in early 2004.
December 9, 2003: A directive issued by Paul Wolfowitz bars France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, China, and Russia from bidding on lucrative contracts for rebuilding Iraq.
December 13, 2003: Iraq’s deposed leader Saddam Hussein is captured by American troops.
January 15, 2004: Tens of thousands of Shiites hold a peaceful demonstration in Basra in support of direct elections.
January 17, 2004: The number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the war reaches 500.
January 19, 2004: The United States asks the UN to intercede in the dispute over the elections process in Iraq. The UN weighs sending election experts to determine whether there is enough time to prepare for direct elections. About 100,000 Shiites march in Baghdad and other cities in support of Ayatollah al-Sistani’s demand for direct elections.
January 28, 2004: David Kay, the former head of the U.S. weapons inspection teams in Iraq, informs a senate committee that no WMD have been found in Iraq and that prewar intelligence was “almost all wrong” about Saddam Hussein’s arsenal. His report sets off a firestorm of allegations: did the U.S. receive bad intelligence, or did the Bush administration manipulate the intelligence to build the case for war, or both?
February 1, 2004: About 109 Iraqis are killed by suicide bombings in Erbil.
February 2, 2004: Under pressure from both sides of the political aisle, President Bush calls for an independent commission to study the country’s intelligence failures.
February 10, 2004: About 54 Iraqis are killed in a car bombing while applying for jobs at a police station. The next day an attack kills about 47 outside an army recruiting center.
February 12, 2004: UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, on a fact finding mission to Iraq to assess the feasibility of direct elections, meets with Ayatollah al-Sistani.
February 19, 2004: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi announces the results of its report about Iraqi elections, concluding that “elections cannot be held before the end of June, and that we need to find a mechanism to create the caretaker government and then prepare the elections sometime later in the future.”
February 23, 2004: UN envoy Brahimi issues a report to the Security Council concluding that the earliest that credible, direct elections could be held in Iraq would be late 2004 or early 2005.
March 2, 2004: Suicide attacks in Karbala on Shiite Islam’s most holy feast day killed more than 85 and wound 233 others.
March 8, 2004: The Iraqi Governing Council signs interim constitution, which includes a bill of rights, a system of checks and balances, and a military subordinate to civilian rule.
April 4, 2004: U.S. troops begin assault on Falluja in response to March 31 assassination of four U.S. civilian contractors.
April 9, 2004: Thomas Hamill is taken hostage.
April 11, 2004: U.S. orders a cease-fire in Falluja to give political discussions a chance to break the cycle of violence.
April 15, 2004: The Bush administration agrees to a UN proposal to replace the Iraqi Governing Council with a caretaker government when the U.S. returns sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.
April 17, 2004: The number of hostages taken by various Iraqi guerrillas reaches about 40.
April 27, 2004: UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi reports to the UN Security Council that by the end of May he will select a transitional government to run Iraq until elections are held in 2005.
April 30, 2004: The appalling physical and sexual abuse and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad comes to light when photographs are released by the U.S. media.
May 5, 2004: George Bush appears on two Arab television stations to condemn the prisoner abuse.
May 8, 2004: Nicholas Berg is beheaded by Iraqi militants, who claim the grisly murder was in retaliation for the treatment of Iraqi prisoners.
May 17, 2004: A suicide bomber kills the head of Iraq’s Governing Council, Izzedin Salim, and six other people.
May 27, 2004: After seven weeks of fighting in Najaf, U.S. forces and the militias loyal to Moktada al-Sadr reach a truce.
May 28, 2004: Iyad Allawi is designated prime minister of the Iraqi interim government. A Shiite neurologist, Alawi has close ties to the CIA, and many observers inside—and outside—Iraq say Alawi’s selection is a sign of the U.S.’s continued attempt to assert control over the country.
June 1, 2004: Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Muslim, is chosen president, a largely ceremonial post. The Governing Council decided to dissolve itself immediately rather than wait for the official handover of sovereignty on June 30, making way for a cabinet of 33 Iraqis, including Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, and Christians.
June 8, 2004: The UN Security Council unanimously passes a resolution endorsing the appointment of an interim government in Iraq. It authorizes U.S. military forces to remain in the country until January 2006.
June 1–17, 2004: Between June 1 and June 17, at least 100 people are reported killed in car bombs across Iraq. Among the dead are a senior Iraqi government official and a senior diplomat. Several other members of the new Iraqi government become the targets of gunmen.
June 16, 2004: The 9/11 Commission concludes in its report that there is “no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.” The link between al-Qaeda and Iraq was used as one of the justifications for the war. President Bush disputes the report’s conclusion the next day, insisting there was “a relationship” between the two.
June 17, 2004: In a poll conducted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in May, 92% of Iraqis saw the U.S. as “occupiers,” 3% saw them as “peacekeepers,” and only 2% Iraqis viewed them as “liberators.”
June 28, 2004: In a surprise move, the United States transfers power back to Iraqis two days early.
June 30, 2004: The interim government of Iraq takes legal custody of Saddam Hussein and 11 other high-profile former Baath Party officials.
July 7, 2004: Prime Minister Allawi signs a law permitting him to impose martial law.
July 9, 2004: The Senate Intelligence Committee releases an unanimous, bipartisan “Report on Pre-War Intelligence on Iraq”.
July 14, 2004: The Butler report on pre-Iraq war British intelligence is released, and it echoes the American findings of the week before that pre-war intelligence exaggerated Saddam Hussein’s threat.
July 22, 2004: Australia releases the Flood report and finds the evidence supporting Iraq’s possession of WMD “thin, ambiguous, and incomplete.”
July 28, 2004: In the deadliest attack since Iraq’s interim government took power, at least 68 were killed in a car bombing in Baqouba.
August 27, 2004: A bloody, three-week battle in Najaf between the U.S. forces and the militia of militant cleric al-Sadr ends in August when Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani negotiates a settlement.
September7, 2004: The American death toll in Iraq reaches 1,000; about 7,000 soldiers have been wounded.
September 15, 2004: The Bush administration requests that the Senate shift $3.4 billion of the $18.4 billion Iraqi aid package meant for reconstruction work to improving security measures.
In a BBC interview, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says the war against Iraq was illegal and violated the UN Charter. The U.S., UK, and Australia vigorously reject his conclusion.
October 1–3, 2004: U.S and Iraqi troops take control of Samarra, which had become a stronghold of the insurgency.
October 6, 2004: In the final report on the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Charles Duelfer concludes that there is no evidence that Iraq had undertaken weapons production program when the U.S. began the war.
October 11, 2004: Rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army begins to surrender heavy weapons. Results deemed a “mixed success.”
October 14, 2004: Insurgents detonate two bombs in the Green Zone, home to Iraqi officials and the American Embassy.
October 19, 2004: Margaret Hassan, British-Iraqi director of CARE International, is abducted in Baghdad. She is later presumed dead.
October 24, 2004: Fifty new Iraqi soldiers are executed by insurgents loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
October 25, 2004: The New York Times reports that about 380 tons of powerful explosives disappeared from military installation called Al Qaqaa sometime after the U.S.-led war began in March 2003.
November 8, 2004: U.S. forces initiate an all-out assault on Falluja, which has been under the control of insurgents since May. Named Operation Phantom Fury, the invasion involved about 10,000 American soldiers.
December 19, 2004: Car bombers target Shiites and election workers in brazen attacks in Najaf and Karbala. More than 60 people killed and 120 wounded.
December 21, 2004: Bomb explodes in U.S. military tent at base in Mosul. At least 24 people die, including 19 American soldiers.
January 4, 2005: Ali al-Haidari, governor of Baghdad Province, is assassinated by insurgents who are seeking to thwart elections scheduled for January 30.
January 7, 2005: U.S. Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz acknowledges that large parts of nearly 25% of Iraq’s provinces are not secure enough to hold elections. Violence continues on a daily basis throughout much of the country.
January 11, 2005: Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi admits that some areas of Iraq are likely to be too dangerous to hold elections.
January 12, 2005: The White House announces that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, one of the main justifications for the war, is officially over. No such weapons were found.
January 27, 2005: 31 Marines die in a helicopter crash and 5 other U.S. soldiers are killed by Iraqi insurgents elsewhere in the country. The death toll for U.S. soldiers has now reached 1,408.
January 30, 2005: Iraq’s elections to select a 275-seat National Assembly went ahead as scheduled. A total of 8.5 million people voted, representing about 58% of those Iraqis eligible to vote.
February 22, 2005: The United Iraqi Alliance, the group of Shiite political parties that won the most votes in Iraq’s January 30 election, selects Ibrahim al-Jaafari to be the prime minister of Iraq.
February 27, 2005: Syria hands over Sabawi Ibrahim Hassan, a half brother of Saddam Hussein, and other fugitives to the Iraqi government. Hassan is believed to have organized and financed the insurgency in Iraq.
February 28, 2005: In the deadliest attack ever by insurgents, suicide bomber blows up a car in Hilla, killing about 115 people who were seeking employment with the Iraqi police.
March 16, 2005: Diverse group of 275 newly elected leaders to the Iraqi assembly convene for the first time in a largely ceremonial meeting.
March 31, 2005: Panel set up by President Bush calls assessment on Iraq’s weapons capabilities “dead wrong” and finds that intelligence agencies exaggerated evidence and relied on shaky sources in making the case for war in Iraq.
April 3–7, 2005: On April 3, Iraqi Assembly name Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni, as speaker, and Hussain al-Shahristani, a Shiite, and Arif Taifour, a Kurd, as deputies.
May 1, 2005: The leaked, top-secret “Downing Street Memo” of July 23, 2002, indicates that eight months before the Iraq war was launched, Blair and top British government officials acknowledged that “the case for war was thin,” but that “Bush had made up his mind to take military action.” The U.S. wanted the war “justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
June 3, 2005: Violence from the insurgency continues despite the installation of the new Shiite-led government on April 28.
June 23, 2005: Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, stated that the Iraq insurgency remains as strong as it had been six months earlier.
July 3, 2005: Ihab al-Sharif, who was to become Egypt’s ambassador to Iraq, is kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad. On July 7, the militant group al-Qaeda in Iraq says it has killed Sharif.
July 21, 2005: Algeria’s top diplomat, Ali Billaroussi, and envoy Azzedine Belakdi are kidnapped by gunmen in Baghdad.
July 17, 2005: Suicide bomber detonates bomb under a fuel tanker in Musayyib, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 150. Four other suicide bombers hit Baghdad on the same day.
July 19, 2005: Two Sunnis involved in drafting the Iraqi constitution are shot in Baghdad.
July 20, 2005: Pentagon report assessing Iraqi security forces finds that they are, at best, “partially capable” of fighting the country’s insurgency.
August 15, 2005: Iraq delays the final drafting of the constitution, extending the deadline so Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish delegates can compromise on disputed issues, such as the distribution of oil revenues, issues of federalism, the rights of women, and the role of Islam in government.
August 28, 2005: Iraqi National Assembly receives the new constitution, which will be voted on by Iraqi citizens on October 15. Sunni negotiators denounce the document.
September10–11, 2005: U.S. and Iraqi troops launch successful offensive against insurgents in the northern city of Tal Afar.
October 2, 2005: Shiite and Kurdish leaders change election rules. The rules say that constitution will fail if two-thirds of all registered voters—rather than two-thirds of those who vote—reject it in three or more provinces.
October 15, 2005: Millions of Iraqi voters head to the polls to vote on a constitution.
October 25, 2005: Electoral commission reports that constitution has passed, with 79% of voters supporting it.
November 2, 2005: Iraqi Defense Ministry begins recruiting former junior officers from Saddam Hussein’s army to bolster army’s forces and to siphon fighters away from the insurgency.
November 7, 2005: Suicide bomber kills four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad in the deadliest suicide attack since June.
November 15, 2005: Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari announces a prompt inquiry into alleged torture of more than 170 prisoners-mostly Sunnis-by Shiite police officers.
November 18, 2005: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up in two Shiite mosques in the Kurdish town of Khanaqin. About 70 people are killed.
November 21, 2005: For the first time, a group of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish leaders sign a statement that demands a specific time for the pullout of foreign troops.
November 30, 2005: President Bush unveils his vision for victory in Iraq and rejects calls by Democrats and some Republicans for a timetable for withdrawal: “Pulling our troops out before they’ve achieved their purpose is not a plan for victory.”
December 2, 2005: Ten marines are killed and about a dozen wounded by a bomb attack in Falluja.
December 5, 2005: Witnesses in trial of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein detail horrifying examples of torture.
December 6, 2005: At least 36 people are killed and about 75 are wounded when two suicide bombers attack the Baghdad Police Academy.
December 15, 2005: Iraq holds parliamentary elections. As many as 11 million Iraqis turn out to select their first permanent Parliament since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
December 19, 2005: Religious Shiites take an early lead in elections, according to preliminary figures released by election officials.
January 20, 2006: Preliminary election results are reported for the December 15th parliamentary elections.
January 23, 2006: Report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction finds evidence of fraud, that money for rebuilding was casually and insecurely stored, and contract work was improperly certified as complete
February 15, 2006: A U.S. Senate report on progress in Iraq indicates that despite the U.S. spending $16 billion on reconstruction, every major area of Iraq’s infrastructure is below prewar levels.
February 22, 2006: Insurgents bomb and seriously damage the golden dome atop the Shiite’s most revered shrine in Iraq, the Askariya Shrine, in Samarra. The bombings ignited ferocious sectarian attacks between Shiites and Sunnis. More than a thousand people were killed over several days, and Iraq seemed poised for civil war.
March 7, 2006: The bodies of 24 men are found in five locations in Baghdad.
March 12, 2006: Six car bombs explode in Shiite section of Baghdad, killing nearly 50 people and wounding 200.
March 15, 2006: Saddam Hussein testifies for the first time in his lengthy trial. He is charged with ordering the killing of 148 villagers in Dujail in 1982.
March 16, 2006: The U.S. military and Iraqi forces launch “Operation Swarmer” near Samarra, a massive attack against insurgents. It is the largest air assault since the beginning of the war in 2003. Iraq’s new parliament meets for the first time since its election in December 2005.
March 21, 2006: Over a two-week period, nearly 200 bodies are found in Baghdad. Most of the victims had been executed or tortured.
April 4, 2006: Iraqi court charges Saddam Hussein and six other defendants with genocide in attempting to eradicate Iraq’s Kurdish population in 1988. More than 50,000 people were killed in the military campaign that destroyed about 2,000 villages.
April 5, 2006: Iraqi and U.S. officials have urged him to step down; Jaafari refuses, asserting that his appointment was reached by democratic means and that the Iraqi people “will react if they see the rules of democracy being disobeyed.”
April 7, 2006: Suicide bombings kill at least 50 people at a Baghdad mosque.
April 22, 2006: Nuri al-Maliki of the Shiite Dawa party, is approved as prime minister, ending four months of political stalemate.
April 29, 2006: The Los Angeles Times reports that Parsons, the U.S. company awarded multibillion dollar contracts to rebuild Iraq’s health and security infrastructure, will finish only 20 of 150 planned health clinics planned.
April 30, 2006: According to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), more than 75% of oil and gas restoration projects are incomplete, as well as 50% of electrical and 40% of water and sanitation projects.
May 10, 2006: President Jalal Talabani announces that more the 1,000 people were killed in Baghdad during April.
May 15, 2006: Saddam Hussein is charged with crimes against humanity. Ruling is part of his trial that focuses on the execution about nearly 150 Shiites in Dujail in 1982.
May 17, 2006: Congressman John Murtha holds a press conference discussing a not-yet-released official military report that U.S. Marines had killed 24 innocent Iraqis, “in cold blood” in the city of Haditha last November 19.
June 7, 2006: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq and the most-wanted terrorist in the country, is killed when U.S. warplanes dropped 500-lb. bombs on his safe house.
June 15, 2006: The Congressional Committee on Government Reform’s Minority reports that despite $50 billion in expenditures, oil and electricity production remain well below pre-war levels.
July 3, 2006: Steven D. Green, is charged in a U.S. federal court of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl as well as murdering her parents and young sister.
July 10, 2006: A Government Accountability Office releases a report the maintains that the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy is inadequate and was poorly planned.
July 10-15, 2006: Nearly 150 people are killed in five days of suicide bombings and shootings that bring the country to the brink of civil war.
July 11, 2006: The U.S. Army announces that it is discontinuing its multibillion-dollar deal with military contractor Halliburton, which has provided service to the military in Iraq and elsewhwere.
July 18, 2006: The UN announces that during June, an average of more than 100 civilians were killed in Iraq each day.
July 25, 2006: The U.S. announces it will move more U.S. troops into Bagdad from other regions of Iraq, in an attempt to bring security to the country’s capital.
July 27, 2006: The trial of Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi president who faces charges of crimes against humanity, ends after nine months. He is accused of ordering the 1982 execution of 148 men and boys in a Shiite village.
July 28, 2006: Audit finds that the United States Agency for International Development used an accounting scheme to mask budget overruns on reconstruction projects in Iraq.
August 3, 2006: Gen. John Abizaid, the U.S. military’s top commander in Asia (CENTCOM), announced to a Senate panel that sectarian violence in Iraq has grown so strong that civil war was a distinct possibility.
August 10, 2006: A suicide bomber attempts to blow up the Shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, killing 35 people and wounding more than 120.
August 15, 2006: According to Iraq’s health ministry and the Baghdad morgue, a total of 3,438 civilians were killed in July, an increase of 9% over June.
August 30, 2006: Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, estimated that Iraqi security forces would need another 12 to 18 months before they could take over from American troops.
Sept. 1, 2006: A Pentagon report finds that since the new Iraqi government was established in May, civilian and security forces casualties have increased by 51%.
Sept. 3, 2006: U.S. and Iraqi troops capture Hamid Juma Faris Jouri al-Saeedi, a senior leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Sept. 23, 2006: A classified National Intelligence Estimatea consensus view of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies is leaked to several newspapers.
October 11, 2006: The Iraqi Parliament votes in favor of a law that would allow provinces to unite and form semi-independent regions. Sunnis in parliament, who oppose the move out of fear that Shiites and Kurds will control most of the country’s oil, boycott the vote.
October 17, 2006: Under pressure to control violence that has spiraled out of control, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fires two police generals.
October 19, 2006: The U.S. military acknowledges that its 12-week-old campaign to establish security in Baghdad, which has been wracked by sectarian death squads and insurgents, had been unsuccessful.
October 20, 2006: Shiite militias battle for control of the city of Amarra. The Mahdi Army, which is connected to Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and the Badr Organization destroy police stations and bring the city to a standstill.
October 29, 2006: Report by the Special Inspector for Iraq Reconstruction says the U.S. military has not appropriately tracked or maintained thousands of weapons that were sent to Iraq.
October 31, 2006: Following the demand of Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, the U.S. military removes checkpoints from Baghdad streets. The military had set up the checkpoints in an attempt to find a U.S. soldier who had been kidnapped.
November 3, 2006: The New York Times reveals that a military authorization bill signed by President Bush in October includes a provision that will terminate the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction on October 1, 2007.
November 5, 2006: A court had sentenced Saddam to death for the killing of 148 Shiites in Dujail in 1982.
November 6, 2006: Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by hanging. He is found guilty of crimes against humanity for the execution of 148 Shiite men and boys from the town of Dujail.
November 22, 2006: Civilian deaths reach a record high in Iraq: some 3,700 Iraqi civilians died in October, the highest toll since the war began in 2003, according to the United Nations. Report also says that about 100,000 Iraqis flee each month to Jordan and Syria.
November 23, 2006: More than 200 people die when five car bombs and a mortar shell explode in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City district of Baghdad.
December6, 2006: A bipartisan report by the Iraq Study Group is released, it concludes that “the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating” and “U.S. forces seem to be caught in a mission that has no foreseeable end.”
December 18, 2006: A Pentagon report finds that attacks on Americans and Iraqis average about 960 a week, the highest number since it began writing the reports in 2005.
December 20, 2006: Americans formally give control of the troubled province to the Iraqi government. It is the first time since the war began that the U.S. relinquishes control of a province.
December 21, 2006: Military prosecutors charge the Marines with the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in November 2005. Ten of the casualties were women and children. Four officers are also charged with dereliction of duty.
December 28, 2006: Iraqi appellate court chief upheld the death sentence, and the execution was scheduled for two days later.
December 30, 2006: Saddam Hussein is hanged.
December 31, 2006: The American death toll in the Iraq war reaches 3,000.
January 4, 2007: Lt. Gen. David Petraeus is named the top commander in Iraq as the head of Central Command.
January 10, 2007: President Bush announces an additional 20,000 troops will be deployed to Baghdad to try to stem the sectarian fighting.
January 11, 2007: U.S. troops storm an Iranian diplomatic office in Erbil, Iraq, a Kurdish-controlled city, and detain five people. Kurdish officials are outraged at the move.
January 16, 2007: The tally of death certificates and reports from morgues, hospitals, and other institutions indicates more than 34,000 Iraqi civilians died in 2006.
January 28, 2007: As many as 250 are killed near Najaf as American and Iraqi troops fight with a Shiite militia. An American helicopter is shot down in the battle.
January 24, 2007: Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes, 12–9, in favor of a nonbinding resolution that denounces President Bush’s plan to deploy additional troops to Iraq.
February 2, 2007: National Intelligence Estimate finds the Iraqi leadership is likely too weak to hold the country together, the military is ill-equipped to rein in militias, and U.S. troops are necessary to stabilize Iraq.
February 7, 2007: The U.S. and Iraq begin a new offensive in an attempt to increase security in Baghdad and quell the increasingly deadly attacks by insurgents and militias.
February 11, 2007: Officials show weapons that they say were used by Iraqi troops and manufactured in Iranian factories.
February 16, 2007: Despite an increase in violence in Bagdhad, Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki called the security offensive a “dazzling success.”
February 17, 2007: Senate Democrats fall four votes short of forcing a debate on the troop buildup in Iraq. In the vote, 56–34, seven Republicans join Democrats in supporting the vote.
February 21, 2007: British prime minister Tony Blair says as many as 1,600 of the 7,100 troops stationed in southern Iraq will leave in the next few months.
March 28, 2007: Seasoned diplomat Ryan Crocker replaces Zalmay Khalizad as U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
April 12, 2007: Eight people, including two Iraqi legislators, die when a suicide bomber strikes inside the Parliament building, which is located in Baghdad’s fortified International Zone. An organization that includes al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia claims responsibility for the bold attack. In another attack, the Sarafiya Bridge that spans the Tigris River is destroyed.
April 18, 2007: Five bombs targeting Shiite neighborhoods kill about 200 people and ravage the Iraqi capital in the worst violence in weeks. One bomb alone kills about 140 in Sadr City area.
April 30, 2007: Stuart Bowen, Jr., head of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, faults both the U.S. and Iraq in his criticism of the poor construction and maintenance of several projects throughout Iraq.
May 1, 2007: President Bush vetoes the $124 billion spending bill passed in late April by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
May 3, 2007: Muharib Abdul Latif al-Jubouri, a leader of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, dies in a raid north of Baghdad. U.S. officials say that Jubouri was involved in the kidnapping of American reporter Jill Carroll.
May 12, 2007: Four soldiers die and three are captured in an attack near Mahmudiya, a mostly Sunni area. The Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent group that includes al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, says it is holding the soldiers.
May 15, 2007: President Bush selects Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute to oversee war policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lute serves as the top operations officer for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Senate must confirm Lute’s nomination.
June 13, 2007: The revered Shiite Askariya mosque at Samarra is bombed for the second time in 16 months. Sunni militants connected to al-Qaeda are suspected in the attack.
June 16, 2007: U.S. forces begin a new offensive, targeting al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia in areas around Baghdad, where car bombings and other insurgent attacks have intensified.
June 24, 2007: Three Iraqi army officials, including Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin of Saddam Hussein who was known as “Chemical Ali, are convicted and sentenced to death for carrying out the murder of about 50,000 Kurds in 1988—what was called the Anfal campaign.
July 3, 2007: The Iraqi cabinet approves the hydrocarbon framework law, one component of a larger legislative package, which states that the revenue from oil sales belongs to all Iraqis and outlines the function of the oil and gas council. Parliament must also approve the legislation.
August 24, 2007: A review of progress in Iraq, called the National Intelligence Estimate, says the Iraqi government has failed to end sectarian violence even with the surge of American troops. The report also says, however, that a withdrawal of troops, a move supported by many Democrats, would “erode security gains achieved thus far.”
August 26, 2007: In an attempt at national reconciliation, a group of Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Vice President Tarqi al-Hashemi, and President Jalal Talabani, announce that former Baathists, members of the party loyal to Saddam Hussein, could regain their government jobs that were lost in 2003′s de-Baathification process.
Sept. 3, 2007: President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates make a surprise visit to Iraq and visit Anbar Province, a Sunni stronghold.
Sept. 10, 2007: In highly anticipated testimony, Gen. David Petraeus tells members of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees that the U.S. military needs more time to meet its goals in Iraq.
Sept. 11, 2007: Gen. David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker face more intense and critical questioning from members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees. They failed to answer definitely repeated questions about how long U.S. troops would be in Iraq.
Sept. 13, 2007: In a nationally televised address, President Bush outlines a plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq. He said by July 2008 troop levels would drop from the current high of 169,000 to 130,000. Calling the move a “return on success,” Bush said the progress from the surge of troops would be diminished if more troops returned from Iraq too quickly.
Sept. 13, 2007: Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi, a leader of Sunni tribes in Anbar Province that have joined forces with the U.S. to fight Sunni militants, such as al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, dies in a bombing. Such cooperation is credited with bringing relative peace and stability to Anbar Province.
Sept. 16, 2007: Seventeen Iraqi civilians, including a couple and their infant, are killed when employees of private security company Blackwater USA, which was escorting a diplomatic convoy, reportedly fire on a car that failed to stop at the request of a police officer. Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki threatens to evict Blackwater employees from Iraq.
October 8, 2007: British prime minister Gordon Brown announces that half of the country’s 5,000 troops stationed in Basra will be removed by the end of 2008.
October 12, 2007: Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, criticizes the Bush administration for its “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan.”
October 17, 2007: Turkey’s Parliament votes, 507 to 19, to allow the deployment of troops into northern Iraq to deal with attacks on Turkey by Kurdish rebels in Iraq.
October 21, 2007: Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, attack and kill 12 Turkish soldiers about three miles inside Turkey.
November 6, 2007: Six American soldiers are killed in Iraq, bringing the total deaths in 2007 to 852, the highest annual total since the war began in 2003.
November 13, 2007: FBI investigators report that 14 of the 17 shootings of Iraqis on Sept. 16 by Blackwater guards were unjustified and the guards were reckless in their use of deadly force.
November 18, 2007: U.S. military reports that for three consecutive weeks, the number of car bombs, roadside bombs, mines, rocket attacks, and other violence have fallen to the lowest level since January 2006.
November 24, 2007: A brigade of 5,000 U.S. troops starts to leave Diyala Province, the first significant pullback of troops. Once the withdrawal is complete, there will be 157,000 soldiers in Iraq, from a high of 162,000.
December16, 2007: With the help of the U.S. military, Turkish fighter jets bomb areas in Dohuk Province in northern Iraq, targeting the Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. At least one civilian is reported to have died in the attack.
The British military transfers military control of Basra to the Iraqi government. It was the last region that was still under British control.
December29, 2007: Gen. David Petraeus reports that car bombs and suicide attacks have dropped by 60% since June 2007. He also says that al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia remains the greatest threat to Iraq’s security.
January 1, 2008: In the worst attack in Iraq in months, a suicide bomber kills 30 people at a home where mourners were paying their respects to the family of a man killed in a car bomb.
January 12, 2008: Parliament passes the Justice and Accountability Law, which will allow many Baathists to resume the government jobs they lost after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
February 1, 2008: At least 65 people die when two women suicide bombers attack crowded pet markets in eastern Baghdad.
February 13, 2008: Parliament passes another round of legislation, which includes a law that outlines provincial powers and an election timetable, a 2008 budget, and an amnesty law that will affect thousands of mostly Sunni Arab prisoners. A divided Iraqi Presidency Council vetoes the package, however.
February 24, 2008: More than 50 people, who are headed to the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala to celebrate Arbaeen, are killed in a suicide attack at a rest stop.
March 19, 2008: On the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, President Bush insists that the outcome of the war will be worth the sacrifice, yet he admits the cost of war had exceeded expectations in terms of money and loss of life.
March 23, 2008: A roadside bomb in Baghdad kills four U.S. soldiers, bringing the death toll of American troops to 4,000. President Bush said of the losses, “I have vowed in the past, and I will vow so long as I’m president, to make sure that those lives were not lost in vain–that, in fact, there is an outcome that will merit the sacrifice.”
March 25, 2008: About 30,000 Iraqi troops and police, with air support from the U.S. and British military, attempt to oust Shiite militias, particularly the Mahdi Army led by radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr, that control Basra and its lucrative ports in southern Iraq.
March 31, 2008: After negotiations with Iraqi officials, Moktada al-Sadr orders his militia to end military action in exchange for amnesty for his supporters, the release from prison of his followers who have not been convicted of crimes, and the government’s help in returning Sadrists to their homes.
April 8, 2008: At a congressional hearing, Gen. David Petraeus advises against further drawdowns of American troops until at least 45 days after the current drawdown is completed in July. He also reports that progress in Iraq has been “significant but even.” He also said, “We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.” Petraeus blamed some of the turmoil in Iraq on the “destructive role Iran has played.”
April 13, 2008: About 1,300 soldiers who either refused to fight or deserted the military’s March operation in Basra to oust Shiite militias are dismissed.
April 19, 2008: The Mahdi Army retreats from the last districts of Basra under its control. Iran endorses the assault on the Mahdi Army, a group that it once supported.
April 24, 2008: After a boycott of almost a year, the largest Sunni block in Iraq’s government, Tawafiq, announces it will return to the cabinet of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Tawafiq’s leader, Adnan al-Dulaimi, says by passing an amnesty law and launching an assault on Shiite militias, the government has met enough of its demands to end the boycott.
May 9, 2008: The U.S. State Department renews its contract with Blackwater Worldwide, the company whose guards killed 17 civilians in 2007, to provide security for U.S. diplomats for another year. “We cannot operate without private security firms in Iraq,” said Patrick Kennedy, an undersecretary of state.
May 10, 2008: The government and leaders of the Mahdi Army agree to end the fighting in the Sadr City section of Baghdad. As part of the deal, the government will assume control over Sadr City and the rebels who didn’t actively participate in the battles, which killed hundreds of people, will avoid arrest. Iran helped to broker the truce. The cease-fire, however, fails to stem the violence in Sadr City.
May 20, 2008: Iraqi troops move into Sadr City, meeting very little resistance from the Mahdi Army.
June 1, 2008: The U.S. military announces that fatalities in Iraq in May dropped to 19, the lowest level since the war began in 2003.
June 7, 2008: Former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari is ejected from the governing Dawa party for reaching out to a rival party.
June 17, 2008: At least 60 people are killed and about 75 are wounded when an explosive-laden minibus explodes at a bus terminal near a crowded market in a Shiite district of Baghdad. The blast causes an apartment building to burst into flames. The U.S. military attributes the bombing to a Shiite militia leader, Haydar Mehdi Khadum al-Fawadi, saying he orchestrated the bombing to incite sectarian violence between Sunnis and Shiites.
June 19, 2008: The New York Times reports that Iraq’s oil ministry has been negotiating no-bid contracts with Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron to service its oil fields. The announcement is greeted with skepticism, as critics accuse the Bush Administration of going to war in Iraq to profit from Iraq’s oil fields.
June 30, 2008: In a 700-page study, called “On Point II: Transition to the New Campaign,” the U.S. Army says that while it was capable of toppling Saddam Hussein, it was not equipped to rebuild Iraq into a functional country.
July 19, 2008: Parliament approves the nomination of six Sunni ministers to the cabinet. The ministers are all members of Tawafiq, a Sunni political party, who had boycotted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government for a year.
July 28, 2008: As Kurds in Kirkuk protest part of an election law that will dilute their control of the city, a female suicide bomber kills 17 people and wounds dozens. Kurds blame Turkmen militants for the bombing, and in response began attacking Turkmen. About a dozen people die in the violence. In Baghdad, two female suicide bombers kill 32 Shiite pilgrims.
August 6, 2008: The Iraqi Parliament fails to pass the election law when negotiations collapse over the issue of control in Kirkuk. Hopes dim that provincial elections will be held in 2008. The elections are seen as vital to moving Iraqi’s rival ethnic groups toward reconciliation. Kurds dominate the city, which also has a large population of Turkmens and Arabs, and have resisted any attempts to dilute their control through a power-sharing plan.
August 22, 2008: While negotiating a security pact that will govern U.S. involvement in Iraq, the United States says it will withdraw combat troops from Iraqi cities by June 2009, followed by the removal of all combat troops by the end of 2011 as long as Iraq is stable and secure.
September1, 2008: The U.S. transfers to the Iraqi military and police responsibility for maintaining security in Anbar Province, which was until recently the cradle of the Sunni insurgency. More than 1,000 members of the U.S. military have been killed in the province.
September9, 2008: Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, announces that plans to award Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total, BP, and Chevron no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s oil fields have been withdrawn.
September22, 2008: Royal Dutch Shell and the Iraqi government complete a deal worth several billion dollars to have Shell capture natural gas that is typically wasted during the extraction of oil. In addition, Shell opens an office in Baghdad.
September24, 2008: Parliament passes a much-anticipated law that calls for provincial elections to be held in early 2009. Elections had originally been scheduled for October 2008. Elections in the disputed city of Kirkuk, however, are postponed until a separate agreement is reached by a committee made up of representatives from each group involved.
October 1, 2008: The Iraqi government takes command of 54,000 mainly Sunni fighters from the U.S., which had been paying the fighters for their support. The fighters, members of Awakening Councils, turned against al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia in 2007 and began siding with the U.S.
October 17, 2008: Iraq and the U.S. complete a draft of a security agreement that calls for all U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 201, depending on the conditions in Iraq. Plan also gives U.S. military personnel immunity from Iraqi law except for serious premeditated felonies committed outside their “duty status.” Iraq will have jurisdiction over U.S. security contractors and other contractors, however.
October 21, 2008: Members of the Iraqi cabinet say they will not approve the agreement without amendments.
October 31, 2008: Gen. David Petraeus becomes the head of Central Command and will oversee military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and other countries.
November 16, 2008: After nearly a year of negotiations with the U.S., the Iraqi cabinet passes by a large margin a status of forces agreement that will govern the U.S. presence in Iraq through 2011. The pact calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops by December 31, 2011, and the removal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by the summer of 2009.
November 27, 2008: Iraq’s Parliament votes, 149 to 35, to approve the status of forces agreement.
December4, 2008: The Presidencial Council, made up of Iraq’s president and two vice presidents, gives final approval to the status of forces agreement that will govern the U.S. presence in Iraq through 2011.
December14, 2008: At a news conference in Baghdad, a reporter for Al Baghdadia, a Cairo-based satellite television network, hurls his shoes at President Bush and calls him a “dog.” The shoes narrowly miss Bush’s head.
January 1, 2009: The Iraqi government takes control of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified area that houses the offices and homes of most American and Iraqi government officials. The U.S. had been responsible for security in the Green Zone until this point.
January 31, 2009: Iraq holds local elections to create provincial councils. The elections are notable for their lack of violence and the noticeably diminished role the U.S. plays in their implementation. Voter turnout varies widely by area, with some regions reporting less than 50% participation and others more than 75%.
February 9, 2009: In the worst single loss to the American military in nine months, a suicide bomber kills four American soldiers in the northern Iraq city of Mosul. The bomber’s vehicle exploded as the soldiers’ Humvee drove past. Three of the soldiers died at the scene while the other later died at a nearby hospital.
February 13, 2009: A female suicide bomber kills 35 Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad, the deadliest attack in a string of bombings.
February 27, 2009: In front of a crowd of Marines in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, President Obama announced his intention to withdraw most American troops out of Iraq by August 31, 2010. As many as 50,000 troops will remain there for smaller missions and to train Iraqi soldiers.
March 8, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 28 people and injured 57 when his motorcycle, laden with explosives, blew up near a Police Academy in Baghdad. Five of the dead were police officers.
March 10, 2009: Another 33 people are killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, this time aimed at a group of Iraqi army officers. 46 others were injured.
April 10, 2009: A suicide bomb in Mosul, Iraq kills 5 U.S. soldiers and 2 Iraqis, the deadlist attack against the American military in Iraq in 13 months. The bombing took place at the police headquarters of the city. At least 70 people in the area are wounded.
April 23, 2009: At least 80 people are killed in three separate suicide bombings in Baghdad, Iraq. This is the largest death-toll due to attacks since February 2008. One of the bombings was reportedly set off by a female, who was standing among a group of women and children receiving food aid.
April 24, 2009: Another 60 people have been killed in two more attacks, this time set off outside the holiest Shiite site in Baghdad, the shrine of Imam Musa al-Kadhim. At least 140 people killed and 240 wounded in Iraq in the past two days.
May 11, 2009: An American soldier being treated at a counseling center in Baghdad kills 5 fellow servicemen.
June 30, 2009: As a signal of the United States’ diminishing role in Iraq, and in compliance with the status of forces agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, and transferred the responsibility of securing the cities to Iraqi troops.
August 19, 2009: Two massive bomb attacks kill at least 95 and wounds over 600 in Baghdad, Iraq.
October 25, 2009: Two suicide bombings in Baghdad kill at least 155 people and wound 700 others. These are the deadliest attacks in the country since 2007, and they raise the question of the safety of Iraq.
December 8, 2009: Five bombs kill at least 120 people and wound some 400 at or near government buildings in Baghdad.
January 2010: A parliamentary panel recommended that 500 candidates be banned from participating in the election because of their alleged former association with Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. The move outraged many Iraqi Sunnis, who threatened to boycott the elections, and intensified sectarian tension.
February 2010: A panel of seven judges overturned January’s ban on parliamentary candidates but said the candidates who run in the elections may still be investigated later for their ties to the Baath party. Maliki called an emergency session of Parliament to review the ruling.
March 2010: Explosions marked general election day, March 7, in Iraq, where two bombs killed at least 38 people. Iraq’s election commission reports that 62% of Iraqis voted in the election, though that number drops to just 53% in Baghdad, where the violence occurred.
August 2010: On August 17, a suicide bomber blew himself up at an Iraqi Army recruiting office, killing at least 48 army recruits and soldiers, and wounding 120 others.
On August 31, over seven years after the war in Iraq began, President Obama announced the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom with a withdrawal of combat troops. The U.S. will continue to be a presence in Iraq, mainly with civilian contractors but also with a smaller military contingent of approximately 50,000 troops. The remaining troops are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.
Resources About the War in Iraq
Chicago Tribune articles, pictures, and videos about the war in Iraq
Huffington Post war articles
Library of Congress archive and information about the war in Iraq
Archives.org Military Resources: War in Iraq, 2003
Infoplease.com information about the war in Iraq.
Other War Timelines
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French Revolution Timeline
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Timeline of the Mexican American War
Timeline of the Vietnam War 1945-1960
Timeline of the Vietnam War 1961-1964
Timeline of the Vietnam War 1965-1968
Timeline of the Vietnam War 1969-1975
Timeline of WW1
Timeline of WW2
I am a mom of 2 boys who loves to spend time with them doing fun things outdoors. In my spare time I have my own things I enjoy doing such as gardening, reading old books, and being a closet history buff.
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