1844 - First official census confirms a Jewish majority in Jerusalem.
1854 - The Crimean War begins over disputes regarding Jerusalem.
1861-1865 - During the American Civil War, Jews of both North and South were accused of aiding the enemy, smuggling, profiteering, and draft-dodging.
1867 - Mark Twain visits Palestine.
1879 - The word "anti-Semitism" was coined by Wilhelm Marr in Germany.
Moving toward the Restoration of the Nation of Israel:
1871-1882 - The first Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine.
1881-1924 - 2,500,000 Jews flee persecution in Eastern Europe. Many come to the USA, some migrate to Palestine.
1881-1882 - "Hovevei Zion" (Lovers of Zion) organization established in Russia to encourage Jewish emigration to the Promised Land.
1881 - Eliezer Ben Yehuda, "The Father of Modern Hebrew", moves to Palestine and promotes the Hebrew language.
- "Hibbat Zion", a Jewish Zionist movement established.
1882 - The First Aliya (the Hebrew word for "Ascending"); 12,000 Russian Jewish refugees move to Palestine.
- Leon Pinsker publishes "Autoemancipation", calling for the establishment of a Jewish Nation.
- The first International Anti-Jewish Congress meets in Dresden.
1885 - Nathan Birnbaum coins the term, "Zionism" in a periodical.
1890 - The Hebrew Language Committee is founded by Eliezer Ben Yehuda.
1891 - Over 10,000 Jews expelled from Moscow. 110,000 Jews flee Russia due to persecution.
- The "Blackstone Memorial": a petition presented to President Benjamin Harrison by preacher William E. Blackstone and signed by 413 prominent Americans, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, called for American support for giving "Palestine back to the Jews".
1892 - 137,000 Jews flee Russia due to persecution.
1894-1895 - In Paris, Jewish army captain, Alfred Dreyfus is convicted of treason in a rigged trial, touching off a wave of French anti-Semitism. The trial is covered by a Jewish Austrian journalist, Theodor Herzl, who is moved by it to seek a Zionist solution to anti-Semitism.
1896 - Theodor Herzl, an Austrian journalist, writes "The Jewish State", a book proposing a Jewish homeland in Palestine as a solution to European anti-Semitism.
1897 - The First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, during which Herzl writes, "Today I founded the Jewish State."
- The Zionist Organization is founded and Theodor Herzl is elected it's president.
1898 - The Second Zionist Congress, during which the colors of the Jewish prayer shawl, blue stripes on white, are proposed for the Zionist flag.
1899 - The Third Zionist congress, adopts a complete constitution.
1900 - The Fourth Zionist Congress.
1901 - The Fifth Zionist Congress.
- The Jewish National Fund is established to buy land in Palestine.
1903 - The Sixth Zionist Congress.
- The spurious "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" is first published in Russia to justify anti-Semitic actions.
1904 - The Second Aliya; made up of Jews escaping pogroms in Russia and Poland.
- The death of Theodor Herzl.
- The book "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" produced by Russian Secret Police to imply a Jewish conspiracy to rule the world.
1905 - The Seventh Zionist Congress.
- More than 400 Jews are massacred in 4 days in Odessa, Russia.
- Henry Ford publishes his anti-Jewish beliefs in a series of newspaper articles entitled, "The International Jew".
1907 - The Eighth Zionist Congress.
1908 - The Zionist Organization opens an office in Jaffa.
1909 - Tel Aviv is founded, the first modern Jewish city.
- The first Hebrew High School is formed in Jerusalem.
- The Ninth Zionist Congress.
- The first Kibbutz, Degania, is founded on the shores of Lake Kinnerret (The Sea of Galilee).
1911 - The Tenth Zionist Congress.
1913 - The Eleventh Zionist Congress.
1915 - The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacy organization, was reorganized and espoused anti-Semitism.
1917 - Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, endorsing a Jewish state in Palestine.
- British rule in Palestine begins and General Allenby enters Jerusalem.
1918 - General Allenby defeats the Turks at Meggido, ending 400 years of Turkish rule in Palestine.
- Adolph Hitler, while in a sanitarium recovering from a mustard gas poisoning, hears voices telling him that the Jews are the source of all evil.
1919-1923 - The Third Aliya; 20,000 Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland.
1919 - All Jewish religious communities in Russia are dissolved, their property is confiscated, most of their synagogues are closed, and the study of Hebrew is banned.
1920 - Adolph Hitler begins using the terms, "extirpation", "annihilation", and "extermination" concerning the Jews.
- Arab Anti-Jewish massacre and rapes in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem.
- At the San Remo Conference in Italy, the Allied Powers award Britain administration of the Mandate of Palestine on the condition that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 be implemented.
1921 - The Twelfth Zionist Congress.
- Arabs murder and pillage Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and other towns in Palestine.
- Jewish immigration to Palestine suspended by the British.
- Adolph Hitler becomes president of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party in Germany.
1921/22 - Britain divides Palestine, creating the nation of TransJordan in the area east of the Jordan River (76% of Palestine).
1922 - A joint resolution of the United States Congress on June 30 endorses the concept of the Jewish national home.
- The League of Nations grants Britain the Mandate of Palestine, citing the Balfour Declaration in it's preamble.
- American colleges and medical schools limit the number of Jews admitted.
1923 - The Thirteenth Zionist Congress.
1924-1930 - The Fourth Aliya; 80,000 Polish Jews immigrate to Palestine.
1925 - The Fourteenth Zionist Congress. Hebrew University opens in Jerusalem.
1927 - The Fifteenth Zionist Congress.
1929 - The Sixteenth Zionist Congress.
- After 1929, Henry Ford provides the finances to carry the early Nazi Party through it's initial difficult years.
1931 - The Seventeenth Zionist Congress.
1932 - First issue published of "The Palestine Post" newspaper (later called "The Jerusalem Post").
- The King David Hotel is opened in Jerusalem.
1933/34 - The German parliament gives full powers to Adolph Hitler.
1933-1945 - The Holocaust.
1933-1939 - The Fifth Aliya; mainly from Germany.
1933 - The Eighteenth Zionist Congress.
- Dachau concentration camp is opened for the confinement of "undesirables" - mostly Jews.
1935 - The Nineteenth Zionist Congress.
- Adolph Hitler reclassifies the Jews as "untermensch" (sub-human), depriving them of citizenship.
- The Nuremberg Laws exclude Jews from public life, German citizenship, and certain occupations.
1936 - Germans vote in favor of Adolph Hitler by 98.8%.
1937 - The Twentieth Zionist Congress.
- The Peel Commission recommends partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
1938 - Aliya B; illegal immigration of Jews from Europe begins.
- Nov. 9th: Kristallnacht, "The Night of Broken Glass". 7,000 Jewish shops looted, 267 synagogues burned down.
1939-1945 - World War Two
1939 - Britain issues the "White Paper", restricting Zionist activity in Palestine, limiting Jewish immigration, and reneging on it's promise of supporting a Jewish State.
- Twenty-first Zionist Congress.
- Nazi Germany adopts a master plan to liquidate all Jews in Europe.
1941 - The Germans first use gas chambers at Auschwitz.
- Jews in German territories required to wear a yellow star for identification.
1942 - In Berlin on January 20, the establishment of the "Final Solution" to exterminate the Jews of Europe.
1946 - The Twenty-second Zionist Congress.
- Thousands of Nazi war criminals flee into Arab countries, primarily Egypt and Syria.
1947 - UN Resolution 181 calls for partition of the land into a Jewish state and an Arab State, and the internationalization of Jerusalem - accepted by the Jews and rejected by the Arabs.
The State of Israel:
1948 - Britain leaves Palestine and the Jews declare their independence (May 14th), which starts the next day. The United States is the first nation to recognize the new State of Israel.
- The War of Independence starts immediately after Israel's Declaration of Independence. Israel is invaded by five Arab nations as 750,000 Jews living in Arab countries are forced to flee to Israel.
- The first census in Israel; 716,700 Jews and 156,000 non-Jews.
1948-1951 - 1,000,000 Jews move to Israel, mostly from Europe and Arab countries.
1949 - Israel's Knesset moves to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
- Israel declares Jerusalem it's capital.
- Operation Magic Carpet; aliya of Jews from Yemen.
1950 - Israel's Knesset passes the "Law of Return", giving citizenship to any Jew in the world who moves to Israel.
1951 - King Abdullah of Jordan is assassinated on the Temple Mount by Arab extremists.
1956 - The Sinai War, lasting 100 hours. The Jews deported from Egypt.
1958 - On Israel's 10th anniversary it has 2,000,000 citizens.
1964 - Creation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
1965 - The Roman Catholic Church exonerates modern Jews from guilt in the murder of Jesus Christ.
1967 - The Six-Day War (June 6-11). Israel gains control of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, and the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, along with Judea and Samaria (the "West Bank").
- Israel's Knesset formally annexes East Jerusalem, including the Old City, into the State of Israel.
- In Hebron, the tombs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are opened to non-Muslims for the first time in 700 years.
- In August, Arab leaders gather at the Khartoum Conference and adopt the policy of "The Three No's": No peace with Israel, No negotiations with Israel, and
