TIMELINE OF SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN YEMENI

HISTORY




• 1918 to 1919 – the Ottoman Empire is on the losing side in the First World War;
Ottoman forces withdraw from Yemen.

• 1918 to 1920 – Yemeni leader Imam Yahya conquers southern portions of the country,
leaving the port city of Aden in British control.

• 1934 – Imam Yahya signs treaties with Britain and Saudi Arabia establishing the borders
of the Yemeni state in the south and the north respectively.

• 1948 – Imam Yahya is assassinated; his son Ahmad becomes Imam.

• 1955 – Imam Ahmad survives an assassination attempt.

• 1958 – North Yemen joins Egypt and Syria in the Union of Arab States

• 1962 – In September, Imam Ahmad dies and is succeeded by his son, al-Badr.

• 1962 – Army officers overthrow Imam al-Badr and establish the Yemen Arab Republic
(YAR). Colonel Abdullah Sallal becomes president.

• 1967 – The British pull out of Aden and southern Yemen is formed. Southern Yemen is
later named the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY).

• 1973 – An oil boom leads many Yemenis to the Gulf states to find employment,
providing a steady stream of remittances to Yemen.

• 1975 – North Yemen conducts its first nation-wide elections

• 1978 – Ali Abdullah Saleh becomes president of the YAR following the murder of his
predecessor.

• 1990 – In May, the YAR in the north and the PDRY in the south unite to form the
Republic of Yemen.

• 1990 – In August, Iraq invades Kuwait. Yemen sides with Iraq, and Saudi Arabia sends
hundreds of thousands of Yemeni workers back to Yemen.

• 1994 – Only four years after unity, civil war breaks out between the northern and
southern parts of Yemen.

• 1999 – President Saleh wins reelection with approximately 92% of the vote.
• 2000 – The USS Cole is hit by a suicide attack while docked in Aden. 17 Americans died
in the attack.

• 2006 – President Saleh again wins reelection with approximately 77% of the vote.

• 2007 to 2008 - Government forces clash repeatedly with various Yemeni rebel groups in
the north and south of the country.

• 2008 – An attack on the American embassy in the capital of Sana’a leaves 18 people
dead, including the assailants.

• 2010 – The Yemeni government signs an agreement with rebels in the north of the
country; clashes with rebels in the south continue.




This timeline was created with information from BBC News and Paul Dresch’s book A
History of Modern Yemen.

BBC News Yemen Timeline

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/country_profiles/1706450.stm



Dresch, Paul. A History of Modern Yemen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.