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Morocco
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100Mil BC |
Spinosaurus, a 55 foot, 8 ton dinosaur with crocodile-like jaws lived during this time in Argentina, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria. Links: Algeria, Argentina, Morocco, Dinosaur, Tunisia, HistoryBC 
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95Mil BC |
Fossils of Carcharodontosaurus iguidensis, a meat-eating dinosaur from this time, was first found in Morocco in the 1920s. Better fossils were found in Niger in 1997. The upright-walking creature grinned with a mouth full of banana-sized teeth, stood taller than a double-decker bus and weighed more than two standard-sized cars. "It seems that shallow seas divided Morocco and Niger, promoting evolutionary separation of the species living in the two regions." Links: Niger, Morocco, Dinosaur, HistoryBC
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80000 BC |
In 2007 Morocco said scientists from Morocco, Britain, France and Germany had dated perforated shells in a limestone cave in eastern Morocco to this time, the oldest adornments ever found. Links: Morocco, Fashion, HistoryBC
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1062 |
Marrakech [Marrakesh], the Arab name for Morocco, was built as a fortified city by the first Berber dynasty, the Almoravids. It was the terminus of a trade route running southward to the Niger River and of another running eastward to Cairo. Links: Berbers, Morocco
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1070 |
The 8 gates of Marrakech, Morocco, were built. Links: Morocco
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1325 |
Ibn Battuta (20), a Muslim, left his home in Tangier to journey to Mecca. He traveled in Arabia, Asia, Africa, and Spain and recorded many exciting adventures. His travels lasted some 29 years were described in his book “The Rihla.” In 1986 Ross E. Dunn authored “The Adventures of Ibn Battuta” based on The Rihla. Links: Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Books, Islam
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1390 Jul 1 |
A French and Genovese armada sailed out against Barbary pirates. Links: Italy, France, Morocco
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1492 |
Jews began arriving in Morocco, Syria and elsewhere in the Arab world after their expulsion from Spain. Links: Spain, Syria, Morocco, Jews
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1680 Oct |
King Charles II of England was forced to recall Parliament in order to ask for money to fortify the port of Tangier, Morocco, which was under assault by Moorish forces. Links: Britain, Morocco
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1727 |
Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty (b.~1645), Moroccan ruler, died. The Alaouite sultan is said to have fathered 888 children through a harem of 500 women. He ruled from 1672 to 1727 succeeding his half-brother Moulay Al-Rashid who died after a fall from his horse. Links: Morocco
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1879 |
Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira, the son of the chief rabbi of Morocco, was making his way from his native Morocco to the Holy Land when he fell ill and died in the Egyptian city of Damanhour near Alexandria. He is revered by some Jews as a mystic renowned for his piety and for performing miracles. Links: Egypt, Morocco, Jews
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1906 Apr 7 |
A general act was issued by the international conference of Algeciras, Spain. Thirteen powers participated in the deliberations on the Moroccan question, and despite strong German objections, agreed to entrust to France and Spain the management of the Moroccan police. The powers also made arrangements regarding Morocco's state bank, system of taxation, customs administration, and public works. Links: Spain, France, Morocco, Banking
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1919 1926 |
The Rif War also called War of Melilla, was fought between the Spanish and the Moroccan Rif and Jibala tribes. Spanish forces suffered tens of thousands of casualties. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1921 Jul |
In Morocco Abd el-Krim defeated a Spanish army and pursued it to the suburbs of Melilla. The Republic of the Rif was then founded with Abd el-Krim as its president. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1936 Jul 17 |
Gen. Francisco Franco was flown from the Canary Islands, where he served as military governor, to Spanish Morocco where he led a rebellion against the elected Popular Front. This began the Spanish civil war. The first word of the rebellion was reported by Lester Ziffren (1906-2007) of the United Press. The rebel Nationalist movement under Francisco Franco gained support from the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany in opposition. Links: Spain, Morocco, Canary Islands
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1943 Jan 11 |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt flew to Morocco for a top-secret meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. He had not flown since 1932, when he traveled from Albany, New York, to Chicago to accept his nomination at the Democratic national convention. No U.S. president had previously flown while in office because the Secret Service regarded flying as a dangerous mode of transport. Air travel was the only realistic option for the trip to Casablanca because German submarines lurking in the Atlantic made a surface crossing too risky. Links: USA, Morocco, Aviation, RooseveltF
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1956 |
In Morocco following independence the northern region of the Rif mountains retained a dispensation to grow cannabis, which was turned into hashish, but not to sell it on a large scale. Links: Morocco, Drugs
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1957 Dec 25 |
Ramdane Abane (b.1920), Algerian Berber revolutionary leader, was assassinated in Morocco. Links: Algeria, Morocco, Assassin
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1958 |
Morocco’s crown prince and army chief Hassan II crushed a rebellion in the Rif Mountains. Links: Morocco
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1965 Oct 29 |
Mehdi Ben Barka (b.1920), a leading opposition figure to Morocco’s King Hassan II (d.1999), disappeared in front of the famous Left Bank Lipp Cafe. His body has never been found. Links: France, Morocco
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1969 Jan 4 |
Spain returned the Ifni province to Morocco. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1969 May 25 |
Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer, departed with his crew on the reed raft Ra for from Morocco. They abandoned their trip 1 week shy of Barbados. Heyerdahl sailed across the Atlantic in his Egyptian reed boat, Ra, and reported on garbage floating everywhere in the sea. On 16 July the crew was saved by the American yacht Shenandoah. In just 56 days they had sailed a distance of 2,700 nautical miles. Links: Environment, Morocco, Norway, Barbados
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1970 May 17 |
Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002), Norwegian anthropologist, left Morocco aboard Ra II, a papyrus reed boat, and sailed 3,270 nautical miles across the Atlantic to Barbados in 57 days [see Jul 12]. Links: Morocco, Norway, Barbados
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1971 Jul 10 |
In Morocco a coup against King Hassan at the Skhirat palace failed. Nearly 100 guests were killed. The coup leaders were executed three days later. The army officers were angered by Hassan's abandonment of thousands of square miles in an Algerian border war. Links: Morocco
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1971 Jul 13 |
The Army of Morocco executed ten leaders accused of leading a revolt. Links: Morocco
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1971 |
Claudio Bravo (b.1936), Chilean-born Moroccan based artist, created a surrealist still life of an assemblage of light bulbs. Links: Artist, Chile, Morocco
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1972 Aug 16 |
The Moroccan Air Force attempted to shoot down a Boeing 727 carrying King Hassan II. The attempt failed and the coup leaders were arrested. Gen. Mohammad Oufkir was shot to death for the attack. In 2000 a letter was produced that implicated Abderrahmane Youssoufi, the prime minister, in conspiracy with Oufkir. Links: Morocco
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1973 Jul 21 |
Israeli intelligence mistakenly assassinated Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan living in Lillehammer, Norway, as part of its retribution for the Sep 5, 1972, terrorist attack in Munich. He was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh (d.1979). Links: Israel, Morocco, Norway
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1975 May |
Spain moved out of Spanish Sahara and the native Sahrawi called for independence. Both Morocco and Mauritania laid claim to Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara) following Spain’s withdrawal. The Polisario Front, an armed nationalist movement, sought to turn Western Sahara into an independent state for its largely nomadic people. Links: Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Western Sahara
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1975 Nov 6 |
Morocco occupied Western Sahara. King Hassan dispatched 350,000 unarmed Moroccans on a "Green March" to the former Spanish Sahara. This began a long war with the Polisario Front guerrilla group, tribal Bedouin who sought independence. Links: Morocco, Western Sahara
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1976 Apr 13 |
In Morocco Abdennaceur Bnouhachem's work as a left-wing student activist came to an abrupt end when plain clothed security officers cornered him in the street and bundled him into an unmarked van. He was tortured and spent 9 years in prison. Years later he was awarded 1 million dirhams ($114,500) for his ordeal, but said the money will not erase his memories. Links: Morocco
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1976 |
Paul Bowles (1910-1999), American-born composer and writer who lived in Tangier, Morocco, wrote his short story Allal. In 1996 three of Bowles’ stories were made into a film titled "Halfmoon" by Frieder Schlaich and Irene von Alberti. Bertolucci had earlier transferred his novel "The Sheltering Sky" into film. A biography of Bowles by Millicint Dillon, "You Are Not I: A Portrait of Paul Bowles" was published in 1998. Links: USA, Morocco, Writer
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1976 |
Sahrawis of Western Sahara proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Links: Morocco, Western Sahara
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1981 Jun 20 |
In Casablanca, Morocco, riots left some 100 dead. In 2005 authorities exhumed the remains of about 100 people killed during riots from a mass grave and reburied them individually in a nearby lot. Links: Morocco
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1985 |
Pope John Paul II visited Morocco and issued his first major plea for Christian-Islamic solidarity against secular materialism. Links: Vatican, Morocco
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1989 |
The Arab Maghreb Union was created to encourage free trade between Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. It failed to hold summit meetings after 1994. Links: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia
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1990 Aug 11 |
Egyptian and Moroccan troops arrived in Saudi Arabia to join US forces in helping to protect the desert kingdom from possible Iraqi attack. Links: Iraq, USA, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia
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1991 Aug 3 |
US Secretary of State James A. Baker III met with King Hassan the Second of Morocco. Baker asked the monarch for his help in gaining Palestinian participation in a Middle East peace conference. Links: USA, Palestine, Morocco
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1991 |
A cease-fire was declared between the Polisario Front and Morocco. The 2 parties agreed on an all-or-nothing referendum to be held in 1998. Links: Morocco, Western Sahara
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1991 |
In Western Sahara a cease-fire was declared between the Polisario Front and Morocco. The 2 parties agreed on an all-or-nothing referendum to be held in 1998. Links: Morocco, Western Sahara
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1993 Aug 9 |
Mohamed M. Tabet (54), commissar of Casablanca, was executed by firing squad. He had committed violent acts against some 16000 women. Links: Morocco, Sex
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1993 Dec |
Wars were in Serbia, Algeria, S. Africa, Morocco, Haiti, Israel, and elsewhere. Links: Algeria, Haiti, Serbia, South Africa, Israel, Morocco
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1993 |
Morocco’s King Hassan II set up a commission to review the legal status of women. Links: Morocco, Women
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1994 Apr 15 |
Ministers from 109 countries signed a 26,000-page world trade agreement known as the "Uruguay Round" accords in Marrakesh, Morocco. Links: Morocco, WTO, Economics
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1994 Aug 21 |
An Air Morocco regional jet crashed and killed all 44 onboard. It was suspected that the pilot steered the plane into the ground. Links: Air Crash, Suicide, Morocco
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1994 Aug |
In Morocco a guerrilla attack by members of the Fez cell on the Atlas Asni Hotel in Marrakech left two Spanish tourists dead. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1994 Sep 1 |
Morocco established low-level diplomatic relations with Israel. Links: Israel, Morocco
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1994 |
Algeria closed its common border with Morocco after Morocco claimed Algerian secret service agents were behind an Islamist extremist attack in Marrakech. Algiers later set a global settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara as a precondition for reopening the border. Links: Algeria, Morocco
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1995 |
Spain and Morocco agreed to build a channel tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar. The plan was for 3 tunnels at a cost of $4 bil. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1996 Feb |
Morocco and Spain have begun preliminary plans on a 25-mile tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar. Links: Spain, Morocco
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1996 May 15 |
The UN closed its offices in Western Sahara due to a deadlock over election registration. 4/5 of Western Sahara is under Moroccan administration. The Polisario Front claims that Morocco is packing the electoral rolls with supporters having only tenuous links with the territory. Polisario has declared an independent republic and said this is recognized by more than 70 countries. Links: UN, Morocco, Western Sahara
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1996 |
Morocco’s government began a series of reforms. Links: Morocco
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1996 |
The Palestinians summoned Moroccan and Egyptian engineers and began constructing a 3-km. long runway for an Int’l. Airport at the village of Raffiach, whose residents were ordered to leave by the Palestinian Authority. Links: Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Aviation
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1997 Sep 7 |
Mobuto Sese Seko (66), former dictator of Zaire (CongoDRC), died of prostate cancer in exile in Rabat, Morocco. Mobutu began his career in the Belgian Congolese army, rising to the highest rank available to Africans, sergeant-major. However, after leaving the army in 1956, he began to be involved with the independence movement, representing the nationalists at some negotiations. Five years after independence, in 1965, Mobutu, then commander in chief of the army, exploited a power struggle in the young government by assuming the presidency in a coup. Mobutu managed to stay in power over the following decades despite uprisings, coup attempts and Angola-backed rebels. In the early 1970s, he began to Africanize names in the country, most notably changing the name of the country from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Republic of Zaire and his own name from Joseph-Désiré Mobutu to Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (which means "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake"). The end of the Cold War meant that, in 1991, Mobutu could no longer hold the same dictatorial control he had held over the country nor keep his party, the MPR, as the only legal political entity. With the beginnings of a multiparty system and a lack of Western finance, Mobutu released control of the government to the rebel leader Laurent Kabila in May 1997. Kabila‘s rebels—backed by Rwanda and Uganda—had been gaining ground over the past seven months. Mobutu died in exile several months later. In 2001 Michela Wrong authored ""In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu’s Congo." Links: Zaire, Morocco, CongoDRC
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1997 Nov 15 |
In Morocco elections results split the new legislature into 3 near identical blocks after a voter turnout of only 58.3 %. King Hassan II was expected to pick a prime minister in consultation with the parties in Jan. Links: Morocco
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1997 |
The UN sent former James Baker, former US Sec. of State, to negotiate a new agreement between Morocco and the Polisario Front of Western Sahara, but Morocco rejected his plan. Links: USA, UN, Morocco, Western Sahara
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1998 Feb 4 |
In Morocco King Hassan II appointed Abderrahmane El Toussoufi, opposition leader of the Socialist Union of People’s Forces, as prime minister. Links: Morocco
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1998 Mar 29 |
In Denver 4 men beat a cabbie, Mostapha Maarouf of Morocco, to death as people watched from their high-rise apartments. One person was arrested. Links: USA, Morocco, Colorado, Murder
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1998 Sep 25 |
In Morocco a chartered Spanish airliner crashed and killed all 38 people onboard. Links: Spain, Air Crash, Morocco
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1998 Oct 30 |
The UN extended its 460-member peacekeeping force in the Western Sahara over land contested between Morocco and the Algerian-based Polisario Front. Links: Algeria, UN, Morocco, Western Sahara
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