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Timeline
October 1981 – President Anwar Sadat is assassinated by members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Hosni Mubarak is chosen in a national referendum to succeed him.
June 1995 – Mubarak survives an assassination attempt in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, while attending a summit of the Organization of African Unity. Three of the assailants escape to Sudan, which is believed to be behind the attack.
November 1997 – Six people disguised as police officers ambush the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor and fire randomly at tourists, killing 70. A group calling itself the Vanguards of Conquest, a revival of the organization that killed President Sadat, publicly warns tourists against visiting Egypt. The group stops short of directly claiming responsibility.
June 2000 – A court sentences three members of parliament from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to ten years in jail for their role in a major corruption scandal, in which dozens of bankers and businessmen were accused of fraudulently obtaining or granting loans from Egyptian banks during the 1990s.
January 2001 – Mohammed Foda, the former press secretary to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, is sentenced to five years in jail for taking money in exchange for providing access to government officials. Foda is also ordered to pay back what he is alleged to have taken in bribes and assessed a fine in the same amount.
August 2002 – Police arrest Youssef Abdul Rahman, chairman of the agriculture development bank and secretary of the ministry of agriculture, on charges of accepting bribes from French companies seeking contracts to import pesticides.
February 2003 – Growing demonstrations against the impending US/British invasion of Iraq leads the government to extend by three years the state of emergency that has existed since 1981. When the invasion begins the following month, the government orders the media to avoid coverage that might harm relations with the US or inflame the Egyptian public. Throughout the rest of the year, journalists and media outlets expressing anti-war or anti-American opinions become frequent targets of government harassment and interference.
October 2004 – A series of bomb blasts targeting Israeli tourists in the Red Sea resort town of Taba kill 34 people. The authorities arrest and detain thousands of people after the attacks and, despite finding only nine suspects, continue holding more than 2,400 incommunicado and without charge more than four months later. The following July, bomb blasts at another Sinai peninsula resort town kill 83 people and injure more than 200 others.
October 2004 – Ayman Nour, a member of parliament, founds the reformist Ghad (Tomorrow) Party to contest the 2005 presidential elections. Three months later, he is charged with forging signatures to register the party and is quickly stripped of his parliamentary immunity and brought to trial, which is delayed, supposedly at the behest of the US, so that Nour can participate in the elections. Nour, who goes on to lose both the presidential and parliamentary elections, is convicted in December 2005 and sentenced to five years in jail.
February 2005 – About 100 people stage a rare anti-government rally in Cairo to demand multi-candidate elections and the end of Mubarak's rule. Under pressure from the US, President Mubarak asks Parliament to amend the constitution to allow presidential elections by universal suffrage with candidates from other parties. In May, voters approve the amendment in a national referendum.
September 2005 – Mubarak is re-elected to his fifth consecutive presidential term in a poll that for the first time allows multiple candidates. Less than a quarter of the electorate casts a vote. Mubarak's victory immediately sparks a protest through the streets of Cairo.
December 2005 – Supporters of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, running as independents, win 20 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections.
July 2006 – Parliament amends the press law, lifting some restrictions on the media but leaving in place jail terms or stiff fines for insulting or defaming public officials or foreign heads of state.
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