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Turkey

Turkey

Timeline

526   A devastating earthquake strikes Antioch, Turkey, killing 250,000.

1509   The Battle of Diu takes place near Diu, India, between Portugal and Turkey.

1565   The Knights of Malta lift the Turkish siege of Malta that began on May 18.

1826   French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege.

1831   Great Bosnian uprising: Bosniak rebel against Turkey.

1853   Crimean War: Battle of Sinop — The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.

1863   Robert College of Istanbul-Turkey, the first American educational institution outside the United States, is founded by Christopher Robert, an American philanthropist.

1878   Greece declares war on Turkey.

1903   Fall of the Ottoman Empire: an unsuccessful uprising led by the Internal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, also known as the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising, takes place.

1911   First use of aircraft in war: An Italian pilot takes off from Libya to observe Turkish army lines during the Turco-Italian War.

1912   Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, employing them for reconnaissance behind Turkish lines.

1912   First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.

1912   Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long First Balkan War.

1913   Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.

1919   Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, gathers a congress in Sivas to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace.

1920   The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI and announces a temporary constitution.

1921   Turkey makes peace with Armenia.

1922   Turkish forces set fire to Smyrna in Asia Minor.

1922   In Aydin, Turkey, independence of Aydin, from Greek occupation.

1923   The Treaty of Lausanne, settling the boundaries of modern Turkey, is signed in Switzerland by Greece, Bulgaria and other countries that fought in World War I.

1923   Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, founds the Republican People's Party.

1923   Ankara replaces Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.

1923   Turkey becomes a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

1924   The 1400-year-old Islamic caliphate is abolished when Caliph Abdul Mejid II of the Ottoman Empire is deposed. The last remnant of the old regime gives way to the reformed Turkey of Kemal Atatürk.

1925   The Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul.

1925   Turkey adopts the Gregorian Calendar.

1927   Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).

1927   Turkey Türkiye becomes the first country to celebrate Children's Day as a national holiday.

1928   The ''Law on the Adoption and Implementation of the Turkish Alphabet'', replacing the version of the Arabic alphabet previously used, comes into force in Turkey.

1936   The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, authorizing Turkey to fortify the Dardanelles and Bosphorus but guaranteeing free passage to ships of all nations in peacetime.

1939   Erzincan, Turkey was hit by an earthquake.

1945   World War II: Turkey declares war on Germany.

1947   Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signs an act into law that will later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act grants $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

1953   An earthquake hits western Turkey, killing 250.

1960   In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celal Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.

1964   Greeks and Turks begin fighting in Limassol, Cyprus.

1965   Turkish prime minister Suat Hayri Urguplu returns from a visit to Moscow and announces the Soviet Union will provide aid to his country.

1966   A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.

1970   The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.

1974   Turkish occupation of Cyprus: Forces from Turkey invade Cyprus after a "coup d' etat", organised by the dictator of Greece, against president Makarios. NATO's Council praises the United States and the United Kingdom for attempts to settle the dispute. Syria and Egypt put their militaries on alert.

1976   Turkish Airlines Boeing 727 hits the Taurus Mountains, outskirt of Karatepe, Osmaniye, Turkey, killing all 155 passengers and crew.

1980   Military coup in Turkey.

1982   Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altıkat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they are avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

1984   The PKK in Turkey starts a campaign of armed attacks upon the Turkish military

1992   An earthquake registering 6.8 on the Richter scale kills over 500 in Erzincan, eastern Turkey.

1992   Turkish destroyer {{Ship|TCG|Muavenet|DM 357|6}} is crippled causing 27 deaths and injuries, by missiles negligently launched by U.S. aircraft carrier {{USS|Saratoga|CV-60|6}}.

1993   Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.

1999   Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.

1999   Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey.

1999   A 7.4-magnitude earthquake strikes İzmit, Turkey, killing more than 17,000 and injuring 44,000.

1999   The Düzce earthquake strikes Turkey with a magnitude of 7.2 on the Richter scale.

2003   France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.

2006   Turkey releases Mehmet Ali Ağca from jail after he served 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II.

2007   At least 200,000 demonstrators in Ankara, Turkey protest against the possible candidacy of incumbent Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

2009   After having closed borders for about two hundred years, Armenia and Turkey sign protocols in Zurich, Switzerland to open their borders.