638: Muslims capture Palestine from Byzantines.
1099: Jerusalem under Crusader control (to 1187).
1291: Mamelukes capture final Crusader strongholds Acre and Caesarea.
1516: Ottomans capture Palestine (to 1917).
1776-1804: Ahmad Pasha Al Jazzar appointed Ottoman ruler of Acre; builds port, monopolizes trade.
1799: Napoleon attacks Acre; repulsed by Al Jazzar.
1832: Muhammad Ali Pasha of Egypt occupies Palestine (to 1840).
1840: Lord Palmerston advocates Jewish immigration to Palestine.
1869: Suez Canal opened.
1878: First Zionist settlement at Petach Tiqwa.
1882-1903: First wave of 25,000 Zionist immigrants.
1906-14: Second wave of 40,000 Zionist immigrants.
1909: Tel Aviv founded north of Jaffa.
1914: World War I starts; Ottoman Empire joins war on side of Germany, and attacks Russia.
1916: Sykes-Picot Agreement secretly divides Ottoman Empire.
1917: Balfour Declaration pledges UK support for "a Jewish national home in Palestine."
1918: Palestine occupied by UK forces under General Allenby; World War I ends.
1919-23: Third wave of over 35,000 Zionist immigrants.
1920: League of Nations mandates Palestine and Mesopotamia to UK.
1921: UK appoints Haj Amin al-Husseini as Mufti of Jerusalem
1922: UK excludes Transjordan from Jewish immigration; first UK census of Palestine shows 78% Muslim Arab, 11% Jewish, 9.6% Christian Arab.
1924-28: Fourth wave of 67,000 Zionist immigrants, raising Jewish population to 16%.
1929-39: Fifth wave of over 250,000 Zionist immigrants, raising Jewish population to 30%.
1936-39: Arab rebellion in Palestine.
1939-45: World War II in Europe.
1947: UN adopts plan to partition Palestine into two states; Israel declares independence, fights war against Arab forces.