| 1833 | Ali Chalabi is born. |
| 1869–72 | Midhat Pasha, Ottoman governor in Baghdad, launches a series of much needed reforms aimed at modernization. |
| 1879 | Abdul Hussein is born. |
| 1898 | Hadi is born. |
| 1900 | Bibi is born. |
| 1908 | The Young Turks or CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) Revolt occurs. |
| 1909 | Persian Constitutional Revolution takes place in Iran. |
| 1911 | Bibi’s father, Sayyid Hassan al-Bassam, dies. |
| 1912 | The Turkish Petroleum Company is formed for oil exploration. Its main partners are British and Dutch. |
| 1914 | World War I begins. |
| 1916 | T. E. Lawrence is sent by the British to Sharif Hussein of Mecca to foment an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, aimed at weakening the Ottoman position near the Persian |
| | Gulf to Britain’s advantage. |
| | Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein, leads the revolt alongside Lawrence. |
| | Signature of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, a contract between Britain and France carving up the Ottoman Empire, including the Arab provinces, into spheres of control. |
| | Gertrude Bell, traveller and archaeologist, arrives in Basra to serve as the only female British political officer with knowledge of the terrain and the Arab tribes of Iraq. Bibi and Hadi are married. |
| 1917 | Baghdad is captured by British troops marching from the south. |
| 1918 | Word War I ends and Rushdi is born. |
| | The British occupy the provinces that make up Iraq. |
| | The French occupy Syria and Lebanon. |
| 1919 | The Paris Peace Settlement is signed. Faisal heads an Arab delegation to the conference, accompanied by T. E. Lawrence, to lobby unsuccessfully for Arab independence. |
| 1920 | The Treaty of San Remo is decided at a meeting to determine fate of former Arab Ottoman territories, based on the previous Sykes–Picot agreement and overlooking British promises to Sharif Hussein for an Arab Kingdom. |
| | Gertrude Bell becomes Oriental Secretary to British Commissioner Sir Percy Cox and plays a key role in supporting Arab rule in Iraq. |
| | Faisal is crowned King of Syria but is driven out by the French after the battle of Maysaloun in June. |
| | Revolt breaks out in southern and central Iraq among Shi’a tribes and there is joint Sunni–Shi’i resistance to the British in Baghdad. |
| | The idea of the India Office running Iraq as an administration is abandoned by the British in favour of national rule. |
| 1921 | In April, the Cairo Conference is called by Winston Churchill to decide the fate of Iraq, which is now too costly for the British to run. Lawrence and Bell attend. Faisal is chosen as King of Iraq. |
| | King Faisal arrives in Basra in June, then through the main Iraqi cities to Baghdad. He receives a cool reception, but among those welcoming him is Abdul Hussein Chalabi. |
| | Faisal is crowned at a ceremony in Baghdad in August. Gertrude Bell is charged with setting up his court. |
| | Hassan is born. |
| 1922 | Abdul Hussein becomes Minister of Education, breaking with the Shi’a fatwa forbidding participation in government. He is banished from Kazimiya. |
| | The Chalabi family moves to the Deer Palace late November. |
| 1923 | Thamina is born. |
| 1924 | Raifa is born. |
| | Hassan loses his sight. |
| | Tensions that will later explode under Saddam Hussein begin to brew in the Ministry of Education, under Sunni Arab nationalist Director of Education Sati’ al-Husri. |
| 1925–8 | Abdul Rasul studies at Cambridge. |
| 1926 | Gertrude Bell founds the Iraqi Museum in June, then commits suicide in July. |
| 1929 | Abdul Rasul is diagnosed with cancer and travels to Europe with Hadi to seek treatment. |
| | The Turkish Petroleum Company becomes the Iraqi Petroleum Company. Majority shares are still held by European partners, with Iraq benefiting from only 20 per cent of revenue. |
| 1930 | Abdul Rasul dies of a brain tumour. Hadi becomes a Member of Parliament for the town of Diwaniya. |
| | Hadi becomes the agent for Andrew Weir & Co., supplying wheat and barley – Iraq’s main agriculture exports along with dates. |
| 1932 | Faisal struggles with a tension between local demands and Britain’s intervention in what has until now remained a British mandate. This year, Iraq officially becomes independent. |
| | Iraq joins the League of Nations. |
| | Rebellion breaks out in the north and is dealt with brutally by the British. 4000 die. |
| 1933 | Umm Kalthoum holds her first concert in Baghdad. Bibi attends with Shamsa. |
| | Talal is born. King Faisal dies unexpectedly. Ghazi becomes king. |
| 1935 | Hazem is born. Hadi is arrested on charges of treason, imprisoned and sentenced to death, but released three months later. |
| 1936 | Abdul Hussein serves his final parliamentary term and becomes a senator. |
| | A military coup d’état is attempted. |
| | Hadi becomes the first head of the Iraqi stock exchange. |
| 1937 | Rushdi travels to London to study, then transfers to the American University of Beirut. |
| 1938 | The Chalabi family move from the Deer Palace to new house built by Hadi, now called the Sif Palace. |
| | Jamila dies. |
| 1939 | Abdul Hussein dies. |
| | King Ghazi dies in car crash. Popular opinion holds that the British killed him because he was a nationalist and popular with the military. |
| | The Second World War breaks out while the Chalabi family is travelling back from holiday in Lebanon, then under French rule. |
| 1940 | Hassan starts his degree at the law college and is introduced to Jamila. |
| | Minister of Finance and former adviser to King Faisal Rustum Haidar is killed in his office. The murder is widely seen as a sectarian attack against the Shi’a. |
| 1941 | A successful pro-Nazi coup d’état is led by Rashid ’Ali Gailani. The royal family flees. |
| | British and Iraqi forces clash at Habbaniya. |
| | Baghdad is rocked by the Farhud – the Great Loot – during which Jewish shops and homes are attached by angry anti-British mobs. |
| | The royal family returns to Baghdad with British help. Some coup d’état leaders are arrested, others flee. The British temporarily reoccupy Baghdad. |
| | Thamina marries Bibi’s cousin Saleh Bassam. |
| | Rushdi becomes involved in Freya Stark’s anti-Nazi Brotherhood of Freedom. |
| | Four officers behind the coup are executed by order of the Prince regent, in a move that proves unpopular. |
| 1942 | Thamina gives birth to Leila, Bibi’s first granddaughter. |
| 1943 | Iraq enters World War II, fighting against the Axis powers. |
| | Raifa marries Abdul Amir Allawi. |
| | Rumia dies. |
| 1944 | Hadi makes his first trip to America as part of a business delegation. |
| | Ahmad is born. |
| | Hassan goes to university in Egypt to pursue a doctorate in law. Jamila goes with him. |
| | Raifa and Thamina give birth one after the other to Ghazi and Mahdi, respectively. |
| 1946 | The Communist leader ‘Fahd’ is imprisoned for inciting workers to protest against the government. |
| 1947 | Rushdi marries Ilham and becomes MP for Kazimiya. |
| | Hadi becomes a senator. |
| | Hassan briefly returns to Baghdad before moving to Paris to continue his doctorate at the Sorbonne. Jamila follow him. |
| 1948 | Raifa’s second son, Ali, is born. Rushdi first child, Hussein, is born. |
| | The Arab Israeli war – what the Israelis call the War of Independence and the Palestinians call the Catastrophe (Nakba) – breaks out with the abrupt ending of the British mandate in Palestine. As part of the Arab Legion that included forces from Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Iraq initially sends 3,000 men to fight, later increasing that number to 21,000. Pressure on Iraq’s Jewish population increases. |
| 1949 | Bibi travels to Europe for the first time to visit Hassan in Paris. |
| | Fahd is executed. |
| | Salim Chalabi temporarily becomes secretary general of the Iraqi Communist Party. |
| 1950 | Najla marries Abdul Latif Agha Jaafar, Ilham’s brother. |
| 1951 | Hassan is hospitalized in Paris. |
| | Hadi, Bibi and their three youngest boys take a family trip to Europe. |
| 1952 | Hassan returns to Cairo to defend his PhD. |
| | Revolution in Egypt topples the monarch. Jamal Abdul Nasser, a military officer, takes over. |
| | Hassan begins a career as a professor at Baghdad University. |
| 1953 | 18-year-old King Faisal II is crowned in Baghdad. |
| 1954 | Hadi buys Latifiyyah Estate from Andrew Weir. |
| | Rushdi becomes Minister of Agriculture. |
| 1955 | The Baghdad Pact is signed, including Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Britain in a political and economic bloc aimed at countering Soviet influence in the region. |
| | Hadi becomes deputy head of the Senate. |
| 1956 | During the Suez crisis, Britain, France and Israel attack Egypt in response to the nationalization of the Suez Canal. |
| 1957 | Frank Lloyd Wright visits Baghdad before designing the Baghdad Opera House. Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius are likewise commissioned to design public buildings. |
| 1958 | Rushdi participates in successful negotiations with British Petroleum. Iraq’s share of its oil revenue increases to 80 per cent. |
| | In a coup d’etat on 14 July, the entire royal family is murdered, except for Princess Badiya and her children. |
| | Prime Minister Nuri Said hides in Thamina’s house, then is taken to her in-laws in Kazimiya. |
| | On 15 July, Rushdi is arrested with Abdul Amir Allawi and Fadhil Jamali. |
| | Nuri’s location is discovered. He seeks refuge with the Istrabadi family but is shot dead alongside Bibi’s old friend, Bibi Istrabadi. |
| | Thamina’s husband Saleh is arrested for helping Nuri Said. |
| | Britain officially recognizes new Iraq government on 1 August. |
| | Hadi arrives in London in September and is joined a month later by Ahmad and Ghazi. |
| | Rushdi is released from jail and put under house arrest. |
| 1959 | In January Bibi joins Hadi in London. |
| | In March, Rushdi and his remaining siblings try to escape by car to Jordan. Their attempt is thwarted. |
| | Rushdi’s house arrest ends in July. He leaves for London to join the rest of the family. |
| | Thamina’s husband, Saleh, is released from jail. |
| | The Mahdawi court – known as ‘the clown court’ – is set up to try officials of the old regime. Four are executed. |
| | Saeeda dies. |
| 1960 | Bibi and Hadi move to Beirut. The rest of the family will follows in following years. Only Hassan and Jawad remain in Baghdad. |
| 1961 | Ahmad is admitted to MIT. |
| 1962 | Hadi is given permission to visit Baghdad briefly. It was his last visit. |
| 1963 | In a Ba’ath coup, President Abdul Karim Qassim is executed in Baghdad. Shortly thereafter, General Abdul Salam Arif becomes president. |
| 1967 | Arab countries suffer a major defeat in the Arab–Israeli War. |
| 1968 | A second Ba’ath coup d’etat takes place, leaving the Ba’athists in charge. |
| | Ni’mati dies. |
| 1969 | Hassan is the last family member to leave for Beirut. |
| | Ahmad returns from the U.S. with a Phd in Mathematics, then travels with Hassan to Iran to meet with Mulla Mustafa Barzani, a Kurdish leader fighting the Ba’athists for Kurdish autonomy. Ahmad takes teaching post at the American University of Beirut. |
| 1975 | The Persian Gulf Treaty is signed in Algiers, resolving a dispute between Iran and Iraq over the Persian Gulf and reneging on a promise to allow Kurds autonomy in Iraq. |
| | Civil war breaks out in Lebanon. |
| 1978 | Ahmad establishes the Petra Bank in Jordan. |
| 1979 | The Iranian revolution overthrows the Shah. An Islamic government led by Ayatollah Khomeini emerges. Saddam Hussein takes over as president of Iraq. |
| | Saddam accuses several Baghdadi Jews of espionage and executes them. He then executes leading religious scholar Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr and his sister Bint al-Huda. He liquidates many members of the Ba’ath Party disloyal to him. |
| 1980 | The Iran–Iraq war is provoked by Saddam Hussein. |
| | Entire communities, predominantly Shi’a, are forcibly deported from Iraq. |
| 1982 | Israel invades Lebanon. |
| 1988 | Hadi dies and is buried in Damascus. |
| | Saddam Hussein launches the genocidal al-Anfal campaign against the Kurds. Civilians in Halabja are gassed with chemical weapons. As many as 182,000 people are killed. |
| | The Iran–Iraq war ends in stalemate, with over one million dead. |
| 1989 | Bibi dies and is buried next to Hadi, despite her wish to be in interred in Najaf. |
| | Ahmad is in Jordan when martial law is declared. Under threat of handover to Saddam, Ahmad flees Jordan and enters fully into opposition politics. |
| | Ahmad and his family move to London. |
| 1990 | Saddam invades Kuwait. The First Gulf War, led by U.S.-coalition forces, forces Saddam to withdraw. |
| 1991 | United Nations sanctions are imposed on Iraq. |
| 1992 | The Iraqi National Congress, an umbrella group for all forces opposed to Saddam’s regime, holds its founding conference. Ahmad plays a leading role. He later moves to Iraqi Kurdistan, to a U.N. no-fly zone, where the INC holds its first conference on Iraqi soil. |
| 1994 | Tamara first visits Iraq. |
| 1996 | Saddam Hussein’s forces attack Arbil, a town in the no-fly zone, kill INC members and demolish their set up. Many flee to the Turkish border. |
| 1998 | Rushdi dies and is buried in London. |
| | Ahmad plays leading role in lobby for Iraq Liberation Act that is passed by U.S. Congress. |
| 2001 | Najla dies and is buried next to Hadi and Bibi are now in Damascus. |
| | Al-Qaeda attack of the World Trade Centre in New York City. The U.S. declares war on the Taliban in Afghanistan. |
| 2003 | In January, the INC crosses on foot into Iraqi Kurdistan. |
| | In March, U.S. coalition forces attack Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. |
| | The Iraqi Museum and National Archives are looted. |
| | Ahmad, Tamara and the INC group arrive in Baghdad on April 15. |
| | In May, U.N, Security Council Resolution 1483 declares a U.S.-coalition occupation of Iraq. The Iraqi Governing Council is appointed in July. Ahmad is one of 9 rotating members. A Coalition Provisional Authority is formed. The Iraqi Governing Council is appointed during this period. |
| | Saddam Hussein is captured in a hole in the ground by U.S. forces. |
| | A Special Tribunal is established to try Saddam and senior Ba’ath government members for crimes against humanity. |
| 2004 | Transitional Iraqi government is established. |
| | Bibi’s remains are transferred to Najaf. |
| 2005 | First nationwide elections are held in Iraq. |
| | Ahmad Chalabi becomes Deputy Prime Minister. |
| 2006 | Saddam Hussein is executed. |
| 2007 | Hassan visits Baghdad for the first time since 1969. |
