1948

• The State of Israel is established and the invading forces of surrounding Arab countries are repelled in the War of Independence
• Israel's first population census is carried out, recording approximately 600,000 citizens aged 15 and up
• El Al airlines is incorporated and becomes Israel's official carrier
• The sweet 'Jaffa' orange becomes one of the top exports of Israel and a word synonymous with this new state

1949

• First elections are held and David Ben-Gurion forms the Government with Chaim Weizmann elected as the President
• Israel is accepted as a UN member; 37 countries voted for, 12 against and 9 abstained
• The first shipment of 3,000 US cows arrive in Israel as special emergency aid aimed at improving the quality of milk

1950

• The third Maccabiah Games opens; originally scheduled for 1938, it was delayed until this year due to the outbreak of World War II
• Israel enacts the Law of Return, guaranteeing citizenship to all Jews
• The Israeli national soccer team wins a surprising 5-1 victory against Turkey
• IBM Israel begins operating in Tel Aviv
• Jerusalem is declared as Israel's capital city

1951

• Israel demands compensation for Nazi crimes from West Germany
• A new town named Ashkelon is established in the South, populated mainly by North African immigrants
• The national lottery is set up with the intention of collecting funds for educational institutions; the first lucky winner is from Ramat Gan
• Israel's first nature protection movement forms, during the draining of the Hula Lake and its surrounding swamps in order to combat malaria and reclaim the land for agriculture

1952

• President Chaim Weizmann dies and, despite suggestions that Albert Einstein may replace him, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi is sworn in
• Due to a gasoline shortage a decision is made that all vehicles must be stationary for 2 days a week
• The Bulgarian Government commissions 30,000 pairs of the best quality shoes from Israeli factories, paying for them with onions rather than cash
• Israel participates in the Olympic Games (in Helsinki) for the first time

• The Academy of the Hebrew Language is founded, responsible for creating new Hebrew words and having the final say concerning spelling and grammar
• The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is founded
• Israel Aerospace Industries is founded on the sand dunes of Lod Airport
• Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum opens in Jerusalem

1954

• The Bank of Israel is founded; the bank issues notes, controls banking supervision and foreign exchange
• Heavy rain falls on Tel Aviv causing serious flooding and the fire brigade, with its four trucks, is called out 28 times during the night to pump water from houses
• WEIZAC, one of the world's first computers, is designed and built at the Weizmann Institute

1955

• The town of Dimona is established in the Negev
• The Dead Sea scrolls are brought to Israel
• Oil is found in the Negev but this turns out to be the first and last commercial oil field in the country
• Professor Natan Goldblum from Hebrew University develops the country's first polio vaccine. Israel is the second country in the world to vaccinate against polio; the first time Goldblum's vaccine is used, it stops an epidemic

1956

• The IDF conquers the Sinai – 171 soldiers killed in action
• Agrexco, Israel's largest exporter of agricultural produce and flowers, is founded – marketing products worldwide under the name 'Carmel'
• Elite establishes the first instant coffee factory in Safed
• The Knesset Menorah is given to Israel by the British Parliament
• Tel Aviv University is established

1957

• Israel withdraws from Sinai, only two months after the IDF first reached the Suez Canal
• 'Heichal Hatarbut', the largest concert hall in Israel and home to the Philharmonic Orchestra, is inaugurated
• The Israeli Wine Institute is founded to improve the quality of the country's wines and further their export

1958

• The cornerstone is laid for the new Knesset building
• Israel's Foreign Ministry creates the Centre for International Cooperation, known as MASHAV, which goes on to develop a legendary reputation throughout the developing world
• Kol Yisrael begins Russian-language broadcasts directed mainly at the Jewish community behind the Iron Curtain and is influential during the struggle of Soviet Jewry to make aliyah
• The Liber company, which later merged with Elite, starts distributing 'Bazooka' chewing gum in Israel

1959

• Professor Lev Fishelson develops a hybrid tilapia fish suited to Israel's desert fishponds, leading to total worldwide production today of approximately 1.5 million tons
• It is revealed that the Israeli Ambassador to the US, Abba Eban, does not have Israeli citizenship!
• Eleanor Roosevelt visits Israel, and in a trip to the Bedouin market buys a camel for 140 Israeli Lira, which is sent by ship to her granddaughter in the USA for her personal zoo
• Israel's first navy submarine, the 'Tannin', docks in Haifa

1960

• 'Susita', the first Israeli car, is manufactured with a Ford engine and a fibreglass body (a myth ran in Israel saying that camels found the fibreglass appetizing and would gnaw away parts of the car, but no one has ever proven that to be true!)
• Paul Newman visits Israel to film 'Exodus', based on Leon Uris's bestseller, telling the heroic tale of the illegal immigration to Palestine and the founding of the State of Israel
• The National Commission for Space Research is founded
• The Arab Israel Bank is established to serve the unique needs of Israel's Arabic-speaking population

1961

• The Brazilian football star Pele visits Israel
• Hebrew University introduces specialised medical courses for students from developing countries
• The Shavit II, an experimental meteorological satellite, is launched

1962

• Adolf Eichmann is hanged, to this day the only death sentence on Israeli soil
• Israel fails in its bid to join the European Common Market
• Meyer Lansky, an international Jewish mobster, arrives in Israel and applies for citizenship; the police decide not to arrest him, but wait for his three-month tourist visa to expire, at which point he is deported
• Marc Chagall's stained glass windows for the synagogue of Hadassah hospital are dedicated

1963

• Yitzchak Rabin is appointed Chief of Staff – in four years time he will lead Israel to victory in the Six Day War
• The Wissotsky Tea Company moves to premises in Tel Aviv, where tea is produced on automated lines, and introduces the teabag string
• Bamba is launched by Osem

1964

• Pope Paul VI visits Israel, the first and only visit made by the leading figure in the Christian world until the new millennium
• The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is formed
• The National Water Carrier of Israel is completed, distributing water from the Kinneret throughout Israel
• Herod's Palace is uncovered during archaeological excavations at Massada

1965

• Fatah attempts to carry out its first terrorist attack in Israel
• The Israel Museum, one of the world's ten largest, opens
• Netafim pioneers the concept of drip irrigation, revolutionising irrigation practices in every corner of the world

1966

• Moving from Frumin House in King George street, the new Knesset building in Jerusalem is inaugurated
• Writer S.Y. Agnon becomes the first Israeli to win a Nobel Prize, with the 1966 Prize for Literature
• The Harry S. Truman Institute for Peace is established at the Hebrew University

1967

• The Six Day War sees Israel capture the Old City and officially unite all of Jerusalem
• Naomi Shemer writes her song 'Yerushalayim Shel Zahav'
• 250,000 Jews celebrate Shavout at the Kotel (Western Wall)
• Coca Cola begins operating in Israel

1968

• The first heart transplant in Israel is completed at Beilinson Hospital
• Avshalom Cave, also known as the Stalactites Cave, is discovered accidentally, after the use of explosives during development work
• Israel Television starts regular broadcasts; initially it broadcasts three days a week
• The Dakar submarine vanishes without a trace

1969

• Golda Meir becomes Prime Minister – the world's second elected female leader in modern times
• Maccabi Tel Aviv becomes sponsored by Elite, Israel's largest food company
• Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is founded by the government
• 15,000 people attend a rally to protest against the USSR's refusal to allow emigration – under the banner 'Let My People Go'
• Levi Eshkol, Israel's third Prime Minister, dies

1970

• Israel and Egypt negotiate a ceasefire in the Suez Canal, bringing to an end the War of Attrition
• Israeli archaeologists excavate Burnt House, the remains of a house in Jerusalem where a well-off Jewish family had lived before Jerusalem was destroyed by Roman soldiers in 70CE
• The Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra performs in Germany and plays Hatikvah 500 yards from the Reichstag

1971

• The Massada cable car opens
• Nathan Tsirolnikov, who emigrated from Russia on 11 January, brings the number of Israeli citizens to three million
• Israel's first drive-in movie theatre opens, showing Walt Disney's 'Jungle Book'

1972

• Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Yom Kippur by crossing ceasefire lines in the Sinai and the Golan
• The IDF manages to rescue all 100 passengers and crew of a hijacked Sabena airliner at Lod Airport
• 11 Israeli athletes are murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich Olympic Games
• Actor Chaim Topol is nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards for his role in Fiddler on the Roof

1973

• Israel is invaded on Yom Kippur by Egyptian and Syrian forces
• Ariel Sharon forms the Likud party
• David Ben-Gurion dies aged 87 and Lod Airport is renamed after him
• Israel issues a series of 12 stamps, each bearing the name of one of the tribes of Israel
• Danny Kaye, actor and comedian, arrives in Israel to sign up to the IDF forces and perform for troops at the front

1974

• American based Intel establishes its first overseas design and development centre in Haifa
• Perach, a mentoring programme for children from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds is founded, which today sees 30,000 Israeli students work with 60,000 children from all parts of Israeli society
• Israel is accepted as an Associate Member of the International Cricket Conference, now known as the International Cricket Council

1975

• The United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 3379, defining Zionism as a form of racism and ethnic cleansing, often used as an example of UN discrimination against the State of Israel
• Israel becomes an Associate Member of the European Union Free Trade Area, significantly increasing trade
• Aviva Lombard develops HIPPY, a home instruction programme for parents of pre-schoolers, now used by more than 23,000 families worldwide
• Hadassah Hospital re-opens on Mount Scopus after a 27-year gap

1976

• The IDF succeeds in a spectacular military operation to save Israeli hostages that had been on a hijacked flight diverted to Entebbe, Uganda
• Vineyards are established in the Golan Heights
• Yad Sarah, Israel's largest voluntary organisation, is founded by Uri Lupoliansky, helping one in two families and saving the economy about $300 million per year

1977

• Likud win the elections, with ex-Irgun leader Menachem Begin becoming Israel's first right-wing leader
• Maccabi Tel Aviv win the European Basketball Championship, beating CSKA Moscow in the final
• Vietnamese refugees are rescued at sea by Israeli cargo ships

1978

• Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in bringing understanding and peace between Israel and Egypt
• Michael Herziano sets up a factory in Arad to increase production of his game Rummikub
• Israel wins the Eurovision Song Contest with the song 'Abinibi' performed by Izhar Cohen

1979

• Israel and Egypt sign a peace treaty bringing to an end 30 years of hostility
• The town of El-Arish is returned to Egypt after 12 years under Israeli control
• 'Halleluyah' becomes the second Israeli song to win the Eurovision Song Contest
• The first PC anti-virus software is manufactured in Israel

1980

• Shimon Peres beats Yitzhak Rabin in the race for leadership of the Labour party with 70% of the vote
• A team based at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem creates ExLibris, an automated multilingual library system, which today powers the British Library
• The Israeli Lira changes its name to the Shekel

1981

• The Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's fledgling nuclear reactor
• Intel Israel puts itself on the map by creating a cheaper version of Intel's 8086 processor renamed the 8088; IBM chooses the chip to power its first personal computer
• Hebrew University develops a biological agent to control soil-borne plant diseases

1982

• The first Lebanon War
• Israel's first test-tube baby is born - a 3.78kg baby was born to a 32-year-old woman who had been married for 12 years
• Tel Aviv University research forms the basis for the infectious disease diagnostics company Orgenics, its 'HIV system' is used by the World Health Organisation for its global campaign against AIDS

1983

• Israel takes part in a prisoner exchange, with the release of 4,765 terrorists in return for six soldiers who were being held in Lebanon
• Egged buses, founded in 1933, celebrates its 50th year
• Rehov Sumsum, Israel's version of Sesame Street, airs on the educational television channel with its American Big Bird equivalent as a hedgehog named Kippi Ben-Kippod and its Oscar the Grouch as Moishe Ofnik

1984

• IDF soldiers rescue 25 passengers on board an Egged bus hijacked by terrorists on its way from Tel Aviv to Ashkelon
• The world's first commercial solar power plant, SEGS I, is installed in California by the Israeli company Luz, and starts producing electric power
• The New Shekel replaces the Shekel at the rate of 1000 to 1
• The Israeli phone company Bezeq is founded

1985

• The dramatic operation to airlift thousands of Ethiopian Jews is made public as 'Operation Moses' results in more than 6,000 Jews being brought to Israel
• The Ayalon shopping mall in Ramat Gan opens - 70,000 people visit the mall in one day and 27 children get lost
• A free trade agreement is signed between the Israeli and US governments

1986

• Natan Sharansky arrives in Israel after a prisoner exchange with the Soviet Union
• Ron Arad, possibly the most well known of the Israeli MIAs, is captured after his plane falls in Lebanon (today, over twenty years on, nothing is known of Arad's whereabouts)
• Morderchai Vanunu, the man who revealed Israel's nuclear secrets, is brought to Israel to stand trial
• The first liver transplant in Israel takes place

1987

• John Demjanjuk becomes the second man to stand trial in Israel for crimes perpetrated against the Jewish people during the Second World War
• The first Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, breaks out
• Meir Ya'ari, leader of the National Kibbutz Movement, dies aged 90

1988

• Likud win the elections with Yitzhak Shamir elected as Prime Minister
• A first group of young Israelis participate in the 'March of the Living' from Auschwitz to Birkenau
• Ofek 1, the first Israeli satellite, is launched successfully into space

1989

• The resort of Taba in returned to Egypt
• The Tower of David Museum, focusing on the history of Jerusalem, is established in the David Citadel compound
• Mass immigration of Jews from the Soviet Union begins
• An Israeli Air Force plane is flown to Romania to assist victims of violence and fighting after the revolution

1990

• The Jewish Agency announces a record number of immigrants from the Soviet Union, following the new liberal policies introduced by Gorbachev
• The Israeli Government decides to distribute defence kits against chemical weapons in light of Saddam Hussein's threat of war
• Israel records its first ever cricket win, defeating Argentina by one wicket in an exciting finish

1991

• The International Middle East Conference takes place in Madrid; it is seen by many as the first step towards an international process for peace
• 'Operation Solomon' airlifts 14,000 Ethiopians to Israel – the largest number of immigrants ever brought to Israel on a single day
• Miriam Ben-Porat, Israel's first woman Supreme Court Justice, is awarded the 'Israel Prize' for her contribution to Israeli life
• Every home in Israel creates a sealed room to provide protection, as Iraq launches scud missile attacks

1992

• Menachem Begin dies aged 79
• Israel wins its first Olympic Games medals, winning both silver and bronze in Judo
• Jerusalem and New York are declared twin cities
• 29cm of snow brings Jerusalem to a total halt; snow falls as far north as Haifa and as far south as Be'er Sheva

1993

• The Oslo Accords are signed, seeing the PLO accept Israel's right to exist; Hamas escalates terror attacks killing Israelis
• Michael Jackson and Madonna arrive in Israel, playing to 120,000 fans between them
• The first kosher McDonald's branch in the world opens in Mevaseret Tzion
• Israel's first commercial television station, Channel Two, begins broadcasting

1994

• A peace treaty is signed with Jordan following meetings between Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein in Washington
• Yitzchak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat share the Nobel Peace Prize
• An IDF field hospital is flown to Africa by an Israeli Air Force airlift to treat Rwandan refugees

1995

• Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated while at a peace rally in Tel Aviv
• A forest fire in Sha'ar Hagai becomes one of the most severe natural disasters in Israel
• 'Save a Child's Heart' is created by a team of doctors at the Wolfson Medical Centre in Holon, offering children from the developing world treatment for heart problems
• The Jerusalem Post launches its online news service

1996

• Mirabilis releases the first version of the instant messaging computer programme, ICQ, playing on the phrase 'I seek you'; two years later AOL buys Mirabilis for £407 million
• Mount Carmel is declared a biosphere reserve within the framework of the Man and Biosphere Program of UNESCO
• The first ever direct elections of an Israeli Prime Minister ends with incredibly close results; Binyamin Netanyahu wins with 50.5% of the vote
• The name of the head of Mossad is revealed to the public for the first time

1997

• Israel sends aid to Mexican hurricane victims
• A survey of 5,000 Israeli men and women over 60 carried out by Hebrew University finds that adults who attend synagogue regularly live longer than their peers who do not
• The FDA approves Copaxone, a drug for multiple sclerosis developed at the Weizmann Institute

1998

• Israel celebrates its 50th anniversary
• Tel Aviv named by Newsweek as one of the ten most technologically influential cities in the world
• Work starts on building a state of the art Terminal 3 at Ben-Gurion airport
• The International Centre for the Study of Bird Migration opens, to study the 500 million migrating birds that fly over Israel twice a year

1999

• Ben-Gurion University builds the world's largest concentrating dish - 125m in diameter and able to generate approximately 400k of thermal energy at an intensity 10,000 times stronger than normal noontime sunshine
• After a massive earthquake hits northwest Turkey, Prime Minister Ehud Barak sends a medical team to assist local authorities; the Israeli team rescues 12 people, treats 1,200 people, performs 40 operations, and delivers 15 babies
• Intel's Pentium III chip, developed by their Israel company, is released

2000

• The Ayalon Highway launches a traffic control system, the first of its kind in Israel, and one of the most advanced in the world
• Pope John Paul II visits Israel
• Israel withdraws from the Security Zone in Southern Lebanon
• Kodak purchases Israeli startup, Picture Vision, for $90 million
• The 2nd Intifada breaks out

2001

• First clinical trials take place for a miniature video camera that, once swallowed, transmits real images of areas of disease
• The new central bus station in Jerusalem opens
• Israel's number one export becomes flowers
• Ariel Sharon (Likud) is elected prime minister and forms broad-based unity government
• Ikea's first Israeli store opens in Netanya

2002

• Daniel Kaheman receives the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect Theory
• 1.9 million Israelis now have mobile phones
• The Postal Authority issues a series of 12 stamps featuring the 12 tribes of Israel
• A geneticist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem breeds a featherless chicken

2003

• Israel accepts the Roadmap for Peace
• Colonel Ilan Ramon is the first Israeli astronaut in space; sadly, he is also the first to lose his life on such a mission
• Professor Yoel Margalith develops a naturally occurring vaccine against the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, which has killed thousands and infected many around the world
• Israel becomes the first country to adopt the Kimberly Process certifying all imported diamonds as 'conflict free'

2004

• Israel sends doctors and supplies to aid Tsunami victims
• MineGuard Medical Devices develops the diverter, a filter implanted in the neck to reduce the risk of strokes by 40%
• Avraham Hershko and Aharon Chachnover receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their groundbreaking work on ubiquitin and its role in cancer
• Gal Fridman wins a gold medal in windsurfing at the Olympics in Athens, the first gold for the Jewish State of Israel

2005

• Israeli-American economist Robert J. Aumann wins the Nobel Prize in Economics for developments in game theory, used to explain conflicts
• Israel's top ice skating team capture the silver medal at the Cup of Russia
• Israelis grow a date tree from a 2,000 year-old seed
• Commander Shahar Ayalon, traffic police chief and speaker to foreign delegations, compiles a new tool that will prove invaluable to Israeli law enforcement: a Hebrew-English pocket-size dictionary

2006

• Israel sends aid to help refugees from the Darfur massacres
• The Pensioners Party gains 6 seats in Knesset at its first attempt
• The world's first underwater museum opens in Caesarea
• Warren Buffet buys the Israeli car company Iscar for $4 billion, the biggest foreign buy-out in Israeli history
• Andy Ram becomes the first Israeli tennis player to win a Grand Slam event (mixed doubles at 2006 Wimbledon and the 2007 French Open)

2007

• Shimon Peres is elected president
• Thomsonfly announces it will fly regularly scheduled flights to Israel making it the first low-fare European airline to serve Israel
• Israel launches a 2 shekel coin
• 75% of Israel's water is now recycled after use, well ahead of any other country

2008

• The State of Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary
• It is announced that Israel is home to over 2,780 types of plants countrywide - from Alpine flowers in the mountains north to desert papyrus reeds in the south
• For the first time in 2,000 years, Israel is the country with the largest Jewish population in the world