Operation Desert Storm Iraq The Gulf War Coin Gift Set

1990

2 August: Iraqi troops invade Kuwait, taking the emirate in one day. The BBC's John Simpson says the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is "by far the strongest leader in the region". In his report he explains how the West inadvertently helped bring about the invasion.

6 August: The United Nations Security Council demands an "immediate and unconditional" withdrawal of Iraqi troops and orders a trade boycott.

9 August: Iraq closes its borders.

10 August: The Arab League meets in Cairo and votes by a narrow margin to send Egyptian, Syrian and Moroccan troops to join the Western troops.

15 August: Iran and Iraq reopen diplomatic relations after Iraq proposes peace talks.

18 August: Iraq says the nationals of "hostile countries" still in Kuwait will be held as "guests" at strategic sites in Kuwait.

25 August: The UN Security Council authorises the use of force to make the trade boycott work.

17 October: Western troops in the Gulf number 200,000 US troops, 15,000 UK troops and 11,000 French troops.

29 November: The UN Security Council says Iraq must voluntarily withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991. It authorises "all necessary means" to force Iraq out if it does not comply. Baghdad rejects the "ultimatum". In his report the BBC's Brian Hanrahan says: "President Bush is under pressure not to be hasty."

30 November: US President Bush invites Iraq to join direct talks.

6 December: Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein announces the release of 3,000 foreign nationals being held in Iraq and Kuwait.

1991

15 January: Iraq ignores the UN ultimatum. There are 580,000 allied troops in the Gulf, against 540,000 Iraqi troops.

17 January: Operation Desert Storm is launched, with air attacks on Iraq and Kuwait. The BBC's John Simpson is in Baghdad and witnesses the missile attacks.

"The bombs and the missiles seem mainly to have landed with pin-point accuracy," he reports the next day.

18 January: The first of several Iraqi scud missiles attacks on Tel Aviv. The US warns Israel against retaliation saying it is an attempt to widen the war and break up the opposition.

20 January: Iraqi television broadcasts pictures of seven captured allied airmen.

29 January: The US and the Soviet Union offer to declare a ceasefire if Iraq pledges to withdraw from Kuwait.

13 February: An allied missile lands on an air-raid shelter in Baghdad, killing at least 314 people. Iraqi officials take the BBC's Jeremy Bowen to see the aftermath. He is accompanied at all times but he says the grief and anger is not a propaganda stunt.

24 February: President Bush announces the start of a ground operation. Allied forces commander General Norman Schwarzkopf says it is a "spectacular success".

25 February: Iraqi scud missile hits building in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 US troops and injuring 98.

27 February: The first Kuwaiti troops enter Kuwait City and President Bush announces the liberation of Kuwait. He announces the cessation of hostilities will be effective from 0400 GMT the following day. The allies say they have destroyed more than half the Iraqi divisions and captured 500,000 prisoners.

28 February: Iraq accepts all UN resolutions...

The Year That Was 1991...

• On 16 January in the Gulf War, the US-led coalition launches Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation • On 25 January, the Iraqis pump Kuwaiti oil into the Gulf, causing the largest-ever oil slick. On 22 February, they set alight hundreds of oil wells. The last fire is not extinguished until 3 November • On 27 January, the coalition forces liberate Kuwait. Saddam Hussein is defeated, but remains in power • On 21 May, former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a suicide bomber from the Tamil Tigers, whose aim is to establish an autonomous state within Sri Lanka • Civil war between the government of Sierre Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) results in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people (well over one-third of the population) • With the repeal of the Population Registration Act on 17 June, apartheid ends in South Africa • On 25 June, civil war begins in the former Yugoslavia as Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence. Yugoslav federal troops begin siege of Dubrovnik on 1 October, attacking the Croatian capital by air a week later • On 1 July, the Warsaw Pact is formally ended • On 20 August, Estonia declares its independence from the Soviet Union, followed – on 21 August – by Latvia • On 19 August, Communist hardliners in the Soviet Union stage a coup against President Mikhail Gorbachev, who is placed under house arrest in the Crimea. Radio and television stations are shut, and military rule is imposed on many cities. The coup collapses on 21 August following widespread popular resistance led by Boris Yeltsin • On 25 September, a peace accord ends the 11-year civil war in El Salvador • On 5 November, British/Czech publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell dies after falling from his yacht in the Canary Islands. A month later, his business empire collapses with huge debts and revelations of the misappropriation of money from pension funds • On 25 December, the Soviet Union officially ceases to exist • America writer Bret Easton Ellis publishes American Psycho, a fictional study of the pathology of murder • Films include Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs, both examples of a popular taste for violence • Freddie Mercury, lead singer of the pop group Queen, dies of Aids on 24 November •