60 of 60 events · showing 41–60
Country in West Asia
26 September 1962 – 1 December 1970
The North Yemen civil war, also known in Yemen as the 26 September Revolution, was a civil war fought in North Yemen from 1962 to 1970 between partisans of the Mutawakkilite Kingdom and supporters of the Yemen Arab Republic. The war began with a coup d'état carried out in 1962 by revolutionary republicans led by the army under the command of Abdullah al-Sallal.
1 January 1976
Middle East Airlines Flight 438 was an international passenger flight operated by a Boeing 720 from Beirut, Lebanon, to Muscat, Oman, with a stopover in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. On 1 January 1976, the aircraft operating the flight was destroyed at 11,300 feet by a bomb, killing all 81 people on board.
26 November 1979
On 26 November 1979, Pakistan International Airlines Flight 740, a Boeing 707 operating a scheduled international passenger flight from Kano, Nigeria, to Karachi, Pakistan, via Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, crashed near Taif after attempting to return to Jeddah International Airport following an in-flight fire, killing all 145 passengers and 11 crew members. Around eighteen minutes after taking off from Jeddah, a flight attendant reported to the flight crew that a fire had started in the aft section of the aircraft.
26 November 1979
The Qatif conflict is a modern phase of sectarian tensions and violence in Eastern Arabia between Arab Shia Muslims and the Arab Sunni majority, which has ruled Saudi Arabia since early 20th century. The conflict encompasses civil unrest which has been sporadically happened since the 1979 uprising, pro-democracy and pro-human rights protests and occasional armed incidents, which increased in 2017 as part of the 2017–20 Qatif unrest.
4 December 1979
The Grand Mosque seizure took place between 20 November and 4 December 1979 at the Grand Mosque of Mecca in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest site in Islam. The attack was carried out by up to 600 militants led by Juhayman al-Otaybi, a Saudi Islamist opposed to the monarchy, belonging to the Otaibah tribe.
19 August 1980
Saudia Flight 163 was a scheduled Saudia passenger flight departing from Quaid-e-Azam Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, bound for Kandara Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via then-Riyadh International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which caught fire after takeoff on 19 August 1980. Although the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar made a successful emergency landing at Riyadh, the flight crew failed to perform an emergency evacuation of the airplane, leading to the deaths of all 287 passengers and 14 crew on board the aircraft from smoke inhalation.
25 December 1986
Iraqi Airways Flight 163 was a Boeing 737-200, registered YI-AGJ, that was hijacked in 1986. On 25 December 1986, en route from Baghdad's Saddam International Airport to Amman, Jordan, Flight 163 was hijacked by four men.
2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991
The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The coalition's efforts were carried out in two phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup in the Persian Gulf region from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January and continued until the liberation of Kuwait on 28 February.
29 January 1991 – 1 February 1991
The Battle of Khafji was the first major ground engagement of the Gulf War. It took place in and around the Saudi Arabian city of Khafji, from 29 January to 1 February 1991.
11 July 1991
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120 was a chartered passenger flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Sokoto, Nigeria. On 11 July 1991, the Douglas DC-8 operating the flight, registered as C-GMXQ and operated by Nationair Canada for Nigeria Airways, caught fire shortly after takeoff from King Abdulaziz International Airport, and crashed while attempting to return for an emergency landing, killing all 247 passengers and 14 crew members on board.
11 March 2002
A fire on 11 March 2002 at a girls' school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, killed fifteen people, all young girls. Complaints were made that Saudi Arabia's "religious police", specifically the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, had prevented schoolgirls from leaving the burning building and hindered emergency services personnel because the students were not wearing modest clothing.
25 November 2009
The 2009 Saudi Arabian floods affected Jeddah, on the Red Sea (western) coast of Saudi Arabia, and other areas of Makkah Province. They have been described by civil defence officials as the worst in 27 years.
27 July 2010
Lufthansa Cargo Flight 8460 was an international cargo flight operated by a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 which crashed upon landing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 27 July 2010. Both crew members, the only people on board, were injured but survived.
11 September 2015
A crawler crane collapsed over the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, around 5:10 p.m. on 11 September 2015, killing 111 people and injuring 394 others.
29 November 2017 – 4 December 2017
The Battle of Sanaa in 2017 was fought between forces loyal to Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Houthis in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa. Both sides were allied during the 2014–15 Houthi takeover of the government but the alliance ended when Saleh decided to break ranks with the Houthis and call for dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who are leading a military intervention in Yemen.
16 September 2018
The siege of Hodeidah, also called Hudaydah or al-Hudaydah, (Arabic: معركة الحديدة, romanized: Ma‘rakat al-Ḥudaydah), codenamed Operation Golden Victory, was a major Saudi-led coalition assault on the port city of Hodeidah in Yemen. It was spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and was considered the largest battle since the start of the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen in 2015.
5 November 2019
The Riyadh Agreement (Arabic: اتفاق الرياض, romanized: Ittifāq ar-Riyāḏ) was signed on 5 November 2019 in the capital city of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, between Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, representing the Saudi-backed government of Yemen, Muhammad bin Zayid Al Nahyan, representing the United Arab Emirates, and Aydarus al-Zubaydi, representing the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC). It followed the Southern Yemen clashes of August 2019, with the goal of ending the fighting and establishing a united front against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, dominant in the north of the country.
1 December 2019
The global COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It spread to other parts of Asia and then worldwide in early 2020.
14 June 2024 – 19 June 2024
Between 14 and 19 June 2024, at least 1,301 people on the Hajj pilgrimage died in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, due to extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 50 °C (122 °F). Extreme heat caused heat stroke and dehydration among the pilgrims, leading to the deaths.
5 October 2026
On 3 September 2026, the Iran-backed Houthis launched an offensive against the Saudi-backed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC), the internationally recognized government of Yemen, amid the ongoing Yemeni civil war. Clashes began in Taiz Governorate, prompting a PLC counter-offensive against the Houthis in the Al-Jawf and Al-Bayda governorates.