1952

A group of Jewish philanthropists in New York City begins raising money for the purpose of setting up regular television broadcast service in Israel. Although at the time the move is viewed with a degree of skepticism in some quarters, it enjoys strong support by Israeli founding father David Ben-Gurion, who believes television has the potential to act as a unifying force in the young country.

1953

The Kol Israel communications network establishes a school for the purpose of training television broadcast engineers and directors.

1954

APRIL

The U.S. Committee For The Establishment Of Television In Israel is formally incorporated in New York. Its first official press release outlines an ambitious three-point agenda: the creation of a regular TV broadcast system in Israel by 1957, a domestic Israeli television manufacturing capability by 1960, and a TV set in every Israeli home by 1963.

JUNE

The Israeli communications ministry prepares the first draft of its proposals for a television broadcast standards and practices code. The draft is heavily criticized by conservative Jews for not being strict enough regarding what in those days is considered as sexually explicit material.

AUGUST

Construction begins on the first Israeli television broadcast antenna.

SEPTEMBER

The Israeli communications ministry presents a revised draft of its proposed TV broadcast standards and practices code.

NOVEMBER

The Knesset approves the communications ministry’s final draft of its proposed TV broadcast standards and practices code. That same month an experimental TV transmission facility opens in the Negev Desert just northeast of what will later become the Dimona nuclear power plant.

1955

JANUARY

The Kol Israel television engineering and production school’s 1953 class officially graduates.

FEBRUARY

Israel’s first television broadcast antenna is dedicated in a ceremony marked by parades from the Israeli army and a demonstration of the new antenna’s transmission capabilities.

APRIL

Construction begins on the future Kol Israel TV broadcast facility in Tel Aviv.

MAY

At Israeli’s annual Independence Day parade in Tel Aviv a float which shows a mockup of a TV studio is among the highlights of the event.

SEPTEMBER

The experimental TV broadcast facility in the Negev Desert transmits a two-minute excerpt of the “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet to a reception station fifteen miles away.

1956

FEBRUARY

Construction work is completed on Kol Israel’s TV broadcast studios in Tel Aviv.

MARCH

The first affiliates for Kol Israel’s soon-to-be-launched TV network are established in Tel Aviv, Netanya, and Haifa.

MAY

Kol Israel announces that its new television broadcast network will begin regular service with a year.

JUNE

Graduates from the Kol Israel TV broadcast school’s 1954 class begin work at the TV network’s Tel Aviv studios. AUGUST

Kol Israel Television announces plans to establish an affiliate in Jersualem, drawing protests from the city’s Arab community, who are convinced the new network is little more than an anti-Arab propaganda tool.

NOVEMBER

The Suez Crisis forces Kol Israel Television to postpone the planned opening of its Jerusalem affiliate. On the positive side of things, however, preparations for the opening of another affiliate, this one in the port of Eilat, are nearly two weeks ahead of schedule.

1957

MARCH 13TH

Kol Israel Television makes its official broadcast debut with a test pattern followed by a live rendition by the Tel Aviv Symphony of the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvoh.”

MARCH 16TH

Kol Israel TV premieres its first daily news program, The Bulletin. A 90-minute broadcast at first focusing primarily on domestic events, it will later expand its scope to include international stories.

APRIL 2ND

David Ben-Gurion, then in his second tenure as Israeli prime minister, delivers a live televised speech from his official residence at Beit Aghion; it marks the first time in Israel’s history the young nation’s head of state has addressed his fellow countrymen on TV.

JUNE 23RD

Amid massive fanfare, and protests from local Arab residents, Kol Israel TV finally opens its Jerusalem affiliate.

SEPTEMBER 9TH

Kol Israel TV premieres its first original weekly series, Mr.Levy Of Number 32, a comedy focusing on the daily problems of a Tel Aviv bus mechanic. The show quickly becomes a hit with Israeli audiences and it will go on to enjoy a run spanning nearly three decades.

1958

FEBRUARY 4TH

Groundbreaking ceremonies are held near Haifa to mark the beginning of construction on Israel’s first television manufacturing plant.

MAY 14TH

Kol Israel TV makes its first live broadcast of the Israeli Defense Forces’ annual Independence Day parade.

JULY 2ND

The Jerusalem Kol Israel TV affiliate is bombed just after 6:00 AM local time, killing seven people and injuring twelve. Nobody claims responsibility for the bombing, but the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad suspects the attack was the work of Syrian agents or Syrian- backed terrorists; accordingly, Israeli air force jets attack Syrian army border outposts along the Golan Heights.

SEPTEMBER 16TH

Kol Israel TV begins live weekly broadcasts of concerns by the Tel Aviv Symphony.

OCTOBER 21ST

Kol Israel TV airs its first live sporting event, a soccer match between Maccabee Tel Aviv and Italy’s AC Milan club; Maccabee wins 3-2 on penalty kicks.

1959

JANUARY 2ND

Israel’s first television manufacturing plant begins production. The plant’s owners have set an ambitious goal of building 100,000 TV sets at their facility by March 1st.

JANUARY 17TH

Kol Israel TV debuts its first original children’s show, Mr.Bumblebee. Combining education with lively song-and-dance numbers and a colorful cast of puppet characters, the new series quickly becomes Israel’s top morning program for viewers under the age of 10.

APRIL 13TH

At a banquet to mark the fifth anniversary of its incorporation, the U.S. Committee For The Establishment Of Television In Israel is given an award from the Israeli communications ministry in recognition of the organization’s work in bringing full-time broadcast television to Israel.

JUNE 24TH

With Israel’s first television manufacturing plant having long since surpassed its goal in building 100,000 TV sets during its first two months of operations, a second plant is opened to accommodate what is seemingly an insatiable need for television among Israelis.

AUGUST 3RD

Tired of what he considers the “overly regimented” fare on Kol Israel TV, a wealthy expatriate Belgian Jew announces plans to create his own television network to compete with Kol Israel TV.

AUGUST 7TH

A two-page press release sent to all of Israel’s major newspapers announces the creation of that country’s first privately owned TV broadcast network, Benyamin Television Incorporated. The new network is set to begin transmission by January of 1960.

SEPTEMBER 18TH   Kol Israel TV signs a licensing deal with the American network CBS to begin airing Hebrew-dubbed versions of CBS’ most popular series. This marks the first time in Kol Israel TV’s history that it has solicited programming from outside Israel.

NOVEMBER 5TH

The chief news anchor for the Arabic-language department of Kol Israel TV’s Jerusalem affiliate is found shot to death two blocks from the station. Israeli authorities quickly suspect the murder was politically motivated, a suspicion confirmed when the city’s AP bureau receives an anonymous letter calling the murder “a just punishment for a traitor”.

1960

JANUARY 4TH

Benyamin Television Incorporated begins broadcast operations with a ten-minute performance by one of Israel’s most respected violinists.

MARCH 22ND

The U.S. Committee For the Establishment Of Television In Israel makes an announcement that the last of its three primary goals, a television in every Israeli home by 1960, has just been met. The group also gives word of an impending name change: effective May 1st, it will henceforth be known as the U.S.-Israeli Television Affairs Council.

JUNE 19TH

Kol Israel TV debuts This Is Our Country, a travelogue series for the foreign broadcast market. The new program, intended to tout Israel’s cultural and geographical landmarks, is the network’s first venture in producing programming content for distribution overseas.

JULY 7TH

In an attempt to jam the signal of Kol Israel TV’s Jerusalem affiliate the Jordanian government sets up its own TV broadcast facility deep in the heart of the city’s Arab districts. Technical problems repeatedly hamper the jamming effort, however, and within less than six weeks the experiment is abandoned.

SEPTEMBER 5TH

In an echo of the “21” quiz show scandal that rocked America the year before, two Benyamin Television Incorporated producers along with the reigning champion of Israel’s most popular game show are arrested for fraud after evidence surfaces the champion was coached in his answers in order to allow him to defeat a less photogenic contestant. Both of the producers are quickly fired, but the uproar over the scandal badly damages Benyamin Television’s reputation.

OCTOBER 29TH

An explosion near the site of the main transmission antenna for Kol Israel TV’s central broadcast studio in Tel Aviv briefly knocks the entire network off the air. Initially blamed on a terrorist attack, the explosion is subsequently found by police investigators to have actually been the result of faulty wires inside one of the antenna’s switchboxes; nonetheless the incident prompts the Israeli government to be more vigilant in maintaining security at all Kol Israel TV and radio broadcast facilities.

DECEMBER 2ND

Israel’s third television network, Haifa Broadcasting, begins daily service to viewers in Haifa and the surrounding region. It will grow into a nationwide network within eighteen months.

1961

JANUARY 20TH

For the benefit of Americans living and working in Israel, Kol Israel TV airs live coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration.

APRIL 11TH

In perhaps the biggest story it has covered so far during its four- year existence, The Bulletin devotes nearly its entire broadcast for this day to the beginning of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann’s trial for atrocities committed against Jewish prisoners at SS concentration camps during the Holocaust.

JUNE 3RD

The first weekly ratings for Israeli television are published. To the surprise of few, five of the ten highest-rated programs on the ratings list are Kol Israel TV shows.

AUGUST 4TH

Israel’s largest television manufacturing company announces a deal with the U.S. industrial giant RCA to license-build that firm’s most popular make of color TV set for the Israeli market.

OCTOBER 9TH

The Bulletin expands from 90 minutes to two hours, making it the longest nightly news program then airing on any Israeli TV network.

DECEMBER 13TH

Fans of Mr. Levy Of Number 32 are plunged into mourning as the series’ creator is killed in a plane crash while en route to Be’er Sheva for a casting call to find an actor to portray the show’s newest character. In tribute to his memory, the episode of the show which was originally to have been broadcast that evening is postponed and a tribute to the show’s creator is aired in its place. The memorial show sets a ratings record in its time slot that will last nearly thirty years.

1962

MARCH 8TH

The principal defendant in the Benyamin Television quiz show scandal trial is convicted on fraud charges and sentenced to 10 years in jail. His two co-defendants will each get five-year sentences; in the months to come, scores of other people linked with the quiz show scheme will also be given stiff prison terms and at least two high-level Benyamin network executives will be forced to resign their posts as a result of their involvement with the conspiracy.

MARCH 13TH

Kol Israel TV marks its five-year anniversary with a two-hour special highlighting the most important moments in the development of Israeli television broadcasting.

JUNE 1ST

In the most controversial live broadcast Kol Israel TV has made so far in its history, the network airs Adolf Eichmann’s execution. There had been petitions to bar TV cameras from the execution because showing it might traumatize younger viewers, but Israel’s supreme court ruled the ban would violate Israeli citizens’ rights to free speech. The network did, however, accede to a request that a disclaimer warning parents as to the sensitive nature of the broadcast be shown before the beginning of the actual execution.

JULY 22ND

Kol Israel TV debuts a Russian-language broadcast service aimed at satisfying the programming needs of Russian Jews who have fled the Soviet Union to settle in Israel.

SEPTEMBER 19TH

The Japanese electronics firm Sony opens a factory in Haifa in order to capitalize on the growing Israeli market for TV sets.

OCTOBER 14TH-28TH

The Cuban missile crisis is covered at length by The Bulletin; the program’s reporters and production team will later receive a number of prestigious awards for this coverage and be honored by the Knesset for their work.

NOVEMBER 3RD

Haifa Broadcasting transmits the first all-color Israeli TV program, a concert performance by the Jerusalem Philharmonic.

DECEMBER 13TH

Citing health problems related to the quiz show scandal, Benyamin Television’s CEO announces his resignation from the network; within a month he is dead from a cerebral hemorrhage.

1963

JANUARY 17TH

Kol Israel TV makes its first all-color broadcast, a five-minute cartoon.

FEBRUARY 24TH

The Israeli defense ministry announces the creation of a television network aimed at meeting the morale needs of Israeli Defense Forces personnel.

MARCH 22ND

The Israeli Defense Forces Television Network begins regular broadcast service to military bases throughout Israel. MAY 14TH

For the first time in its six-year history Kol Israel TV loses viewers of its Independence Day parade telecast to a rival network as Benyamin Television’s coverage of the parade beats Kol Israel’s telecast of the same event in the ratings. This marks a major step forward in Benyamin Television’s efforts to recover from the 1960 quiz show scandal.

JUNE 17TH

The founder of the U.S.-Israeli Television Affairs Council retires after nine years with the organization and is honored in both the U.S. and Israel for his work in helping to establish regular TV broadcast service in Israel.

JULY 4TH

The CEO of Haifa Broadcasting sends U.S. Independence Day greetings to a gathering of prominent Jewish-Americans in New York via satellite uplink from Tel Aviv. This is the first time in Israel’s history that it’s been possible to transmit TV signals directly from Israel to the United States.

SEPTEMBER 16TH

Israel’s first privately funded television broadcast training school, the Aaronson Communications Academy, opens in Eilat.

NOVEMBER 22ND

All three of Israel’s civilian TV networks and the Israeli Defense Forces Television Network suspend their normal broadcast schedules for this day to cover John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

DECEMBER 9TH

Kol Israel TV unveils blueprints for a new expanded central studio in Tel Aviv to be put in operation by 1969.

1964

APRIL 14TH

President Lyndon Johnson attends the U.S.-Israeli Television Affairs Council’s ten-year anniversary banquet.

MAY 22ND

In a development which revives grim memories of the 1960 Benyamin Television quiz show scandal, the former host of the now-defunct program at the center of the scandal sues the network for breach of contract after being fired from his new gig as co-host of a variety series. In his motion to file the lawsuit, the plaintiff alleges he was guaranteed lifetime employment with the network in exchange for his silence on the producers’ scheme to rig the show in favor of its more photogenic contestants. The network denies the claim and files a countersuit on libel charges.

JUNE 2ND

Haifa Broadcasting announces that all of its prime time programming will be broadcast in an all-color format by July of 1965.

JULY 18TH

Benyamin Television postpones a planned documentary on its founder’s life, citing an ongoing strike by members of the network’s technical and editing staff. But behind the scenes rumors are circulating that the documentary has in fact been put on hold because of fears by the producers that some of the people scheduled to be interviewed for the feature may make comments that will hurt the network’s efforts to win its libel countersuit against the former host of the program that set off the 1960 quiz show scandal.

AUGUST 18TH

A liberal Knesset member introduces a bill aimed at relaxing some of the programming content restrictions which have governed programming for Israeli television since 1957. The bill immediately sparks massive protests from the more conservative segments of Israel’s Jewish clergy and will be hotly debated in the Knesset for months.

SEPTEMBER 23RD

Opening arguments are heard in the Benyamin Television breach of contract lawsuit.

OCTOBER 4TH

Benyamin Television announces it is postponing plans to begin shifting to an all-color programming format. The official explanation for this decision is that the network’s engineers are trying to fix previously unanticipated technical problems with its transmission equipment, but unofficially there’s considerable speculation the network’s latest set of legal troubles has forced it to divert much of the funding that had been previously set for the conversion process into paying the already substantial court costs being racked up in its countersuit against the former host of its onetime most popular game show.

DECEMBER 15TH

Kol Israel TV signs a contract with the U.S. network ABC to give ABC’s prime-time programming division the exclusive American rights to Mr. Levy Of Number 32, marking the first time in Israeli television history that a program from an Israeli TV network has been made available for adaptation in the United States. The following September the American version of the series will debut on ABC’s Wednesday night schedule as Mr. Levy Of Apt. 3B.

1965

JANUARY 13TH

Closing arguments are heard in the Benyamin Television breach of contract lawsuit.

JANUARY 16TH

The jury in the Benyamin Television breach of contract suit dismisses the plaintiff’s claims against the network and rules in favor of the network in its libel countersuit. However, the uproar over the case has dealt a serious blow to Benjamin Television’s efforts to rebuild its credibility, and over the next few months its already declining ratings will sink ever further.

FEBRUARY 5TH

The former host of Israel’s now-defunct onetime most popular game show is found dead in a Haifa motel room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

MARCH 20TH

Benyamin Television’s vice-president of programming resigns.

APRIL 7TH

Kol Israel TV airs a 90-minute documentary special to mark the 10-year Anniversary of the beginning of construction work on its Tel Aviv central studios.

APRIL 10TH

After months of stormy debate, the Knesset approves the August 1964 bill to relax some of the Israeli government’s television programming content restrictions. Opponents of this relaxation are outraged and vow to get the new law overturned as soon as possible.

JUNE 1ST

The U.S.-Israeli Television Affairs Council announces it will disband at the end of the year; with television now well-established as a broadcast and entertainment medium in Israel and a robust TV manufacturing industry boosting the Israeli economy, the members of the council feel there is no further need for their organization’s services.

JULY 7TH

Galilee Television, a company intended to distribute Israeli TV programs for syndicated broadcast in the United States, is incorporated in New York as a joint subsidiary of Kol Israel TV and Haifa broadcasting. SEPTEMBER 3RD

Tel Aviv police arrest two Jordanian nationals on terrorism charges after a failed attempt to bomb Kol Israel TV’s central studios. This marks the first time in the network’s history its broadcast facility in the Israeli capital has been targeted for attack.

OCTOBER 16TH

Fresh off the Los Angeles Dodgers’ World Series victory over the Minnesota Twins, Jewish-American baseball great Sandy Koufax visits New York City to attend the grand opening of Galilee Television’s U.S. headquarters.

NOVEMBER 23RD

Benyamin Television’s biographical documentary about its founder, which has already been delayed once as a result of the network’s long and bitter court battle with the late host of what was formerly its most popular game show, is postponed again after the documentary’s director is hospitalized.

DECEMBER 24TH

Haifa Television broadcasts the Pope’s annual Christmas Eve mass at the Vatican as a service to Christians visiting or working in Israel.

1966

MARCH 10TH

Kol Israel TV holds a picnic for employees of its Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Netanya affiliates to mark the tenth anniversary of the establishment of those stations.

MARCH 27TH

A suicide bomber is killed while trying to attack the Haifa Television affiliate in Herzliya when his bomb prematurely detonates; ten Israeli civilians and two IDF soldiers are also killed in the blast and the TV station is briefly knocked off the air. This incident sparks a renewed wave of fear among executives of all Israeli television networks about their employees’ safety and prompts the Israeli army to station a guard detail at every broadcast facility in the country for the next 90 days.

APRIL 13TH

Alumni of the now-disbanded U.S.-Israeli Television Affairs Council meet in Los Angeles for a farewell gala.

MAY 15TH

Kol Israel TV airs the first all-color broadcast of Tel Aviv’s annual Israeli Independence Day parade.

JULY 28TH

Benyamin Television finally begins broadcasting in an all-color format.

AUGUST 10TH

The experimental TV facility in the Negev Desert where the first Israeli television signals were transmitted eleven years earlier is declared as a national historic site.

SEPTEMBER 20TH

The founder of Benyamin Television, worn down by years of legal troubles, dies of heart failure in his Tel Aviv apartment.

OCTOBER 1ST

The Israeli Defense Forces Television Network announces it will begin transmitting in an all-color format by January 1st, 1967.

NOVEMBER 8TH

The news director for Haifa Television is arrested on espionage charges after refusing to disclose his reporters’ sources for a story alleging abusive practices by Israeli army drill sergeants during recruit training.

NOVEMBER 10TH

Haifa Television’s news director pleads “not guilty” to the espionage charges against him, setting the stage for what will become the biggest civil liberties cases Israel has seen so far during its nearly 20 years as a modern state.

DECEMBER 2ND

Opening arguments are heard in the Haifa Television espionage trial.

DECEMBER 5TH

The British Broadcasting Corporation launches BBC Israel, a bilingual television network designed to meet the needs of Israeli TV viewers who want to see BBC programming.

1967

JANUARY 1ST

The Israeli Defense Forces Television Network begins broadcasting in an all-color format.

JANUARY 4TH

A bill is introduced in the Knesset to allow live TV coverage of the parliamentary body’s sessions.

FEBRUARY 13TH

In a landmark verdict, Israel’s highest court rules in favor of the defense in the Haifa Television espionage trial. This ruling marks the start of a new era of more open reporting on the Israeli Defense Forces.

MARCH 13TH-MARCH 20TH

In honor of the ten-year anniversary of its broadcast debut, Kol Israel TV airs a week of special programming that includes a reunion concert by the Tel Aviv Symphony musicians who performed “Hatikvoh” on the network’s first day of regular broadcast operations. The week-long celebrations end with a time capsule of artifacts from the early years of Israeli TV being buried outside the network’s headquarters; the capsule is scheduled to be unearthed and opened on Kol Israel TV’s 20-year anniversary in 1977.

APRIL 23RD

After more than three months of stormy debate, the Knesset finally votes on the bill to permit TV coverage of its sessions; the bill falls short of passage by just one vote, but comments by the Knesset’s speaker suggest it may come up for reconsideration in the near future.

MAY 18TH

The Bulletin cuts away from its usual format to air a press conference by Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan announcing that the Egyptian navy has imposed a blockade of the Straits of Tiran, Israel’s chief maritime trade lifeline. It’s the first of many such press conferences Dayan will give in the days ahead; his media presence will prove critical in rallying support for the Eshkol government in the run-up to the Six-Day War.

MAY 21ST

Staffers at all Israeli television broadcast facilities begin stockpiling emergency supplies in those facilities’ basements as part of a larger plan by the Israeli government to set up air raid shelters across the country.

MAY 25TH

In a speech broadcast live from Beit Aghion, Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol pledges to take “all necessary steps”-- including the use of force if necessary --to reopen the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. Being aware that all Israeli television broadcasts are regularly monitored by Egyptian intelligence, he has the speech simulcast in Arabic to Egyptian TV viewers.

MAY 28TH

The Israeli Defense Forces general staff approves a plan by the Israeli army’s psy-ops department to use television to undermine enemy morale in the event of war between Israel and Egypt. Code-named Operation Sleight Of Hand, the plan calls for covert transmitters on the Israeli-Egyptian border to be activated at the start of hostilities and used to transmit anti-Nasser propaganda to the Egyptian home front; a secondary aim is to penetrate government censorship of the press to alert the Egyptian people to the truth about Nasser’s repressive policies.

JUNE 1ST

Egyptian president angrily threatens to blow up the Jerusalem affiliate of Haifa Television after the station broadcast an editorial denouncing Nasser’s belligerent actions since the Tiran blockade was imposed. Israeli prime minister Levi Eshkol replies to Nasser’s threat with one of his own: that any attack on the Haifa Television station in question will be deemed an act of war against Israel and dealt with accordingly.

JUNE 3RD

Making good on the threats issued by Nasser two days earlier, Egyptian- backed Palestinian commandos bomb Haifa Television's Jerusalem affiliate just after 8:00 AM Tel Aviv time; eight people are killed and forty-eight more injured in the blast. Shocked by this wanton act of aggression aimed at fellow Israelis and peers in the television industry, technicians and engineers from the Kol Israel and Benyamin affiliates in Jerusalem rush to the Haifa station to help get it back on the air as quickly as possible and render assistance to the survivors of the attack. Within less than an hour of the bombing Levi Eshkol has authorized pre-emptive air strikes against Egypt, Syria, and Jordan and the Israeli army general staff has instructed the army's psy-ops unit to activate Operation Sleight of Hand.

JUNE 4TH

In a gesture of national solidarity, the heads of Kol Israel TV, Benyamin Television, and Haifa Television issue a joint statement announcing that their networks will suspend their regular programming schedules effective immediately and until further notice so that critical war news can reach the families of IDF personnel without delay. One conspicuous exception to this edict is Mr. Levy, which is being kept on the air at the request of defense minister Moshe Dayan-- in addition to viewing the show as a great boost to his troops' morale, Dayan is a devoted fan of the series.

JUNE 6TH

Operation Sleight of Hand scores its greatest propaganda coup yet as it breaks through Egyptian government jamming to transmit footage of wrecked Egyptian army tanks and troop vehicles littering the Sinai. These images provide a stark contrast to the Nasser regime's wild claims that the Arabs are routing the Israelis; within hours after the transmission, thousands of Egyptians take to the streets of Cairo in protest of what they see as a blatant attempt by Nasser to deceive them about how the war is going.

JUNE 7TH

Gamal Abdel Nasser goes on Egyptian state television in an attempt to save his prestige and his alliance with Syria and Jordan. He claims the footage of destroyed army vehicles in the Sinai broadcast the previous day is fake even though its authenticity has been confirmed by many independent news sources; twenty minutes into his scheduled 90-minute address, an intruder intruder rushes on camera and fires a revolver twice into Nasser’s chest, critically wounding the Egyptian president. Just a few hours later, while the Egyptian people are still struggling to process the horror they have witnessed on their TV screens, word comes that the chief of staff of the Egyptian army has committed suicide.

JUNE 8TH

Gamal Abdel Nasser dies of the gunshot wounds he sustained the previous day; upon confirmation of Nasser’s death, parliament speaker Anwar Sadat is sworn in as his successor.

JUNE 9TH

The Six-Day War ends with a televised announcement by Israeli ambassador to the U.N. Abba Eban that Egypt and its Arab allies have agreed to sign a cease-fire accord with Israel. That evening, Israel’s major TV networks resume their regular programming schedules amid rumors that Kol Israel TV plans to expand its Arabic-language service to reach the millions of Arab viewers in Jerusalem and the West Bank now under Israeli occupation.

                               The End

To be continued