-
Mohammed Zahir Shah becomes king
Mohammed Zahir Shah becomes king at the age of 19 after the assassination of his father in 1933. King Mohammed Zahir Shah was king of Afghanistan from 1933 to 1973. He provided a stable government in Afghanistan. He took on many economic development projects funded by foreign aid, from the United States and the Soviet Union. He also maintained Afghanistan’s neutral positon in global politics. -
Shah reign ends
After 40 years of ruling as king of Afghanistan King Mohammed Zahir Shah reign ends with bloodless coup on July 17th 1973. Mohammed Zahir Shah cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan, who was the prime minister, takes his position and becomes president of Afghanistan. It was a frightening time for the people of Kabul who heard rioting and shooting in the streets. -
Mohammed Daud Khan becomes president
On July 17, 1973, Mohammed Daud Khan becomes president. He led a coup that overthrew Zahir Shah while he was in Italy and ended the kings reign. He declared himself president of the republic of Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan’s president from 1973 to 1978. As president he wanted lessen the country’s dependence on the Soviet Union. -
Khan gets overthrown by the PDPA
After 6 years of presidency Mohammed Daoud Khan gets overthrown and killed, along with most of his family by the PDPA, People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. He was overthrown by a coup that brought to power a communist government which held close ties to the Soviet Union under Nur Mohammad Taraki. -
Russian Tanks come
On December 1979, Soviet Army entered Afghanistan bringing in Russian tanks to Afghanistan and brought death to many people and brought an era of bloodletting. They brought a beginning of an occupation that would last a decade. Many people fled from Afghanistan because of all the killings, violence, and fighting. -
Soviet Troops withdrew
After ten years of Soviet occupation, on December 18 1989 interior Muslim forces start a resistance. The United States was one of the countries that supported the resistance. When the Soviet Troops finally withdrew, Afghanistan remained under PDPA for three more years. In 1992, during the downfall of the Soviet Union and lost control in the government, Afghanistan won and was converted into an Islamic State. -
The Taliban take over Kabul
On September 27 1996, the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. After many years violence, the people saw the takeover as a good thing. The Taliban were a group of Pashtun supremacists came together and took almost complete control of the country, and soon made life in Afghanistan dangerous again. As Sunni fundamentalists they massacred Shiites including the Hazara people. They also enforced fundamentalist laws. The Taliban used fear and violence to control the people of Afghanistan. -
Khaled Hosseini begins writing The Kite Runner
While practicing medicine as a doctor at Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles, Khaled Hosseini, had decided and started writing his first novel. His novel was called The Kite Runner, which he began writing in March 2001. The book was later published in 2003, becoming a big hit and an international best seller and. -
Terrorist attack on the US by al-Qaeda
On September 11th 2001, a terrorist attack occurred in the United States by al-Qaeda, another Islamic fundamentalist group in Afghanistan. From the group 19 terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes. One plane crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania, two planes crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center and the fourth plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. After the events of September 11, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanist -
The Kite Runner was published
Kite Runner was a big hit and was sold in at least seventy countries. Kite Runner was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a hundred weeks on the. The book brought the author, Khaled Hosseini international recognition and the book was later made into a film by director Marc Forster. The Kite Runner was also adapted into a graphic novel of the same name in 2011.