1964 Marries second wife Lily, the younger sister of Margalit
1966 Appointed Head of the Army Training Department, the youngest ever to hold such a position in the IDF
1967Six Day War, Sharon's armored division breaks Egyptian front, pushes enemy back across Suez Canal
1969 Appointed Head of the Southern Command Staff
1972 Reprimanded by then Defense Minister Moshe Dayan after being accused of applying unacceptable and unauthorized methods of dealing with terrorists
July 1973 Retires from the military with the rank of Major-General
1973 Recalled to active military service in the Yom Kippur War to command an armored division; leads the crossing of the Suez Canal which brought about victory in the war and eventual peace with Egypt
December 1973 Elected into Knesset on right-wing Gachal ticket
January 20, 1974 Leaves army permanently
1974 Elected to Knesset on Likud ticket, serves as Security Adviser to then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin
1975 Resigns from Knesset
1977 Elected to Knesset on Shlomzion ticket
1977 Joins Herut party; appointed Minister of Agriculture, in which position he actively pursues agricultural cooperation with Egypt
1981 Appointed Defense Minister;
serves in this position during Lebanon War which brought about destruction of PLO terrorist infrastructure there;
Renews diplomatic relations with African nations;
Spearheads first strategic cooperation agreement with the United States
Helps bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews into Israel via Sudan
1983 Resigns as Defense Minister after commission finds him indirectly responsible for 1982 massacre of Palestinians at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps by Lebanese Christians
1983-1984 Remains minister-without-portfolio
1984 Serves as Minister of Industry and Trade until 1990
1985 Concludes Free Trade Agreement with US
1990 Appointed Minister of Construction and Housing and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Immigration and Absorption
1990 Heads program to absorb immigrants from Russia after fall of Soviet Union, which includes construction of 144,000 apartments
1992-1996 Member of Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee
1996 Appointed Minister of National Infrastructure; fosters joint ventures with Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinians; serves as Chairman of Ministerial Committee for Beduin Advancement
1998 Appointed Foreign Minister; heads permanent status negotiations with the Palestinian Authority; meets with US and European leaders to advance the peace process
May 1999 Becomes interim Likud party leader after the resignation of Binyamin Netanyahu
September 1999 Elected Chairman of the Likud
2000 Second wife Lily dies of cancer
2000 Controversial vist to the al-Aksa mosque
February 6, 2001 Elected Prime Minister of 16th Knesset in landslide victory
October 2002 National unity government breaks up, forcing Sharon to call elections for early 2003
2003 Likud victory in national elections
2003 Sharon's government accepts the internationally supported road map peace plan, resumes talks with the Palestinians
August 17, 2005 Israel begins the disengagement which is fully completed by early September
November 21, 2005 Sharon quits the Likud and establishes center-line party Kadima; many of his colleagues follow
December 18, 2005 Suffers minor stroke; returns to work within days
January 4, 2006 Suffers massive hemorrhagic stroke; prognosis reported as "extremely bleak" after surgery
February 11, 2006 While in coma, Sharon suffered a major setback on Saturday when a clot in an artery in his abdomen closed off the blood supply to part of his large intestine and required the surgical removal of a third (50 centimeters) of it.
Taken from The Jerusalem Post archives and Jewish Virtual Library.
Compiled by Sari Cohen.
