User:Llywrch/Timeline of the Ethiopian Revolution

1974

• 12 January - Rank-and-file soldiers of the Negele Boran garrison mutiny over bad food and lack of drinking water. They seize the Emperor's personal envoy, Lt. Gen. Deresse Dubale, and force him to eat and drink as they did.
• 10 February - Technicians and NCOs at the Debre Zeyit Air Force base mutiny, holding their officers hostage for three days in a mess tent.
• 14 February - Students at Haile Selassie University in the capital go on strike against a proposed reform in the educational system. High school teachers and college professors support the student strike.
• 18 February - School teachers strike for better pay. On the same day, taxi drivers in Addis Ababa strike over a proposed 50% increase in gas prices.
• 23 February - Emperor Haile Selassie concedes to some of the strikers' demands.
• 25 February - Enlisted men and NCOs of the Second Division in Asmara mutiny.
• 28 February - Prime minister Aklilu Habte-Wold resigns. His resignation was not demanded by any of the rebellious groups, and is seen as a sign of panic and weakness by the palace which is later exploited by civilians and soldiers. He is replaced by Endelkachew Makonnen.
• 5 March - Emperor Haile Selassie announces that the 1955 Constitution would be revised to make the Prime Minister responsible to parliament.
• 7 - 9 March - The Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions calls as general labor strike.
• 31 March - General Abiye Abebe, the new chief of staff and Minister of Defense, announces a plot against the government by Air Force officers had been uncovered and foiled.
• 20 April - Moslems stage a demonstration in Addis Ababa demanding religious equality and separation of church and state.
• 26 April - After weeks of agitation and intermittent strikes, the government shuts down Haile Selassie University.
• 27 April - The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces (under the command of Colonel Alem Zewde Tessema of the Airborne Corps) issues their first statement, announcing that 19 ministers and former officials of the imperial regime have been arrested.
• 30 April - Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen announces the creation of a joint military-civilian National Security Commission under General Abiye Abebe to deal with growing lawlessness and the numerous wildcat strikes crippling the country. (This National Security Commission replaces the first Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces.)
• 25 June - The wives and relations of the arrested officials of the imperial regime (now 25 in number) petition that the prisoners be released pending an investigation. It is rejected by parliament, who see this as an attempt to restore the status quo.
• 28 June - In response to the unsuccessful petition, a new Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces (which becomes the Derg) seizes the radio station in Addis Ababa, and begin to arrest other aristocrats, high officials, and generals suspected of being behind the reactionary movement.
• 9 July - The Derg issues its first political statement, in an announcement in 13 points.
• 22 July - Prime Minister Endelkachew Makonnen resigns. He is replaced by Mikael Imru, a progressive aristocrat.
• 1 August - Endelkachew Makonnen is arrested by the Derg.
• 12 September - Emperor Haile Selassie is deposed.
• 15 September - The Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces renames itself as the Provisional Military Administrative Council, and announces General Aman Mikael Andom as the new chairman.
• 20 November (approximate date) - General Aman resigns in protest.
• 23 November - General Aman dies in a shootout with troops sent to arrest him. That same night 57 important political prisoners held by the Derg are executed.
• 20 December - The Derg proclaims the establishment of "Ethiopian socialism", based on the declaration of Etiopia Tikdem.
• December - A group of 25 fighters of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party EPRP arrives in Agame after spending a year training in Eritrea with the Eritrean Peoples' Liberation Front (EPLF).

1975

• 1 January - The Derg nationalizes the banks and insurance companies of Ethiopia.
• 1 February - The Derg nationalizes most of the industries of Ethiopia, 72 in number.
• 18 February - The TPLF officially establishes a base at Dedebit to begin their armed resistance to the Derg.
• 4 March - The Derg announces a radical program of land reform.

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• 20-21 April - A group of officers, led by Lt. Col. Negussie Haile, are arrested for plotting to depose both Mengistu & Atnfau & restore Haile Selassie as Emperor.
• 13 July - The Derg announces that Captain Sisay Hapte, a rival of Mengistu for power in the junta, has been executed along with Brig. Gen. Getachew Nadew of the Eritrean command & 17 other civilians & military officers.
• 5 August - The TPLF storm the prison at Inda Selassie, freeing one of their captured comrades & freeing 30 other prisoners.
• 4 September - The TPLF raids Axum, attacking the police station, telecommunication offices, and local bank. Three or four policemen are killed, and 170,000 Birr (US$ 82,000) is taken from the bank.
• 29 December - A faction within the Derg announce that a reorganization of that junta took place 3 months before, which has reduced the power of Mengistu.

1976

• 18 February - TPLF convenes a Fighters Congress, where a constitution, organizational structure, & goals are agreed to.
• 13 June - Ayele Gessesse (aka Suhul), military commander of the TPLF forces, is killed by the Ethiopian Democratic Union/Teranafit.
• mid-July - TPLF defeat a numerically superior EDU force at Adi Nebriid.
• 27 September - TPLF & EDU forces clash at Chiameskebet, near Sheraro, both sides suffering heavy losses.

1977

• 3 February - Tafari Benti and several other Derg members are killed in a shootout during a meeting.
• 17 April - Mengistu declares war on the "enemies of the Revolution", beginning the Red Terror

1978

• A woreda-wide meeting is called in Sobia, to decide formally which resistance group to support: the TPLF or EPRP. The meeting passes a resolution supporting the TPLF.

1979

• 4 November - "War No. 4", last major military engagement between the EDU & TPLF is fought, lasting 4 days.