Timeline of Asmara

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Asmara, Eritrea. Asmara was under Italian colonial rule from 1889 until 1941.

Prior to 20th century

• circa 1515 CE - Four villages merge to become "Asmera" (traditional date).[1]
• 16th century - Asmara sacked by Muslim forces.[1]
• 1889 - 3 August: Asmara occupied by Italian forces under command of Baldissera.[2]
• 1895 - Governor's Palace built.[3]
• 1900 - Capital of colonial Italian Eritrea moved to Asmara from Massawa.[4]

20th century

• 1905 - Congresso Coloniale Italiano held in Asmara.[5]
• 1906 - Asmara Synagogue built.
• 1911 - Ferrovia Massaua-Asmara begins operating; Asmara Station opens.[6]
• 1920
  • Teatro Asmara (theatre) opens.
  • Population: 14,711.[7]
• 1922 - Airport begins operating.
• 1923 - Church of Our Lady of the Rosary built.
• 1930s - New Governor's Palace built (now City Hall).[8]
• 1935 - Population: 16,000 (12,000 Africans + 4,000 Italians).[9]
• 1936 - Apartheid begins; city racially divided into nazionali (white) and indigeni (black) areas.[10]
• 1937
  • Asmara-Massawa Cableway begins operating.
  • Albergo CIAAO (hotel) built for the Compagnia Immobiliare Alberghi Africa Orientale.[11]
  • Cinema Excelsior and Cinema Teatro Augustus open.[12]
• 1938
  • Great Mosque of Asmara, Cicero Stadium, and Fiat Tagliero Building[13] constructed.
  • Cinema Impero opens.[12]
• 1939
  • Asmara Brewery in business.
  • Population: 84,000 (36,000 Africans + 48,000 Italians).[9]
• 1941
  • March. British occupy city.[1]
  • Asmara Brewery FC (football club) formed.
• 1945 - Red Sea FC (football club) formed.
• 1951 - British occupation ends.[10]
• 1952 - City becomes part of Ethiopia per United Nations decision.[14]
• 1953 - United States military signals intelligence Kagnew Station in operation.
• 1957 - Scuola materna italiana di Asmara (school) active.
• 1958
  • Catholic College of the Santa Famiglia founded.
  • Denden Stadium opens.
• 1959 - Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Asmara active.[15]
• 1962 - Population: 120,000.[16]
• 1964 - Population: 131,800.[17]
• 1968
  • January: Part of 1968 African Cup of Nations football contest held in Asmara.
  • University of Asmara active.[10]
• 1969 - Kidane Mehret Cathedral built.
• 1974
  • Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army (Derg) in power.[10]
  • 28 December: Massacre occurs during the Eritrean War of Independence.
• 1975
  • February: Fighting, Massacre occurs.[18]
  • July: Fighting occurs.[19]
• 1985 - Population: 284,748 (estimate).[20]
• 1990
  • Siege of city begins.[21]
  • Population: 358,100 (estimate).[22]
• 1991
  • 24 May: Eritrean People's Liberation Front take city; Derg rule ends.[21]
  • Haddas Ertra newspaper begins publication.[23]
• 1993
  • 24 May: Asmara becomes capital of independent Eritrea.[24]
  • Eri-TV begins broadcasting.[23]
• 1998 - 5 June: Airport bombed by Ethiopian forces during the Eritrean–Ethiopian War.

21st century

• 2002 - Semere Russom becomes mayor of Asmara and administrator of the Central Region.
• 2013 - 21 January: 2013 Eritrean Army mutiny occurs at Eri-TV building.[14]
• 2017 - Italian city centre designated an UNESCO World Heritage Site.[25]
• 2018 - Population: 501,203 (estimate).[26]
• 2020 - Rocket attacks.

See also

• Asmara history
• Asmara under Italy, 1889-1941
• Timeline of the Italian Empire

References

1. Johnson 2005.
2. Treccani 1929.
3. Asmara Heritage Project 2016.
4. "Eritrea". Political Chronology of Africa. Political Chronologies of the World. Europa Publications. 2001. ISBN 0203409957.
5. "Il Congresso Coloniale all'Asmara". Rivista geografica italiana e Bollettino della Società di studi geografici e coloniali in Firenze (in Italian). 12. 1905.
6. "Achèvement du chemin de fer de Massaoua à Asmara". Annales de géographie (in French). 21. 1912 – via Persee.fr.
7. "Italy: Colony of Eritrea". Statesman's Year-Book. London: Macmillan and Co. 1921 – via HathiTrust.
8. Asmara italiana
9. Podestà 2015.
10. Bereketeab 2003.
11. Anderson 2016.
12. "Movie Theaters in Asmara, Eritrea". CinemaTreasures.org. Los Angeles: Cinema Treasures LLC. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
13. "A History of Cities in 50 Buildings", The Guardian, UK, 2015
14. "Eritrea Profile: Timeline". BBC News. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
15. "Chronology of Catholic Dioceses: Eritrea". Norway: Roman Catholic Diocese of Oslo. Retrieved 5 August 2017.
16. "Ethiopia", Statesman's Yearbook, London: Macmillan & Co., 1963. via Google Books
17. "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". Demographic Yearbook 1965. New York: Statistical Office of the United Nations. 1966. pp. 140–161.
18. "New gun battles rage in Asmara", New York Times, 20 February 1975
19. "Ethiopia Is Said to Seal Off Eritrea City After Fighting", New York Times, 31 July 1975
20. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistical Office (1987). "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 and more inhabitants". 1985 Demographic Yearbook. New York. pp. 247–289.
21. "Eritreans, Fresh From Victory, Must Now Govern", New York Times, 16 June 1991
22. "Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants" (PDF). Demographic Yearbook 2010. United Nations Statistics Division. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-07-10.
23. "Eritrea: Directory". Africa South of the Sahara 2004. Regional Surveys of the World. Europa Publications. 2004. ISBN 1857431839.
24. "Eritrea Marks Independence After Years Under Ethiopia", New York Times, 25 May 1993
25. Africa's 'Little Rome' survives conflict, seeks U.N. accolade, Reuters, 9 March 2016
26. "Table 8 - Population of capital cities and cities of 100,000 or more inhabitants", Demographic Yearbook – 2018, United Nations

This article incorporates information from the Italian Wikipedia and Spanish Wikipedia.

Bibliography

• "Asmara", Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.), New York, 1910, OCLC 14782424 – via Internet Archive
• "Asmara", Enciclopedia Italiana (Treccani) (in Italian), 1929
• Redie Bereketeab (2003). "Asmara, Eritrea". In Paul Tiyambe Zeleza; Dickson Eyoh (eds.). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History. Routledge. ISBN 0415234794.
• Karin Caesar; Katarina Rosengren (2003). Analysis of the Situation for Cyclists in Asmara (PDF) (MA). Sweden: Lund University.
• David P. Johnson, Jr. (2005). "Asmara, Eritrea". In Kwame Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (eds.). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 278+. ISBN 978-0-19-517055-9.
• Marie Bridonneau (2006). "Kushet, un village périurbain de l'agglomération d'Asmara: politique d'aménagement et recomposition spatiale". Chroniques yéménites (in French). 13. doi:10.4000/cy.1384 – via Revues.org.
• Edward Denison; et al. (2007) [2003]. Asmara: Africa's Secret Modernist City. Merrell. ISBN 9781858943824.
• Eritrea: National and Cities Urban Profile: Asmara, Massawa & Mendefera. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. 2008.
• Belula Tecle-Misghina (2014). Asmara, an urban history. Rome: Edizioni Nuova Cultura. ISBN 978-88-6812-354-3.
• Gian Luca Podestà (2015). "Asmara and Dek'emhare: Cities of Work, Cities of Leisure". Diacronie (21). doi:10.4000/diacronie.1919 – via Revues.org. ISSN 2038-0925.
• Sean Anderson (2016). "Asmara". Modern Architecture and Its Representation in Colonial Eritrea: An In-visible Colony, 1890-1941. Routledge. pp. 69–146. ISBN 978-1-317-09478-4.
• Asmara Heritage Project (2016), Asmara: Africa's Modernist City, Eritrea: Central Region Administration, Nomination Dossier for UNESCO World Heritage Listing

External links

• "(Asmara)". Directory of Open Access Journals. UK. (Bibliography of open access articles)
• "(Asmara)". AfricaBib.org. (Bibliography)
• "Asmara, Eritrea". BlackPast.org. US.
• "(Asmara)". Connecting-Africa. Leiden, Netherlands: African Studies Centre. (Bibliography)
• "(Asmara)" – via Digital Public Library of America. (Images, etc.)
• "(Asmara)" – via Europeana. (Images, etc.)