Key setbacks in Yasser Arafat's political career:
1966 — Syrian government tries to take control of Arafat's Fatah movement, formed in 1965. Arafat is arrested in Syria and released one month later.
Sept. 17, 1970 — Jordan's King Hussein, fearing growing power of the Palestine Liberation Organization, cracks down against PLO guerrillas and forces Arafat to flee to Lebanon in March 1971.
June 1, 1976 — Syrian President Hafez Assad, seeking control of the Palestinian cause during Lebanon's civil war, sends troops into Lebanon to fight the PLO.
June 6, 1982 — Israel invades Lebanon ostensibly to crush the PLO, but becomes bogged down in a bloody three-year occupation that fails to install a pro-Israeli government in Beirut.
Sept. 1, 1982 — Under Israeli fire, Arafat evacuates his forces from the Lebanese capital.
June 24, 1983 — Arafat is expelled from Damascus after Syrian-backed mutiny in PLO against his leadership. Syrian troops later besiege Arafat loyalists in Tripoli, north Lebanon.
Dec. 20, 1983 — Arafat's forces withdraw from their last Lebanese stronghold and set up headquarters in Tunisia.
Oct. 1, 1985 — Arafat narrowly escapes death when Israeli warplanes bomb PLO headquarters in Tunis, killing 65 people, to avenge three Israelis slain in Cyprus.
Sept. 29, 2000 — Beginning of the second Palestinian uprising, which buries the 1993 Oslo peace accords that Arafat signed with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
March 29, 2002 — Israeli tanks roll into the West Bank city of Ramallah, besieging Arafat in his headquarters. The tanks later pull back but the Israeli army keeps Arafat's compound under close watch and he remains hunkered down in his shell-pocked base.
June 24, 2002 — President Bush urges the Palestinians to replace Arafat with leaders "not compromised by terror."
July 16, 2004 — Wave of kidnappings and demonstrations prompt Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia to resign as pressure mounts on Arafat to relax his hold on power.