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| 1972, July 18 |
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| Expulsion of Soviet military advisers, who numbered about 18,000. Egypt took over all the Soviet military bases inside the country. | 1 |
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| 1973, Oct. 28 |
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| Death of TAHA HUSAYN (b. 1889), one of the greatest literary figures of 20th-century Egypt. Despite his early training in the traditional Muslim educational system, he later became Egypt's foremost exponent of modern literary techniques in both fiction and criticism. He was closely identified with the Egyptianist movement of the 1920s, which sought to construct a unique national identity persisting throughout history. Because of his modernist leanings and daring scholarship, he became embroiled in religious controversy with conservatives, who accused him of undermining conventional Muslim scholarship and even Islam itself. He also served briefly as minister of education (1950–52). | 2 |
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| 1974, Oct |
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| Declaration of the infitah, the “open-door” economic policy that encouraged foreign investment and private enterprise. The new program represented a complete and radical reversal of Nasser's state-planned socialism. Sadat probably had several motives for introducing the new policy. The sudden pro-Western tilt in foreign policy and the wish to strengthen ties with conservative Arab regimes generated external pressures for Egypt to retreat from, or if possible completely break with, its socialist policies. An additional spur to a more open economy was the need to attract foreign investment, particularly from wealthy Arab oil states, to stimulate economic growth. It is also likely that the government wanted to improve Egypt's system of foreign exchange so that Egyptians working abroad could more easily inject their remittances into the domestic economy. | 3 |
| Although economic investment rose markedly, it rarely entered vital sectors of the economy such as industry. Tourism, oil, and construction received the overwhelming share of investors' attention. Rapid economic expansion (an average of 7 percent per year, 1973–80) was counterbalanced by severe inflation (reaching 30 percent at times), an enormous trade deficit, and a crushing foreign debt. A further problem was the new social tensions generated by the infitah. Almost overnight a new class of entrepreneurs sprang up, whose ostentatious behavior offered a sharp and provocative contrast to the more austere lifestyle of the socialist era. | 4 |
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| 1975, Feb. 3 |
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| Death of UMM KULTHUM (b. 1898), popular singer adored throughout the Arab world. Her career began at the age of 5. Winning early acclaim for her mastery of classical and religious songs, she later broke into popular music and established herself as the preeminent singer in the region. | 5 |
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| 1976 |
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| Gradual abandonment of the one-party system. In a small move toward political pluralism, the Arab Socialist Union, still the only recognized party in Egypt, created three internal “platforms”—roughly corresponding to leftist, moderate, and conservative positions—to encourage debate within the party and to offer a larger number of candidates for parliamentary elections. The centrist bloc evolved into the Arab Socialist Party of Egypt, which was soon renamed the National Democratic Party. It quickly replaced the ASU, abolished in 1980, as the party of the government. Genuine opposition groups took longer to establish themselves. The New Wafd existed briefly in 1978. | 6 |
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| March |
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| Egypt canceled its treaty with the Soviet Union. The next month Soviet ships were barred from calling in Egyptian ports. | 7 |
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