WallTalk

21
January 2011
January 1
In the first hour of the new year, an explosion in front of
Saints' Church, Alexandria, kills 21 people and injures 90.
January 14
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees Tunisia.
January 17
A restaurant owner sets himself alight in front of the
gates of the People's Assembly building in protest at
his ration of subsidised bread, and in Alexandria a
youth unable to find a job hangs himself in despair.
January 25
Huge numbers of Egyptians respond to calls by the
Facebook page 'We are all Khaled Said' to sabotage
National Police Day. Demonstrations erupt across Cairo
and Giza, heading for Tahrir Square. Protests also take
place in Suez, Ismailiya, Alexandria, Mansoura, Tanta
and Aswan.
Interior Minister Habib al-Adly blames demonstrations on
the banned Muslim Brotherhood, who deny responsibility.
Mobile phone networks are cut off in the vicinity of
Tahrir Square.
At six in the evening, demonstrators gather around a fire
lit by the Ultras at the entrance to Qasr al-Aini street,
united under the slogans “The people want the fall of
the regime” and “Bread, freedom, human dignity”.
A state of quiet anticipation pervades the square until
midnight, when police attack demonstrators with
water hoses and tear gas.
The protesters disperse into small groups roaming the
streets of downtown Cairo, forming demonstrations
which move about the city until daybreak.
The first martyrs of the Egyptian revolution fall in Suez.
January 26
Police clash with thousands of protestors who refuse to
leave Tahrir Square, and the Interior Ministry arrests
500 people over the course of two days.
Protests continue in Cairo and become fiercer in Suez,
where the revolutionaries are joined by Sheikh Hafiz
Salama, leader of the popular resistance in Suez during
the 1973 October War.
January 27
Demonstrations continue throughout the country as
hundreds are arrested, including 20 members of the
Muslim Brotherhood and activist Wael Ghonim.
Mohamed ElBaradei returns to Cairo to join the protests.