James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction with training & analysis

Return to the CBW Resource homepage.

Chronology of Major Events in the History of Biological and Chemical Weapons*

• ~1770 B.C.E. [BW]- Sumerian cuneiforms created depicting an understanding of methods of contagion.[4]
• ~1200 B.C.E. [BW]- Some believe poison arrows were used in the Trojan War due to the descriptions of toxic weapons provided by Homer in the Iliad.[5]
• ~513 B.C.E. [BW]- The Scythians, who were known for their virulent toxic arrows, as described by Herodotus in 450 B.C.E., defeat Darius the king of Persia.[6]
• 331 B.C.E. [BW]- Scythians defeat one of Alexander the Greats' generals (Zopyrious) in a rout, likely utilizing the poison arrows described by Herodotus.[7]
• 326 B.C.E. [BW]- In the battle of Jhelum (Hydaspes) in Western India, Paurava led a large force of Indians utilizing poison arrows and darts against Alexander the Greats forces, which included Scythian archers.[8]
• 300 B.C.E. [LF]- Kautilya writes the Arthasâstra; in the treatise Kautilya advises his king, who eventually united India and controlled a much wider kingdom, to use chemical weapons extensively in attacks against enemy kings.[9]
• ~100 C.E. [LF]- Caraka-Samhita written in India, which discusses the ethics of medicine and forbidding medical practitioners from harming others. The Caraka-Samhita stands as one of the first examples of bioethics operationalized into doctrine.[10]
• 960-1279 C.E. [CW]- Arsenical smoke used in battle during China's Sung Dynasty.[11]
• 1346-1347 [BW]- Mongols catapult corpses contaminated with plague over the walls into Kaffa (in Crimea), forcing besieged Genoans to flee.[12]
• 1456 [BW]- City of Belgrade defeats invading Turks by igniting rags dipped in poison to create a toxic cloud.[13]
• 1675 [LF]- City of Strasbourg, a Franco-German treaty banning use of poisoned bullets is the first known international agreement banning chemical warfare.[14]
• 1710 [BW]- Russian troops allegedly use plague-infected corpses against Swedes.[15]
• 1767 [BW]- During the French and Indian Wars, the British give blankets used to wrap British smallpox victims to hostile Indian tribes.[16]
• April 24, 1863 [LF]- The U.S. War Department issues General Order 100, proclaiming, "the use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or foods, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare."[17]
• August 27, 1874 [LF]- At conference in Brussels fourteen European countries sign, but do not ratify a declaration declaring poison gasses, poison weapons and unusually cruel weapons against the customs of war.[18]
• July 29, 1899 [LF]- Hague Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land is signed. The Convention declares "it is especially prohibited... To employ poison or poisoned arms."[19]
• 1914 [CW]- French begin using tear gas in grenades and Germans retaliate with tear gas in artillery shells.[20]
• April 22, 1915 [CW]- Germans attack the French with chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium. This was the first significant use of chemical warfare in WWI.[21]
• September 25, 1915 [CW]- First British chemical weapons attack; chlorine gas is used against Germans at the Battle of Loos, France.[22]
• 1916-1918 [BW]- German agents use anthrax spores and glanders-causing bacteria to infect livestock and contaminate feed for export to Allied forces. Incidents include the infection of Romanian sheep with anthrax and glanders for export to Russia, infection of Argentinean mules with anthrax for export to Allied troops, and infection of American horses and contamination of feed with glanders bacteria for export to France.[23]
• February 26, 1918 [CW]- Germans launch the first projectile attack against U.S. troops with phosgene and chloropicrin shells. This marks the first major use of gas against American forces.[24]
• June 1918 [CW]- First U.S. use of gas in warfare, using British and French weapons. The U.S. produced phosgene; chloropicrin; mustard; chlorine; and sulfur tricloride, which it used in French and British shells due to the U.S. shortage of artillery rounds.[25]
• June 28, 1918 [CW]- The U.S. begins its formal chemical weapons program with the establishment of the Chemical Warfare Service.[26]
• 1918-1921 [CW]- Use of chemical weapons in Russia to suppress uprisings in at least three separate locations during and following the Bolshevik rebellion.[27]
• 1919 [CW]- British use Adamsite against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.[28]
• 1920s [CW]- Libya accuses Italy of using sulfur mustard to quell Libyan uprisings.[29]
• 1921-1927 [CW]- The Spanish use chemical weapons (mainly mustard) against the Rif rebels in Spanish Morocco.[30]
• June 17, 1925 [LF]- Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare is signed- but not ratified by U.S. and not signed by Japan.[31]
• 1936 [CW]- Italy uses mustard gas against Ethiopians during its invasion of Abyssinia.[32]
• 1937-1945 [CW]- Japan uses chemical weapons (sulfur mustard, chlorine, chloropicrin, phosgene, and lewesite) during invasion of China.[33]
• 1937 [BW]- Japan begins its offensive biological weapons program. Unit 731, the BW research and development unit, is located in Harbin, Manchuria. Over the course of the program, at least 10,000 political prisoners are killed in Japanese experiments.[34]
• 1939 [BW]- Nomonhan Incident: Japanese poison Soviet water supply with intestinal typhoid bacteria at former Mongolian border. First use of biological weapons by Japanese.[35]
• 1940 [BW]- The Japanese drop rice and wheat mixed with plague-carrying fleas over China and Manchuria.[36]
• 1942 [BW]- U.S. begins its offensive biological weapons program and chooses Camp Detrick, Frederick, Maryland as its research and development site.[37]
• 1942 [CW]- Nazis begin using Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) in gas chambers for the mass murder of concentration camp prisoners.[38]
• December 1943 [CW]- A U.S. ship loaded with mustard bombs is attacked in the port of Bari, Italy by Germans; 83 U.S. troops die in poisoned waters. The only CW "attack" in WWII.[39]
• April 1945 [CW]- Germans manufacture and stockpile large amounts of tabun and sarin nerve gases but do not use them.[40]
• May 1945 [BW]- Only known tactical use of BW by Germany. A large reservoir in Bohemia is poisoned with sewage.[41]
• September 1950-February 1951 [BW]- In a test of BW dispersal methods, The U.S. Army sprays biological simulants from Navy ships over San Francisco. The U.S. Army determines that this form of attack would expose nearly all residents of the San Francisco Bay Area to a lethal dose.[42]
• 1962-1970 [CW]- U.S. uses tear gas and four types of defoliant, including Agent Orange, in Vietnam.[43]
• 1963-1967 [CW]- Egypt uses chemical weapons (phosgene, mustard) against Yemen.[44]
• June, 1966 [BW]- The U.S. conducts a test of vulnerability to covert BW attack by releasing a harmless biological simulant into the New York City subway system.[45]
• November 25, 1969 [BW]- President Nixon announces unilateral dismantlement of the U.S. offensive BW program.[46]
• February 14, 1970 [BW]- President Nixon extends the dismantlement efforts to toxins, closing a loophole which might have allowed for their production.[47]
• April 10, 1972 [LF]- Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BTWC) is opened for signature.[48]
• 1975 [LF]- U.S. ratifies Geneva Protocol (1925) and BTWC.[49]
• 1975-1983 [CW]- Alleged use of Yellow Rain (trichothecene mycotoxins) by Soviet-backed forces in Laos and Kampuchea. There is evidence to suggest use of T-2 toxin, but an alternative hypothesis suggests that the yellow spots labeled Yellow Rain were caused by swarms of defecating bees.[50]
• 1975-1980 [CBW]- Rhodesia (became Zimbabwe in 1980) uses chemical and biological weapons against the resistance movement in the civil war between 1973-1979. Many argue South African apartheid military participated directly in these events along with extensive collaboration with the Portuguese government. During the tail end of the civil war Rhodesia/Zimbabwe experienced the largest recorded outbreak of anthrax among humans.[51]
• 1978 [BW]- In a case of Soviet state-sponsored assassination, Bulgarian exile Georgi Markov, living in London, is stabbed with an umbrella that injects him with a tiny pellet containing ricin.[52]
• 1979 [CW]- The U.S. alleges the Soviet Union used chemical weapons in Afghanistan, including Yellow Rain.[53]
• April 2, 1979 [BW]- Outbreak of pulmonary anthrax in Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union. In 1992, Russian president Boris Yeltsin acknowledges that the outbreak was caused by an accidental release of anthrax spores from a Soviet military microbiological facility.[54]
• 1981-1993 [CBW]- The apartheid regime in South Africa runs Project Coast, which designs and uses a variety of chemical and biological weapons against South Africa's native population, as well as in conflicts with Mozambique.[55]
• August, 1983 [CW]- Iraq begins using chemical weapons (mustard gas), in Iran-Iraq War.[56]
• 1984 [CW]- First ever use of nerve agent tabun on the battlefield, by Iraq during Iran-Iraq War.[57]
• 1987 [CW]- Libya uses chemical weapons (mustard) during a hot and cold conflict with Chad.[58]
• 1987-1988 [CW]- Iran begins use of chemical weapons (mustard, phosgene, hydrogen-cyanide) in Iran-Iraq War. The use was sporadic and generally ineffective.[59]
• 1987-1988 [CW]- Iraq uses chemical weapons (hydrogen cyanide, mustard gas) in its Anfal Campaign against its Kurdish populated northern region, most notably in the Halabja Massacre of 1988.[60]
• September 3, 1992 [LF]- Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (CWC) approved by U.N.[61]
• April 29, 1997 [LF]- Entry into force of CWC.[62]
• June 25, 1999 [LF]- The U.S. implements the CWC.[63]
• March 19, 2003 [LF]- U.S. invades Iraq, arguing that Iraq is in non-compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions. Further, the U.S. led coalition contends that Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction. Some argue the preemptive attack set a new precedent for international law regarding justification of war and enforcement of treaties.[64]

[Top]

• 1. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction (English Version), (United Nations: signed at the Hague, 1993).
• 2. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (English Version), (United Nations: signed in London, Moscow, Washington: 1972).
• 3. Leonardo Da Vinci. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Translated by Jean Paul Richter, (Oxford, MS: Project Gutenberg, 2004). Thucydides, Thomas Hobbes [translator], The Peloponnesian War: the Thomas Hobbes Translation, (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press: 1959): Bk:ch, 2:77 & 4:100.
• 4. Mayor, Adrienne, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World, (London: Duckworth, 2003).
• 5. Mayor, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs (2003); Hornung, Eric, History of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction, Translated by David Lorton, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999).
• 6. E. V. Cernenko, and Mikhail Viktorovich Gorelik, The Scythians, 700-300 BC. Men-at-arms series, 137, (London: Osprey Pub, 1983): 4.
• 7. Thucydides by Hobbes, The Peloponnesian War ch. 77, pg. 134; Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 1995 ed., s.v. "Warfare: Chemical and Biological Weapons," 2544; Seymour M. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare: America's Hidden Arsenal, (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1968), 3; "Pitch." Encyclopedia Britannica Online, (2008): 14 Jan, 2008, http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9060205.
• 8. Kaushik Roy, India's Historic Battles: From Alexander the Great to Kargil, (Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004): 16-22.
• 9. Roger Boesche, "Kautilya's Arthasâstra on War and Diplomacy in Ancient India," The Journal of Military History 67, (January, 2003): 9-38.
• 10. Michael Cheng-tek Tai and Chung Seng Lin, "Developing a Culturally Relevant Bioethics for Asian People," Journal of Medical Ethics 27, no. 1, (February, 2001): 51.
• 11. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 3; Paul Halsall, Course Reading on Chinese Dynastic History for Brooklyn College (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/chinhist.html).
• 12. United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), "Medical Defense Against Biological Warfare Agents Course: History of Biological Warfare" Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545.
• 13. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 4.
• 14. Tucker, Jonathan B. War of Nerves : Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda. 1st ed. New York: Anchor Books, 2007.
• 15. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 16. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 17. War Department, General Order 100, 1863.
• 18. Tucker, War of Nerves; "Project of an International Declaration Concerning the Laws and Customs of War, Adopted by the Conference of Brussels, August 27, 1874," The American Journal of International Law 1, no.2 (April, 1907): 98.
• 19. League of Nations, "Hague Convention (II) with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land," July 29, 1899 (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/lawofwar/hague02.htm); Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544.
• 20. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, vol. 1, The Rise of CB Weapons (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1971), 131-2; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 6.
• 21. This should more correctly be termed the first use of lethal gases in World War I. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5-6; Donald Richter, Chemical Soldiers: British Gas Warfare in World War I (Lawrenceville, University Press of Kansas, 1992), 16.
• 22. Richter, Chemical Soldiers, 61.
• 23. LTC George W. Christopher, USAF, MC; LTC Theodore J. Cieslak, MC, USA; MAJ Julie A. Pavlin, MC, USA; COL Edward M. Eitzen, Jr, MC, USA; "Biological Warfare: A Historical Perspective," Journal of the American Medical Association 278, no. 5 (August 6, 1997): 413; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 24. Though American troops were exposed to gas during earlier attacks, this offensive was important because it was the first use of projected shells targeted directly at U.S. forces. MAJ(P) Charles E.Heller, "Chemical Warfare in World War I: The American Experience, 1917-1918," Leavenworth Papers no. 10 (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Combat Studies Institute, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, September, 1984), 76; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5.
• 25. MAJ(P) Heller, "Chemical Warfare: The American Experience," 36; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 5.
• 26. United States Army, Soldier and Biological Chemical Command Web Site, "History" (http://www.sbccom.army.mil/sbccom/au_history.html). Though the U.S. chemical weapons program began prior to the end of WWI, very little of the stockpiles produced in the United States arrived in Europe in time to be used in battle. Most of the chemicals that the United States used in combat were produced by other Allied nations. SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 47, n. 3, 51, n. 2.
• 27. Lev Aleksandrovich Fedorov, "Chemical Weapons in Russia: History, Ecology, Politics," Center of Ecological Policy of Russia, (July 27, 1994), (http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/cbw/jptac008_l94001.htm).
• 28. Thomas, A. No. 1: Effects of Chemical Warfare: A selective review and bibliography of British state papers (Taylor & Francis: London, 1985); SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 141.
• 29. "NTI: Country Overviews: Libya: Chemical Overview," (http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/libya/chemical/) (accessed 1/8/2008, 2008).
• 30. Matthew Hughes, "Book Review: Deadly Embrace: Morocco and the Road to Spanish Civil War," War in Hitory no. 11 (2004):469.
• 31. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, "States Parties To The Protocol For The Prohibition of the Use In War Of Asphyxiating, Poisonous Or Other Gases, And Of Bacteriological Methods Of Warfare, Done At Geneva June 17, 1925" (http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/geneva1.html).
• 32. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 7; SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 142-5.
• 33. Deng, Hongmei and Peter O'meara Evans, "Social and Environmental Aspects of Abandoned Chemical Weapons in China," The Non Proliferation Review (Spring-Summer, 1997); "Stimson - Chemical Weapons: History and Controls," (http://www.stimson.org/cbw/?sn=CB2001121891).
• 34. LTC Christopher et al, "Biological Warfare," 413; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 35. Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony (Tokyo: Yenbooks), 64.
• 36. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2545; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 37. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 11; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 38. SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 155-6; The History Place, "Holocaust Timeline" (http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html#1942); Eugen Kogon, The Theory and Practice of Hell: The German Concentration Camps and the System Behind Them, trans. Heinz Norden (New York: Berkley Books, 1980) 139; quoted in Richard J. Green, "The Chemistry of Auschwitz" in The Holocaust History Project Web Site (May 10, 1998), (http://www.holocaust-history.org/).
• 39. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare.
• 40. Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 8-9; Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544.
• 41. LTC Christopher et al, "Biological Warfare," 413.
• 42. Martin Schram, Avoiding Armageddon: Our Future Our Choice (Basic Books: 2003): 160. This volume also available on video through the U.S. Public Broadcasting Systems.
• 43. National Institute for Science Education, The Why Files, "Agent Orange Revisited" (http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/025chem_weap/dioxin.html).
• 44. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Hersh, Chemical and Biological Warfare, 282-287; SIPRI, The Rise of CB Weapons, 159-161, 336-341. This incident is sometimes referred to as the first use of nerve gases, but according to SIPRI p. 159-161, these reports are unsubstantiated.
• 45. Leonard A. Cole, Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ Warfare Tests over Populated Areas (Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1990), 65-69; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 46. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 47. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 48. U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, "Fact Sheet: Biological Weapons Convention" (November 12, 1996) (http://www.state.gov/www/global/arms/treaties/bwc1.html).
• 49. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2546.
• 50. Testimony of Kenneth Adelman before Congress, Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations and Committee on Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Government Processes, Chemical Warfare: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 98th Cong., 2nd sess., June 28, 1984, 8; Cole, Clouds of Secrecy, 107-19; Julian Robinson, Jeanne Guillemin, Matthew Meselson, "Yellow Rain: The Story Collapses," Foreign Policy 68 (Fall, 1987): 100-17; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 51. Stephen F. Burgess, and Helen E. Purkitt, The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program, Maxwell AFB, Alabama: U.S. Air Force, Counter Proliferation Center & Air War College, (2001); "NTI: Country Overviews: South Africa: Biological Overview." (http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/south-africa/biological/); Ian Martinez, "The History of the use of Bacteriological and Chemical Agents during Zimbabwe's Liberation War of 1965-80 by Rhodesian Forces," Third World Quarterly 23, no. 6 (2002): 1159.
• 52. USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare." Though ricin is prohibited under the BWC as a toxin, it is also a chemical compound as classified under the Schedule 1 list of prohibited chemicals of the CWC, see Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "A List of Schedule 1 Chemicals" (http://www.opcw.nl/cwc/schedul1.htm).
• 53. Testimony of Kenneth Adelman, Chemical Warfare: Arms Control and Nonproliferation, 8; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 54. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2546; Al J. Venter, "Sverdlovsk Outbreak: a Portent of Disaster," Jane's Intelligence Review 10, no. 5 (May 1998): 36-39; Ian Hoffman, "Piece Found In Anthrax Mystery: Lab Sheds Light on Russian Leak," Albuquerque Journal, February 3, 1998; USAMRIID, "History of Biological Warfare."
• 55. Burgess and Purkitt, The Rollback of South Africa's Chemical and Biological Warfare Program, (2001); "NTI: Country Overviews: South Africa: Biological Overview; Wouter Basson "South Africa's Josef Mengele," The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education no. 21 (Autumn, 1998).
• 56. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Federation of American Scientists Web Page, GulfLink Collection, CIA Document, "CW Use in Iran-Iraq War" (July 2, 1996) (http://www.fas.org/irp/gulf/cia/960702/72566_01.htm).
• 57. Federation of American Scientists Web Page, "CW Use in Iran-Iraq War" (http://www.fas.org/irp/gulf/cia/960702/72566_01.htm).
• 58. "Libyan Threat," The San Francisco Chronicle, (March 9, 1990): A2.
• 59. Tucker, War of Nerves: 272-273; Thomas L. McNaugher, "Ballistic Missiles and Chemical Weapons: The Legacy of the Iran-Iraq War," International Security 15, no. 2, (1990): 5-34.
• 60. Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 2544; Physicians for Human Rights Web Site, "Research and Investigations: Chemical Weapons" (http:/http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/index.html); U.S. Department of State, Office of the Spokesman, Press Statement by James P. Rubin, Spokesman, "Anniversary of the Halabja Massacre" (March 16, 1998) (http://secretary.state.gov/www/briefings/statements/1998/ps980316a.html); Peter Sawchyn, "Scientist Details Effects of Chemical Attack on Iraqi Kurds (Evidence shows long-term genetic damage to Halabja residents)," USIS Washington File, April 27, 1998.
• 61. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "Introduction to the Chemical Weapons Convention" (http://www.opcw.nl/guide.htm#introduction).
• 62. Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Web Site, "Introduction to the Chemical Weapons Convention" (http://www.opcw.nl/guide.htm#introduction).
• 63. Executive Order no. 13,128, Code of Federal Regulations, Title 3 (1999).
• 64. John Yoo, "International Law and the War in Iraq," The American Journal of International Law 97, no. 3 (Jul., 2003): 563-576; Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Anoushiravan Ehteshami, The Foreign Policies of Middle East States: The Middle East in the International System, (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002); Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East: Western footprints and America's perilous path in the Middle East, (Boston: Beacon Press, 2004).

Last updated: 8/2008