Lebanon's Missing History

April 13, 1975 - one of the darkest dates in Lebanese history. An attack on a busload of Palestinians in Beirut that day sparked a civil war that would rage for 15 years, leaving some 150,000 dead, the capital divided along sectarian lines and sections of the country in ruins. But ask students in the city today of the significance of the date, and you get mixed responses. "I think it was a very important occasion for Lebanon," says Noor El-Hoss, a student in West Beirut's Al Iman School. "But I don't know what happened." More than two decades after the end of the country's civil war, generations of young Lebanese are growing up with little formal education about the conflict. Home to contesting political groups representing 18 religious communities, Lebanese society contains many deep divisions, and the country's recent past is widely considered too contentious to examine in depth. To avoid inflaming old hostilities, Lebanese history textbooks stop in 1943, the year the country gained independence. (Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/08/world/meast/lebanon-civil-war-history/index.html)