Abraha, the Abyssinian Najashi's governor over Yemen, built a great cathedral in Sana'a and tried to redirect the Arabs' pilgrimage there instead of the Ka'bah. When a Bedouin defiled the cathedral in protest, Abraha marched on Makkah with an army that included several elephants (the lead elephant named Mahmud), guided by an Arab named Abu Rughal, intending to destroy the Ka'bah. His forces first seized the livestock of Abdul Muttalib, chieftain of Makkah, including over 200 camels. Abdul Muttalib met with Abraha and, famously, asked only for the return of his camels, telling Abraha that the House had its own Lord who would defend it. The Quraysh then withdrew to the surrounding mountains, and Abdul Muttalib prayed at the Ka'bah for Allah to defend it. When Abraha's army advanced, the lead elephant Mahmud refused to move toward Makkah, though it would move readily in any other direction.
As the two sides stood at a standstill, Allah sent flights of birds (the Ababil) that bombarded the army with stones of baked clay (sijjil); in front of the Quraysh's eyes, every stone struck a man or beast, and his flesh dissolved. Abraha himself suffered the worst of it; his men carried him back toward Yemen with his skin dissolving the entire way, and he died just before reaching home.
The traces of the elephants' droppings, withered and turned yellow, were still visible in Makkah decades later, remembered by companions who had seen them as children in the Year of the Elephant; the same year the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born, while his mother Aminah was pregnant with him in the very sanctuary Allah had just defended.
Outcome: Abraha's army was destroyed before reaching the Ka'bah; Abraha himself died of his afflictions on the way back to Yemen.
The Ka'bah was miraculously defended, commemorated in Surah al-Fil, in the same year the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was born (the Year of the Elephant), while his mother Aminah was pregnant with him in Makkah.
Other events recorded around the same time. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
O Allah, we cannot fight this army. They are too strong for us: they have these elephants, they have these thousand men. You take care of it.
Prayed at the Ka'bah after the Quraysh withdrew to the surrounding mountains, unable to face Abraha's army.
I didn't come to you to talk about the House. I didn't come to you to talk about the Ka'bah. I came to you to talk about my camels.
Abraha had just told him he held nothing against the Quraysh personally and only wanted him to leave the city so his army could destroy the Ka'bah.
I have come to destroy your Holy House, and you are coming to talk to me about your camels.
It is not my business. The House has a Lord who will protect it. And the camels have a lord, and it is my job to protect the camels.
I remember one of the guides of the elephants who had come from Yemen, blinded, and living as a beggar. He must have been a young man at the time; when I saw him he was old and near death, still begging for any morsel of food.
A later recollection from her childhood in Makkah.
هو أكبر مني ، وأنا ولدت قبله
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ is bigger than me, though I was born before him. I remember my mother taking me and showing me the dung of the elephants, withered and turned yellow, when I was a young boy.
A later recollection, given in answer to an early Umayyad caliph's question over which of the two of them was older.
وَأَرْسَلَ عَلَيْهِمْ طَيْرًا أَبَابِيلَ
Describes the birds (Ababil) Allah sent against Abraha's army.
تَرْمِيهِمْ بِحِجَارَةٍ مِنْ سِجِّيلٍ
Describes the stones of baked clay (sijjil) the birds bombarded Abraha's army with.