Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday for ordering the massacre of Shiite villagers from Dujail.
BAGHDAD: Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday for ordering the massacre of Shiite villagers from Dujail.
Following are key dates in the life of Saddam:
April 28, 1937: Saddam Hussein is born in Awja, north of Baghdad, into a Sunni peasant family.
1957: Joins the Baath, "party of Arab resurrection".
1959: Takes part in assassination attempt against Abdel Karim who himself overturned the monarchy the previous year. Saddam is sentenced to death in absentia and flees Iraq.
1963: Saddam returns to Iraq after Qassem is overthrown by the Baath party. New leader Abdel Salam Aref hunts down Baathists after they attempt a coup d'etat.
1964: Saddam is arrested and jailed. He escapes two years later.
1968: Saddam takes part in the coup d'etat that brings the Baath party to power, becoming the regime's strongman, although in the shadow of president Ahmad Hassan al-Baqr.
1969: Becomes vice-president of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC).
1979
July 16: Saddam becomes president of Iraq, secretary-general of the Baath party and president of the RCC.
1980
Sept 22: Saddam invades Iran, launching a bloody war which lasts until 1988 and costs around a million lives.
1981
June 7: The Israeli air force destroys a nuclear reactor at Osirak, which had been constructed by the French and would have allowed Iraq to make nuclear bombs.
1982
July 8: An assassination attempt is made against Saddam in the Shiite village of Dujail, north of Baghdad. 148 men and boys were executed and the village's orchards were torn up.
1988: Kurds supporting an Iranian offensive in northern Iraq are brutally supressed by Saddam. Some 5,000 are killed in the village of Halabja alone by chemical weapons.
Aug 20: A ceasefire ends the war with Iran. Some 300,000 Iraqis perished in the conflict.
1990
Aug 2: Saddam orders Iraqi troops to invade Kuwait.
1991
Jan 17: US-led Operation Desert Storm is launched against Iraq.
Feb 27: Kuwait is liberated and Baghdad accepts ceasefire conditions the following day.
1995
Oct 15: The first presidential referendum since 1979 results in a 99.96 percent "yes" vote in favour of Saddam remaining in power. His mandate is extended for a further seven years.
1996
Feb 23: Two sons-in-law of Saddam, Hussain and Saddam Kamel, who had defected to Jordan in August 1995, are murdered three days after their unexpected return to Iraq, provoking international condemnation.
Dec 12: Saddam's elder son Uday Hussein survives assassination bid.
1998
Dec 16-19: Operation Desert Fox. Some 500 missiles are launched on Iraq over four days following new tensions between the United States and Iraq and the departure of the UN inspectors after their work was constantly hampered.
2002
Oct 15: Saddam is re-elected as president for another seven years, winning 100 percent of the vote with a 100 percent turnout, according to official figures.
Dec 7: Saddam apologises to the Kuwaiti people for invading their country in 1990.
2003
March 20: The United States launches war on Iraq after Saddam ignores a US deadline to leave the country. It says it mounted a limited strike on a Baghdad building where Saddam was believed to be staying.
Hours later Saddam appears on state television to vow the devil will be defeated.
April 9: US forces topple a giant statue of Saddam in Baghdad city centre to scenes of wild jubilation.
July 22: Uday and Qusay are killed in the northern city of Mosul by US forces after a tip-off.
Dec 13: Saddam, who has made a series of taped messages of defiance since his disappearance and is thought to have been organising constant deadly attacks on coalition forces, is found by US troops hiding down a hole on a farm at Ad Dawr, south of Tikrit.
2004
Jan 9: US authorities say Saddam has prisoner of war status.
June 30: Two days before sovereignty is transferred to Iraq, responsibility for Saddam and 11 former henchman is also handed over to Iraqi authorities.
July 1: Saddam appears before a judge at the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try former regime members for alleged human rights infractions.
2005
July 17: Charges against Saddam for his alleged role in the massacre of Shiite villagers from Dujail are finalised.
October 19: The trial begins of Saddam Hussein and seven of his henchmen for the massacre of 148 Shiite villagers from Dujail at the Iraqi Special Tribunal in Baghdad. The deposed leader proclaims his innocence.
2006
August 21: Start of another trial of Saddam and six co-defendants, this time on charges of genocide during the 1988 Anfal campaign against the Kurds.
November 5: The court sentences Saddam and two others to death by hanging for their roles in the Dujail massacre.
December 26: The appeal court confirms the death sentence on Saddam.
December 30: Saddam is hanged to death.
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