Born in the village of Uja, near Tikrit. His father died or disappeared
before he was born.1957: Joins the radical, secular nationalist
Baath Party at age 20.
1959: Flees Iraq for Cairo, Egypt, after
taking part in an attempt to assassinate the country's ruler, Gen
Abdul-Karim Kassim, and is sentenced to death in absentia.
1963:
Returns to Iraq after the Baath Party overthrows Kassim, but then is
imprisoned after Baath leadership is ousted.
1967: Escapes and
takes charge of the underground Baath Party's secret internal security
organisation.
July 1968: Baath Party wins back power under the
leadership of Gen Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, who appoints Saddam, his distant
cousin, as his deputy. Saddam purges key party figures, deports
thousands of Shiites of Iranian origin and supervises the state takeover
of Iraq's oil industry and land reforms.
1979: Saddam forces
al-Bakr to resign. Hundreds of Baath and military officials are executed
in purge.
September 22, 1980: Iraqi forces invade Iran, launching an
eight-year war that costs hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides
and devastates Saddam's plans to transform Iraq into a developed,
prosperous country.
1982: Shiite guerrillas ambush Saddam's
convoy in Dujail. He escapes. About 150 Shiites are killed in the wake
of the assassination attempt.
1987: Saddam launches his 'Anfal'
campaign against Iraqi Kurdish rebels, in which tens of thousands, many
of them civilians, are killed.
August 2, 1990: Iraq invades
Kuwait.
January 1991: A US-led coalition attacks to push Iraqi
forces out of Kuwait.
March 20, 2003: US-led forces invade Iraq.
Within three weeks, Iraq's army collapses and Baghdad falls. Saddam
flees to his northern homeland.
July 2003: Sons Odai and Qusai
are killed in a gunbattle with US troops in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul.
December 13, 2003: US soldiers discover a bearded and
disheveled Saddam hiding in an underground bunker in Adwar, village
south of Tikrit.
October 19, 2005: Saddam and seven others go on
trial for the Dujail killings.
August 21, 2006: Saddam and seven
co-defendants go on trial in a new case, for the Anfal crackdown.
November
5, 2006: Saddam is found guilty of crimes against humanity and
sentenced to death by hanging. — AP
