Key dates in the life of Saddam Hussein
April 28, 1937: Saddam Hussein is born to a family of peasants in village of Auja, near the town of Tikrit on the Tigris River, about 100 miles north of Baghdad.
1956: Hussein participates in a failed coup against Iraq's King Faisal II.
1957: Joins Iraqi branch of the Arab socialist Baath Party.
1959: Is wounded in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the leftist prime minister, Gen. Abd Karim Qassim, and flees to Syria, then Egypt, where he attends Cairo Law School.
February 1963: Baathists, along with other Arab nationalists, stage successful coup against the Qassim. The Baath party is forced out of power later that year and Hussein goes into hiding with other party leaders.
September 1964: Another Baath coup fails, and Hussein is imprisoned, where he remains until he escapes in 1966.
July 17, 1968: Baath party takes power. Hussein becomes deputy chairman of the new Revolutionary Command Council.
1972 – 1975: Hussein leads nationalization of Iraq's oil industry.
July 16, 1979: Hussein takes full power. Later that summer, he has 22 leading party members executed on charges of plotting a coup.
September 1980: Orders invasion of Iran. Up to 45,000 Iraqi troops are believed to have been killed in the war's first two months.
June 1981: Israeli planes destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak, near Baghdad, before it can be loaded with fuel that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
1984: Iraqi troops use mustard and nerve gas against Iranian forces.
March 1988: Iraqi forces use chemical weapons against Kurdish villages in and around the town of Halabjah.
Spring 1988: Iraqi forces using chemical weapons to push back Iranian troops.
Aug. 20, 1988: U.N.-brokered cease-fire ends Iran-Iraq war. Estimates of the total death toll reach as high as 1 million.
Aug. 2, 1990: Hussein orders invasion of Kuwait.
Jan. 16, 1991: U.S. launches attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait.
March 3, 1991: Cease-fire ends war.
April 1991: U.N. Security Council orders Iraq to surrender all chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and establishes monitoring program.
Nov. 8, 2002: U.N. Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 1441, calling on Iraq to disarm or face "serious consequences."
March 20, 2003: U.S. begins bombing Baghdad.
April 9, 2003: Baghdad falls to U.S. forces.
July 22, 2003: Hussein's sons Uday and Qusai are killed in a U.S. raid on a house in Mosul.
Dec. 13, 2003: Hussein is captured by American forces.
October 2005: Hussein goes on trial before Iraqi High Tribunal on charges of ordering the killing of Shiite villagers in the town of Dujayl in 1982. Trial lasts until July 2006.
Nov. 5, 2006: Hussein is sentenced to death.
1956: Hussein participates in a failed coup against Iraq's King Faisal II.
1957: Joins Iraqi branch of the Arab socialist Baath Party.
1959: Is wounded in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate the leftist prime minister, Gen. Abd Karim Qassim, and flees to Syria, then Egypt, where he attends Cairo Law School.
February 1963: Baathists, along with other Arab nationalists, stage successful coup against the Qassim. The Baath party is forced out of power later that year and Hussein goes into hiding with other party leaders.
September 1964: Another Baath coup fails, and Hussein is imprisoned, where he remains until he escapes in 1966.
July 17, 1968: Baath party takes power. Hussein becomes deputy chairman of the new Revolutionary Command Council.
1972 – 1975: Hussein leads nationalization of Iraq's oil industry.
July 16, 1979: Hussein takes full power. Later that summer, he has 22 leading party members executed on charges of plotting a coup.
September 1980: Orders invasion of Iran. Up to 45,000 Iraqi troops are believed to have been killed in the war's first two months.
June 1981: Israeli planes destroy Iraq's nuclear reactor at Osirak, near Baghdad, before it can be loaded with fuel that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
1984: Iraqi troops use mustard and nerve gas against Iranian forces.
March 1988: Iraqi forces use chemical weapons against Kurdish villages in and around the town of Halabjah.
Spring 1988: Iraqi forces using chemical weapons to push back Iranian troops.
Aug. 20, 1988: U.N.-brokered cease-fire ends Iran-Iraq war. Estimates of the total death toll reach as high as 1 million.
Aug. 2, 1990: Hussein orders invasion of Kuwait.
Jan. 16, 1991: U.S. launches attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait.
March 3, 1991: Cease-fire ends war.
April 1991: U.N. Security Council orders Iraq to surrender all chemical, biological and nuclear weapons and establishes monitoring program.
Nov. 8, 2002: U.N. Security Council unanimously approves Resolution 1441, calling on Iraq to disarm or face "serious consequences."
March 20, 2003: U.S. begins bombing Baghdad.
April 9, 2003: Baghdad falls to U.S. forces.
July 22, 2003: Hussein's sons Uday and Qusai are killed in a U.S. raid on a house in Mosul.
Dec. 13, 2003: Hussein is captured by American forces.
October 2005: Hussein goes on trial before Iraqi High Tribunal on charges of ordering the killing of Shiite villagers in the town of Dujayl in 1982. Trial lasts until July 2006.
Nov. 5, 2006: Hussein is sentenced to death.
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