Saddam: a timeline

Last Modified: 30 Dec 2006
By: Channel 4 News

Saddam's execution brings to an end the career of a resourceful and dangerous leader.

Saddam Hussein was executed at 0600hrs (0300hrs GMT) on Saturday 30 December 2006. These are the significant events in his career -

April 28, 1937
Born in the village of Uja near Tikrit.

1957
Joins the Baath Socialist Party.

1959
Flees the country after taking part in an ambush in Baghdad.

1963
Returns from Egypt.

1968
Baathists seize power. Saddam takes charge of internal security and authority passes to Revolutionary Command Council under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, his cousin.

1979
July 16
Saddam takes over as president from al-Bakr and launches a purge of the Baath Party.

1980
September 22
Sends forces into Iran, sparking an eight-year war.

1988
March 28
Uses chemical weapons against Kurdish town of Halabja.

1990
August 2
Saddam invades Kuwait.

1991
January 17
US-led coalition liberates Kuwait.

March
Saddam crushes a Shiite revolt in south and a Kurd revolt in north.

April 17
Complying with a UN Resolution, Saddam starts providing information on weapons of mass destruction, but is accused of cheating.

1996
February 20
Orders killing of two sons-in-law who returned to Baghdad after receiving guarantees of safety.

1998
December 16
Weapons inspectors are withdrawn from Iraq. Four days of US-British air and missile strikes begin.

2002
November 8
UN Security Council resolution threatens Saddam with "serious consequences" if he does not disarm.

2003
March 17
President Bush gives Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq.

March 20
American forces launch war with a military strike on a target south of Baghdad.

April 9
Crowds greet US troops in Baghdad and topple a 40ft statue of Saddam.

July 22
Saddam's sons Qusai and Odai are killed.

December 13
Saddam captured in the town of Adwar, near Tikrit.

2004
June 30
Saddam transferred to Iraqi legal custody.

July 1
Saddam and regime figures appear in court. Charges of war crimes and genocide are rejected.

2005
June 13
Saddam shown in a video being questioned about the 1982 massacre in Dujail, where nearly 150 Shiite Muslims were killed after an assassination bid against the president.

October 19
A trial begins, with Saddam challenging the court's legitimacy.

November 28
Trial reconvenes, and Saddam calls Americans "invaders and occupiers".

December 21
Saddam claims Americans beat and tortured him. He prays openly in court despite judge's order for trial to proceed.

2006
July 7 2006
Saddam and three others refuse food to protest lack of security for lawyers and conduct of the trial.

July 23
Saddam taken to hospital on the seventeenth day of his hunger strike and fed through a tube.

November 4
Iraq prime minister Nouri Maliki says he hopes the former leader will be given "what he deserves".

November 5
Saddam convicted of crimes against humanity by the court in Baghdad. He is sentenced to death by hanging.

November 7
Saddam returns to court for his Kurdish genocide trial.

November 28
UN human rights experts say Saddam's imprisonment is unlawful.

December 26
Iraq's highest appeals court upholds the death sentence and orders that it be carried out within 30 days.

December 30
Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging in northern Baghdad.