Muammar Abu Meniar el-Gaddafi
He was born in the North African desert, south of Sirte, Libya in 1942. (The exact date is unknown although some sources day June 1, while others say sometime in September.) The son of a poor Bedouin nomad, Gaddafi lived in his family's remote desert camp until he went away to school at age 9.
Birth-7 June 1942, Sirte, Libya
Birth Name-Muammar Abu Meniar el-Gaddafi
Spouse-Safia Farkash (1970 - present) 9 children
Fatiha al-Nuri (1968 - 1970) (divorced) 1 child
Death-20 October 2011, Sirte, Libya
While a student at a secondary school at Sebha, Gaddafi was inspired by the speeches of Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser and he became a committed Arab nationalist. Gaddafi organized his fellow students into revolutionary study groups at Sebha; he continued the practice at the University of Libya in Tripoli, where he received a history degree in 1963. Following his graduation, Gaddafi entered the Libyan Military Academy in Benghazi where he found many of the cadets were sympathetic to his anti-Western nationalism.
Commissioned into the Libyan army in 1965, he began laying groundwork for an overthrow of the Libyan monarch, King Idris, whom he considered a pawn of the Western European nations. Within four years, Gaddafi took control of the army and on September 1, 1969, he seized power in a carefully planned coup. Assuming command of the government as chairman of the ruling Revolutionary Council, Gaddafi declared himself commander-in-chief of Libya's armed forces and its government, with the rank of colonel.The Gaddafi family tree