Feb 1963 - Returns to Baghdad from exile in Cairo when Baath party backs military coup; nine months later Baathists ousted. Saddam becomes party's deputy general secretary while in jail.
July 1968 - Baath coup topples President Abdul-Rahman Aref. As vice-president of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Saddam is the power behind President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.
March 16, 1988 - About 5,000 people killed in Kurdish town of Halabja by poison gas. Saddam's forces accused although Baghdad says battle was under way with Iranians using gas.
Jan 17, 1991 - US-led forces launch air strikes to push Iraqis out of Kuwait. War ends on Feb. 28. Saddam hangs on to power throughout more than a decade of sanctions supposed to force him to give up nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
March 20, 2003 - US and Britain invade, saying Saddam has failed to comply with demands to get rid of weapons of mass destruction. No evidence is later found of such weapons.
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