Gaddafi seizes Libya
September 1, 1969
A twenty-seven-year-old army captain named Muammar Gaddafi led a bloodless coup against the aging King Idris of Libya while the king was in Turkey for medical treatment. Gaddafi would rule for forty-two years, nationalize the oil, fund terrorism, write a Green Book, and eventually be dragged from a drain pipe and killed by a mob in 2011.
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