Today in History: December 13th SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURED: December 13, 2003 After spending nine months on the run, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is captured on this day in 2003. Saddam’s downfall began on March 19, 2003, when the United States led an invasion force into Iraq to topple his government, which had controlled the country for more than 20 years. Saddam Hussein was born into a poor family in Tikrit, 100 miles outside of Baghdad, in 1937. After moving to Baghdad as a teenager, Saddam joined the now-infamous Baath party,which he would later lead. He participated in several coup attempts, finally helping to install his cousin as dictator of Iraq in July 1968. Saddam took over for his cousin 11 years later. During his 24 years in office, Saddam’s secret police, charged with protecting his power, terrorized the public,ignoring the human rights of the nation’s citizens. While many of his people faced poverty, he lived in incredible luxury, building more than 20 lavish palaces throughout the country. Obsessed with security, he is said to have moved among them often, always sleeping in secret locations. In the early 1980s, Saddam involved his country in an eight-year war with Iran, which is estimated to have taken more than a million lives on both sides. He is alleged to have used nerve agents and mustard gas on Iranian soldiers during the conflict, as well as chemical weapons on Iraq’s own Kurdish population in northern Iraq in 1988. After he invaded Kuwait in 1990, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in 1991, forcing the dictator’s army to leave its smaller neighbor, but failing to remove Saddam from power. Throughout the 1990s, Saddam faced both U.N. economic sanctions and air strikes aimed at crippling his ability to produce chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Continuing to face allegations of illegal oil sales and weapons-building, the United States again invaded Iraq in March 2003, this time with the express purpose of ousting Saddam and his regime. Despite proclaiming in early March 2003 that, “it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression,” Saddam went into hiding soon after the American invasion, speaking to his people only through an occasional audiotape, and his government soon fell. After declaring Saddam the most important of a list of his regime’s 55 most-wanted members, the United States began an intense search for the former leader and his closest advisors. On July 22, 2003, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, who many believe he was grooming to one day fill his shoes, were killed when U.S. soldiers raided a villa in which they were staying in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Five months later, on December 13, 2003, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit. The man once obsessed with hygiene was found to be unkempt, with a bushy beard and matted hair. He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest. A soldier at the scene described him as “a man resigned to his fate.” Saddam is now in Iraqi custody with U.S. security and faces trial in front of a special tribunal on several criminal cases pending against him. The first began in October 2005. Despite a prolonged search, weapons of mass destruction have yet to be found in Iraq. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORE GENERAL INTEREST 1577 Drake sets out 1621 First export of American furs 1642 Tasman discovers New Zealand 1937 The Rape of Nanking historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=general&month=10272964&day=10272978 AUTOMOTIVE 1957 The Changing Thunderbird historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=automotive&month=10272964&day=10272978 CIVIL WAR 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=civil&month=10272964&day=10272978 COLD WAR 1951 John S. Service dismissed from State Department historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=coldwar&month=10272964&day=10272978 CRIME 1989 The "Queen of Mean" is sentenced to the slammer historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=crime&month=10272964&day=10272978 ENTERTAINMENT 1928 An American in Paris debuts historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=entertainment&month=10272964&day=10272978 LITERARY 1915 Mystery writer Ross Macdonald is born historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=literary&month=10272964&day=10272978 OLD WEST 1798 Joseph Walker born in Tennessee historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272964&day=10272978 VIETNAM WAR 1972 Peace negotiations in Paris deadlocked historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=vietnamwar&month=10272964&day=10272978 WALL STREET 1978 First Susan B. Anthony Dollar historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=wallstreet&month=10272964&day=10272978 WORLD WAR I 1918 President Wilson makes first U.S. presidential trip to Europe historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwari&month=10272964&day=10272978 WORLD WAR II 1942 Goebbels complains of Italians' treatment of Jews historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=worldwarii&month=10272964&day=10272978 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Create a profile for your subscriptions; emailmgr.aetv.com/newprofile.jsp?brand=thc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Send your friends a free e-card from THE HISTORY CHANNEL and we'll include what major historical event happened on their birthday. historychannel.com/greetings/