Saddam Hussein, one of the most controversial figures in modern Middle East politics, was hanged Dec. 30 after being convicted of crimes committed during his nearly 25-year reign as president of Iraq. The former dictator was 69.

Supported by many of Iraq's minority Sunni Muslim population, whom he favored and elevated during his tenure, Saddam was equally hated by Shiites and Kurds, whom, under his leadership, were oppressed, tortured and in many instances executed en masse at the hands of Saddam's feared Republican Guard.

Born April 28, 1937, to Sunni Muslim farmers, Saddam rose to power in Iraq following a childhood spent in the Sunni-dominated area of Tikrit, just north of Baghdad in the province of Salahaddin.

"He was from a very poor family, in a village called Al Awja," Said Aburish, author of "Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge," told PBS's Frontline in 2000. "As a young boy he had to steal so his family could eat."

According to Aburish, Saddam was illiterate until the age of 10.

In 1947, Saddam moved to Baghdad with his uncle, an Iraqi army officer and crusader for Arab unity. By 19, he was active in his uncle's cause and joined the socialist Baath Party.

It was as a member of the party that in 1959 Saddam was chosen to carry out the assassination of Iraq's Prime Minister Karim Qasim. The attempt on Qasim's life failed and Saddam, who was shot in the leg during the attack, was forced to flee Iraq, first traveling to Syria and then to Egypt.

While in Egypt, Saddam studied law, earning a degree from the University of Cairo's law school in 1962. He returned to Baghdad in 1963 following Qasim's overthrow.

During this time, Saddam married his cousin Sajida, with whom he subsequently had three daughters and two sons -- the infamous Uday and Qusay Hussein, both of whom were killed by American forces in 2003 during the invasion of Iraq and toppling of their father's regime.

After the Baath lost power later in 1963, Saddam tried to go into hiding but was arrested and jailed. He escaped from prison in 1966 and continued his work with the party, participating in the July 1968 coup that returned his Baath Party to power.

As a major player in the coup, Saddam became vice chairman of the party's ruling Revolutionary Command Council. Over the next few years, he rose through party ranks and later became vice president and deputy secretary-general of the party's Regional Command.

During his time in government, Saddam oversaw the nationalization of the oil industry and advocated a nation-wide infrastructure campaign that built roads, schools and hospitals. The once illiterate boy from Al Awja also ordered a mandatory literacy program that helped hundreds of thousands of Iraqis learn to read. Those who did not participate risked three years in jail.

Also at this time, Iraq created one of the best public health systems in the Middle East -- a feat that earned Saddam an award in the 1980s from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

But it was also during this time that Saddam reportedly helped form secret police units that cracked down on dissidents and those opposed to Baath rule. He also served in the Iraqi armed forces as a lieutenant general from 1973 until 1976, when he was promoted to general.

On July 16, 1979, President Hasan al-Bakr resigned and Saddam rose to the presidency. Five of Saddam's fellow members of the Revolutionary Command Council were quickly accused of involvement in a coup attempt against him and executed, along with 17 other rivals.

A year after he rose to power, Saddam launched a war against neighboring Iran, a country whose secular government had been toppled a year earlier by a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim cleric. Along with his disdain for Shiites, Saddam saw the disputed border region with Iran along the Persian Gulf as a major source of oil and power.

During the war, he used his secret police and brutal force to crush internal opposition. One of these efforts led to the infamous chemical attack that killed 5,000 Kurdish civilians in the town of Halabja, an attack for which Saddam was being tried at the time of his 2006 execution.

Following the bloody stalemate at the end of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam turned inward for two years, rebuilding what had become the fourth largest army in the world.

Then in 1990, again influenced by a territorial dispute and oil rights, Saddam ordered the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. An international coalition led by the United States defeated Iraq and forced a general retreat.

Although Kurds in the north and Shia in the south attempted to exploit the weakened Saddam after his defeat and rose up, his decade-long rule remained intact and his ability to marshal military support allowed him to crush the rebellions.

It was not until U.S. President George W. Bush, during his 2001 State of the Union address, fingered Iraq and its nuclear weapons ambitions as part of an axis of evil that threatened U.S. national security that things for Saddam took a downward turn.

Following a March 17, 2003 ultimatum that the dictator leave Iraq within 48 hours or face invasion -- an ultimatum Saddam ignored -- American forces along with British support entered Iraq in a ground and air invasion that toppled the Baath Party and forced Saddam to flee Baghdad.

Though he was aided by supporters in the Sunni-dominated area near his hometown during his flight, American forces captured the deposed leader, on the run for nine months, in a six-foot hole near Tikrit on Dec. 13, 2003. Coalition forces detained him and placed him on trial in Iraq.

The high-profile trial drew worldwide attention, as much for the novelty of seeing the once-powerful, shotgun-toting military dictator reduced to a shell of his former self, as for his antics in the courtroom.

On Dec. 27, 2006, Saddam was allowed a final meeting with two of his half brothers. Less than three days later, in what many worried would lead to violent attacks by his Sunni supporters, Iraqi law government officials hanged the former president and strongman in Baghdad.

-- Online NewsHour