Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. When Idris was in Turkey for medi
Gaddafi at the African Union Summit, Addis Ababa, 2 February 2009
Gaddafi (left) with Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1969
Alfateh Festivity in Bayda, Libya, on 1 September 2010
Muammar al Gaddafi at the AU summit
Third International Theory
Videos
The Third International Theory, also known as the Third Universal Theory and Gaddafism, was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi on 15 April 1973 in his Zuwara speech, on which his gove
History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
…From its founding in 1969 to 1977, the name was the Libyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Jamahiriya was a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as the Great Socialist People's Libyan…
Muammar Gaddafi in 1972