Harare - Following are key milestones in
the life of Zimbabwe's former leader Robert Mugabe.
1924 - Mugabe is born on February 21 in what was then
British-ruled Southern Rhodesia.
1940s-1950s - He is educated at Catholic schools and attends
South Africa's University of Fort Hare. He teaches in Zambia and
Ghana, where he is influenced by African independence movement
leaders.
1960s - Mugabe campaigns for Zimbabwe's independence and is
imprisoned in 1964 for political agitation. While incarcerated,
he earns two law degrees from the University of London External
Programme.
1974 - Released from prison, he escapes to Mozambique were
Zimbabwe African National Union guerrilla fighters elect him to
lead their struggle against white minority rule. A number of
rivals die in suspicious circumstances, rights groups say.
1980 - Mugabe's ZANU-PF party wins independent Zimbabwe's
first election. He takes office as prime minister on April 18.
1982 - Mugabe deploys North Korean-trained troops to crush
an insurgency by former guerrillas loyal to his liberation war
rival Joshua Nkomo. Government forces are accused of involvement
in the killing of 20,000 civilians, which Mugabe denies.
1987 - He becomes president with sweeping executive powers
after changes to the constitution and signs a unity pact with
Nkomo, who becomes one of his two deputies.
1990 - ZANU-PF and Mugabe win parliamentary and presidential
elections.
1998 - An economic crisis marked by high interest rates and
inflation sparks riots.
2000 - Zimbabweans reject a new constitution in a
referendum, Mugabe's first defeat at the ballot box.
- Thousands of independence war veterans and their allies,
backed by the government, seize white-owned farms, saying the
land was illegally appropriated by white settlers.
2001 - The United States puts a financial freeze on Mugabe's
government in response to land seizures, beginning a wave of
Western sanctions. Mugabe's relationship with the West,
especially the U.S. and Britain, never recovers.
2002 - Mugabe wins a disputed presidential vote, which
observers condemn as flawed.
- Zimbabwe is suspended from the British Commonwealth over
accusations of human rights abuses and economic mismanagement.
Mugabe pulls his country from the grouping the following year.
2008 - Hyperinflation reaches 500 billion percent, the nadir
of an economic implosion that forces millions of people to leave
the country, many to neighbouring South Africa.
- Mugabe loses a presidential vote but wins the run-off
after opponent Morgan Tsvangirai withdraws citing violence
against his supporters by security forces and war veterans. A
power-sharing agreement is signed.
2010 - Media reports say Mugabe is seriously ill with
cancer, speculation that continues in following years.
2013 - Mugabe wins another disputed presidential vote.
Western observers site multiple accounts of electoral fraud.
2016 - Protesters led by a pastor stage the biggest show of
defiance against Mugabe in a decade, prompting speculation about
life after the veteran leader.
2017 - Mugabe is forced to resign in November following an
army coup and is replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man he had
fired as his deputy two weeks earlier.
2018 - Mugabe is seen in public for the first time since
leaving power. He berates his former ZANU-PF allies and backs
opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on the eve of an election.
2019 - Mugabe travels several times to Singapore to seek
medical treatment as pictures of the gaunt, gray-haired former
leader circulate on social media.