Question: Iraq consists of 19 governorates, also known as "provinces",former President Saddam Hussein divided the country into eighteen governorates in the 1970s for reasons of ethnic manipulation, Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti,  was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until which date? 
Context: Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( ; Arabic: صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي "Ṣaddām Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Maǧīd al-Tikrītī "; 28 April 1937  – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.  A leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization the Iraqi Ba'ath Party—which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and socialism—Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup (later referred to as the 17 July Revolution) that brought the party to power in Iraq. Presidential elections were held in the Republic of Iraq on October 16, 2002, the second under the rule of Saddam Hussein (the first having taken place in 1995).  According to official statistics, the turnout was 100%, with all 11,445,638 Iraqis registered to vote having voted "yes" in a referendum whether to support another seven year-term for President Saddam Hussein, which would legally have ended in 2009. The Habbush letter, or Habbush memo, is a handwritten message dated July 1, 2001, which appears to show a link between al-Qaeda and Iraq's government.  It purports to be a direct communication between the head of Iraqi Intelligence, General Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, to Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, outlining mission training which Mohamed Atta, one of the organizers of the September 11 attacks, supposedly received in Iraq.  The letter also claims that Hussein accepted a shipment from Niger, an apparent reference to an alleged uranium acquisition attempt that U.S. President George W. Bush cited in his January 2003 State of the Union address. Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Tikriti (or Qusai, Arabic: قصي صدام حسين‎ ‎ ; (1966--)17 1966 – (2003--)22 2003 ) was the second son of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. Iraq consists of 19 governorates ("muḥāfażah" in Arabic), also known as "provinces".  Former President Saddam Hussein divided the country into eighteen governorates in the 1970s for reasons of ethnic manipulation.  A portion of the Kurdish-inhabited area of the country was granted autonomy in 1970.  In 2003, after opposition from Kurdish people regarding the division of Kurdistan into governorates, the autonomous standing of only three Iraqi Kurdish provinces was re-confirmed in 2005 in the constitution of Iraq, leaving out many other Kurdish majority regions, such as Kirkuk, Khanaqin, Sinjar and Mandali-Badra, outside the autonomous Kurdish region.  In 2014 the decision was made to create the Halabja Governorate out of the Halabja District of Sulaymaniyah Governorate. Baghdad Gymnasium, (Arabic: صالة الجمنيزيوم للألعاب الرياضية‎ ‎ ), formerly Saddam Hussein Gymnasium, is a sports complex in Baghdad, Iraq adjacent to the Al-Shaab Stadium.  Designed by Le Corbusier under the commission of King Faisal II in 1956 for potential use in the 1960 Summer Olympics.  After Faisal II was overthrown in a military coup in 1958 the project went through several changes of design and location.  The architect died in 1965, leaving a wealth of drawings and studies for the multi functions of Baghdad's Sports Complex that included a large stadium, tennis courts, swimming pools and a gymnasium.  Only the later was finally built between 1978 and 1980, to be inaugurated by and named after Iraq's president Saddam Hussein.  The American army troops occupied the Gymnasium as well as the Shaab district for some years following the Fall of Baghdad in 2003. The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision making body in Iraq before the 2003 American-led invasion.  It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the country, with the Chairman and Vice Chairman chosen by a two-thirds majority of the council.  The Chairman was also then declared the President of Iraq and he was then allowed to select a Vice President.  After Saddam Hussein became President of Iraq in 1979 the council was led by deputy chairman Izzat Ibrahim ad-Douri, deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, and Taha Yassin Ramadan, who had known Saddam since the 1960s.  The legislature was composed of the RCC, the National Assembly and a 50-member Kurdish Legislative Council which governed the country.  During his presidency, Saddam Hussein was Chairman of the RCC and President of the Republic.  Other members of the RCC included Salah Omar Al-Ali who held the position between 1968 and 1970, one of Saddam's half-brothers, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Taha Yasin Ramadan, Adnan Khairallah, Sa'adoun Shaker Mahmoud, Tariq Aziz Isa, Hasan Ali Nassar al-Namiri, Naim Hamid Haddad and Taha Mohieddin Maruf.  It was officially dissolved on 23 May 2003 by Paul Bremer per Order Number 2 of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations were made by the U.S. government officials who claimed that a highly secretive relationship existed between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the radical Islamist militant organization Al-Qaeda from 1992 to 2003, specifically through a series of meetings reportedly involving the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS).  In the lead up to the Iraq War, U.S. President George W. Bush alleged that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and militant group al-Qaeda might conspire to launch terrorist attacks on the United States, basing the administration's rationale for war, in part, on this allegation .  The consensus of intelligence experts has been that these contacts never led to an operational relationship, and that consensus is backed up by reports from the independent 9/11 Commission and by declassified Defense Department reports as well as by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, whose 2006 report of Phase II of its investigation into prewar intelligence reports concluded that there was no evidence of ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.  Critics of the Bush Administration have said Bush was intentionally building a case for war with Iraq without regard to factual evidence.  On April 29, 2007, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet said on "60 Minutes", "We could never verify that there was any Iraqi authority, direction and control, complicity with al-Qaeda for 9/11 or any operational act against America, period." The Iraqi presidential election of 1995 took place on October 15 of that year.  It was the first direct presidential election under the rule of Saddam Hussein, who had seized power through the Revolutionary Command Council in 1979.  Taking the form of a referendum with no other candidates, the election involved giving voters paper ballots that said: "Do you approve of President Saddam Hussein being the President of the Republic?"  They then used pens to mark "yes" or "no".  The next day, Izzat Ibrahim, Hussein's deputy in the ruling Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), announced the incumbent had won 99.96% of some 8.4 million valid votes cast.  Officially, 3,052 people voted against him (45 of them in Baghdad), and turnout was 99.47%.  The international community reacted with widespread incredulity to these figures. Saddam Hussein Town (Tamil: சதாம் உசேன் நகர் ) is the name of a village exclusively inhabited by local Muslims in the Batticaloa district of Sri Lanka.  It is named after Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, who donated all the funds required to build the village and its central Mosque.  Saddam Hussein first became involved in the village after floods hit the area in 1978 and local authorities approached the Iraqi embassy for help.  The former president was said to have readily obliged and sponsored construction of the entire village with some 100 houses, including a school and a mosque.
Answer: 9 April 2003