Idi Amin - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com A+E Networks Introduction In 1971, General Idi Amin overthrew the elected government of Milton Obote and declared himself president of Uganda, launching a ruthless eight-year regime in which an estimated 300,000 civilians were massacred. His expulsion of all Indian and Pakistani citizens in 1972—along with increasing military expenditures—brought about the country’s economic decline, the impact of which lasted decades. In 1979 his reign of terror came to an end as Ugandan exiles and Tanzanians took control of the capital of Kampala, forcing Amin to flee. Never brought to justice for his heinous crimes, Amin lived out the remainder of his life in Saudi Arabia. ‹ › Google Idi Amin: Early Life and Military Career Idi Amin Dada was born c. 1925 in Koboko, in northwestern Uganda, to a Kakwa father and Lugbara mother, who separated shortly afterwards.

In 1946, after receiving only a rudimentary education, Amin joined the King’s African Rifles (KAR), a regiment of the British colonial army, and quickly rose through the ranks. He was deployed to Somalia in 1949 to fight the Shifta rebels and later fought with the British during the suppression of the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya (1952-56). In 1959 he attained the rank of effendi—the highest position for a black African soldier within the KAR—and, by 1966, he had been appointed commander of the armed forces. Did You Know? During his time in the army, Amin became the light heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, a title he held for nine years between 1951 and 1960. Amin Commandeers Control of Uganda’s Government After more than 70 years under British rule, Uganda gained its independence on October 9, 1962, and Milton Obote became the nation’s first prime minister. By 1964, Obote had forged an alliance with Amin, who helped expand the size and power of the Ugandan Army.

In February 1966, following accusations that the pair was responsible for smuggling gold and ivory from Congo that were subsequently traded for arms, Obote suspended the constitution and proclaimed himself executive president. Shortly thereafter, Obote sent Amin to dethrone King Mutesa II, also known as “King Freddie,” who ruled the powerful kingdom of Buganda in south-central Uganda. A few years and two failed—but unidentified—assassination attempts later, Obote began to question Amin’s loyalty and ordered his arrest while en route to Singapore for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference. During his absence, Amin took the offensive and staged a coup on January 25, 1971, seizing control of the government and forcing Obote into exile. Amin’s Regime of Terror Once in power, Amin began mass executions upon the Acholi and Lango, Christian tribes that had been loyal to Obote and therefore perceived as a threat. He also began terrorizing the general public through the various internal security forces he organized, such as the State Research Bureau (SRB) and Public Safety Unity (PSU), whose main purpose was to eliminate those who opposed his regime.

In 1972, Amin expelled Uganda’s Asian population, which numbered between 50,000 and 70,000, resulting in a collapse of the economy as manufacturing, agriculture and commerce came to a screeching halt without the appropriate resources to support them. When the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hijacked an Air France flight from Israel to Paris on June 27, 1976, Idi Amin welcomed the terrorists and supplied them with troops and weapons, but was humiliated when Israeli commandos subsequently rescued the hostages in a surprise raid on the Entebbe airport. In the aftermath, Amin ordered the execution of several airport personnel, hundreds of Kenyans whom were believed to have conspired with Israel and an elderly British hostage who had previously been escorted to a nearby hospital. Throughout his oppressive rule, Amin was estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of roughly 300,000 civilians. Amin Loses Control and Enters Exile Over time, the number of Amin’s intimate allies dwindled and formerly loyal troops began to mutiny.

When some fled across the border into Tanzania, Amin accused Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere of instigating the unrest and retaliated by annexing the Kagera Salient, a strip of territory north of the Kagera River, in November 1978. Two weeks later, Nyerere mobilized a counter-offensive to recapture the land, and drove the Ugandan Army out with the help of Ugandan exiles. The battle raged into Uganda, and on April 11, 1979, Amin was forced to flee when Kampala was captured. Although he originally sought refuge in Libya, he later moved to Saudi Arabia, where he lived comfortably until his death of multiple organ failure in 2003.

Tags Idi Amin - the road from a Boxing champion to a dictatorship | DocumentaryTube Idi Amin - the road from a Boxing champion to a dictatorship Idi Amin - the road from a Boxing champion to a dictatorship Stewart Dunlop / published 1 year ago 4,885 People His rule of Uganda, from 1971 to 1979 was characterized by political repression, abuses of human rights, killings, nepotism, corruption, ethnic persecution and much more. As a result of his regime, an estimated number between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed Often portrayed as a “monster in disguise”, Idi Amin was the third President of Uganda, one of the most fearsome leaders and dictators in the world. His rule of Uganda, from 1971 to 1979 was characterized by political repression, abuses of human rights, killings, nepotism, corruption, ethnic persecution and much more. As a result of his regime, an estimated number between 100,000 and 500,000 people were killed. But Amin was not always a ruthless dictator.

Instead, he was once a boxing legend. Amin died in 2003. IMG-L: Boxing career At 193 cm tall, and with a powerful built, Amin impressed the superiors with his athletic skills and abilities in the Ugandan and British Army. He joined the British army as a private in 1946. Back in the time he was tall, strong, and very athletic. During his time in the army, he mastered and improved his skills, and started boxing. In 1951, he became the light heavyweight boxing champion, a title he held until 1960. During his boxing career, he was undefeated. Even long after his boxing career was over, Idi Amin was still very much skilful and talented boxer. In 1974, he decided to take on the national boxing coach Peter Seruwagi. He declared that he will open the championship that year by boxing with Seruwagi. As the fight started, Amin ruthlessly attacked the coach, and the fight ended with a knock-out in favor of Amin. The referee stopped the fight in the second round and had to help and save Seruwagi from beating and punishment.

How Amin gained control of Uganda In 1966, Amin served as one of the chief commanders in the Army, and very close friend with Prime Minister Milton Obote. They were both incriminated in a scandal with gold smuggling. Following the scandal, Obote suspended the constitution, arrested half of his cabinet and installed himself as president for life. Amin led a military operation to drive King Mutesa away from his palace. Amin is promoted to major general. In 1969, there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Obote, and both he and Amin think the net is closing on them. One of Amin’s rivals in the army, Pierino Okoya is killed in 1970, which deteriorates Amin from Obote. In 1971, Obote plans to arrest Amin, but Idi finds out. While Obote is out of the country in January, Idi Amin stages a coup supported by Israel and the British, accusing Obote of corruption. He takes power, supported by Ugandans, and claims he is not an ambitious man. Instead, Amin claims he is “just a soldier with concern for his country and its people”.

He is declared president and chief of the armed forces. Immediately after, Amin executes all officers and troops loyal to Obote, starting his dictatorship and regime. IMG-R: Key dates during his regime - In 1972, Amin starts his quest to make Uganda “black man’s country”. He expels more than 50,000 Asians, mainly Indians and Pakistanis. He claimed to receive a message from God in his dreams and says he will ask Britain to be responsible for the Asians in Uganda as they are sabotaging the economy of the country. - In September 1972, Amin sends a telegram to the UN Secretary General, praising Hitler. After the letter, the US halts a $3 million loan for the country. - Again in September 1972, supporters of former president Obote attack Uganda from Tanzania. In his style, Amin bombs Tanzanian towns. - Continuing his dispute with international countries and United Nations, President Idi Amin orders more than 100 Peace Corps to leave the country. - In 1974, the president crushes an attempted coup. More than 50 officers in the army were killed as a response.

- In June 1976, Flight 139 is hijacked by a Palestine organization and lands in Uganda at Entebbe Airports with 256 hostages. The Palestine Liberation Organization, which is behind the hijacking, demands release of 53 prisoners. Idi Amin backs up and supports the hijackers, which results with Britain breaking diplomatic relations in July. - In February 1977, the Archbishop of Uganda is killed. Later revelations show that the order came directly from Idi Amin. - On February 1977 Idi Amin “kidnaps” and holds 240 US citizens as hostages. They are released on March, and must leave the country. - In June 1977 Amin is wounded during an assassination attempt. - In March 1979, Idi Amin flees to his homeland, and in April is deposed as president of Uganda, ending his regime. Amin the Cannibal One of the myths linked with Idi Amin is that he was a cannibal.

The myth was widely popularized in the movie “Rise and Fall of Idi Amin”, in which the directors wrote the script according to a biography of Joseph Olita, a former Kenyan president. In the movie, there is a scene in which Amin opens a fridge and shows his visitor two heads of former victims. In another scene, during a coroner is doing an autopsy, Amin picks up a scalpel, and then cuts and eats a piece of flesh from the victim. From Around the Web The documentary follows the members of the Mara Salvatrucha, or commonly known as the MS gang. MS or Mara is a transnational criminal gang that started in Los Angeles, but ha... 166 The Rangers as they call them, are the US military light infantry, special operations unit. The 75th Ranger Regiment is headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgia, and is compose... 303 Cartel Land is an award winning documentary by director Matthe Heineman. Matthew got the idea after reading an article in the Rolling Stone magazine about the Arizona Border Rec... 758 More than 70 years ago, the United States of America dropped the first atomic bomb.

On August 6, 1945, USA dropped a bomb on Hiroshima. Three days later, they bombed another Japa... 580 Idi Amin - Biography - IMDb Biography Showing all 35 items Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (5) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (19) | Personal Quotes (3) Overview (4) 6' 4" (1.93 m) Mini Bio (1) Idi Amin Dada Oumee was born in the rural village of Koboko, Uganda, in 1923, a member of the Kakwa tribe. Raised in the isolated farming country of northwestern Uganda, Amin received a scant education which left him functionally illiterate. During the Second World War, at the age of 18, he enlisted in the British Army in the East African Rifles and fought in Burma against the Japanese. At the end of the war Amin joined the British 4th Ugandan Battalion.

After distinguishing himself in the fight against Kenya's Mau Maus between 1953 and 1957, Amin was promoted to sergeant major and admitted to an officer training program. Despite his lack of formal education, he proved to be one of Uganda's most able military commanders. In 1964, two years after Uganda was granted independence from Great Britian, Amin was appointed deputy chief of the nation's army and air force with the rank of colonel. When Amin's friend, Dr. Milton Obote, seized power in Uganda in February 1966, he placed Amin as his right-hand man in full command of the armed forces, promoting him to major general in 1968. By 1970 a rift had developed between the two men, both wanting more power. On January 25, 1971, Amin overthrew Obote in a military coup, forcing him into exile. Amin then declared himself president and general, and a year later promoted himself to field marshal. Amin's victory over the authoritarian Obote regime was initially greeted with widespread support.

However, that soon turned to hatred and fear when Amin began solidifying his absolute control over the nation. Within months after assuming office this large man (standing 6'4" and weighing 280 pounds) ordered the murder of over 5,000 members of the rival Acholi and Langi tribes which Obote and his supporters came from, beginning a reign of terror in Uganda from 1971 to 1979 in which at least 350,000 Ugandans were murdered by Amin and his secret police. In 1972 Amin, angered over foreign residents' control of Ugandan commerce, ordered the expulsion of 55,000 Asian workers and businessmen and seized their businesses and assets for himself and his supporters. Amin also stole $1.5 billion in US and British foreign aid money and squandered it on military weapons, tripling the size of Uganda's army. In 1975 he declared himself president for life and embarked on a campaign to humiliate British nationals, climaxing in the summer of that year when he forced four Englishmen to carry him around in an Organization of African Unity rally in a sedan chair.

Amin received some international attention in June-July of 1976 when he allowed Palestinian and East German terrorists to use Entebbe airport as a base to hold a group of hostages from a hijacked Air France airliner from Israel. In a daring midnight raid on July 4, 1976, Israeli commandos freed the hostages. Although Amin claimed he was trying to negotiate the hostages' release, there was irrefutable evidence that he was indeed cooperating with and supporting the hijackers. Although he converted to Islam, Amin was oppressive in his new religion and was a noted polygamist with at least five wives and 23 children. By 1977 Uganda's economy was in shambles with a failing infrastructure, and Amin began losing support almost everywhere. In an attempt to rally the Ugandan people for his support, Amin in the spring of 1978 ordered his army to invade neighboring Tanzania, occupying 400 square miles of the country, supposedly the beginning of his plan to conquer all of Africa for himself.

After a slow start, a force of 6,000 Ugandan rebels-in-exile, aided by a slowly mobilized 50,000-strong Tanzanian army, launched a counter-offensive against Amin's 70,000-strong army in December 1978. Amin's forces, demoralized and unwilling to fight any longer for their leader, rapidly collapsed. Although Col. Muammar Gadaffi of Libya sent troops and equipment to aid Amin's army, and the Palestine Liberation Organization sent some of its fighters, they were not sufficient to quell the popular uprising that ensued throughout Uganda and the approaching Tanzanian troops and Ugandan rebels. Amin's oppressive rule was brought to an end on April 11, 1979 when Tanzanian soldiers captured the Ugandan capital of Kampala, forcing Amin to flee into exile, taking most of his ill-gotten wealth and supporters with him. Amin first went to Libya and then to Saudi Arabia where he lived until his death in 2003.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Matthew Patay Spouse (5) Idi Amin Biography (Political Leader) Birthplace: Koboko, Uganda Best known as: The dictator of Uganda, 1971-79 Idi Amin (also known as Idi Amin Dada) was the nutty, ruthless dictator of the African nation of Uganda during the 1970s. He started out as a soldier in the British colonial army in 1946 and became one of its first Ugandan commissioned officers. Idi Amin rose through the ranks and was eventually made the army's chief of staff under Uganda's first president, Milton Obote. In 1971 Amin overthrew Obote and seized power. He became internationally famous in 1976 when he provided a safe haven for hostage-holding Palestinian hijackers, who were then attacked and killed at Entebbe by Israeli forces. In 1978 Amin's forces invaded neighboring Tanzania, but Tanzanian forces drove them back and invaded Uganda, forcing Amin to flee.

Amin used brutal force against opponents during his reign, and it is estimated that he is responsible for at least 100,000 deaths (some estimates run as high as 500,000). After fleeing Uganda he settled in Saudi Arabia. He died there in 2003, apparently succumbing to a mixture of hypertension, kidney failure and other ailments. Extra credit: Between 1951 and 1960, Idi Amin was Uganda’s heavyweight boxing champ… Idi Amin had near-celebrity status in the ’70s, partly because of his goofball antics — jumping into swimming pools in full uniform, for example… Most sources suggest that Idi Amin was born in 1925, though at his death Ugandan officials claimed that Amin was 80. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Biography of Idi Amin Dada - WriteWork WriteWork Essays & Writing Guides for Students Worried about plagiarism?

Biography of Idi Amin Dada Essay by cagirl45 , High School, 10th grade, A+, February 2004 0 Like 0 Tweet As one of the most horrific leaders in modern African history, Idi Amin not only lied and cheated his way to the top, but murdered and tortured people to gain power. He gained power by completely disregarding human rights and violating international human rights laws. Idi Amin is believed to have been born in 1925 near Koboko, in the West Nile Province, which is now the Republic of Uganda. He was brought up by his mother, an herbalist and diviner, because his father deserted them when he was little. He was part of the Kakwa tribe, a tiny Muslim tribe in northwestern Uganda (Idi Amin Dada). Idi Amin received little formal education, attending school only through the fourth grade. Although he had little education, he joined the King's African Rifles, KAR, in 1943 (Amin, Idi). The KAR were the British African colonial troops. Idi Amin served with the KAR in Burma, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda.

A 1977 caricature of Amin in military and presiden... Idi Amin General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait He rose through the ranks quickly and soon reached the rank of effendi, the highest rank a black African could receive in the British army. Although he was successful in the army, he had a reputation for being extremely cruel and brutal during interrogations. His brutality became very useful during his reign as heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda from 1951- 1960 (Idi Amin Dada). Shortly after Idi Amin's last boxing championship, in March 1961, the British, still in control of Uganda, allowed an election to take place as a precursor to independence. The people elected would gain political knowledge before they were put out to rule the country on their own. The Kabaka Yekka, one of the three political parties in Uganda, boycotted the election, but soon realized that it was mistake. They came together with the Ugandan People's Congress to oppose the... Idi Amin @ moreorless.net.au Idi Amin Background The British Government declares Uganda its protectorate in 1894.

Surrounding kingdoms are incorporated, with the borders becoming fixed in 1914. Independence is achieved peacefully on 9 October 1962 but rising tensions between the country's different ethnic groups see Prime Minister Milton Obote impose a new republican constitution establishing himself as president and abolishing all the country's kingdoms. Ethnic tensions continue to rise. Idi Amin seizes power in a coup in January 1971. Mini biography Born between 1923 and 1925 into the Kakwa tribe in Koboko, near Arua in the northwest corner of Uganda, close to the borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan. His father is a farmer and a follower of Islam. His mother is a member of the Lugbara tribe and is said to practice sorcery. (Amin's younger brother, Amule, claims that Amin was in fact born in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, and that their father was working as a policeman there at the time.) Amin's parents separate soon after his birth. Amin is raised by his mother, who becomes a camp follower of the King's African Rifles, a regiment of the British colonial army.

She will have more children from other relationships, with Amin becoming the third of eight siblings. Amin receives only a rudimentary education but excels at sports and reportedly converts to Islam at an early age. 1946 - He joins the King's African Rifles as an assistant cook. In 1948 he is promoted to corporal. By 1958 he is sergeant-major and platoon commander. 1951 - Amin becomes the heavyweight boxing champion of Uganda, holding the title until 1960.

1952 - He serves in the British action against the Mau Mau revolt in Kenya (1952-56) and is described by officials as "a splendid type and a good (rugby) player, but virtually bone from the neck up, and needs things explained in words of one letter." One former commander remembers Amin "as a splendid and reliable soldier and a cheerful and energetic man." Another former commander describes Amin as "an incredible person who certainly isn't mad - very shrewd, very cunning and a born leader." 1959 - He is made a warrant officer with the rank of 'effendi', a position specially created by the colonial army for noncommissioned Africans with leadership potential. 1961 - He rises to the rank of lieutenant, becoming one of only two native Ugandans to be commissioned during British rule. 1962 - Troops under Amin's command commit the 'Turkana Massacre' while conducting an operation to suppress cattle stealing by tribesmen spilling into the north of Uganda from the neighbouring Turkana region of Kenya.

Investigations by the British authorities in Kenya reveal that the victims of the massacre had been tortured, beaten to death and, in some cases, buried alive. However, with Uganda's independence only months away, the authorities decide against court-martialling Amin for his "overzealous" methods. Uganda achieves independence from Britain on 9 October. The king of the Baganda tribe, Sir Edward Mutesa, becomes the new nation's first president. The government is led by Prime Minister Milton Obote, who Amin supports. Overlooking the charges of torture, Obote promotes Amin to major in 1963 and to colonel and deputy commander of the army and air force in 1964, the same year that Amin helps put down an army mutiny at Jinja, Uganda's second city. Shortly after independence Amin is sent to Israel on a paratrooper training course. He will become a favourite of the Israelis when he acts as a conduit for the supply of arms and ammunition to Israeli-backed rebels fighting a war in southern Sudan.

1966 - Following a financial scandal implicating Obote and Amin in gold smuggling, and on the back of growing opposition from King Mutesa, Obote suspends the constitution, arrests half his cabinet, and installs himself as president for life. King Mutesa is driven from his palace in a military operation led by Amin and forced into exile. A new constitution abolishes all the country's kingdoms. Amin is subsequently promoted to major-general and appointed chief of the army and air force. He begins to build a support base in the army by recruiting from his own Kakwa tribe. However, his relations with Obote start to sour. 1969 - In December an unsuccessful attempt is made to assassinate Obote. Brigadier Pierino Okoya, the deputy chief of the army and Amin's sole rival among senior army officers, tells Obote and Amin that the net is closing in on the perpetrators and that all will be revealed at a second meeting scheduled for 26 January 1970. 1970 - On 25 January Okoya and his wife are shot dead at their home. Relations between Obote and Amin deteriorate further following the murder.

In November Obote removes Amin from his command positions and places him in an administrative role. 1971 - Amin discovers that Obote intends to arrest him on charges of misappropriating millions of dollars of military funds. On 25 January, while Obote is out of the country attending the Commonwealth Conference in Singapore, Amin stages a coup that is later reported to have been backed by Israel and welcomed by the British. Amin's military government accuses Obote and his regime of corruption, economic mismanagement, suppressing democracy, and failing to maintain law and order. Obote later calls Amin "the greatest brute an African mother has ever brought to life." The coup is initially supported by Ugandans, with Amin promising to abolish Obote's secret police, free all political prisoners, introduce economic reforms, and quickly return the country to civilian rule. However, elections will never be held during Amin's reign. "I am not an ambitious man, personally," Amin says after taking power, "I am just a soldier with a concern for my country and its people." Amin is declared president and chief of the armed forces. Almost immediately he initiates mass executions of officers and troops he believes to be loyal to Obote.

Thirty-two army officers die when dynamite blows up the cell in which they are being held at the Makindye Prison in Kampala. Overall, as many as two-thirds of the army's 9,000 soldiers are executed during Amin's first year in power. In foreign affairs, Amin is initially pro-West and inclined towards Britain and Israel. His first overseas trip as president is a state visit to Israel. This is followed a separate state visit to London that includes a meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. However, his position changes after he returns from a trip to Libya around the end of 1971. 1972 - Now determined to make Uganda "a black man's country", Amin expels the country's 40,000-80,000 Indians and Pakistanis in the closing months of the year, reportedly after receiving a message from God during a dream. "I am going to ask Britain to take responsibility for all Asians in Uganda who are holding British passports, because they are sabotaging the economy of the country," Amin declares at the start of August.

The Asians, most of who are third-generation descendants of workers brought to Uganda by the British colonial administration, are given 90 days to leave the country and are only allowed to take what they can carry. "If they do not leave they will find themselves sitting on the fire," Amin warns. The businesses, homes and possessions they leave behind are distributed without compensation to Amin's military favourites. With the true nature of Amin's regime becoming apparent, the British and Israeli governments begin to back-pedal on their support, refusing to sell him more arms. Amin then looks to Libya for aid, promising Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi that he will turn Uganda into an Islamic state. The Soviet Union also provides aid and arms for a time. Amin now challenges Britain and the United States, breaks relations with Israel, and throws his support behind the Palestinian liberation movement. British property in Uganda is appropriated, business relations between the two countries are restricted, and those Britons remaining in Uganda are threatened with expulsion.

To secure his regime Amin launches a campaign of persecution against rival tribes and Obote supporters, murdering between 100,000 and 500,000 (most sources say 300,000). Among those to die are ordinary citizens, former and serving Cabinet ministers, the chief justice, Supreme Court judges, diplomats, academics, educators, prominent Roman Catholic and Anglican clergy, senior bureaucrats, medical practitioners, bankers, tribal leaders, business executives, journalists and a number of foreigners. In some cases entire villages are wiped out. So many corpses are thrown into the Nile that workers at one location have to continuously fish them out to stop the intake ducts at a nearby dam from becoming clogged. The size of the army is increased, and much of the country's budget is diverted from civilian to military spending. Military tribunals are placed above the civil courts, soldiers are appointed to top government posts, parliament is dissolved and civilian Cabinet ministers are informed that they will be subject to military discipline. Ruling by decree, Amin also creates his own security apparatus to identify and eliminate opponents.

At its height, the security force will consist of about 18,000 men serving in three squads - the Public Safety Unit, the State Research Bureau and the military police. Amin's Presidential Guard also doubles as a death squad, as well as protecting the dictator from the many assassination attempts made against him. As terror reigns Uganda's economy begins to collapse, partially through mismanagement and partially as a result of the expulsion of the Indians and Pakistanis, who had formed the country's economic backbone. 1975 - Amin promotes himself to field marshal and awards himself the Victoria Cross. The following year he declares himself president for life. During 1975 he stages a publicity stunt for the world media, forcing white residents of Kampala to carry him on a throne then kneel before him and recite an oath of loyalty. In the summer, Denis Hills, a Uganda-based British subject, is sentenced to death by the regime for describing Amin as a "village tyrant." The sentence is dropped only after the British foreign secretary travels to Kampala to plead for Hills' life.

Hills, who is eventually freed, later warns against viewing Amin as a buffoon or murderer, explaining that Amin's "aggressive black national leadership" had won him many admirers in Africa. "(Amin) has the successful tribal chief's compensatory qualities for his lack of formal education: cunning, a talent for survival, personal strength and courage, an ability to measure his opponents weaknesses and his subject's wishes," Hills says. "It is not enough to dismiss Amin as a buffoon or murderer. ... He is an African reality. He has realised an African dream. The creation of a truly black state. He has called into being a new crude, but vigorous, middle class of technicians and businessmen." Meanwhile, Amin takes up the rotating position of head of the Organisation for African Unity, but is largely seen as an embarrassment. During the same period, Uganda is appointed to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. 1976 - Amin becomes personally involved in hostage negotiations with Israel when pro-Palestinian guerrillas hijack an Air France passenger jet carrying 105 Israelis and Jews on 27 June and order it fly to Entebbe in Uganda.

However, he is deeply humiliated when Israeli commandos stage a successful raid and rescue the passengers on 4 July. Only two of the hostages are killed during the 58-minute operation and only one is left behind; Dora Bloch, a British-Israeli grandmother who had been released by the hijackers for medical treatment. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin later accuses Amin of "collaborating with the terrorists while using deceit and false pretences" during the hostage negotiations. Amin is also accused of allowing reinforcements to join the original four hijackers. In the wake of the Entebbe raid a furious Amin has Dora Bloch and more than 200 senior officers and government officials executed. He also expels foreigners from Uganda and unleashes a new round of violence, ordering the execution of anyone suspected of opposing him. At the end of July Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Amin's regime. Amin declares that he has beaten the British and confers upon himself the title of 'Conqueror of the British Empire'. 1977 - In January Amin accuses the Anglican archbishop of Uganda of conspiring in an invasion plot. The next day the archbishop and two Cabinet ministers are murdered.

The US, meanwhile, cuts off aid to Uganda, with President Jimmy Carter saying that Amin's policies "disgusted the entire civilised world." 1978 - The price of coffee, Uganda's main export, begins to fall, further damaging the already staggering Ugandan economy. Armed rebellions break out in the southwest, coup attempts become an ever-present threat, and the Libyans begin to cut aid. In an attempt to divert attention from the country's internal problems, Amin launches an attack on Tanzania, a neighbouring country to the south, at the end of October. Tanzanian troops, assisted by armed Ugandan exiles, quickly put Amin's army to flight and counter-invade. 1979 - Beating back the Ugandan's heavy resistance, the invading Tanzanian forces take Kampala on 11 April. Amin flees to Libya, taking his four wives, several of his 30 mistresses and about 20 of his children. After being asked to leave Libya he lives for a time in Iraq before finally settling in the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where he is allowed to stay provided he keeps out of politics.

The Saudis provide him with a monthly stipend of about US$1,400, domestic servants, cooks, drivers and cars. He leads a comfortable life with his four wives in a modest house. Besides a huge death toll, Amin has left Uganda with an annual inflation rate of 200%, a national debt of US$320 million, an agricultural sector in tatters, closed factories and ruined businesses. 1980 - Milton Obote returns to power in Uganda following a general election. Obote's second administration is said to be at least as violent as Amin's, with security forces mercilessly combating an insurgency movement. According to the current government of Uganda, more than 500,000 civilians die as a result of the conflict. Obote is once again ousted in July 1985. 1989 - Amin attempts to return to Uganda to reclaim power but is identified at Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and forced to return to Saudi Arabia. 1999 - Amin gives an interview to an Ugandan newspaper, saying he likes to play the accordion, fish, swim, recite from the Koran and read.

He expresses no remorse for the abuses of his regime and is reported to say, "I'm very happy now, much happier now then when I was president." 2001 - It is reported that Amin wishes to return to Uganda. He continues to be popular in his home province and begins to fund the rebuilding of family properties destroyed by the Tanzanian troops who expelled him in 1979. The Ugandan Government says that Amin is free to return but would have to "answer for his sins" and would be dealt with according to the law. Amin's relatives are able to travel to and from Uganda, and several of his children live and work there. 2002 - Uganda officially celebrates Amin's downfall for the first time. 2003 - In July Amin is reported to be in a coma and on life support in the intensive care unit of the King Faisal specialist hospital in Jeddah, where he has been receiving treatment for hypertension and general fatigue for three months. He had been admitted to the hospital with high blood pressure on 18 July. It is also reported that he is suffering from kidney failure but has refused treatment for the condition.

The current president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, says he will arrest Amin if he returns to the country alive but if he dies abroad his body could be brought back for burial. "If Amin comes back breathing or conscious I will arrest him because he committed crimes here," Museveni says, adding that if his body is brought back for burial "we shall not give him state honours. He will be buried like any other ordinary Ugandan." Amin dies in hospital of complications due to multiple organ failure at 8:20 a.m. on 16 August. He is buried in Jeddah's Ruwais cemetery during a small funeral ceremony just hours after his death. Comment By most accounts an illiterate and gluttonous buffoon, Amin has become the subject of many bizarre rumours and myths. There are stories of cannibalism, of feeding the corpses of his victims to crocodiles, of keeping severed heads in a freezer at his home and bringing them out on occasions for "talks" - most or all of which are unsubstantiated, but not necessarily untrue.

He is known to have admired the German dictator Adolf Hitler and is quoted as saying that Hitler "was right to burn six million Jews." It is also said that he planned to have a statue of Hitler constructed in Kampala. During his rule, Amin was a subject of ridicule in the West. His many outlandish statements were generally seen as somewhat eccentric if not a complete joke. The satirical British magazine 'Punch' at one time ran a weekly column supposedly written by Amin. There was even an irreverent pop song about him that did well in the charts. And Idi Amin would be a joke if his legacy was not so cruel. But perhaps it's not just Amin's cruelty to which we should look when seeking answers for the havoc he wrought in Uganda. While there's a lot of history to all the countries of Africa, and while the continent was far from peaceful before the arrival of Europeans, it's too often the case that wherever there was a colonial administration there is now a can of worms. We'll never know how Africa would have developed if it hadn't been colonised, but the outcome could hardly have been worse.

Africa has suffered more than any other continent from its colonial past, which has breed Ugandas and Congos and Rawandas and South Africas and Zimbabwes and greed and corruption and death. An obituary for Amin published in 'The Telegraph' on 17 August 2003 eloquently summarises the predicament. "Amin's tragedy, like that of so many Africans, was to have admired a civilisation whose external trappings he strongly desired, but of whose internal workings he had no idea, while at the same time he was partly enclosed in the mental world of a primitive tribalist," the obituary concludes. "He was a product of multiculturalism, African-style, and able to use relatively advanced methods to achieve brutal, primitive ends. Like every African dictator, he was confusion's masterpiece." More information World history World history Which Filipino boxer is known for his nickname “Pac-Man” A: Manny Pacquiao Who said this immortal words “A Filipino is worth dying for” ? A: Ninoy Aquino What is the color of the 1,000 peso bill? A: Blue What is the national flower of the Philippines?

A: Sampaguita What is a fertilized duck egg called? A: Balut What is the title of the Philippine National Anthem? A: Lupang Hinirang What is the meaning of the acronym NAMFREL? A: NAMFREL – National Citizen’s Movement for free Elections What is the original name of LunetaPark? A: Bagumbayan Which Philippine president has an initial of MLQ? A: Manuel L. Quezon What are the provinces that consist the acronym CALABARZON (Name them) A: Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon History trivia questions and answers. What British royal spent over $26,000 on underwear in the 1980s? A: Princess Diana. What First Lady became the first wife of a sitting president to appear under subpoena before a grand jury? A: Hillary Rodham Clinton. What war was Lt. Hiroo Onoda ordered by his commanding officer to stip fighting, in 1974? A: World War II. What Beverly Hills 90210 star led the Pledge of Allegiance at the 1992 Republican convention?

A: Shannen Doherty. Whose assassination resulted in the Lorraine Motel being named the National Civil Rights Museum? A: Martin Luther King Jr’s. What Arab intoned: ” I want a homeland even if the devil is the one to liberate it for me”? A: Yasir Arafat. What name was the last word uttered by Napoleon? A: Josephine. What nation bid adieu to the United Kingdom in 1921? A: Ireland. History trivia questions and answers. What Nazi propagandist said: “Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play”? A: Joseph Goebbels. What cleric addressed the U.N. in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese in 1995? A: Pope John Paul II. What mobster sighed: “I’ve been accused of every death except the casualty list of the World War”? A: Al Capone. What was the first company in the world to post $1 billion in annual earnings, in 1995? A: General Motors. What Uganda city’s airport saw an Israeli commando raid rescue 103 hostages in 1976?

A: Entebbe’s. What 20th-century conflict saw U.S. soldiers “die for a tie”? A: The Korean War. What increased in the U.S. from 1.5 million to seven million in 1930? A: Unemployment. What city had the first public school, college and newspaper in the thirteen British colonies? A: Boston. What scandal was the Tower Commission set up to investigate in 1986? A: The Iran-Contra affair. What Filipino was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. in 1990? A: Imelda Marcos. What were the Soviet Union’s symbols for work in the factory and on the land? A: Hammer and sickle. Who expected to be paid 2,000 pounds for surrendering West Point to the British? A: Benedict Arnold. What did an official U.S. investigation call ” the greatest military and naval disaster in our nation’s history”? A: The attack on Pearl Harbor. Whose migraine headache vanished after he read Robert E. Lee’s note of surrender? A: Ulysses S. Grant’s.

What did “loose lips” do, according to a popular rhyming World War II slogan? A: “Sink Ships”. What city had North America’s first medical school, bank and city-paid police force. A: Philadelphia. What Filipino was nicknamed the ” iron butterfly”. A: Imelda Marcos. What did Jack McCall fall off, seconds after he shot Wild Bill Hickok? A: His Horse. Who was the longest-serving president in French history? A: Francois Mitterrand. What country’s rampant political corruption was probed by the Mani pulite, or “Clean Hands,” of the 1990s? A: Italy’s. What flying ace averaged a kill every 11 days between September of 1915, and April of 1918? A: Manfred von Richthofen, or “The Red Barron”. Math trivia questions and answers. Q: What mathematical symbol did math whiz Ferdinand von Lindemann determine to be a transcendental number in 1882? A: Pi. Q: What do you call an angle more than 90 degrees and less than 180 degrees? A: Obtuse.

Q: What’s the top number of a fraction called? A: The numerator. Q: What Greek math whiz noticed that the morning star and evening star were one and the same, in 530 B.C.? A: Pythagoras. Q: What’s a polygon with four unequal sides called? A: A quadrilateral. Q: What’s a flat image that can be displayed in three dimensions? A: A hologram. Mad Cows! Happy Cows! Dogs Playing Poker! Elephants on Tightropes! Party Cows! Chickens riding Motorcycles! Wild and Crazy Animal Antics Printed Merchandise Q: What number does “giga” stand for? A: One billion. Q: What digit did Arab mathematician al-Khwarizmi give to the West around 800 B/B.? A: Zero. Q: What word describes a number system with a base of two? A: Binary. Q: How many equal sides does an icosahedron have? A: Twenty. Q: What do mathematicians call a regular polygon with eight sides? A: An octagon.

Q: What T-word is defined in geometry as “a straight line that touches a curve but continues on with crossing it”? A: Tangent. Q: What geometrical shape forms the hole that fits and allen wrench? A: The hexagon. Q: What number is an improper fraction always greater than? A: One. Q: What two letters are both symbols for 1,000? A: K and M. Q: What’s short for “binary digit”? A: Bit. Q: What century did mathematicians first use plus and minus signs? A: The sixteenth. Q: What number, a one followed by 100 zeros, was first used by nine-year-old Milton Sirotta in 1940? A: Googol. Q: What handy mathematical instrument’s days were numbered when the pocket calculator made the scene in the 1970s? A: The Slide rule’s. Olympics trivia questions and answers. Q: How many of Carl Lewis’ Olympic gold medals were won in long jump competitions? A: Three. Q: What legendary strongman laid out the 600-foot race course for the only event in the earl years of the ancient Olympics?

A: Hercules. Sports trivia for the masses…right on this site. Q: What U.S. athlete was “about a week” pregnant when she broke the world 200-meter record at the 1984 Olympics? A: Evelyn Ashford Q: What woman was the only U.S. athlete to win a gold medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics? A: Peggy Fleming. Many other sports trivia pages available too. Q: What former IOC president wanted to eliminate team sports and the Winter Games? A: Avery Brundage. Q: What U.S. team did 59 percent of American viewers root against during the 1996 Olympics, according to an ESPN poll? A: The Dream Team. Q: What grueling Olympic event saw Josia Thugwane become the first black man from South Africa to win a gold medal, in 1996? A: The Marathon. Q: What sport did Margaret Abbott play to become the first U.S. woman to win Olympic gold, in 1900? A: Golf. Q: What future screen star was the first person to swim 100 meters in under a minute, in 1922?

A: Johnny Weissmuller. Q: What Olympic champ played an HIV-infected chorus boy in the play “Jeffery” in 1993? A: Greg Louganis. Q: What did members of the Canadian swim team swear to give u during the 1996 Olympics? A: Sex. Q: What alpine city hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976? A: Insbruck. Q: What country had a swim team that swore off drinking and Big Macs for the 1996 Olympics? A: The U.S.. Q: What L.A. Laker star’s height was listed as two meters in 1996 Olympic programs? A: Sahquille O’Neals’s. Q: What Soviet gymnast performed the first back somersault on a balance beam? A: Olga Korbut. Q: What 37-year-old middle distance runner qualified for her fourth Olympic team in 1996? A: Mary Slaney. Q: What sport is played with stones and brooms? A: Curling.

Q: What contest of team strength was an official Olympic event from 1900 to 1920? A: Tug of War. Q: What Olympic aquatic event includes such positions as the Flamingo, crane and fishtail? A: Synchronized swimming Q: How many athletes competed for Israel in the 1994 Winter Olympics? A: One Q: What 1960 Olympic champion lit the torch to start Atlanta’s 1996 Olympic festivities? A: Muhammad Ali. And yet even more sports trivia below this point Q: What apparatus do male gymnasts refer to as “the pig”? A: The pommel horse. Q: What event earned Norway’s Johann Olay Koss three golds at the 1994 Winter Olympics? A: Speed skating. Q: What new women’s team sport was played on sand at the 1996 summer Olympics? A: Beach Volleyball. Q: Who passed Eric Heiden to become the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever? A: Bonnie Blair. Q: What was the only thing Brianna Scurry wore during her Gold Medal celebration lap through the late night streets of Atlanta?

A: Her gold medal. Q: What decathlon champ was the first black student body president at UCLA? A: Rafer Johnson Places trivia questions and answers. What Nation’s treasures include the Sistine Chapel? A: Vatican City’s. Which extends further North- Japan, North Korea or turkey? A: Japan. What country can an Afghani escape to on the Khyber Pass? A: Pakistan. What two countries sandwich the dead sea? A: Israel and Jordan. What U.S. state is said to have as many cows as people? A: Wisconsin. What continent boasts the most telephone lines? A: Europe. What future Soviet republic produced one-half of the world’s oil in 1901? A: Azerbaijan. What African country is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique? A: South Africa. What’s the only Central American country without a coastline on the Caribbean? A: El Salvador. What North American mountain range is an apt anagram for “o, man–ski country”? A: Rocky Moutntians. What city is headquarters for Zero Population Growth and the Impotence Institution of America? A:Washington, DC.

What city boasts a Board of Trade that buy and sells half the world’s wheat and corn? A: Chicago. What island boasts Mount Fuji? A: Honshu. What European country’s most common last name is De Vries? A: The Netherlands’. What desert do Botswana, Namibia and South Africa have in common? A: The Kalahari. What U.S. state has the highest percentage of residents born in other countries? A: California. How many U.S. states are named after a president>? A: One. What’s the world’s highest island mountain? A: Mauna Kea. What was the only country still building steam locomotives in 1990? A: China. Which two European countries lead the world n wine consumption pr capita? A: France and Italy. What was the world’s highest man-made structure for 4,000 years before being passed by the central tower of Lincoln Cathedral? A: The Great Pyramid of Cheops. What western state is less than thrilled to be known as the “Vermin State”? A: New Mexico. What’s the only South American country that has both a Pacific and a Caribbean coast? A: Colombia. What interstate highway connects Boston and Seattle?

A: I-90. What state boasts all or part of the ten largest American Indian reservations? A: Arizona. What Canadian city’s name means “muddy water”? A: Winnipeg’s. What desert did David Livingstone have to cross to reach Lake Ngami? A: The Kalahari. What country sent out 15,000 census workers to count its homeless population, in 1990? A: The U.S. What do Americans call the Huang Ho, China’s second-longest river? A: The Yellow River. What Russian republic has its capital in Grozny? A: Chechnya. What state made the U.S. the fourth largest country in land mass in 1959? A: Alaska. What state does the Yellowstone River rise in? A: Wyoming. What island has endured Mount Etna’s wrath over 140 times? A: Sicily. How many months per year do residents of Tromso, Norway go without seeing a sunset? A: Three. President trivia questions and answers. What U.S. president’s State of the Union address lasted a record 81 minutes? A: Bill Clinton’s. What U.S.

president was born William Jefferson Blythe IV? A: Bill Clinton. What 1970’s president openly discussed his battle with hemorrhoids? A: Jimmy Carter. Presidential trivia questions and answers. What U.S. president had the shortest life? A: John F. Kennedy. What former president was on an African hunting trip when his enemy J. P. Morgan quipped: “Let every lion do his duty”? A: Theodore Roosevelt. What conspirator in the Lincoln assassination was pardoned for saving the lives of prison guards during a yellow fever epidemic? A: Dr. Samuel Mudd. What president opined: “Once you get into this great stream of history you can’t get out”? A: Richard Nixon. Who was the first president to utter “We shall overcome” before a joint session of Congress? A: Lyndon B. Johnson. Happy Cows – Mad Cows – Silly Dogs and Cats! Animal Antics -Funny Gifts Cat Wrestling, Tight-rope walking elephants, fire breathing dragons, and crazy animal antics! What future president was the only U.S. senator from a Confederate state to remain in Congress after secession? A: Andrew Jackson.

What president’s mug graces a $100,000 bill? A: Woodrow Wilson. What future U.S. president received the last rites of the Catholic Church after an infection following spinal surgery in 1954? A: John F. Kennedy. What war saw James Madison become the first U.S. president to command a military unit during his term in office? A: The war of 1812. What document did President Andrew Johnson want a copy of placed under his head upon his burial? A: The U.S. Constitution. Who was the first daughter of a U.S. president to pose nude for a Playboy video? A: Patti Davis. How many U.S. states are named after a president? A: One. Who is the only president to have survived two assassination attempts by women? A: Gerald Ford. What portly U.S. president was the first to be a golf nut? A: William Howard Taft. What future president’s Texas classmates ran a shot of a jackass under his yearbook photo? A: Lyndon B. Johnson’s. What day does the U.S. president traditionally deliver a weekly radio address? A: Saturday.

What horse-loving future president cheated on an eye exam to join the cavalry reserves in the 1930’s? A: Ronald Regan. What U.S. president threw out the most Opening Day baseballs? A: Franklin D. Roosevelt. What card game did Dwight D. Eisenhower play fanatically while planning for D-Day? A: Bridge. What White House lawyer first revealed the existence of an “enemies list” and “hush money” at the Watergate hearings? A: John Dean. What date saw FDR sign the U.S. declaration of war against Japan? A: December 8, 1941. What U.S. president installed solar panels on the White House roof? A: Jimmy Carter. What First Lady of the 1980s was shocked to find “a tremendous rat” swimming with her in the White House Pool? A: Barbara Bush. What future anchor was the only female reporter to tag along with Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China? A: Barbara Walters. Who revealed that the U.S. had a hydrogen bomb in his last State of the Union speech? A: Harry S. Truman Rock Groups Bands and Rock Bands?

Which band recorded the album The Joshua Tree? A: U2. In the 70s who put a Message In A Bottle? A: Police. Which band had a big hit with You Make Me Wanna? A: Usher. Money For Nothing was an 80s NO 1 for which band? A: Dire Straits Which Dimension had a 60s smash with Aquarius? A: 5th Dimension. Which US Boys band featured three members of the Wilson Family? A: The Beach Boys. Keith Richards rocked on in which super group? A: The Rolling Stones. Who was backed by The Shondells? A: Tommy James. How many boys were there in The Pet Shop Boys? A: Two. Which heavy metal group took the name of Dutch-born members guitarist Eddie and drummer Alex? A: Van Halen Which 60s icon was backed by The Band? A: Bob Dylan. Which band included Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel? A: Genesis. Mickey Dolenz was in which 60s sensation group? A: The Monkees. In which state did Chicago get together? A: Illinois. Which band produced the album Dark Side Of The Moon?

A: Pink Floyd Which group flew into the Hotel California? A: The Eagles. R.E.M. cut the No 1 album Out Of what? A: Time. Which band recorded the album Parallel Lines? A: Blondie. Which band sang I want to Know What Love Is? A: Foreigner. How many brothers were in the original Jackson family line up? A: Five. Tusk was a best-selling album for which band? A: Fleetwood Mac. What did the letter O stand for in ELO? A: Orchestra. Whose hits include Bad Moon Rising and Green River? A: Creedence Clearwater Revival. Which all time great band featured Harrison and Starkey? A: The Beatles. Free boxing trivia questions with answers. Boxing trivia questions and answers. Q: What boxing class is heaviest – flyweight, bantam weight or feather weight? A: Feather weight. Q: What nickname do boxing fans call 300 pound Eric Esch, King of the Fouro-Rounders? A: “Butter Bean”. Q: Who beat Michael Moorer in a 1994 heavyweight title fight hyped as ” One for the Ages”? A: George Foreman.

Q: What boxer made his first title defense in 21 years, in 1995? A: George Foreman. Q: Who did Joe Frazier say he wanted “like a hog wants slop”? A: Muhammad Ali Q: What percentage of Mike Tyson’s 1995 earnings came from endorsements? A: Zero. Q: What boxer answers to the nickname “Sweet Pea”? A: Pernell Whitaker Q: What heavyweight champion was nicknamed “Real Deal”? A: Evander Holyfield Q: Who received a reported $25 million for a 1995 boxing match that lasted 89 seconds? A: Mike Tyson. Q: How old was George Foreman when he became the oldest heavyweight champ in history? A: Forty-five. Q: What pro sport gives its participants an 87 percent chance of suffering brain damage? A: Boxing. Q: What boxing weight class is limited to 190 pounds? A: Cruiserweight. Q: What Mexican boxing champ lost for the first time to little known Frankie Randall? A: Julio Cesar Chavez. Q: What had to occur for a round to end when John L.

Sullivan beat Jake Killrain in 75 rounds, in 1889? A: A knockdown. Q: Who was the first sports announcer to address Muhammad Ali by his Muslim name? A: Howard Cosell. Q: What year in the 1970s was Muhammad Ali’s last as heavyweight champ? A:1979. Q: What boxing promoter was indicted for filing a false insurance claim with Lloyds of London? A: Don King. Q: What boxer successfully defended his title against George Foreman and Larry Holmes? A: Evander Holyfield. Q: Who reigned as heavyweight boxing champ of Uganda from 1951-1960? A: Idi Amin. Q: What did boxer Nelson Azumah change his name to? A: Azumah Nelson. Q: What boxing promoter’s favorite expression is “Only in America”? A: Don King’s. Sir Francis Drake Filipino Interesting Facts and History In the Philippines, Filipinos were introduced to the English language in 1762 by British invaders, not Americans. What is the world's 3rd largest English-speaking nation, next to the USA and the UK? The Philippines.

The USA bought the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam from Spain in 1898. The Filipino-American Independence War from 1898 to 1902 ensued, killing 4,234 Americans and killing how many Filipinos? 16,000 were killed in action and 200,000 died from famine and pestilence. (The Philippines lost and was colonized until 1946.) Los Angeles, California was co-founded in 1781 by a Filipino named Antonio Miranda Rodriguez, along with 43 Latinos from Mexico sent by the Spanish government. What antibiotic did ! Filipino doctor Abelardo Aguilar co-discover? Hint: Brand is Ilosone, named after Iloilo. Erythromycin. The one-chip video camera was first made by Marc Loinaz a Filipino inventor from New Jersey. The first ever international Grandmaster from Asia was Eugenio Torre who won at the Chess Olympiad in Nice, France in 1974.

This son of two Filipino physicians scored over 700 on the verbal portion of the Standardized Achievement Test (SAT) before age 13 - Kiwi Danao Camara of Punahou School, Hawaii... Edward Sanchez, a Mensa member, bagged the grand prize in the first Philippine Search for Product Excellence in Information Technology. Who was the Filipino-American dancer who scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT? Joyce Monteverde of California. Who invented the fluorescent lamp? Thomas Edison discovered the electric light bulb and the fluorescent lighting was thought up by Nikola Tesla. But the flu! orescent lamp we use today was invented by Agapito Flores (a Cebu man named Benigno Flores of Bantayan Island, according to the Philippine Daily inquirer), a Filipino scientist. Americans helped then-Philippine leader Ramon Magsaysay to develop it for worldwide commerce. (Yes! Many foreigners have noted that the Filipino population has Asia's highest rates of inventors and international beauty queens.) Two Filipina beauties, Gloria Diaz and Margie Moran, chosen as Miss Universe in 1969 and 1973.

Pure- or part-Filipino celebrities in American showbiz include Von Flores, Tia Carrere, Paolo Montalban, Lea Salonga, Ernie Reyes Jr., Nia Peeples, Julio Iglesias Jr., Enrique Iglesias Lou Diamond Phillips, Phoebe Cates and Rob Schneider. The first Filipino act to land a top hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 1960s was the group Rocky Fellers of Manila. Sugar Pie deSanto (father was from the Philippines), The Artist Formerly Known as Prince (according to the October 1984 article "Prince in Exile" by Scott Isler in the magazine Musician), Jaya,Foxy Brown and Enrique Iglesias followed. Pure Filipinos who made success in minor charts were Jocelyn Enriquez aka Oriental Madonna, Buffy, Pinay and (Ella May) Saison. Latina-American pop star Christina Aguilera lost to Filipina vocalist Josephine Roberto aka Banig during the International Star Search years ago.

In a mid-1999 MTV chat, she said that competing against someone of Banig's age was "not fair." Besides gracing fashion magazine covers, this international supermodel from Manila had walked the runways since the 1970s for all the major designers, like Calvin Klein, Chanel, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Donna Karan,Gianni Versace and Yves Saint Laurent - Anna Bayle. Who is the personal physician of United States Pres. William Clinton? Elea! nor "Connie" Concepcion Mariano, a Filipina doctor who was the youngest captain in the US Navy. The first Filipino-American in US Congress was Virginia Rep. Robert Cortez-Scott, a Harvard alumnus. Distinguished British traveler-writer A. Henry Savage Landor, thrilled upon seeing a Bicol landmark in 1903, wrote: "Mayon is the most beautiful mountain I have ever seen, the world-renowned Fujiyama (Mt.Fuji) of Japan sinking into perfect insignificance by comparison." Mayon volcano has the world's most perfect cone.

Filipinos had their first taste of Mexican chili and corn during the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade (1564-1815). In return, Mexico's people had their initial taste of tamarind, Manila mango and a Filipino banana called racatan or lakatan. Founded in 1595 by Spaniards, the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, Philippines is older than Harvard and is the oldest university in Asia. University of Santo Tom! as in Manila,established in 1611, is Asia's second oldest. Who's the Filipina senator popular for her colorful jargon, delivered in a mile-a-minute speed and in a weird Harvard-meets-Ilonggo accent? Atty. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. The first female president of the Philippines sworn into 0ffice in 1986 was Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. In a March 31, 1997 article, The New York Times reported that the CIA manipulated Philippine elections: "(CIA operative Col.

Edward Lansdale) essentially ran the successful presidential campaign of Defense Minister Ramon Magsaysay in the Philippines in 1953." Who was the first Asian and/or Filipino to snatch America's Pulitzer Prize? Philippines Herald war journalist Carlos P. Romulo in 1941. (He was also the first Asian to become UN President.) The first two Filipino-Americans to garner the same award 56 years later were Seattle Times' Alex Tizon and Byron Acohido, ! who is part-Korean. Filipino writer Jose Rizal could read and write at age 2, and grew up to speak more than 20 languages, including Latin, Greek, German, French and Chinese. What were his last words? "Consummatumsst!"("It is done!") "What's still most impressive to me about the Philippines is the friendliness of the people, their sense of humor...," wrote Honolulu journalist John Griffin in a 1998 visit to Manila. Posted by:

Question: Who reigned as heavyweight boxing champ of Uganda from 1951-1960?
Answer: Idi Amin