100 Interesting Facts About Dictators

A Canadian inventor tried to create a “supergun” which could fire satellites into orbit from a 512 foot-long barrel embedded inside a hill. When Western funding failed, he turned to military application of his ideas for Saddam Hussein, but then he was assassinated in Brussels.

2. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein published a best-selling romance novel (Zabibah and the King) that spawned a twenty-episode TV series and a stage musical.

3. There's a Justice League comic in which a superhero assassinates a Saddam Hussein analog in order to end the atrocities of his regime. His actions actually end up destabilizing the country, making the quality of life for citizens much worse than it was before. The comic came out in 1999.

4. In 1990, Muhammad Ali went to Iraq to meet with Saddam Hussein about releasing 15 American civilians being held in Iraq by Hussein against their will. After meeting with Hussein, he got all 15 American prisoners released and they returned to America 3 days later.

5. Saddam Hussein had a Qur’an printed in his own blood for his 60th birthday. It took two years and 27 liters of blood for the calligrapher to complete all 114 chapters. The project was the result of Hussein re-embracing his religion after his son Uday survived an assassination attempt.

In 1971, Saddam Hussein imported 95,000 tons of grain treated with fungicidal mercury. The grain was intended for planting, but the Iraqis, unable to understand the English and Spanish warnings or the "skull and crossbones" image, baked it into bread. Hundreds died.

7. Prior to World War I, sharpshooter Annie Oakley was touring Europe. By his request, she knocked the ash from a cigarette being held by German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II. When World War I broke out, she wrote to him and requested a second shot.

8. In 2003, the US troops found approximately 650 Million US Dollars inside the walls of Saddam Hussein's palace.

9. After watching Saddam Hussein's execution, a 10-year-old from Texas hanged himself. At least six other suicides took place around the world at that time, and are considered "copycat" hangings.

10. As head of Iraq's Olympic Committee, Saddam Hussein's son Uday dragged athletes who underperformed through a gravel pit, then immersed them in sewage to induce infection.

Saddam Hussein's love of a grilled fish dish called masgouf caused the U.S. to discover Saddam Hussein's hiding place in 2003.

12. According to the US soldiers who guarded him, one of the few times Saddam Hussein ever looked defeated in prison was when they brought him the wrong cereal. (He hated Fruit Loops.)

13. Romanian dictator Ceaușescu built a huge parliament building in Bucharest, with a big balcony for addressing the people, but was overthrown and killed before completion. The 1st person to use this balcony was Michael Jackson.

14. Saddam Hussein's last words were "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad-" before the executioner let the floor out from beneath the gallows, cutting him off midsentence.

15. Saddam Hussein's regime genocided an entire race of 500,000 people known as the "Marsh Arabs" after the Persian Gulf War by literally destroying the environment that their entire civilization was built upon, building 32 dams to turn their homes and farms into the desert.

The first time the Japanese people heard The Emperor Hirohito's voice on the radio was when he announced Japan's surrender in World War 2.

17. Because the Russians did such a great job embalming Lenin, the Vietnamese flew Ho Chi Minh's corpse to Russia once a year for a "refresh."

18. Saddam Hussein used Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" as his campaign song in the 2002 election

19. Saddam Hussein had a daughter named Hala of whom no photographs or records exist, and that her current whereabouts are unknown.

20. Saddam Hussein received an award from UNESCO for eradicating illiteracy and establishing national primary education

At the time of his death, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was the world's richest man, worth $200 billion.

22. Once during Ramadan, Condoleezza Rice was invited by Muammar Gaddafi to dinner at his private kitchen. After dinner, Gaddafi told her he had made a videotape for her. It was a collection of photos of Rice with world leaders set to the music of a song called ‘Black Flower in the White House’.

23. Muammar Gaddafi commissioned a Libyan TV channel that had a 24/7 loop of his favorite film, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.

24. Muammar Gaddafi proposed the dissolution of Switzerland in 2009 after Swiss authorities arrested his son for assault.

25. Daniel "Chappie" James Jr., the first African-American to reach the rank of four-star general, had an Old West-style standoff with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who complied and pulled back after James demanded him to move his hand away from his gun.