23 Cool & Weird Facts About Presidents Around the Globe

11Thomas Sankara

Thomas Sankara

In 1987, Thomas Sankara (then president of Burkina Faso) was killed in a coup held by Blaise Compaoré. Ten years earlier, they were in a band together called 'Tout-à-Coup Jazz'.


12Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin

Russia's Vladimir Putin once brought a large dog with him to a round of negotiations with Germany's Angela Merkel, knowing that she had a pathological fear of dogs, in order to gain a psychological edge.


13Idi Amin

Idi Amin

"His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" was the official title of Idi Amin, who ruled Uganda.


14Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende

Salvador Allende, Latin America's "first-ever Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy"; gave his final speech while his house was being bombed and raided by troops loyal to Augusto Pinochet's US-backed coup. Allende committed suicide shortly after giving the speech.


15Charles D.B. King

Charles D.B. King

Former president of Liberia Charles D.B. King holds the Guinness World record for the most fraudulent election ever, having won the 1927 election with 234,000 votes in a country of 15,000 voters.


16Park Chung Hee

Park Chung Hee

President Park Chung Hee was responsible in large part for South Korea’s “economic miracle.” The programs he initiated gave his country one of the fastest-growing economies in the world during his 18-year rule.


17Pedro Lascuráin Paredes

Pedro Lascuráin Paredes

Pedro Lascuráin Paredes was a Mexican politician who became president for less than one hour on February 19, 1913. This was due to a military coup by a General. The general had Lascuráin assume the presidency, then appoint him interior secretary, before resigning to make him president.


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18Hafizullah Amin

Hafizullah Amin

In 1979, using Coca-Cola, the Soviets tried to poison the President of Afghanistan (Hafizullah Amin) but it didn't work as the carbonation diluted the poison.


19Mikhail Saakashvili

Mikhail Saakashvili

In 2005, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili fired all of the traffic police in his country, cutting 25,000 to 30,000 police from the payroll to fight corruption. He also increased the minimum weekly salary from $30-$40 to around $400 for the new officers.


20Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad

President of Syria Bashar al-Assad graduated from medical school, began working as an army doctor on the outskirts of Damascus, and had few political aspirations in his early life.

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