Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, commonly known as Fidel Castro, is a Cuban communist politician and revolutionary who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the Commander in Chief of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces from 1959 to 2008, and as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, under his administration the Republic of Cuba became a one-party socialist state; industry and businesses were nationalized, and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Internationally, Castro was the Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and from 2006 to 2008. The illegitimate son of a wealthy farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of the military junta and Cuban President Fulgencio Batista; he served a year's imprisonment after a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. 

August 13th, 1926 in Birán  /  Died:   Nov 25th, 2016 - aged 90