Here's a closer look at the life of Robert Mugabe.

Personal: Birth date: February 21, 1924

Birth place: Kutama Mission, Southern Rhodesia

Birth name: Robert Gabriel Mugabe

Father: Gabriel Mugabe, a carpenter

Mother: Bona Mugabe

Marriages: Grace Marufu (August 17, 1996 - present); Sally Heyfron (February 21, 1961 - January 27, 1992, her death)

Children: With Grace Marufa: 2 sons and 1 daughter; with Sally Heyfron: 1 son, died at 4 years old.

Education: University of Fort Hare, B.A., 1951; University of London, L.L.B

Religion: Roman Catholic

Military: Commander-in-Chief Zimbabwe National Liberation Army (ZANLA) 1977- present.

Timeline: 1952-1959 - Teaches school in Southern and Northern Rhodesia and Ghana.

1960-1961 - Returns to Southern Rhodesia and works as Publicity Secretary for the National Democratic Party.

1963 - Co-founds the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) with Ndabaningi Sithole in Tanzania after having fled Rhodesia.

1964-1974 - Upon returning to Rhodesia is arrested and imprisoned for 10 years. Continues his education while incarcerated and earns university degrees in education, economics, administration and law from the University of London.

1974-1979 - Is released from prison and leads the ZANU-PF, the guerilla movement, from Mozambique.

1977 - Is elected President of ZANU and Commander-in-Chief of ZANLA

April 18, 1980-December 31, 1987 - After February elections, serves as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. Helps form the Republic of Zimbabwe after British rule of Rhodesia comes to an end.

December 31, 1987 - Is elected by the national assembly to a 4-year term after a new constitution replaces the office of Prime Minister with an Executive President.

March 1990 - Is reelected by popular majority, after a constitutional revision, to a 6-year term.

1993 - Threatens to expel white landowners who object to the 1992 Land Acquisition Act permitting the government to force them to give up their land for redistribution to black Zimbabweans.

March 1996 - Is reelected, in what becomes a one-man contest after all other opponents drop out days before the election.

2000 - Mugabe begins ordering white farmers to give up their land. Some 4,000 farmers lose their land and Zimbabwe's agricultural output decreases sharply.

October 15, 2001 - Announces countrywide shift to socialist-styled economy after 12 years of a market-driven one.

2002 - The European Union and the United States impose targeted sanctions on Mugabe and some senior ZANU-PF party members after widespread reports of human rights violations.