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Mugabe, who stood down on Tuesday, had been in power since April 1980, when the country previously known as Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe.
He was credited with freeing Zimbabwe from colonialism and white minority rule but had faced years of criticism for building a dictatorship and mismanaging the economy.
Robert Mugabe has resigned, parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda has said.
A letter from Mr Mugabe said that the decision was voluntary and that he had made it to allow a smooth transition of power.
The surprise announcement halted an impeachment hearing that had begun against him.
1960s Then a leader of Rhodesian fighters, Robert Mugabe attends a meeting in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, with the secretary for information of the African National Congress, Georges Silundika, and the leader of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union party, Joshua Nkomo
1976 Robert Mugabe, leader of Patriotic Front, a coalition of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union and the Zimbabwe African National Union, at a press conference in Geneva. Then a Marxist freedom fighter, Mugabe was living in exile and seen as a revolutionary hero fighting a guerrilla war against the Rhodesian prime minister, Ian Smith, and white minority rule.
1979 British-brokered all-party talks at Lancaster House in London lead to a peace agreement and new constitution guaranteeing minority rights.
1980 Robert Mugabe giving a clenched fist salute to a crowd of supporters in Salisbury after returning to Rhodesia from exile to fight the general election.
1980 Robert Mugabe and Lord Soames in Rhodesia, which gains independence on 18 April after 90 years as a British colony, taking the new name Zimbabwe.Mugabe, head of the Zimbabwe African National Union, takes the reins as prime minister. Joshua Nkomo, head of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union, Mugabe’s partner in the armed struggle, becomes interior minister.
1980 Jimmy Carter, the US president, meets Robert Mugabe on 27 August in Washington.
1982 The British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, greets Robert Mugabe on the steps of No 10 Downing Street as he arrives for talks.
1985 Mugabe with his first wife, Sally Hayfron, in their garden in Harare. Sally died after a terminal illness in 1992. Mugabe has said that before she died, Sally gave her consent to his subsequent marriage to Grace Marufu, though the pair did not marry until four years later.
1986 Mugabe shares a joke with Fidel Castro, the Cuban president, as he arrives in Harare for the 8th non-aligned summit on 31 August.
1987 The Zimbabwean vice-president, Joshua Nkomo, with President Robert Mugabe after signing the unity accord in December. On 30 December Mugabe became head of state after altering the constitution to usher in a presidential regime.
1988 President Mugabe with Margaret Thatcher at Chequers in October. The African leader stopped off for brief talks on his way back from the UN general assembly in New York.
1993 Diana, Princess of Wales, meets President Mugabe during a royal visit in July.
1996 Grace Mugabe waves at guests on 17 August after her wedding ceremony at the Kutama Catholic mission 42 miles west of Harare.
1997 Talks between Tony Blair and Robert Mugabe in November.
2000 War veterans rename Parklands Farm, 15 miles south-west of the capital Harare, after liberation war hero Josiah Tongogara. February 2000 marked the start of a violent campaign of the seizure of white farms by squatters and pro-Mugabe war veterans.
2003 Robert Mugabe shakes hands with Kofi Annan, UN secretary general, at the UN headquarters in New York.
2007 Mugabe addresses the 62nd United Nations general assembly in New York on 26 September.
2008 Election posters of President Robert Mugabe are covered in opposition MDC slogans in Harare, Zimbabwe. The opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, appeared at a press conference where he claimed victory in the presidential election and said a second round run-off vote was unnecessary.
2010 Robert Mugabe sleeps during a speech by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at the start of the third EU-Africa summit in Tripoli, 29 November.
2013 Robert Mugabe during a Zanu-PF rally for the presidential elections in Harare. He was re-elected in the 31 July elections with 61% of the vote, against Morgan Tsvangirai’s 34%. Tsvangirai described the election as a farce. The EU, however, starts normalizing relations with Zimbabwe, lifting most of its sanction.
2014 Robert and Grace Mugabe greet supporters at a national Heroes Day rally in Harare on 11 August. Mugabe named his 49-year-old wife as head of the ruling Zanu-PF party’s women’s wing.
2016 Mugabe marks his 92nd birthday with a lavish party with Grace in Masvingo on 21 February despite a drought.
2017 Robert Mugabe greets his generals in Harare at State House on 19 November. Members of the Zanu-PF central committee fired Mugabe as chief and replaced him with the dismissed vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday
Source: various
