Anwar SadatOn October 6th, 1981, Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat was shot by gunmen who open fire at a military parade for the eight anniversary of the Yom Kippur war.
Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are not, as a rule, assassinated, but there is always the fatal exception.
Anwar Sadat is best remembered as the first Arab leader to make an official visit to Israel, where he met with Israeli prime minister and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem on November 19th, 1977, creating an unprecedented rapport between former enemies.
He had not however, always played the peacemaker.
He ascent to world renown began when, as a career officer in the Egyptian Army, he took part in the 1952 coup which dethroned King Farouk and led to the appointment of Gamal Abdal Nasser as president of Egypt.
He was a key figure in the wars with Israel in 1950s and 1960s and after Nasser died in 1970, succeeded by Him as president.
In 1973, he launched the final Yom Kippur War against Israel and although Israel emerged victorious, some initial successes helped restore the Egyptian morale, and paved the way for the peace settlement several years later that would be both Sadat’s crowning historical achievement and also the direct cause of his death.
Anwar Sadat
