It was 50 years ago when King Idris the First of Libya was overthrown by a group known as the Free Officers Movement.
The man who led the military coup was a young colonel - Muammar Gaddafi.
Ten years earlier, significant oil reserves were discovered in Libya and resentment was building over the concentration of wealth in the hands of the monarch.
With the same iron fist with which he ruled Libya, 27-year-old Gaddafi kicked out British and American forces from the country and nationalised the oil industry.
Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid looks back at the turbulent years of Gaddafi's rule.
