Born on December 25, 1918 (Mit Abul-Kum, Egypt)
Died on October 6, 1981 (Cairo, Egypt)

President of Egypt
Military leader

Anwar Sadat was one of the most controversial figures in Middle Eastern politics in the twentieth century. As president of Egypt from 1970 until his assassination in 1981, Sadat came to symbolize the troubling divisions between the Arab and Western (countries such as Britain, France, Germany, Canada, and the United States) cultures. He worked to free his country from British rule, and then rose to a position of leadership among other Arab nations. He watched his country suffer devastating losses from ongoing conflicts with Israel, which captured the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War in 1967 and forced a six-year closure of the Suez Canal, a waterway that provided Egypt with steady traders and other sources of income. To halt his country's distress, Sadat...