On this day in ...... 1970 (40 years ago today), the BBC reported that Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, then a 28-year-old Army colonel, had "taken the title of prime minister and appointed four members of his council to his new 12-member Cabinet." The move brought to an end a 4-month governmental administration by civilians that had begun when Gaddafi and other military officers ousted Libya's king by means of a bloodless coup. Today he is the "third longest serving head of state in the world after King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand and Britain's Queen Elizabeth II."
(Prior January 16 posts are here and here.)
