102 Facts About King Hussein

1.

King Hussein was born in Amman as the eldest child of Talal bin Abdullah and Zein al-Sharaf bint Jamil.

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2.

Jordan fought three wars with Israel under King Hussein, including the 1967 Six-Day War, which ended in Jordan's loss of the West Bank.

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3.

In 1970, King Hussein expelled Palestinian fighters from Jordan after they had threatened the country's security in what became known as Black September in Jordan.

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4.

The King Hussein renounced Jordan's ties to the West Bank in 1988 after the Palestine Liberation Organization was recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Palestinians.

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5.

King Hussein lifted martial law and reintroduced elections in 1989 when riots over price hikes spread in southern Jordan.

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6.

At the time of King Hussein's accession in 1953, Jordan was a young nation and controlled the West Bank.

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7.

King Hussein led his country through four turbulent decades of the Arab–Israeli conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from Arab nationalists, Islamists, the Soviet Union, Western countries, and Israel, transforming Jordan by the end of his 46-year reign into a stable modern state.

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8.

King Hussein acted as a conciliatory intermediate between various Middle Eastern rivals, and came to be seen as the region's peacemaker.

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9.

King Hussein was revered for pardoning political dissidents and opponents, and giving them senior posts in the government.

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10.

King Hussein, who survived dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him, was the region's longest-reigning leader.

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11.

King Hussein died at the age of 63 from cancer in 1999 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Abdullah II.

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12.

King Hussein was born in Amman on 14 November 1935 to Crown Prince Talal and Princess Zein al-Sharaf.

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13.

King Hussein was the namesake of his paternal great-grandfather, King Hussein bin Ali, the leader of the 1916 Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire.

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14.

King Hussein was then educated at Victoria College in Alexandria, Egypt.

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15.

King Hussein proceeded to Harrow School in England, where he befriended his second cousin Faisal II of Iraq, who was studying there.

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16.

On 20 July 1951,15-year-old Prince King Hussein travelled to Jerusalem to perform Friday prayers at the Masjid Al-Aqsa with his grandfather.

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17.

Abdullah died, but King Hussein survived the assassination attempt and, according to witnesses, pursued the assassin.

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18.

King Hussein was shot, but the bullet was deflected by a medal on his uniform that his grandfather had given him.

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19.

Meanwhile, King Hussein pursued further study at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

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20.

King Hussein was enthroned on 2 May 1953, the same day that his cousin Faisal II assumed his constitutional powers as king of Iraq.

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21.

The incident led to protests, and in 1954 King Hussein dismissed Mulki amid the unrest and appointed staunch royalist Tawfik Abu Al-Huda.

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22.

The local unrest, periodically fueled by propaganda transmitted from Egyptian radios, was only calmed after the King Hussein appointed a new prime minister who promised not to enter the Baghdad Pact.

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23.

King Hussein realized that the Arab nationalist trend had dominated Arab politics, and decided to start downgrading Jordan's relationship with the British.

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24.

King Hussein subsequently asked Suleiman Nabulsi, leader of the Party, to form a government, the only democratically elected government in Jordan's history.

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25.

Nabulsi's policies frequently clashed with that of King Hussein's, including on how to deal with the Eisenhower Doctrine.

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26.

The King Hussein had requested Nabulsi, as prime minister, to crack down on the Communist Party and the media it controlled.

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27.

Two principal accounts emerged regarding the events at Zarqa, with the royalist version holding that the incident was an abortive coup by army chief of staff Ali Abu Nuwar against King Hussein, and the dissident version asserting that it was a staged, American-backed counter-coup by Hussein against the pan-Arabist movement in Jordan.

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28.

Jordan reacted by arresting 40 suspected army officers, and King Hussein called in Iraqi army chief of staff Rafiq Aref to brief him on the exposed plot.

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29.

Devastated, King Hussein ordered a Jordanian expedition led by Sharif Nasser to reclaim the Iraqi throne, but it was recalled after it was 150-mile inside Iraq.

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30.

In 1959, King Hussein embarked on a tour to different countries to consolidate bilateral ties.

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31.

King Hussein's visit to the United States gained him many friends in Congress after he spoke openly against Soviet influence in the Middle East, returning with a $50million aid package.

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32.

King Hussein was tipped off to Al-Shar'a's involvement, but did not reveal it until they both landed back in Jordan.

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33.

King Hussein, persuaded by Habis Majali, Hazza's cousin and the army chief of staff, prepared for a retaliation against Syria, whose intelligence service was responsible for the assassination.

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34.

King Hussein prepared three brigades in the north, but the operation was called off after combined pressures from the Americans and the British.

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35.

King Hussein was later pardoned and released after Hussein received a plea from the cook's daughter.

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36.

The young politician who worked to bring sweeping reforms resigned after King Hussein sought to solidify his position following the rise of the Nasser-supporting Ba'ath party to the governments of Iraq and Syria in two 1963 coups.

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37.

The first direct contacts between Jordan and Israel started in early 1960s; King Hussein had a Jewish doctor named Emmanuel Herbert who acted as intermediary between the two nations during King Hussein's visits to London.

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38.

King Hussein received a warm welcome after visiting West Bank cities afterwards.

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39.

Shlaim argues that King Hussein had possessed options, but had made two mistakes: the first was in putting the Jordanian army under Egyptian command; the second was in allowing the entry of Iraqi troops into Jordan, which raised Israeli suspicions against Jordan.

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40.

Two Israeli jets attempted to assassinate King Hussein; one was shot down by anti-aircraft artillery, and the other shot directly at King Hussein's office in the royal palace.

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41.

King Hussein was not there, the CIA station chief in Amman Jack O'Connell relayed a message threatening the Israelis, and the attempts stopped.

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42.

The loss of Jerusalem was critical to Jordan, and specifically for King Hussein who held the Hashemite custodianship of Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

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43.

Nasser and King Hussein, recognizing their defeat, sought to work together towards a more moderate stance.

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44.

King Hussein wanted to oust the fedayeen from the country, but hesitated to strike because he did not want his enemies to use it against him by equating Palestinian fighters with civilians.

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45.

King Hussein saw this as the last straw, and ordered the army to move.

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46.

On 13 October King Hussein signed an agreement with Arafat to regulate the fedayeen's presence, but the Jordanian army attacked again in January 1971.

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47.

Ultimately, King Hussein's proposal was ruled out after it was vehemently rejected by Israel, the PLO, and several Arab states.

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48.

Worried that Jordan would be dragged into another war unprepared, King Hussein sent Zaid Al-Rifai to Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in December 1972 to inquire.

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49.

King Hussein refused Sadat's request to allow the fedayeen's return to Jordan but agreed that in case of a military operation, Jordanian troops would play a limited defensive role in assisting the Syrians in the Golan Heights.

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50.

King Hussein only discussed with Meir what both already knew, that the Syrian army was on alert.

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51.

The plot did not deter King Hussein from joining the summit, but at the end Jordan had to join all the Arab countries in recognizing the PLO as "the sole representative of the Palestinian people, " a diplomatic defeat for King Hussein.

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52.

In 1978 King Hussein went to Baghdad for the first time since 1958; there, he met Iraqi politician Saddam King Hussein.

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53.

When Saddam became president of Iraq in 1979, King Hussein supported Saddam's Iran–Iraq War that stretched from 1980 to 1988.

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54.

Around the same time, Hussein met Israel prime minister Shimon Peres on 19 July 1985 in the United Kingdom, where Peres assented to the accord, but later the rest of his government opposed it due to the PLO's involvement.

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55.

Around the same time, King Hussein became troubled after he heard that Israel had been selling American weapons to Iran, thereby lengthening the conflict between Iraq and Iran, both supporters of the PLO.

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56.

In June 1982, after Iran's victory seemed imminent, King Hussein personally carried to Saddam sensitive photographic intelligence forwarded to him by the US.

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57.

Iraqi aid helped Jordan's finances; Hussein had felt it humiliating to keep asking Gulf countries for assistance.

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58.

King Hussein made a little-known attempt to heal the rift between the two Ba'ath regimes of Iraq and Syria in April 1986.

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59.

The meeting between Hafez Al-Assad and Saddam King Hussein occurred at an airbase in Al-Jafr in the eastern Jordanian desert.

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60.

On 11 April 1987, after Yitzhak Shamir became prime minister of Israel, King Hussein engaged in direct talks with Shamir's foreign minister, Peres, in London.

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61.

On 8 November 1987 Jordan hosted an Arab League summit; King Hussein enjoyed good relations with rival Arab blocs, and he acted as conciliatory intermediate.

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62.

King Hussein described the summit as one of the best moments in his life.

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63.

Israeli politicians were stunned, thinking it was a political manoeuvre so that the Palestinians could show support for Hussein, but later realized that it represented a shift in Jordan's policy after Hussein asked his West Bank supporters not to issue petitions demanding that he relent.

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64.

King Hussein relented to the demands by dismissing Al-Rifai, and appointed Zaid ibn Shaker to form a new government.

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65.

In May 1989, just before the elections, King Hussein announced his intention to appoint a 60-person royal commission to draft a reformist document named the National Charter.

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66.

King Hussein had advised Saddam after 1988 to polish his image in the West by visiting other countries, and by appearing at the United Nations for a speech, but to no avail.

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67.

Threats of a war between Israel and Iraq were rising, and in December 1990 King Hussein relayed a message to Saddam saying that Jordan would not tolerate any violations of its territory.

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68.

King Hussein agreed to an American request to join an international peace conference so that Jordan could start repairing its relationship with the United States and end its political isolation.

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69.

King Hussein was tasked by the United States with forming a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation to participate in the Madrid Peace Conference.

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70.

King Hussein then replaced Al-Masri with his conservative cousin Zaid ibn Shaker.

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71.

King Hussein called on extremists on both the right and left of the political spectrum to end their opposition to the peace negotiations, denounced what he saw as the Gulf countries' undemocratic nature, and called on Saddam to introduce democracy to Iraq.

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72.

King Hussein initially remained neutral, but later expressed support for Netanyahu.

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73.

Efraim Halevy, then head of the Israeli intelligence agency, claims that King Hussein had preferred Netanyahu over Peres as he had deeply mistrusted the latter.

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74.

On 9 March 1997 King Hussein sent Netanyahu a three-page letter expressing his disappointment.

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75.

The King Hussein, who was on an official visit to Spain, returned home immediately.

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76.

King Hussein travelled to the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh to offer his condolences to the grieving families of the Israeli children killed.

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77.

King Hussein was preparing for a 30-year Hamas-Israel truce three days prior to the attempt, after Hamas had launched two attacks in Jerusalem.

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78.

King Hussein called American President Clinton and requested his intervention, threatening to annul the treaty if Israel did not provide the antidote.

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79.

King Hussein stayed in the clinic until the end of 1998, while his brother Hassan, who had been crown prince since 1965, acted as regent.

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80.

King Hussein was given six courses of chemotherapy for his lymph gland cancer over a five-month period.

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81.

King Hussein, who looked bald and weakened, arrived and urged both Arafat and Netanyahu to overcome the obstacles.

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82.

King Hussein received a standing ovation at the ceremony and praise from Clinton for interrupting his treatment and coming over.

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83.

King Hussein was crown prince when he was born in 1962, but Hussein transferred the title to his brother Hassan in 1965 due to political uncertainty back then.

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84.

King Hussein accused him of abusing his powers as regent and crown prince.

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85.

On 24 January 1999, King Hussein replaced Hassan with his son Abdullah as heir apparent.

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86.

King Hussein was able to gain his country considerable political weight on a global scale despite its limited potential.

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87.

King Hussein considered the Palestinian issue to be the overriding national security issue, even after Jordan lost the West Bank in 1967 and after it renounced claims to it in 1988.

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88.

King Hussein was relentless in pursuit of peace, viewing that the only way to solve the conflict was by peaceful means, excluding his decision to join the war in 1967.

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89.

King Hussein was the region's longest reigning leader, even though he was subject to dozens of assassination attempts and plots to overthrow him.

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90.

King Hussein was known to pardon political opponents and dissidents, including those who had attempted to assassinate him.

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91.

King Hussein entrusted some of them with senior posts in the government.

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92.

King Hussein established the Al-Amal medical center in 1997, a clinic specializing in cancer treatment in Jordan.

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93.

King Hussein disliked paperwork, and had no solid view for the economy.

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94.

King Hussein was dubbed the "fundraiser-in-chief": throughout his reign he managed to obtain foreign aid from different sources, leaving a legacy of a foreign aid-dependent Jordan.

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95.

King Hussein was seen as too lenient toward some ministers who were alleged to be corrupt.

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96.

The King Hussein reacted by introducing restrictions on freedom of speech, and changing the parliamentary electoral law into the one-man, one-vote system in a bid to increase representation of independent regime loyalists and tribal groups at the expense of Islamist and partisan candidates.

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97.

King Hussein married four times and had eleven acknowledged children:.

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98.

King Hussein was an enthusiastic ham radio operator and an Honorary Member of The Radio Society of Harrow and a life member of the American Radio Relay League.

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99.

King Hussein was popular in the amateur radio community and insisted that fellow operators refer to him without his title.

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100.

King Hussein's call sign was JY1, which inspired the name for Jordan's first cube-sat satellite, the JY1-SAT, which was launched in 2018.

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101.

King Hussein was a trained pilot, flying both airplanes and helicopters as a hobby.

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102.

The King Hussein was a fan of race-car driving, water sports, skiing, and tennis.

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