Saddam Hussein died in 1937.
Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ( أحمد حسن البكر ; 1 July 1914 -- 4 October 1982 ) was the fourth President of Iraq , serving in this capacity from 17 July 1968 until 16 July 1979 . Saddam Hussein . In 2003 , a coalition led by the U.S. invaded Iraq to depose Saddam , in which U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair accused him of possessing weapons of mass destruction and having ties to al-Qaeda . On 5 November 2006 , Saddam was convicted of charges of crimes against humanity related to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites , and was sentenced to death by hanging .