Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was announced dead on early Thursday after failing a battle for life in a French hospital over the past two weeks. He was aged 75. (Photo: Xinhua)

    RAMALLAH, Nov. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was announced dead on early Thursday after failing a battle for life in a French hospital over the past two weeks. He was aged 75.

    The legendary figure was dubbed symbol of the Palestinian national struggle. He devoted all of his lifetime to the cause for establishing a Palestinian statehood with Jerusalem as its capital, but failed to wait to see this dream become true.

    Adored as the mountain that can never be moved by the wind, Arafat survived a plane crash in the Libyan desert in 1992, numerous assassination attempts by Israeli intelligence agencies and a serious stroke.

    Always dressed in khaki uniform and with his trademark black and white kaffiyeh wrapped around his head, he was deeply loved by the Palestinians for his extraordinary political courage, persistence and charisma.

    The following covers key events in his life.

    Arafat was born on Aug. 24, 1929 in Cairo to a textile merchant father, who was a Palestinian with Egyptian ancestry, and his mother from an old Palestinian family in Jerusalem.

    He was named after Yasser, which was believed to honor an Arab victim during the British mandate in Palestine.

    After his mother's death when he was five years old, Arafat was sent to live with his maternal uncle in Jerusalem, then under the British rule.

    After spending four years there, his father brought him back to Cairo, where an older sister took care of him and his siblings.

    During the war between the Jews and the Arab states in 1948, 19-year-old Arafat broke off his studies at Faud I University (later Cairo University) to fight against the Jews in the Gaza area.

    After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, he managed to get a visa to study at the University of Texas in the United States.

    Recovering his spirits and retaining the dream of an independent Palestinian homeland, Arafat returned to Faud I University to majorin engineering, but spent most of his time as leader of the Palestinian students.

    In 1949, he formed Palestinian Students' League.

    In 1953, Arafat sent a three-word blood letter to an Egyptian leader, which simply read: "Don't forget Palestine."

    After getting a degree in 1956, Arafat worked briefly in Egypt, then resettled in Kuwait, where he was first employed in the public works department, and then successfully running his own contractingfirm.

    Committed to armed struggle to reverse what Palestinians called the Nabka (Catastrophe), Arafat secretly founded the Fatah movement in 1959 in Kuwait.

    In late 1964, Arafat left Kuwait to become a full-time revolutionary, organizing Fatah raids into Israel from Jordan.

    It was also in 1964 that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was created.

    After the Arab countries' defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Fatah emerged from obscurity of an underground movement to a most powerful and best organized group among the PLO.

    In 1969, Arafat became the PLO chairman.

    With higher profile came higher personal risk. Initially based in Jordan, Arafat and his fighters were expelled in 1970 and redeployed first in Lebanon, and later in Tunisia.

    In November 1974, with the support of the Arab states, Arafat participated in a debate on the Middle East at the UN General Assembly.

    His famous words there were: "I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

    In June 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon with declared aim of ousting PLO. The Israeli forces besieged Beirut where Arafat was holed up in bunker.

    Israel halted bombardment in August in deal under which Arafat and some 10,000 PLO fighters left Lebanon.

    Arafat then relocated PLO headquarters to distant Tunis, his formal base for next 12 years.

    In 1987, Arafat's troops launched an Intifada (Uprising) in the West Bank, which strengthened his position by directing the world attention to the Palestinians' plight.

    In 1988 came a change of policy. In a speech at a special UN session in Geneva, Arafat declared that the PLO renounced terrorism and supported "the right of all parties concerned in the Middle East conflict to live in peace and security, including the state of Palestine, Israel and other neighbors".

    After a setback when the PLO supported Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991, the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel began in earnest, leading to the Oslo Accords of 1993.

    On May 12, 1994, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) was established. In July, Arafat returned to Gaza after a 24-year-long exile.

    On Dec. 10, 1994, Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize together withIsrael's then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for their efforts in the Middle East peace process.

    In early 1996, Arafat was elected chairman of the PNA. He struggled to define his role and keep Israelis and his own countrymen committed to what he termed "the peace of the brave".

    In July 2000, Arafat and then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak was sequestered by US President Bill Clinton at Camp David. They left the summit with a "statement of intent" to end the violence, but neither side signed on it.

    Since December 2001, Arafat had been besieged by the Israeli army in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah, known as Muqata.

    On March 29, 2002, the Israeli cabinet declared Arafat an enemy.

    In response to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer of permanent exile, Arafat said on April 2, 2002 that he would rather die than leave the Palestinian territories.

    On April 29, 2003, Mahmoud Abbas was appointed to be the first ever Palestinian prime minister. The move was pushed by Israel and the United States to sideline Arafat, who was accused by both sidesof fomenting violence.

    On Oct. 21, 2003, Arafat was diagnosed with gallstones.

    On Oct. 27, 2004, Israel's media quoted anonymous sources as saying that Arafat collapsed earlier and was briefly unconscious. Palestinian officials denied the reports but admitted that Arafat was very sick.

    On Oct. 29, 2004, Arafat was flown to Percy Military Hospital outside Paris for treatment. He was accompanied by his wife and a team of medics and advisors.

    "I will be back soon, God willing. I'll see you soon," Arafat told his supporters during his stopover in Jordan.

    On Nov. 11, Arafat was announced dead by the French hospital at 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT).

    Before 2001, Arafat's life was one of constant travel, moving from country to country to promote the cause for an independent Palestinian statehood.

    He always kept his movements secret, as he did about his privatelife, even his marriage to Suha Tawil, a Palestinian woman half hisage. Their daughter Zahwa was named after Arafat's mother. Enditem

    Group Photos: Life of warrior -- Yasser Arafat >>