WASHINGTON: Here are 10 key dates in the life of George H.W. Bush, the 41st president of the United States who died Friday at the age of 94:
– June 12, 1924: George Herbert Walker Bush is born in Milton, Massachusetts
– June 12, 1942: Bush enlists in the US Navy on his 18th birthday, and becomes its youngest pilot, flying 58 combat missions in a torpedo bomber during World War II. He is shot down over the Pacific and rescued at sea
– January 6, 1945: Following his discharge from the Navy, Bush marries Barbara Pierce. They have six children: George Walker, Robin (who died at the age of four), John (also known as Jeb), Neil, Marvin and Dorothy
– 1953: Bush co-founds the Zapata Petroleum Company in Texas
– 1967-1971: Serves as a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Texas for two terms
– 1971-1973: Serves as US ambassador to the United Nations
– 1976-1977: Serves as director of the Central Intelligence Agency
– 1981-1989: Serves as US vice president under Ronald Reagan, whom Bush had opposed for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980
– 1989-1993: Serves as US president. In August 1990, Bush leads an international coalition to counter Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and liberates the country in February 1991 with Operation Desert Storm.
– 1992: Bush loses his bid for a second term as president to Democrat Bill Clinton
