Muammar al-Qaddafi seized control of the Libyan government in 1969, and ruled as an authoritarian dictator for more than 40 years before he was overthrown in 2011.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a military leader who worked with Toussaint l'Ouverture and gave the country of Haiti its name.
Adolf Hitler was the leader of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. He initiated World War II and oversaw fascist policies that resulted in millions of deaths.
Victoriano Huerta was dictatorial president of Mexico, whose regime united disparate revolutionary forces in common opposition to him.
Roman general and statesman Julius Caesar turned the Roman Republic into the powerful Roman Empire. A coup ended his reign, and his life, on the Ides of March.
Kim Jong Il's dominating personality and complete concentration of power has come to define the country North Korea.
Known for running a corrupt, undemocratic regime, Ferdinand Marcos was the president of the Philippines from 1966 to 1986.
Benito Mussolini created the Fascist Party in Italy in 1919, eventually making himself dictator prior to World War II. He was killed in 1945.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was an American Revolutionary War veteran, South Carolina legislator and two-time presidential candidate.
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet overthrew the Allende government in 1973 and stayed in power until 1998. He was never tried for alleged human rights abuses.
Pol Pot was the political leader of Cambodia who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people under his reign.
Jerry John Rawlings ruled Ghana twice, first in 1979 after a military coup, and then again from 1981 until 2001, as the result of free elections.
Sargon is an ancient Mesopotamian ruler who established what is thought to be the world’s first empire, reigning during the 23rd century B.C.
Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for more than two decades, instituting a reign of terror while modernizing Russia and helping to defeat Nazism.
Rafael Trujillo was a dictator of the Dominican Republic for decades. He was assassinated in 1961.