Key dates in the life of Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Key dates in the life of Algeria's former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who died on Friday at the age of 84.

March 2, 1937: Born in the Moroccan city of Oujda to a family originally from the western Algerian town of Tlemcen.

1956: Bouteflika joins the National Liberation Army, the military wing of the National Liberation Front fighting for independence from France.

1962-63: He becomes youth, sports and tourism minister in the first government after independence under president Ahmed Ben Bella.

1963-79: Bouteflika is foreign minister under Ben Bella and the country's second president Houari Boumediene.

1981-87: Sidelined from politics, he lives in exile in Dubai and Geneva.

1999: In April, Bouteflika is elected president after all of his six opponents withdraw, alleging foul play.

In September, Algerians overwhelmingly approve a referendum on his civil reconciliation programme, offering partial amnesty to armed Islamic extremists from the 1992 to 1999 civil war.

2004: Re-elected for a second term.

2005: Admitted to a French hospital to be operated on for a "haemorrhagic ulcer in the stomach".

2009: Bouteflika wins a third term with 90 percent of the votes after changing the constitution to allow himself another five years in office.

2014: He wins the presidential elections a fourth time, appearing only once during the campaign in a wheelchair after suffering a stroke the previous year.

February 2019: Bouteflika announces a bid for a fifth term in office, sparking mass demonstrations that turn into the Hirak anti-regime protest movement.

April 2019: After losing the backing of powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah, Bouteflika quits office.