Libya - Rise to power

After graduating from the Military Academy in 1965, Qadhafi was sent to Britain to attend an army school at Bavington Hythe in Beaconfield, where he took a six-month signals course. On his return to Libya he enrolled at the University of Benghazi and majored in history. He never completed his studies, but was commissioned in 1966 to the signal corps of the Libyan Army and posted at the barracks outside Benghazi. Three years later, on 1 September 1969, the new order in Libya first conceived in Misrata was realized when the Free Unionist Officers Movement carried out a coup d'etat and proclaimed the Libyan Arab Republic. On 13 September, Qadhafi was appointed president of the Revolutionary Command Council.