Fidel Castro dies at 90

Former President Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half-century rule, has died at age 90.

Fidel Castro was born Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz on Aug. 13, 1926, in Biran, located in the Holguin Province of Cuba. The third child born to Lina Ruz González and Ángel Castro y Argiz, Castro was a communist politician and revolutionary who became prime minister of Cuba in 1959 and then president in 1976.

Castro retired from politics in 2008 and his brother, Raul Castro, succeeded him as President of Cuba. A longtime target of would-be assassins who defied several U.S. presidents, Fidel Castro helped lead the Cuban Revolution and crushed opposition at home from the moment he took power in 1959. (AP)