Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in the town of Al-Awja which is located 8 miles away from the big town of Tikrit . Born to a family of shepherds in the al-Begat tribal group, his mother Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her son Saddam which in Arabic means "One who confronts". His father Abid al-Majid had disappeared about six months before he was even born so he never knew or met him. A short time afterwards Saddams 13 year old brother died of cancer, so with that happening and not having a father figure he was sent to live with his uncle. Subha his mother later on remarried and through this marriage Saddam gain three half-brothers. Things weren't all peachy though, his new step father treated him very harshly so he left the family at the age of 10 to live with another uncle, Kharaillah Tulfah who later would become the father of Saddams future wife. Kharaillah was not only a war veteran from the Anglo-Iraqi war, but he was also a devout muslum and Iraqi nationalist. Saddam had learned many things from his uncle, and was convinced to go the Iraqi nationalist school and then afterwards studied Iraqi law for 3 years before dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20. He then joined the revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party in which his uncle was a huge supporter for, and financed himself be being a teacher. A year after Saddam joined the Ba'ath party in 1958, army officers were led to overthrow the Faisal II of Iraq . The Ba'athists disagreed with the policies of the new government, and in 1959, Saddam was involved in the attempted plot to assassinate Qassim that was also being backed by the United States .