Three days later, longtime Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee the country.
His act triggered the Tunisian Revolution, ousted then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and inspired the Arab Spring.
They have succeeded in that first phase: Gadhafi, Mubarak and Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali are gone.
Reports are spreading that Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has left the country, after increasing unrest came to a head today.
Tunisia's revolution ousted President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and brought about a new government and political system, including a new draft constitution.
He was sentenced to life in prison in absentia on terrorism charges by the regime of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Unlike this month's overthrow of Tunisia's despot Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, they say there is little chance that the Egyptian military will abandon Mubarak.
What started in Tunisia with the toppling of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January, swept across Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Syria and other places.
Bahrain is one of several Arab countries to have experienced pro-democracy demonstrations since the fall of long-time Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January.
The fall of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia and the events in Egypt caught U.S. officials off-guard and brought that debate to critical mass.
The clashes with police, which would have been unthinkable under the secularist dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, felt like a disaster to Tunisian artists and secularists.
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, also a secure-looking despot, fled Tunis for the relative safety of Saudi Arabia on January 14, 29 days after the act of self-immolation.
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Riots in Tunisia, which forced president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to dissolve the government, were sparked by spiking food costs and poverty in the fellow North African country.
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The killing of Belaid was the country's first high-profile political assassination since Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution" that toppled President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali two years ago and spawned the Arab Spring.
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Tunisia was the first in the region to peacefully oust its president, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first to hold peaceful elections, the first to assemble a ruling troika among Islamists and secular leaders.
Jebali said the weapons that killed Belaid were also taking aim at the Jasmine Revolution, which led to the ouster of President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali two years ago and spawned the Arab Spring.
The mountain hunt is the culmination of a string of relatively minor incidents with armed groups since Tunisians overthrew the dictatorship of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, kicking off the pro-democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring around the region.
Social media sites such as Twitter showed users expressing support for the Libyans and noting that Gadhafi's death would be another victory in a year that has seen the ouster of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and former Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, as well as the death of Osama bin Laden.
CNN: Celebrations erupt in Libya amid news of Gadhafi's death
The iron-fisted government of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali is allowing a smidgen of competition.
The president is not as deeply loathed as Tunisia's fallen dictator, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
This annoyed Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (pictured), who has ruled Tunisia since 1987 with virtually no opposition.
Ennahda was elected following the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, but Salafists want stricter Islamic laws imposed in Tunisia.
BBC: Tunisia bars Ansar al-Sharia Salafist meeting in Kairouan
The moderate Islamist party Ennahda was elected following the overthrow of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali last year, but Salafists want stricter Islamic laws imposed in Tunisia.
The coup was medical: on November 6th 1987, the prime minister, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, gathered a council of seven doctors who pronounced Mr Bourguiba senile and incompetent.
Tunisia, which revolted first, throwing out its president of 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, has also been the first to discover how grimly the old guard cling on.
Cables from Tunisia, another close American ally in the region, bluntly depict the regime of president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali as a sclerotic police state increasingly tarnished by nepotism.
The victory of the ruling party in every single seat at the last parliamentary election, in 1994, jarred somewhat with the democratic protestations of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
The tragic death of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, by self-immolation, brought about a grassroots political movement among Tunisians that effectively overthrew the country's authoritarian ruler, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Even the televised speeches by Saif al-Islam and Mr Qaddafi himself, while more chilling in tone, echoed performances by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
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