It now appears that the "Mad Man of Libya", Muammar Gaddafi,
is indeed dead.  All the major networks are reporting it, including Al Jazeera and the important leaders around the world, including President Obama, have released statements confirming it.
"For four decades, the Gaddafi regime ruled the Libyan people with
an iron fist," President Obama stated.  "Their human rights were denied. Innocent civilians were
detained, beaten and killed. Libya's wealth was squandered and enormous
potential of Libyan people was held back and terror was used as a
political weapon. Today we can definitively say that the Gaddafi regime
has come to an end."
Other rulers around the world reflected those sentiments.
Details as to exactly how he died remain sketchy; but one MSNBC reporter stated that Gaddafi and some of his followers were hiding in a cement culvert outside his childhood home of Sirte.  A gunfight with the rebel forces ensued and Gaddafi was apparently shot in the stomach.
Images emerged showing Gaddafi lying on the top of a pickup, dazed and wounded, but conscious.  He apparently died shortly thereafter, either from his wounds or possibly he was executed.
Gaddafi ruled Libya for forty years, stealing millions from the people and executing at will those who opposed him.
His death ends a war that began with a rebel force determined to overthrow him.  With help from the United Nations, today that happened. 
He is the third dictator to fall in a movement that is sweeping through the Middle East.  Fierce fighting continues in other countries, including Iran.
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the autocratic ruler of Libya from 1969 when he seized power in a military coup until 2011 when his government was overthrown by a NATO-backed rebel force in a civil war. His 42-year rule prior to the uprising made him the fourth longest-ruling non-royal leader since 1900, as well as the longest-ruling Arab leader^. He variously styled himself as 'the Brother Leader', 'Guide of the Revolution', and the 'King of Kings'.
After seizing power in 1969, he abolished the Libyan Constitution of 1951 and civil liberties enshrined in it. He imposed laws based on the political ideology  he had formulated, called the Third International Theory and published in The Green Book. ^  Gaddafi and his relatives took over much of the economy. Gaddafi started several wars and acquired chemical weapons.
He also supplied weapons to the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a listed terrorist organization in the United Kingdom and other countries. The United Nations called Libya under Gaddafi a pariah state.  
In the 1980s, countries around the world imposed sanctions against Gaddafi.  Six days after the capture of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein by United States troops,   Gaddafi renounced Tripoli's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs
and welcomed international inspections to verify that he would follow
through on the commitment.

In February 2011, following revolutions in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia,
protests against Gaddafi's rule began. These escalated into an uprising
that spread across the country, with the forces opposing Gaddafi
establishing a government based in Benghazi named the National Transitional Council(NTC).
This led to the 2011 Libyan Civil War, which included a NATO-controlled international military intervention to enforce a UN Security Council resolution calling for a no-fly zone in Libya.
The assets of Gaddafi and his family were frozen, and both Interpol and the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on 27 June for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Senussi, concerning crimes against humanity.
Gaddafi and his forces lost the Battle of Tripoli in August, and on 16 September 2011 the NTC took Libya's seat at the UN, replacing Gaddafi.  Gaddafi retained control over parts of Libya, most notably the city of Sirte, to which it was presumed that he had fled.  Although Gaddafi's forces initially held out against the NTC's advances, Gaddafi was killed as Sirte fell to the rebel forces.

Early life and military academy

Muammar al-Gaddafi was raised in a bedouin tent in the desert near Sirte (Sidra). According to many biographies, his family belongs to a small tribe of Arabs, the Qadhadhfa.
They are mostly herders that live in the Hun Oasis.
According to
Gaddafi, his grandfather, Abdessalam Bouminyar, fought against the Italian occupation of Libya and died as the "first martyr in Khoms, in the first battle of 1911".   Gaddafi attended a Muslim elementary school far from home in Sabha, during which time he was profoundly influenced by major events in the Arab world.
He was passionate about the success of the Palestinians and was deeply disappointed by their defeat by Israeli forces in 1948. He admired Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and looked to him as a hero during his rise to power in 1952.
In 1956 Gaddafi took part in anti-Israeli protests during the Suez Crisis.   In Sabha he was was briefly a member of Scouting. ^  He finished his secondary school studies under a private tutor in Misrata, concentrating on the study of history.
Gaddafi entered the Libyan military academy at Benghazi in 1961, and graduated in 1966. Both towards the end of his course and after graduation, Gaddafi pursued further studies in Europe.
False rumours have been propagated with regards to this part of his
life, for example, the rumour that he attended the United Kingdom's Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.^  He did in fact receive four months further military training in the United Kingdom, and spent some time in London.
After this, as a commissioned officer he joined the Signal Corps.  Although often referred to as "Colonel Gaddafi", he was in fact only a Lieutenant when he seized power in 1969.
He was, nonetheless, a holder of the honorary rank of Major General,
conferred upon him in 1976 by the Arab Socialist Union's National
Congress. Gaddafi accepted the honorary rank, but stated that he would
continue to be known as 'Colonel' and to wear the rank insignia of a
Colonel when in uniform^.

Libyan revolution of 1969

In Libya, as in a number of other Arab countries, admission to a
military academy and a career as an army officer only became available
to members of the lower economic strata after independence.
A military
career offered an opportunity for higher education, for upward economic
and social mobility, and was for many the only available means of
political action. For Gaddafi and many of his fellow officers, who were
inspired by Nasser's brand of Arab nationalism, a military career was a revolutionary vocation.
As a cadet, Gaddafi associated with the Free Officers Movement. Most of his future colleagues on the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) were fellow members of his graduating class at the military
academy. The frustration and shame felt by Libyan officers by Israel's
massive defeat of the Arab armies on three fronts in 1967 fuelled their
determination to contribute to Arab unity by overthrowing the Libyan
monarchy.
An early conspirator, Gaddafi first started planning the
overthrow of the monarchy while a cadet.
On 1 September 1969 a small group of junior military officers led by Gaddafi staged a bloodless coup d'état against King Idris of Libya while the king was in Turkey for medical treatment. Idris's nephew, Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, was formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest; they abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the Libyan Arab Republic.

Internal affairs

On gaining power he immediately ordered the shutdown of American and British military bases, including Wheelus Air Base.
He told Western officials that he would expel their companies from
Libya's oil fields unless they shared more revenue.
In his warning, he
alluded to consultation with Nasser. The oil companies complied with the
demand, increasing Libya's share from 50 to 79 percent. ^  In December 1969, Egyptian intelligence thwarted a planned coup against
Gaddafi from high-ranking members of his leadership.
Many of the
dissenters had grown uneasy with his growing relationship to Egypt.   In response to the failed coup, Gaddafi criminalized all political
dissent and shared power only with his family and closest associates.
Gaddafi expelled Italian settlers in Libya in 1970  Despising the Christian calendar, he replaced it as the country's official with an Islamic calendar.
He renamed the months of the calendar. August, named for Augustus Caesar, was renamed Hannibal, and July, after Julius Caesar, was renamed Nasser, for Gamal Abdel Nasser. From 1971 to 1977, Gaddafi approved the Arab Socialist Union, modeled on Egypt's Arab Socialist Union (Egypt), to function as a political party in Libya.
Gaddafi increasingly devoted himself to "contemplative exile", caught up in apocalyptic visions of revolutionary pan-Arabism and Islam
locked in a mortal struggle with what he termed the encircling, demonic
forces of reaction, imperialism, and Zionism.
As a result, routine
administrative tasks fell to Major Jallud who became prime minister in
place of Gaddafi in 1972. Two years later Jallud assumed Gaddafi's
remaining administrative and protocol duties to allow Gaddafi to devote
his time to revolutionary theorizing.
Gaddafi remained the
commander-in-chief of the armed forces and the effective head of state.
The foreign press speculated about an eclipse of his authority within
the RCC, but Gaddafi soon dispelled such theories by imposing measures
to restructure Libyan society.

Elimination of dissent

In 1969, Gaddafi created Revolutionary committees to keep tight
control over internal dissent. Ten to 20 percent of Libyans worked as
informants for these committees. Surveillance took place in the
government, in factories, and in the education sector.
People who formed a political party were executed, and talking about
politics with foreigners was punishable by up to 3 years in jail.
Arbitrary arrests were common and Libyans were hesitant to speak with
foreigners.
The government conducted executions and mutilations of political
opponents in public and broadcast recordings of the proceedings on state
television. Dissent was illegal under Law 75 of 1973, which denied
freedom of expression.  In 2010, Libya's press was rated as 160th out of 178 nations in the Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders.
During the 1970s, Libya executed members of the Islamist fundamentalist Hizb-ut Tahrir faction, and Gaddafi often personally presided over the executions^.
Libya faced internal opposition during the 1980s because of its highly
unpopular war with Chad. Numerous young men cut off a fingertip to avoid
conscription at the time   A mutiny by the Libyan Army in Tobruk was violently suppressed in August 1980^.
From time to time Gaddafi responded to external opposition with
violence. Between 1980 and 1987, Gaddafi employed his network of
diplomats and recruits to assassinate at least 25 critics living abroad.
His revolutionary committees called for the assassination of Libyan dissidents living abroad in April 1980, sending Libyan hit squads abroad to murder
them. On 26 April 1980 Gaddafi set a deadline of 11 June 1980 for
dissidents to return home or be "in the hands of the revolutionary
committees"
Gaddafi stated explicitly in 1982 that "It is the Libyan people's
responsibility to liquidate such scums who are distorting Libya's image
abroad."
Libyan agents have assassinated dissidents in the United States, Europe,^] and the Middle East.^  As of 2004 Libya still provided bounties on critics, including $1 million for one journalist.  
There is growing indication that Libya's Gaddafi-era intelligence service had a cozy relationship with western spy organizations including the CIA, who voluntarily provided information on Libyan dissidents to the regime in exchange for using Libya as a base for extraordinary renditions.
Gaddafi was unsuccessful in an abortive 1986 attempt to replace English with Russian as the primary foreign language in education;  
English has been taught in recent years in Libyan schools from primary
level, and students have access to English-language media.
Libya enjoys large natural resources, but the high gross domestic
product was concentrated on Gaddafi's family and his elites, who amassed
vast fortunes.   Most of the business enterprises were controlled by Gaddafi and his family.  
Meanwhile, a large section of the population lives in poverty. One of
the worst situations is in the eastern parts of the country.
When the rising international oil prices began to raise Gaddafi's
revenues in the 1970s, Gaddafi spent much of the revenues on arms
purchases and on sponsoring his political projects abroad.
Gaddafi's relatives adopted lavish lifestyles, including luxurious
homes, Hollywood film investments and private parties with American pop
stars.
The Economy of Libya is centrally planned and follows Gaddafi's socialist ideals. It benefits greatly from revenues from the petroleum sector, which contributes practically all export earnings and 30% of its GDP.
These oil revenues, combined with a small population and by far Africa's highest Education Index have given Libya the highest nominal GDP per capita in Africa.
Since 2000 Libya has recorded favourable growth rates with an estimated
10.6 percent growth of GDP in 2010, the highest of any state in Africa.
Gaddafi had promised "a home for all Libyans" and during his rule, new
residential areas rose in empty Saharan regions. Entire populations
living in mud-brick caravan towns were moved into modern homes with
running water, electricity, and satellite TV.
A leaked diplomatic cable describes Libyan economy as "a kleptocracy in
which the government — either the al-Gaddafi family itself or its close
political allies — has a direct stake in anything worth buying, selling
or owning".
 
 
Some information provided by:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muammar_Gaddafi