Coup Atlas Research Database
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62009011969SuccessfulMilitary coup

Libya, 1969 — military coup

Libya (LBY)North Africa, AfricaSeptember 1, 1969

Event Summary

In 1969 Muammar al-Qaddafi seized control of the Libyan government in a coup against King Idris I. (The Cline dataset records the date as 1 September 1969; accessed sources this session confirmed the year and the target but not the exact day or the formal proclamation of the republic.)

Films & Footage

Muammar Gaddafi, who led the 1969 Free Officers coup, portrait during an interview, 1976.
Muammar Gaddafi, who led the 1969 Free Officers coup, portrait during an interview, 1976. Photo: Olof von Randow · CC BY-SA 3.0
Muammar Gaddafi, portrait.
Muammar Gaddafi, portrait. Photo: jeandefoix · CC0

Archival media is credited to its holding collection and license. Media sourcing policy →

Researched Details

Partially researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: King Idris I of Libya (overthrown)
RESEARCHED NAME

Sources

Qaddafi seized control of the government in 1969 in a coup against King Idris I.
SOURCE REVIEWED Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Muammar al-Qaddafi" (updated 15 May 2026) open source ↗

How It Unfolded

Hand-coded by Coup Atlas from the sources on this page, using a fixed list of tactics. Only events we have read through carry this coding, so most records do not have it yet.

Led by
Military
How long it took
Under a day — resolved within 24 hours
  • Troop movements in the capital or key cities
  • Seizure of broadcasters / coup declaration on state media
  • Seizure of the presidential palace / seat of government

Cross-Reference

Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
62009011969
Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-620-1969-09-01

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: King Idris I of Libya (overthrown).

Baseline coding: Incumbent executive removed from power. Recorded leader fate: deposed; fled the country. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation

Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Luttwak

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Wikipedia

New York Times

“Deposed King of Libya Leaves Greece for Cairo,” November 1, 1969

Milan No citations

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

Know something about this event?
Tips are reviewed against sources before anything is added.