(CNN) --
Here's what you should know about Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union before its dissolution, who died in Moscow at the age of 91.
Date of birth: March 2, 1931
Place of birth: Privolnoye, Russia, Soviet Union
Birth name: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev
Father: Sergei Andreyevich Gorbachev
Mother: Maria (Gopkalo) Gorbacheva
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Marriage: Raisa (Titarenko) Gorbacheva (1953-September 20, 1999, his death)
Children: Irina
Education: Moscow State University, Faculty of Law (1955), Stavropol Agricultural Institute, Faculty of Economics (1967)
Fun facts
Won a Grammy Award
Timeline of Gorbachev's life
1952 - Joins the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and works in various positions in the party for the next two decades.
1955-1958 - Appointed first secretary of the Communist Party of the Stavropol Komsomol Municipal Committee.
1963 - Appointed head of the Department of Agriculture of the Stavropol region.
1970-1978 - Appointed first secretary of the Communist Party in the Stavropol region.
1970-1990 - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet, the highest legislative body of the Soviet Union.
1971 - Becomes a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
March 11, 1985 - Elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In this position, he is effectively the leader of the USSR.
1985-1988 - Participates in a series of summit talks with US President Ronald Reagan.
1987 - Signs the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty with the United States to limit nuclear weapons.
1989 - Announces the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan.
1989-1990 - Chairman of the Supreme Soviet.
1990 - Elected president of the USSR.
1990 - Wins the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end the Cold War.
December 21, 1991 - The USSR is dissolved and the Commonwealth of Independent States is formally established.
December 25, 1991 - Resigns as president of the USSR.
1992-present - Founder and President of the International Foundation for Socio-Economic and Political Studies (Gorbachev Foundation)
1993-2000 - Founds and serves as president of Green Cross International, an environmental organization.
1996 - Runs for election in Russia, but receives only 1% of the vote.
November 24, 2001 - He is elected chairman of the Russian Social Democratic Party.
February 8, 2004 - Wins a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, for "Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus: Wolf Tracks."
She shares the award with Sophia Loren and former US President Bill Clinton.
May 2004 - Resigns from the Russian Social Democratic Party due to conflicts with the party's leadership and leadership.
January 2006 - Together with a business partner, Gorbachev buys 49% of the shares in the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
August 2007 - Appears in print ads for Louis Vuitton leather goods.
October 2007 - Becomes leader of a new Russian political movement, the Union of Social Democrats.
September 19, 2008 - Receives the 2008 Medal of Freedom, awarded each year by the National Constitution Center, chaired by former US President George HW Bush.
November 2009 A attends ceremonies in Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
March 2, 2011 - On his 80th birthday, Gorbachev is awarded Russia's highest honor, the Order of Saint Andrew, by President Dmitry Medvedev.
March 7, 2013 - In an interview with the BBC, Gorbachev criticizes Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, "For God's sake, you shouldn't be afraid of your own people."
May 26, 2016 - Ukraine bans Gorbachev after he showed support for Russia's annexation of Crimea.
January 26, 2017 - Writes an article for Time magazine titled "It seems the world is preparing for war", in which he says that the most urgent problem we face is "the militarization of politics and the new arms race ".
December 4, 2018 - In a Washington Post op-ed on US President Donald Trump's intention to withdraw from the INF treaty, which Gorbachev and Reagan signed in 1987, Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State United States, George Shultz, write that abandoning the treaty "threatens our very existence."