Ninety years ago today, on March 26, 1935 (February 22, 1935 lunar calendar), Mahmoud Abbas was born. Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was born on March 26, 1935 in Safad, northern Palestine. As a young man, he lived in Syria for many years. He received a bachelor's degree in law from Damascus University and a doctorate in history from Moscow University. In 1959, he assisted the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in founding the main school of the Palestine Liberation Organization, "Fatah". In the early 1990s, Abbas attended the Middle East Peace Conference in Madrid as the chief negotiator of the Palestinian side, presided over the Palestinian-Israeli Oslo negotiations and signed the "Oslo Accords". After Palestine implemented limited autonomy in May 1994, Abbas returned to Palestine with Arafat after a long absence. In 1995, he was elected General Secretary of the PLO Executive Committee and served as the first Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority from April to September 2003. After Arafat's death in November 2004, Abbas was elected Chairperson of the PLO Executive Committee. In January 2005, Abbas was elected the second president of the Palestinian National Authority with an absolute majority. On January 15 of the same year, Abbas was sworn in.