Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro has died at the age 90, according to Cuban state television.
According to the Associated Press, the death of Fidel Castro was announced by his brother and current leader Raul Castro Friday evening.
The AP reported while Fidel handed over powers to his brother Raul in 2008, he made a speech in April on the final day of the country's Communist Party congress.
Castro's reign over the island-nation 90 miles from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war, according to the AP.
The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died eight years after ill health forced him to formally hand power over to his younger brother Raul.
Read AP's full obituary on Fidel Castro here.
