RIO DE JANIERO, Brazil -- Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has reclaimed the presidency of Brazil at age 77, more than a decade after leaving office as the most popular president in his country's history.
Here is a list of key dates in the life of the charismatic but tarnished leftist icon.
October 27, 1945: Lula is born to an impoverished farming family in Brazil's northeast. When he is seven, his family moves to the state of Sao Paulo to escape hunger.
1975: He becomes president of the metalworkers' union, having worked in the trade since age 14.
1978-80: At the height of Brazil's military dictatorship, Lula leads major strikes in the industrial suburbs and is jailed for a month for his role.
1980: Lula co-founds the leftist Workers' Party (PT) and goes on to take part in the creation, in 1983, of the Unified Workers' Central (CUT), which becomes Brazil's largest trade union federation.
1986: He is elected to Congress.
First leftist president
2003: Lula becomes Brazil's first leftist president, and the first to come from a working-class background. Under his social programs some 30 million Brazilians escape poverty, although inequality remains. He is reelected in 2006.
2005: He removes top Workers' Party officials over corruption scandals.
2011: He hands power to designated successor Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first woman president.
2016: With corruption claims mounting, the Supreme Court blocks Rousseff's bid to appoint Lula as her chief of staff, which would have given him ministerial immunity. Rousseff is impeached in August.
July 2017: Lula is found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction company in return for contracts with state oil company Petrobras. He is sentenced to nine-and-a-half years behind bars.
January 2018: He loses an appeal, and his sentence is increased to 12 years and one month.
April 2018: After losing a bid to delay the start of his sentence, Lula is ordered to turn himself in within 24 hours. He finally does more than a day late after battling to exit a blockade by thousands of supporters of the metalworkers' union building in Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo.
August 2018: A majority of Brazil's electoral court bars Lula from running in October elections, which were won by far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.
February 2019: A new conviction for Lula for accepting renovation work by two construction companies on a farmhouse in exchange for Petrobras contracts.
November 2019: The Supreme Court rules that convicted criminals can only go to jail once all appeals have been exhausted, paving the way for Lula's release pending further legal challenges.
March 2021: A Supreme Court chamber overturns Lula's convictions on procedural grounds, a ruling upheld in April by a full bench ruling that Sergio Moro, the judge who presided over his trial, was "biased."
The ruling restores Lula's eligibility to run for office.
June 2021: The Supreme Court invalidates evidence collected by Moro in all cases against Lula.
April 2022: A UN panel says Lula's rights to an impartial trial had been violated.
May 2022 was a busy month. Lula raised eyebrows on May 4 by saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was "as responsible" as Russia's Vladimir Putin for the war.
May 7: Lula officially launches his campaign for a presidential comeback.
May 18: Twice-widowed Lula marries fellow Workers' Party member Rosangela "Janja" da Silva, five years after the death of his wife of 30 years.
October 30: Lula beats far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro to win a third term as president.