Napoleone di Buonaparte, named after an older brother who died 4 years earlier, was born Aug. 15, 1769, on the Italian island of Corsica. His family was minor Italian nobility and, when Corsica became part of France, they changed their surname to Bonaparte.

Due to his family's wealth and connections, Napoleon was enrolled at age 9 in a French military school near Troyes. Later, at the elite Ecole Royale Militaire in Paris, he completed a 2-year course of study in just 1 year.

Napoleon was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery in July 1786 at age 16. He spent years in the army and was promoted to brigadier general during the French Revolution. On March 9, 1796, he married Josephine de Beauharnais to whom he remained devoted for the rest of his life despite other relationships and marriages.

Napoleon took command of the French Army and successfully invaded Italy on March 27, 1796. By March 1798, he had begun his campaign to seize Egypt and the Ottoman Empire.

The Louisiana Purchase
Facing imminent war with Great Britain, in 1803, he sold territories France owned in North America to the U.S. in a transaction with President Thomas Jefferson known as the Louisiana Purchase. The U.S. paid less than 3 cents an acre, and Napoleon used the money to prepare his forces for war.

By 1804, he declared himself the Emperor of France, the King of Italy, Mediator of the Swiss Confederation and Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine.

Napoleon is widely regarded as a military master, placing his artillery into batteries and elevating the army corps to the standard all-arms military unit. He also established the Napoleonic Code that laid the legal foundations for France as we know it today.

Life in Exile and Death
Napoleon is perhaps best remembered by the French for centralizing administrative government departments, providing higher education to all, devising a fairer tax system, and creating a central bank, law codes, and roads and sewer systems.

Napoleon ultimately ruled a significant part of Europe until his unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 1812 and invasion of France by an alliance of European forces known as the Sixth Coalition. He was forced to abdicate in April 1814 and exiled to the island of Elba about 25 miles off the Italian coast.

Less than a year later, he returned to France and regained control for 100 days, culminating in defeat by the British June 18, 1815, at the Battle of Waterloo.

This time, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic under the supervision of the British military. There he remained for 6 years until he died May 5, 1821, at age 51. He was originally buried on Saint Helena but was exhumed in 1840. His remains were taken to Paris where his sarcophagus is still on display.

After Napoleon's death, an autopsy was performed by Francesco Antommarchi, a physician selected by his family, who listed cancer of the stomach on the death certificate. It was unknown at the time, but Napoleon's father also died of stomach cancer.

Stomach Cancer
Forensic teams have ascertained Napoleon weighed about 200 pounds the year before his death and his trouser waist was roughly 43 inches.

Napoleon was not as short of a man as many believe; most put his height at either 5'5" or 5''7", including experts who studied 12 pairs of his trousers from Saint Helena.

In the autopsy report, his weight was recorded as 168 pounds and his newer trousers were 38.5 inches at the waist. This weight loss seems to confirm he had stomach cancer.

The autopsy report indicated Napoleon had "a sporadic gastric carcinoma of an advanced stage."

Arsenic Poisoning
However, rumors still abounded regarding the cause of his death.

In 2007, strands of Napoleon's hair revealed his body contained 15 parts per million of arsenic, but the analysts do not believe the toxin was taken orally. The maximum safe limit for arsenic in the human body is only 3 parts per million; if taken orally, Napoleon's death would have occurred much quicker.

Instead, experts believe the arsenic in Napoleon's body was absorbed over a long period of time, as the toxin was common in hair products, medicinal supplies, wallpaper, paint, ash from wood fires and glue, among other things.

The study found no evidence of arsenic poisoning in Napoleon's organs, such as hemorrhage in the lining of his heart. 

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