Portal:Jordan/Selected biography/4
His Majesty late King Hussein Bin Talal was the third king of Jordan and ruled the country from 11 August, 1952 until his death on February 7, 1999. At the time of his passing, the king was the longest serving executive head of state in the world. King Hussein is seen as the father of modern Jordan, with conditions rapidly improving throughout his reign as he modernized the country; UNICEF statistics, for example, show that between 1981 and 1991, Jordan achieved the world’s fastest annual rate of decline in infant mortality - from 70 deaths per 1000 births in 1981 to 37 per 1000 in 1991, a fall of over 47%.