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Pancho Villa was born Doroteo Arango on June 5, 1878, in San Juan del Rio, Durango. -
He fled to the mountains after wounding the landowner Agustín López Negrete in the leg, who tried to kidnap his sister Mariana -
He joins the gang headed by Ignacio Parra, is briefly imprisoned in Durango and leaves the gang when one of its members murders an elderly baker who refuses to be robbed. -
He was forcibly recruited and later deserted and changed his name to Francisco Villa
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He joins the maderism with his friend Eleuterio Soto, and later, with Abraham González. He attacks the Hacienda de Chavarría on November 17, 1910 -
With Villa's skills as at reading, writing, fighting and his knowledge of the land, Madero was named a revolutionary leader and his company won the first Battle of Ciudad Juárez in 1911. The rebels eventually drove Díaz out of power, and Madero took the position of president, having named Villa a colonel. -
Victoriano Huerta accuses Villa of isubordination and Villa is jailed in June and escapes in December -
Pancho Villa discovers that Huerta was now against the Madero regime, and assassinated Madero on February 22, 1913. As Huerta rose to power, Villa teamed up with a former ally, Emiliano Zapata, and Venustiano Carranza to overthrow the new president. -
Carranza rose to power in 1914. Disappointed with Carranza's skills as a leader, a rebellion broke out yet again, with Villa joining forces with Zapata and President Woodrow Wilson to bring down Carranza. With Mexico's move towards democracy under Carranza, Woodrow withdrew his support of Villa the following year -
In retaliation Villa assassinated 18 Americans in January 1916. Just a few months later, on March 9, 1916, Villa led several rebels in an assault on Columbus, New Mexico, where they razed the small town and killed 19 others. -
Wilson retaliated by sending General John Pershing to Mexico in order to capture Villa. Despite Carranza's support in searching for Villa, the two hunts that occurred in 1916 and 1919 for the Mexican rebel produced no results. in an ambush Villa is killed on July 20, 1923, in Parral, Mexico.