Within Yugoslavia, resentment of Serbia grows when…

Within Yugoslavia, resentment of Serbia grows when Slobodan Milosevic begins stirring up Serbian nationalism in 1987.

Milosevic was born in Pozarevac, Yugoslavia, in 1941; both his father, who was an Orthodox priest, and his mother, a teacher, committed suicide.

Milosevic had joined the Communist Party when he was 18, received a law degree from the University of Belgrade in 1964, and during the 1960s and '70s had held a number of positions in local and national government.

He became head of the Belgrade Communist Party in 1984, and in 1987 becomes head of the League of Communists of Serbia.

His rally of protesting Serbs in Kosovo transforms him from a relatively obscure bureaucrat into a hero of Serbian nationalists.

Later this year he deposes the president of Serbia, Ivan Stambolic, who had been his mentor.

He immediately revokes the autonomy of the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo.