Ghanaian President John Atta Mills passed away today at age 68.  Ghana, nicknamed the "Black Stars" and more recently the "African Tiger," given Ghana's rise economically, is a nation of 24 million people with a recorded history dating back to the Fourth Century.

Here are 10 facts about President Mills

1) John Atta Mills was born on July 21, 1944 at Tarkwa in western Ghana.

2) Mills was a law professor at the University of Ghana Legon. He began as a lecturer and rose to the rank of senior editor over a 25-year period.

3) In 1971, he was selected for the Fulbright Scholar program at Stanford Law School.

4) Mills was highly educated, earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Ghana Legon and a Ph.D in Law from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

5) Between 1997 and 2000, Mills served as Vice-President of Ghana.

6) After being nominated by his party, National Democratic Congress or (NDC), to be their candidate for president in the 2000 elections. Mills took on veteran politician, John Agyekum Kufuor, who was running as the candidate for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Kufuor defeated Mills after two rounds of voting. Mills ran against Kufuor in the 2004 elections, and was again defeated.

7) Mills was a fan of hockey. In 2006, he inaugurated the National Hockey Stadium with the hope that it would be a premier host of hockey events on the continent.  Source: Modern Ghana

8) Mills was married to Ernestina Naadu Mills, an educator. He has a son, Sam Kofi Atta Mills, with Ruby Addo.

9) A tax expert, Mills published several works on taxation during his lifetime including the following:

    Taxation of Periodical or Deferred Payments arising from the Sale of Fixed Capital (1974)

    Exemption of Dividends from Income taxation: A critical Appraisal (1977) In: Review of Ghana Law, 1997, 9: 1, p. 38–47

    Report of the Tax Review Commission, Ghana, parts 1–3 (1977)

    Ghana’s Income Tax laws and the Investor. (An inter-faculty lecture published by the University of Ghana)

    Ghana’s new investment code : an appraisal (1993) In: University of Ghana Law Journal, 1993, vol. 18, p. 1–29

10) When he took power, he began an austerity program and “presided over the country’s first commercial oil production, promising that – unlike some African countries – his government would spend the newfound oil revenue responsibly,” according to BBC.