Biography
1929 June 21: Born in the small town Halawat, in the Nile Delta, as son of a local shaykh. His mother dies after giving birth to him.
1934: His father dies, and he moves in with close relatives in Cairo.
1940: Jopins the Academy of Arabic Music in Cairo, taking lessons in singing and learning to play the oboe.
1948: Graduates from the academy.
Around 1950: Plays at night clubs, and is discovered by hazard while singing on national radio by one the executives, Hafez Abdel Wahab. Abdul Halim would add Hafez to his own name in recognition of his importance to his own life and career.
1977 March 30: Abdel Halim dies in London, UK, from Bilharzia, which he had contracted as an 11-year old kid. The crowds following his funeral were reported to have been about 100,000, one of the largest crowds at any funeral ever in Egypt.
