Death and state funeral of George H. W. Bush Death and state funeral of George H. W. Bush On November 30, 2018, George H. W. Bush, the 41st President of the United States, died at his home in Houston, Texas, seven months after the death of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush. Bush was the first former president to die since Gerald Ford in 2006; at the age of 94 years and 171 days, Bush was the longest-lived U.S. president in history. His death resulted in Jimmy Carter becoming the oldest living former President of the United States; Carter is also 94, having been born four months after
George H. W. Bush following the end of the Gulf War; this resulted in the Madrid Conference, later in 1991. Several Iraqi families living in Belgium who lost loved ones in the Gulf War launched a lawsuit against George H. W. Bush for committing what they claim are war crimes in the 1991 Amiriyah shelter bombing in Baghdad, which killed more than 400 civilians. The suit was brought under Belgium's universal jurisdiction guarantees in March 2003. According to the Human Rights Watch, the Amiriyah shelter bombing was "a serious violation of the laws of war." Faced with a humanitarian disaster in Somalia which was