Osama Bin Laden

By meganbaughman

  • Birth Day

    Birth Day
    Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 1957.

  • School

    School
    1979-- Bin Laden graduates from King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah with a degree in public administration and economics.

  • Group

    Group
    1988-- Bin Laden founds a group he names al Qaeda, which in Arabic means "the base."

  • Withdrawal

    Withdrawal
    1989 -- The Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan. Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia to work for the family construction firm, the Bin Laden Group.

  • Following Iraqi Invasion

    Following Iraqi Invasion
    August 7, 1990 -- Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, U.S. troops arrive in Saudi Arabia in order to have a close base to eventually go after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's troops. Bin Laden becomes outraged at the U.S. forces' presence near the Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina.

  • First attempt

    First attempt
    February 26, 1993-- A bomb explodes at the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six and wounding hundreds. Six Muslim radicals, who U.S. officials suspect have links to bin Laden, are eventually convicted for the bombing. Bin Laden is later named along with many others as an unindicted co-conspirator in that case.

  • Holy War

    Holy War
    August 23, 1996 -- Bin Laden declares a holy war against U.S. forces. He signs and issues a declaration of jihad from Afghanistan titled, "Message from Osama bin Laden to his Muslim Brothers in the Whole World and Especially in the Arabian Peninsula: Declaration of Jihad Against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Mosques; Expel the Heretics from the Arabian Peninsula."

  • World Trade Center

    World Trade Center
    September 2001 -- Four U.S. commercial aircraft are commandered in flight by 19 hijackers. Two are flown into the World Trade Center in New York, another into the Pentagon just outside Washington, and the fourth, headed to an unknown target, crashes in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. More than 3,000 people are killed. Soon thereafter, the U.S. government names bin Laden as a prime suspect.

  • Northwest Airlines

    Northwest Airlines
    January 29, 2010 -- A man thought to be bin Laden is heard on two audiotapes, released in the span of a week. On the first, he claims responsibility for the alleged Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian national Umar Farouk AbdulMuttallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane as it neared Detroit from Amsterdam.

  • Death

    Death
    May 2 2011, After killing bin Laden, the U.S. forces fly off from the compound with his body. Within 24 hours, it is buried at sea in accordance with Islamic law, because no country was willing or able to take his body for burial on land.