http://timelines.latimes.com/osama/ (additional text and pics at link)
1957
Osama bin Laden is born to privilege in Saudi Arabia in 1957. He spends his spent his youth in mansions filled with crystal chandeliers, gold statues and Italian tapestries. He became known as the most pious of the sons among his wealthy father's 54 children. Bin Laden's path to militant Islam began as a teenager in the 1970s when he got caught up in the fundamentalist movement then sweeping Saudi Arabia. He was a voracious reader of Islamic literature and listened to weekly sermons in the holy city of Mecca.
1967
Bin Laden's father is killed in a plane crash. Bin Laden's share of the inheritance is reportedly about $300 million.
1972
Bin Laden is believed to take his first bride about this time. He is about 18, the girl, Najwa, is 14.
1979
Osama bin Laden drops out of King Abdul Aziz School for Economics and Management in Saudi Arabia to join Afghan mujahedin fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
1980s
Bin Laden becomes a figure of worldwide influence as a supporter of Muslim freedom fighters in Afghanistan.
1979-89
Bin Laden uses personal wealth to create cells of fighters from around the Muslim world against Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He forms Al Qaeda, or the "base," a recruitment, fundraising and training organization.
1990
Iraq invades Kuwait. America deploys 500,000 troops in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden tried to dissuade the government from allowing non-Muslim armies into the land where the Prophet Muhammad gave birth to Islam, but the Saudi leadership turned to the United States to protect its vast oil reserves. When bin Laden continued criticizing Riyadh's close alliance with Washington, he was stripped of Saudi citizenship.
1991
Bin Laden relocates to Sudan. Maintains camp in Afghanistan to train non-Afghan Muslims. Finances Pakistani guesthouses used on and off by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, later implicated in plot to kill the pope in Manila and bomb the World Trade Center.