The following timeline is a chronological list of all the major events leading up to, during, and immediately following the September 11 attacks against the United States in 2001 timeline starts with the completion of the first World Trade Center tower in 1970 through the first anniversary of the attacks in 2002. Background history 1939: The New York World's Fair includes an exhibit entitled the "World Trade Center." 1946: Winthrop W. Aldrich, the organizer of the World Trade Center exhibit at the World's Fair, first proposes a permanent World Trade Center in New York City, but the State of New York opts to modernize the city's existing ports instead. 1950: Sayyid Qutb returns to Egypt from a two-year visit from the United States sponsored by the Ministry of Education, and joins the Muslim Brotherhood due to his disgust towards Western culture. 1951–1965: Qutb writes the book Fi Zilal al-Quran while in prison for an assassination attempt against Gamal Abdel Nasser. The book claims that Israel and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf are American satellite states and calls for an Islamist revolution against secularism—including Arab nationalism, socialism, and liberal democracy—to establish a Middle Eastern theocracy rooted in sharia law. The book also concludes that any Muslims who support secularism are takfir. The book becomes highly influential towards Islamic terrorists. March 10, 1957: Osama bin Laden is born in Riyadh to billionaire businessman Mohammed bin Laden. 1959: David Rockefeller revives the idea of a "World Trade Center" to revitalize Lower Manhattan, and creates the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association to lobby for a $250 million complex close to the Fulton Fish Market centered around a single 70-story office building. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under the directorship of Austin J. Tobin soon approves the plan and specifies that it must be taller than the Empire State Building, at the time the tallest building in both in the United States and the world. 1964: Minoru Yamasaki's design for the original World Trade Center, including the Twin Towers, is unveiled by the Port Authority. 1966: Construction begins on the original World Trade Center. 1966: Sayyid Qutb is executed in Egypt and his brother Muhammad Qutb flees to Saudi Arabia, acquiring a teaching position at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah. 1970: The North Tower of the original World Trade Center is completed. 1973: The South Tower of the original World Trade