Portrait of Ramzi bin al-Shibh

Birthday profile

Ramzi bin al-Shibh

Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Yemeni terrorist

Born
May 1, 1972
Age in 2026
54
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1972

About Ramzi bin al-Shibh

Ramzi Mohammed Abdullah bin al-Shibh (Arabic: رمزي محمد عبد الله بن الشيبة, romanized: Ramzī Muḥammad ʻAbd Allāh bin al-Shībh; born May 1, 1972) is a Yemeni terrorist who served as al-Qaeda's communications officer. He has been detained by the United States in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (NSGB) since 2006. He was a "key facilitator" of the September 11 attacks in 2001. In the mid-1990s, bin al-Shibh moved to Hamburg, Germany, for studies. There, he became close friends with September 11 hijackers Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah, and Marwan al-Shehhi. They were members of the Hamburg cell, which planned the details of the attacks. bin al-Shibh was the only one of the four who failed to obtain a U.S. visa; he acted as an intermediary for the hijackers in the United States, by wiring money and passing on information from key al-Qaeda figures. After the attacks, bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the U.S. as the "20th hijacker", for whom there have been several more possible candidates. Bin al-Shibh has been in United States custody since he was captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in 2002. He was in custody of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006. Finally charged in 2008 before a military commission, he and several others suspected in the 9/11 attacks went to trial beginning in May 2012. In 2023, a U.S. military judge ruled him too psychologically damaged to defend himself after CIA torture. On January 17, 2002, the FBI published the first Most Wanted Terrorists Seeking Information list (now known as the FBI Seeking Information – Terrorism list). Bin al-Shibh was the first to be publicly identified by the United States as the "20th hijacker," someone who was thought to have been tasked to fill out the single missing slot among the four terrorist five-person teams.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Ramzi bin al-Shibh was born

Ramzi bin al-Shibh was born in 1972. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1972

  • #1 song"The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" – Roberta Flack
  • Top movieThe Godfather
  • Top TV showAll in the Family
  • Best-selling bookJonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentMark Spitz wins 7 gold medals at Munich Olympics
  • Top headlineWatergate break-in begins Nixon's downfall
  • Technology milestoneAtari founded
  • Defining fadPong (first mainstream video game)
  • Notable inventionPong video game
  • World population3.85 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderRichard Nixon
  • Sports championOakland Athletics (World Series)
  • Also wonLos Angeles Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population209.9M

1972 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Ramzi bin al-Shibh's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19722026
Gas$0.36$3.45/gal
Average home$19,800$435,000
Average income$12,600$67,500
Minimum wage$1.60$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$1.70$11.95
Postage stamp$0.08$0.73
Population209.9M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.