Khalid of Saudi Arabia

Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was born 13 February 1913, the fifth son of the kingdom's founder. He spent decades in his half-brother Faisal's shadow, assisting in foreign affairs, serving briefly as viceroy of the Hejaz in the 1930s, and traveling to Washington in 1943 to establish formal ties with the United States. Named crown prince in 1965 after his full brother Muhammad stepped aside, Khalid ascended on 25 March 1975 when Faisal was assassinated. His reign rode the surge of oil money but was defined by the 1979 seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca — armed civilians stormed the site and at…