September 11, 2001

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes. Two were flown into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one struck the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a fourth — United Airlines Flight 93 — crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back and prevented it from reaching its intended target in Washington, D.C.

Both towers collapsed within about two hours of being struck. The North Tower fell at 10:28 a.m. and the South Tower at 9:59 a.m., roughly 102 minutes after the first plane hit. Five other buildings in the World Trade Center complex were also destroyed or badly damaged.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed that day, including 2,977 victims plus the 19 hijackers, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in human history and the single deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officers in U.S. history — 343 New York City firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers died in the response.

Firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and ordinary bystanders ran into the towers and toward the Pentagon to help others evacuate, often at the cost of their own lives. In the years since, thousands more responders and survivors have died from illnesses linked to exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero.

The attacks reshaped air travel, national security policy, and foreign policy around the world, and led to the U.S.-led "War on Terror." A new One World Trade Center now stands at the site in Lower Manhattan, alongside the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Each anniversary, the names of every victim are read aloud at the Ground Zero memorial in New York, and moments of silence mark the exact times the towers were struck and fell. Twin beams of light — the "Tribute in Light" — shine into the night sky over Manhattan every September 11th.