▶ Watch Video: NYC pauses to mark 24 years since 9/11 terror attacks that changed the nation
New York City is pausing to remember the 9/11 terror attacks that forever altered the city and the country.
The annual reading of names and moments of silence were held Thursday morning at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan.
It’s a somber ceremony when New Yorkers and the nation vow to “never forget” what happened on that day.
What happened on 9/11
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The shorthand “9/11” stands for September 11th, when terrorist carried out coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
Nineteen terrorists from the Islamist extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four planes, deliberately crashing two of them into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers and another into the Pentagon.
A fourth hijacked plane was headed for the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., but passengers and crew members fought back, and it crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania.
While many remember the horrific images of that day, we also share the harrowing stories of first responders and volunteers who rushed to help with the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero.
Looking back at 9/11, 24 years ago
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The 9/11 terror attacks took place 24 years ago on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
George W. Bush was nine months into his first term in office, and Rudy Giuliani was in his final months as mayor of New York City.
Derek Jeter was still the Yankees’ captain, “I’m Real” by Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule was atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and Gary Condit and Chandra Levy were a top news story of the day.
The attacks happened on Primary Election Day in the city, less than a week after students went back to school for the year. Polls opened at 6 a.m. that morning, just hours before tragedy struck.
Moments of silence mark when the planes hit the Twin Towers
Alexandre Fuchs / AP
Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower at 8:46 a.m., then Flight 175 struck the South Tower 17 minutes later at 9:03 a.m.
The hijacked planes burst into flames upon impact, and the intensity of their burning jet fuel caused both towers to collapse.
Thursday’s memorial ceremony will pause for six moments of silence to mark when the planes crashed and when each tower fell.
Here is a timeline of how the day unfolded:
- 7:59 a.m. — American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Logan International Airport in Boston with 76 passengers, 11 crew members and five hijackers on board
- 8:15 a.m. — United Airlines Flight 175 takes off in Boston with 51 passengers, nine crew members and five hijackers
- 8:20 a.m. — American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington Dulles International Airport in D.C. with 53 passengers, six crew members and five hijackers
- 8:42 a.m. — United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark Liberty International Airport with 33 passengers, seven crew members and four hijackers
- 8:46 a.m. — Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower in Lower Manhattan
- 9:03 a.m. — Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower
- 9:37 a.m. — Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon in D.C.
- 9:59 a.m. — South Tower collapses
- 10:03 a.m. — Flight 93 crashes into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after the passengers and crew stormed the cockpit
- 10:28 a.m. — North Tower collapses
In addition to the Twin Towers, five other buildings were destroyed by the damage at the World Trade Center. The cleanup efforts took months, and the last piece of steel was ceremonially removed on May 30, 2002.
Number of people killed on 9/11 was highest death toll on U.S. soil
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The attacks killed 2,977 people from 90 different countries.
Most of them — 2,753 — were killed in New York, while 184 were killed at the Pentagon and 40 were killed on board Flight 93.
The World Trade Center stood as a symbol of America’s global economic power, and the Twin Towers were the tallest buildings in the city. Somewhere between 16,400 and 18,000 people were inside the complex at the time.
These were the deadliest attacks ever on U.S. soil, following the more than 2,400 Americans killed in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Only pandemics or natural disasters have claimed more U.S. lives.
The World Trade Center was also attacked in 1993, when terrorists detonated a van underground, killing six people and injuring thousands.