September 11, 2012

The 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was observed today in New York City; Arlington, Virginia; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In New York, relatives of the victims of the World Trade Center attacks read out the names of the dead. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani attended the observance but did not speak.

In Arlington, President Barack Obama addressed survivors and relatives of the 184 people killed at the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters. He declared that their loved ones would never be forgotten and that the dead had “helped us make the America we are today.”

Vice-President Joe Biden was the principal speaker at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. In remembrance of the dead, President Obama and Vice-President Biden and their Republican challengers, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, set aside campaigning for the day.

The World Trade Center towers billowed flames and smoke on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists crashed hijacked airliners into the two buildings. (AP/Wide World)

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, in attacks by members of al-Qa`ida, the Afghanistan-based terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden. After hijacking four commercial airliners, the terrorists flew two jets into the Trade Center twin towers, which subsequently collapsed. Terrorists crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The attackers in the fourth airliner were overtaken by passengers, preventing them from crashing the plane into another Washington, D.C., landmark, possibly the White House or Capitol. The jet went down in an open field near Shanksville, killing all aboard. The September 11 terrorist attacks prompted the administration of President George W. Bush to send forces into Afghanistan in October 2001 to clean out terrorist camps. That war continues in 2012.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• National September 11 Memorial and Museum
• Afghanistan 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• New York City 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Washington, D.C. 2001 (a Back in Time article)
• Terrorism: America’s New Enemy (a special report)
• Passport to Reform: The INS and Homeland Security (a special report)