What Happened On September 11, 2001?

Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that shook the United States. The terror attack in 2001 on one of the then-iconic sites in New York, the World Trade Center, also had a huge impact globally. The September 11 attacks were the deadliest attacks on US soil since the Pearl Harbour bombing in 1941 that launched the US into World War II.

On September 11, 2001, planes crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and a field in Pennsylvania. The terror attacks claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people and injured countless others. 

Here’s what happened:

• On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger airplanes.
• After taking control of the aircrafts, terrorists crashed two of them into the upper floors of the Twin Towers (the North and South Towers) of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan between 8 and 9 a.m. Within two hours, both the 110-storey towers collapsed.
• The debris of the Twin Towers led to the collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower.
• The third plane crashed into the headquarters of the US Department of Defense – Pentagon in Virginia.
• The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to fight back against the hijackers.
• The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93. 

The destruction of the World Trade Center affected the economy of Manhattan and had a significant effect on global markets. While the cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, the Pentagon building was repaired within a year. The construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site in 2006 and it opened to the public in 2014. Several memorials have been built in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks.