Americans watched in horror as the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks left over 3,000 people dead and counting in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
American bravery was fully displayed during the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
A large majority of Americans who are old enough to remember the day can recollect where they were and what they were doing when they received the news. Yet an increasing proportion of Americans have no personal memories of that day, either because they were too young or had not yet been born.
On the morning of 11 September 2001, 19 terrorists from the Islamist extreme group al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft and crashed two of them into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, D.C.
The Twin Towers ultimately collapsed, due to the damage from the impacts and subsequent fires. Nearly 3,000 people were killed from 93 different countries. Most of the fatalities were from the attacks on the World Trade Center. The Pentagon lost 184 civilians and servicemembers and 40 people were killed on Flight 93. It was the worst attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Molly K Ottman Executive Editor/Journalist for Mountain Daily Star