Coordinated attacks struck the U.S. on September 11
On this day · 11 September 2001
On September 11, 2001, hijackers turned four airliners into weapons, killing 2,977 people in the deadliest foreign attack on U.S. soil.
On September 11, 2001, 19 hijackers seized four commercial airliners and turned them into weapons in a coordinated assault on the United States. Two planes struck the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York; a third hit the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C.; and the fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back.
Both towers collapsed within hours. In all, 2,977 people from dozens of nations were killed—the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil. Among the dead were 441 first responders who had rushed toward the burning buildings.
The attacks, carried out by the militant group al-Qaeda, reshaped American security, foreign policy, and daily life. A decade later, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum opened on the World Trade Center site, inscribing the victims’ names around two reflecting pools set in the footprints of the lost towers.
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