On September 11, 2001 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked 4 planes with the intention of crashing them into four different sites, the World Trade Centers, the pentagon, and the White House. They crashed two into the twin towers killing everyone on board and many of the people in the towers. The first one was hit at about 8:45 in the morning trapping everybody above the 78th floor. Fifteen minutes later the second tower was hit, and 10:00 the second twin tower hit, collapsed sending a wave of dust and debris out over the city. Half an hour later the first tower collapsed killing almost 400 firefighters and over 1000 civilian workers in the building.
While the country watched in horror the attacks on the towers, there were still two other hijacked planes out there. At 9:30 the third hijacked plane was flown into the pentagon, killing 125 pentagon workers. The last hijacked plane, Flight 93, was being flown towards the white house when the passengers found out that their plane had been hijacked. There were several phone calls from the plane, the longest one being from passenger Tom Beamer on an air-phone to a Verizon operator. They talked until his famous last words "Let's roll" before leading a passenger revolt that brought the plane crashing down in a field in Pennsylvania. There were no survivors from any of the planes.
These attacks were the reason for the war on terror, which began with a statement from president Bush, "The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. If you are not with us, you are against us." After that we began sending troops into Afghanistan in search of the al-Qaeda terrorist responsible for this, a conflict that is still raging today.
I remember coming in from recess that day to see my first grade teacher watching the TV with a horrified look on her face. All we did that day was watch the news until we were finally sent home. When I got home the one thing that I remember vividly was the picture of the two towers burning on my TV. I remember understanding that something awful had happened but it didn't really click as to how monumental those attacks were.
Source 1: Wikipedia
Source 2: 9-11
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