9/11 timeline: how events unfolded
This weekend marks 20 years since the deadliest terror attack in history

The United States will fall silent today to mark 16 years since the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest terror strike in the nation’s history.
A total of 2,978 victims and 19 perpetrators died in four separate suicide attacks using hijacked planes, “hurling America into a new consciousness of the threat of global terrorism,” says ABC News.
President Donald Trump will preside over his first commemoration of the atrocity as America’s commander in chief. He and First Lady Melania Trump will observe a moment’s silence at the White House at 8.46am local time (12.46pm), the time the first hijacked plane hit the North Tower. He is also scheduled to attend an official remembrance ceremony at the Pentagon, where the third of four planes hijacked by 19 Al Qaeda terrorists crashed almost an hour later.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The president has a contentious relationship with the 9/11 attacks. During the election campaign, Trump claimed that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the attacks - “a rumor discredited by police and without any film or audio evidence”, says The Guardian. He also attracted ire for commenting that the destruction of the World Trade Center meant that he once again owned the tallest skyscraper in Manhattan.
Thousands of people are expected to attend a memorial service at the Ground Zero site in Manhattan, which now houses a museum to the tragedy. As has become tradition at the yearly commemoration, each victim’s name will be read aloud.
Vice President Mike Pence is heading to a Shanksville, Pennsylvania for a ceremony paying tribute to the passengers and crew of Flight 93, the last of the four planes to be hijacked and the only one to miss its intended target. It is believed the hijackers intended to crash the jet into either the Capitol building, where Congress sits, or the White House.
However, passengers and crew on the hijacked flight found out about the three other downed planes from contacts on the ground and organised a desperate fightback against their four captors. Audio recordings suggest that the passengers were able to overcome at least one of the hijackers and were battling to access the cockpit when the plane ploughed into a field near Shanksville, 20 minutes short of Washington DC.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Critics' choice: Three takes on tavern dining
Feature A second Minetta Tavern, A 1946 dining experience, and a menu with a mission
By The Week US
-
Film reviews: Warfare and A Minecraft Movie
Feature A combat film that puts us in the thick of it and five misfits fall into a cubic-world adventure
By The Week US
-
What to know before lending money to family or friends
the explainer Ensure both your relationship and your finances remain intact
By Becca Stanek, The Week US
-
Will Joe Biden declassify secret 9/11 files under FBI review?
feature Victims' families say president not welcome at 20th anniversary memorial events unless the documents are released
By The Week
-
US announces single largest transfer of Guantanamo inmates
Speed Read Fifteen detainees transferred to the UAE as Obama seeks to make good on campaign promise
By The Week Staff
-
US poised to publish secret file on Saudi Arabia and 9/11
In Depth Classified 28-page report could link Saudi government with Twin Tower hijackers
By The Week Staff
-
9/11: Twin Towers dress and five other tasteless gaffes
In Depth Shoppers in London disgusted by frock depicting planes flying into the World Trade Center
By The Week Staff