Twenty-two years ago, the United States was the target of the deadliest attack on its soil when 19 men hijacked four airplanes as part of a mission orchestrated by al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Almost 3,000 people lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and more die each year because of related illnesses stemming from the day’s events. The attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on board United Airlines Flight 93 ushered in a unique period of patriotism as well as a collective recognition that Americans would “never forget” what happened.
With the U.S. now in a period of extreme political turmoil and polarization, the day harks back to a different time of national unity. It may have been short-lived, but it holds a special kind of meaning nationwide and has been taught to generations since.
Over the years, people have honored the lives lost that tragic day in different ways, with in-person ceremonies commemorating the victims and the heroes. Groups even galvanized online during the worst pandemic in a century. The message is that 2,977 lives were not lost in vain.
A Timeline of the 9/11 Attacks
4: 45 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 hijacker Ziad Jarrah, who is at the Days Inn Newark Airport Hotel, starts making phone calls to people in Lebanon and France and one call to his wife, Aysel Senguen, in Germany.
5: 01 a.m.: Jarrah calls United Airlines Flight 175 hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi, who is at the Milner Hotel in Boston.
5: 33 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 hijacker pilot Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz al-Omari check out of their hotel room at the Comfort Inn in South Portland, Maine.
5: 43 a.m.: Atta and Aziz al-Omari check in for their flight at the US Airways ticket counter at the airport. They check in two pieces of luggage.
5: 52 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 hijackers Hamza al-Ghamdi and Ahmed al-Ghamdi check out of room 241 at the Days Hotel in Boston.
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6: 00 a.m.: Atta and Aziz al-Omari board an eight-passenger flight leaving Portland en route to Boston Logan International Airport. While on their way to Boston, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice arrives at her West Wing office and finds “nothing remarkable” in the news clippings, cables and intelligence reports.
6: 15 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 hijackers Hani Hanjour and Majed Moqed check out of the Budget Host Valencia Motel in Maryland. Hamza and Ahmed al-Ghamdi arrive at the Boston airport.
6: 20 a.m.: Al-Shehhi checks out of his room at the Milner Hotel in Boston. At the same time, hijackers Fayez Banihammad and Mohand al-Shehri check out of room 408 at the hotel, and the three drive to the airport.
Hamza and Ahmed al-Ghamdi check in at the United Airlines counter at the airport. They check in two bags.
6: 22 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 hijacker Nawaf al-Hazmi checks out of room 122 at the Marriott Residence Inn in Virginia.
6: 28 a.m.: President George W. Bush is picked up at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort in Longboat Key, Florida, so he can go for a run. He begins running at 6: 40 a.m.
6: 45 a.m.: Atta and al-Omari’s flight from Portland arrives at the Boston airport. Al-Shehhi arrives at the Boston airport and parks in the Central Parking Garage. Wail al-Shehri, Waleed al-Shehri and Satam al-Suqami, musclemen for American Airlines Flight 11, also arrive at Boston Logan.
6: 52 a.m.: Atta receives a phone call from a pay phone inside Terminal C, where United Airlines Flight 175 is boarding, at Boston Logan. It’s not known what was said or who was on the other end of the call. It’s possible the call was used for tactical communications about the plan or for the hijackers to say goodbye to each other.
6: 53 a.m.: Banihammad and Mohand al-Shehri check in at the United Airlines counter. Banihammad checks two bags.
6: 54 a.m.: Atta receives a call from a pay phone located between the screening checkpoint and the departure gate in Terminal C at the Boston airport. It’s the final call he receives from the airport.
7: 00 a.m.: Al-Suqami and Wail al-Shehri and Waleed al-Shehri check in at the American Airlines ticket counter. Al-Suqami checks in one suitcase.
7: 03 a.m.: Ahmed al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi check in for United Airlines Flight 93 at New Jersey’s Newark Airport. Al-Nami checks in two bags.
7: 15 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Majed Moqued check in with American Airlines at Dulles International Airport. They’re joined by hijackers Hani Hanjour, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Salem al-Hazmi.
7: 23 a.m.: Banihammad and Mohand al-Shehri board United Airlines Flight 175. At the same time, Bush’s motorcade starts the journey back to the Colony Beach resort.
7: 24 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 hijacker Ahmed al-Haznawi checks in with United Airlines at the Newark airport. He checks in one bag.
7: 27 a.m.: Marwan al-Shehhi and Ahmed al-Ghamdi board United Airlines Flight 175. A minute later, Hamza al-Ghamdi boards the plane, the last hijacker to do so.
7: 30 a.m.: Al-Suqami and Wail al-Shehri and Waleed al-Shehri board American Airlines Flight 11 in Boston.
7: 40 a.m.: Al-Nami and Saeed al-Ghamdi board United Airlines Flight 93.
7: 45 a.m.: Atta and Aziz al-Omari board American Airlines Flight 11. At the same time, Bush skims the morning papers, where the biggest story was that Michael Jordan was coming out of retirement and joining the NBA.
7: 48 a.m.: Jarrah boards United Airlines Flight 93 and sits in 1B, the seat closest to the cockpit.
7: 50 a.m.: Moqed and al-Mihdhar board American Airlines Flight 77. As they are boarding, Rice receives her intelligence briefing.
7: 52 a.m.: Hanjour boards American Airlines Flight 77, also taking the seat closest to the cockpit. He’s followed by Nawaf al-Hazmi and Salem al-Hazmi a few minutes later.
7: 59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Boston with 11 crew members, 76 passengers and five hijackers aboard. It was originally destined for Los Angeles.
8: 13 a.m.: American Flight 11 has its last routine communication with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Boston Center radio communicators.
8: 15 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Boston with nine crew members, 51 passengers and five hijackers. It was originally destined for Los Angeles. As this hijacked flight is taking off, American Airlines Flight 11 is being taken over by hijackers using knives and threats of a bomb and violence.
8: 19 a.m.: Betty Ann Ong, a flight attendant aboard Flight 11, alerts ground personnel that the cockpit is unreachable, a passenger has been stabbed and the plane is being hijacked. The passenger, identified as Daniel Lewin, served four years in the Israeli army and a report speculated he may have tried to stop the hijackers. He’s likely the first person killed during the attacks.
8: 20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington Dulles International Airport with six crew members, 53 passengers and five hijackers on board. It was originally destined for Los Angeles.
8: 24 a.m.: Flight 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta accidentally broadcasts a message to air traffic control, saying, “We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK.”
8: 26 a.m.: Flight 11 makes a hard-left turn to the south, heading toward New York City. Ong reports that the plane is “flying erratically.”
8: 37 a.m.: Boston’s air traffic control center alerts the U.S. Air Force’s Northeast Air Defense Sector, which mobilizes the Air National Guard to follow Flight 11.
The FAA also asks United Airlines Flight 175 to look for American Airlines Flight 11, unaware that hijackers are on board the flight.
8: 39 a.m.: Bush departs the Colony Beach resort for the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida.
8: 42 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 is hijacked and has its last radio communication with the ground. Hijackers use the same tactics as those on American Airlines Flight 11 to take control of the plane. United Airlines 93 takes off from Newark Airport with seven crew members, 33 passengers and four hijackers on board. It was originally bound for San Francisco.
8: 44 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney tells Michael Woodward, a Boston flight service manager at the Boston airport, on the phone that she sees water and buildings outside the plane’s window as they’re making a rapid descent.
She tells him, “We are flying way too low. Oh my God, we are way too low.” The call ends with a burst of loud, sustained static.
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8: 46 a.m.: Flight 11 crashes into floors 93 through 99 of 1 World Trade Center, known as the North Tower, severing all three emergency stairwells. First responders are dispatched to the scene and an evacuation begins.
8: 50 a.m.: Bush is told that what’s believed to be a small plane hit the World Trade Center. At the time, Bush was visiting the elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, and was told it was likely an accident.
American Airlines Flight 77 transmits its last routine radio communication.
8: 51 a.m.: Hijackers begin taking over Flight 77 less than a minute after the message is sent to the FAA’s Indianapolis control center that all is normal. Unlike the first two hijackings, there are no reports of the terrorists using threats of a bomb or Mace or any physical violence.
8: 52 a.m.: A flight attendant aboard United Airlines Flight 175 reports to an airline operator that a hijacking is underway. Peter Hanson, a passenger, calls his father, Lee, and tells him to call United Airlines and relay the message that the plane has been hijacked. Lee calls the Easton, Connecticut, police department.
8: 54 a.m.: Bush arrives at the elementary school in Sarasota.
8: 55 a.m.: A Port Authority fire safety employee tells people in 2 World Trade Center, the South Tower, that it is secure and that there is no need to evacuate. Those in the process of evacuating are told to