Online Teaching Resource: ABOUT

 What happened on September 11, 2001?

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a militant Islamic extremist group known as al-Qaeda coordinated suicide terrorist attacks against the United States which killed about 3,000 men, women, and children - this event severely impacted the whole country. 

Members of al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out attacks against targets in the United States. Two planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia outside of Washington D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 

(Smoke rises from the site of the World Trade Center in New York City, September 11, 2001. (Photo by Paul Morse; National Archives Catalog ID 5997250)

Firefighters try to contain the fire after the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. 

(Photo by U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Jim Varhegyi; National Archives Catalog ID 6523862)