On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists from al-Qaeda, hijacked
four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of the
planes into the upper floors of the North and South towers of the World Trade Center
complex and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. The Twin Towers
ultimately collapsed because of the damage sustained from the impacts and the
resulting fires. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth
hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania about 20 minutes by air from Washington, DC.
The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people from 93 nations. 2,753 people were killed in New
York, 184 people were killed at the Pentagon and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.