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Event Information:
Ground
Zero at the World Trade Center is
the scene for the 10th Anniversary
remembrance memorial service in
, more poignant this year after
the death of Osama Bin Laden.
The
September 11 attacks (often referred
to as September 11th or 9/11) were a
series of coordinated suicide
attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United
States on September 11, 2001. On
that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists
hijacked four commercial passenger
jet airliners. The hijackers
intentionally crashed two of the
airliners into the Twin Towers of
the World Trade Center in New York
City, killing everyone on board and
many others working in the
buildings. Both buildings collapsed
within two hours, destroying nearby
buildings and damaging others. The
hijackers crashed a third airliner
into the Pentagon in Arlington,
Virginia, just outside Washington,
D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a
field near Shanksville in rural
Pennsylvania after some of its
passengers and flight crew attempted
to retake control of the plane,
which the hijackers had redirected
toward Washington, D.C. There were
no survivors from any of the
flights.
The
death toll of the attacks was 2,996,
including the 19 hijackers. The
overwhelming majority of casualties
were civilians, including nationals
of over 70 countries. In
addition, there is at least one
secondary death – one person was
ruled by a medical examiner to have
died from lung disease due to
exposure to dust from the World
Trade Center's collapse.
The
United States responded to the
attacks by launching the War on
Terrorism: it invaded Afghanistan to
depose the Taliban, who had harbored
al-Qaeda terrorists. The United
States also enacted the USA PATRIOT
Act. Many other countries also
strengthened their anti-terrorism
legislation and expanded law
enforcement powers. Some American
stock exchanges stayed closed for
the rest of the week following the
attack and posted enormous losses
upon reopening, especially in the
airline and insurance industries.
The destruction of billions of
dollars worth of office space caused
serious damage to the economy of
Lower Manhattan.
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