11 September: 9/11

The attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, known as 9/11, was 20 years ago today. 10 things you might not know:

1. What happened? 19 terrorists hijacked four planes. They were early morning flights from the East Coast to California, chosen because there would be a lot of fuel on board. Some of them had been living in the US for over a year and taking flying lessons, while the ones providing the "muscle" sneaked in later. At 8.45 am an American Airlines Boeing 767 crashed into the 80th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. 18 minutes later, a second Boeing 767 crashed into the south tower and burnt a hole on the 60th floor. Tower Two of the World Trade Center collapsed at about 10.00am and Tower One collapsed at 10.30am.
2. Of the other two planes, one was crashed into the Pentagon. The other, it's believed, was headed for the United States Capitol Building in Washington DC. However, that flight had been slightly delayed, and passengers and crew heard, via phone calls, about the fate of the other three. Recordings of calls made to people on the ground suggest that armed with this knowledge, the passengers decided to take matters into their own hands and by doing so, probably saved hundreds of lives.
3. The attack resulted in the largest loss of life by a foreign attack on American soil. 2,977 people were killed in total; 2,753 at the World Trade Center Site, of which 343 were New York City firefighters, 23 were NYPD officers, 37 were police officers from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. 40 were killed on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Those who died hailed from more than ninety different countries.
4. Only six people who were in the World Trade Center towers when they collapsed survived.
5. As well as the cost in human lives, around $110 million of art was lost as well, including works by Picasso and Hockney. One piece of art which did survive, however was The Sphere, by German sculptor Fritz Koenig, the world's largest bronze sculpture, which stood between the twin towers on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza and weighed over 20 tons. It was recovered largely intact after the attacks, and was put back in place in 2017 as a memorial and symbol.
6. It was 99 days before the fires at Ground Zero were completely extinguished.
7. The cleanup operation afterwards cost around $750 million. Some of the 185,101 tons of steel left at Ground Zero was used to make memorials, but some was sold to China and India.
8. The dust and debris contained more than 2,500 contaminants which were spread all over the city. Respiratory problems, like asthma and lung inflammation, developed at abnormal rates among those who were in and around the World Trade Center during and after the attacks.
9. After the attacks, a memo was circulated to radio stations with a list of songs it might not be appropriate to play under the circumstances. The list included AC/DC Shot Down in Flames; The Beatles Ticket to Ride; Phil Collins In the Air Tonight; The Dave Clark Five Bits and Pieces; Bob Dylan Knockin' on Heaven's Door; Foo Fighters Learn to Fly; Norman Greenbaum Spirit in the Sky; Peter, Paul and Mary Leaving on a Jet Plane; Queen Another One Bites the Dust; Frank Sinatra New York, New York and The Trammps Disco Inferno.
10. Many memorials were constructed to remember 9/11, including the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, the Pentagon Memorial, and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. A new skyscraper, One World Trade Center, was completed on the site in 2013.

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