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A day of terror, a year of courage

SEPT. 11, 2001

8:46 a.m. EDT: World Trade Center north tower hit by American Airlines Flight 11.

9:03 a.m.: South tower hit by United Airlines Flight 175.

9:40 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon.

9:59 a.m.: World Trade Center south tower collapses.

10:07 a.m.: United Flight 93 crashes 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pa.

10:28 a.m.: World Trade Center north tower collapses.

"Today we had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist act on our country. I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI, and I've ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt downand to find those folks who committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand."

-- President Bush, speaking at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., Sept. 11

Sacramento Bee/Sheldon Carpenter

SEPT. 13
Secretary of State Colin Powell identifies Osama bin Laden as a leading suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks.

SEPT. 15
President Bush declares "We're at war" and orders U.S. troops to get ready for military action.

Gov. George Pataki, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

New York Gov. George Pataki, left, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., tour the site of the World Trade Center disaster on Sept. 12.

"On September the 11th, the enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world; a world where freedom itself is under attack."

--President Bush, speaking to Congress, Sept. 20

Workers dismantle a piece of the fallen World Trade Center tower facade in late October.

OCT. 5
Florida resident Bob Stevens, the first to test positive for anthrax after the Sept. 11 attacks, dies of the disease.

OCT. 7
U.S. and British forces begin attacking military targets within Afghanistan.

OCT. 26
President Bush signs the USA Patriot Act: legislation giving federal agencies expanded authority to combat terrorism.

NOV. 13
The U.S.-backed Northern Alliance seizes control of Kabul and sets up an interim administration for Afghanistan.

DEC. 15 - 30
Last piece of World Trade Center facade pulled down; underground fires finally out; viewing platform opens.

"States like (Iraq, Iran and North Korea), and their territorial allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world … We'll be deliberate, yet time is not on our side. I will not wait on events, while dangers gather. I will not stand by, as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons."

-- President Bush, State of the Union address, Jan. 29

Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

Twin shafts of light created a memorial of the World Trade Center towers from March 11 to April 13.

FEB. 21, 2002
A videotape recovered in Pakistan confirms that journalist Daniel Pearl had been killed by his kidnappers.

MAY 30
Workers finish the cleanup of the World Trade Center site.

JUNE 6
Bush asks Congress to create a Cabinet level Department of Homeland Security.

JUNE 13
Hamid Karzai is elected transitional president of Afghanistan.

Concrete security barriers dot the U.S. Capitol grounds in July.

JULY 16
Six proposals for rebuilding World Trade Center are presented. Disappointment by reviewers and the public sends the designers back to the drawing board.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge is appointed to head the Office of Homeland Security on Sept. 20.

"This generation has got challenges to meet and we're going to meet those challenges head on. We've got the challenge of fighting and winning a war against terrorists and we're going to win that war against terrorists ... Many people stepped back after September the 11th and said, what is -- what's our life worth? I mean, how do we fulfill a full life as an American? More and more people understand that being a patriot is more than just putting your hand over your heart and saying the Pledge of Allegiance."

--President Bush remarking on homeland security at Mount Rushmore, S.D., Aug. 15

Sources: Associated Press, wire reports; Bee Research/Pete Basofin

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To our readers

How history unfolded in The Bee

Anita Creamer: For some, history was personal experience

Forever transformed

Dreams deferred

Identification card eases her border crossings

On the front lines

For reservist, upheaval comes with call to duty

Sensitive business

Focus on bioterrorism raises scientist's profile

Cautious skies

Calling security a 'joke,' frequent flier flies less

We remember

In your words

Search for solace

Spiritual growth led to her conversion to Islam

Waving the flag

Tragedy and trivia

Psychologist offers music as a way to help heal

Emphasis on safety

Issues of liberty, economics surface in security discussion

Causes and concerns

Our new vocabulary

A day of terror, a year of courage

If we never forget, we will never stop learning

About this project

Related:

Never forget: Bee readers reflect on where they were, what they felt on 9/11

The victims

Day they can't forget

Deep well of mourning in N.Y.

Area events to commemorate Sept. 11 attacks

9/11 Web sites

Archive: Bee Terrorism Crisis News

Special Report: Terrorism/Anniversary

Video:

Remembering 9/11