On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists backed by al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger airliners. They flew two planes into the twin skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York, the first at 8:46 a.m. and the second at 9:03 a.m., and both towers collapsed later that morning. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon, in Arlington County, Virginia, while a fourth — believed to have been headed for the U.S. Capitol — crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to retake control of the plane.
The coordinated attacks became the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, killing 2,977 people in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard the four hijacked planes, excluding the 19 hijackers. The attacks led directly to the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan and helped usher in a broader U.S. "war on terror" that also included the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
On the attack's 25th anniversary, Americans are remembering the victims with moments of silence and ceremonies at New York's ground zero, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville. Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Vice President JD Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the ceremony at the Sept. 11 memorial at ground zero, while President Donald Trump spoke at the Pentagon ceremony.
Photos show how first responders, families and friends of the victims, and others marked the anniversary.