Afternoon: Deputy Mayor Anthony P. Coles meets with the two firefighter union leaders, Fire Capt. Peter L. Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association and Kevin E. Gallagher, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, at City Hall to discuss the firefighters' unhappiness with the October 31 decision.
Night: The unions fax a notice to the New York firefighters to hold a demonstration on Friday morning.
Near midnight: Rudy Giuliani calls from Yankee Stadium at the World Series to Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen about talk of a protest.
Approximately 10:30 a.m. EST Emotions spill over into violence at a two-hour protest by several hundred to a thousand firefighters near City Hall, beginning at West and Chambers Streets, to protest Giuliani's October 31st ruling to reduce the number of firefighters permitted at the World Trade Center site from 64 to 25. After firefighter Mike Heffernan, brother of John Heffernan, retired fire captain Bill Butler, father of Tommy Butler, and Kevin E. Gallagher, the president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, speak, the assembled protesters push aside a barricade and begin walking south down West Street. At the next barricade the police move in, punches are thrown, and firefighters handcuffed. Both sides shout for understanding, and the conflict quickly subsides. The firefighters then march out to the applause of construction workers, the protest breaking up around 12:30 p.m.
12 firefighters (including four ranking fire officers and one fire marshal) are arrested and taken to the 28th Precinct station house in central Harlem. 5 police officers are injured, two with black eyes and facial trauma, three with neck, shoulder and back injuries.
Approximately 9:16 a.m. EST - American Airlines Flight 587 crashes in Belle Harbor, Queens, New York. 265 people, 260 on the plane, are killed. Originally thought to be terrorism and claimed as a victory by Al-Qaeda, an NTSB investigation finds the cause of the crash to be pilot error in overuse of the plane's rudder; the Airbus A300 had taken off moments after a Japan Airlines Boeing 747 had taken off from the same runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which caused massive air turbulence. As a precaution, the Empire State Building and UN headquarters are evacuated. Months later, Abderraouf Jdey is named by Al-Qaeda operative Mohammed Jabarah as the person responsible for the disaster, but this cannot be confirmed by any source investigating the crash.
The Transportation Security Administration, also known as TSA, is formed.
Morning and television sitcoms broadcast dedications.
The fires of the destroyed World Trade Center are finally put out after burning for five months
Six months after the attack, numerous ceremonies of remembrance take place.
Huffman Aviation receives a letter from the Immigration and Naturalization Service saying that Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi had been approved for student visas to study there.
The Tribute in Light project begins. The project goes for a month and is re-launched on September 11, 2003, to mark the second anniversary of the attack. The Tribute in Light is now done every year on September 11.
The remains of at least 11 firefighters and several civilians are found when recovery workers reach the site of what had been the south tower lobby.
The last steel beam standing at the World Trade Center site is cut down and placed on a flatbed truck in a quiet ceremony.
As a sign of saying thank you for the support Britain gave in the days immediately following the attacks, New York City lit the Empire State Building in purple and gold to mark the Golden Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II.
The New York City medical examiner releases an updated list of World Trade Center casualties. There were 2,819 killed or missing, 4 less than the Police Department list which had been the best official tally publicly released. One name removed was that of a woman who had been listed under both her maiden and married names. The other three were of people reported missing once by people who had since not been in contact with New York City officials.
Police determine that Albert John Vaughan, 45, and George V. Sims, 46, missing and presumed dead, are alive. Vaughan has been a patient at the Rockland Psychiatric Center in Orangeburg, N.Y. Sims is a patient with amnesia and schizophrenia at a Manhattan hospital.
The Newark Star-Ledger reports that George V. Sims is alive. By this point at least 7 people on the August 19 list have been found; there are now 2812 killed or presumed dead.
The New York City medical examiner releases a new list of World Trade Center deaths. The new list has 22 fewer names than the previous one. The death toll now stands at 2801, including the dead on the airplanes but not the 10 hijackers.
USA goes on high security alert as anniversary approaches. Other countries such as the UK go on similar alert status.
Al-Jazeera releases videotapes of four of the September 11 hijackers - Ahmed al-Nami, Hamza Alghamdi, Ahmed Alghamdi and Wail Alshehri. All four are seen talking to the camera.
Remembrance services are held throughout the USA.
The ceremony at New York City, broadcast throughout the world, falls an hour behind schedule, but is well attended. The ceremony included the reading out of the names of all the persons who died there (on both the planes and the World Trade Center) and the recitals of American historical speeches such as the Gettysburg Address. Moments of silence are observed at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m., the moments when the two planes struck the two towers, and church bells ring at 9:59 a.m. and 10:29 a.m., the moment at which the South and North towers respectively collapsed. Foreign dignitaries gather in Battery Park for the lighting of the eternal flame at sunset. President George W. Bush addresses the nation from Ellis Island an hour and a half after the lighting of the eternal flame.
The private ceremony at The Pentagon is also well-attended, and included the President amongst its participants. A prayer is said at the end that referred to Todd Beamer's "Let's roll" remark.
The public ceremony at Shanksville also had a large turnout. It included two flybys and a release of doves. President George W. Bush attends a private follow up service for the families of Flight 93's victims in the afternoon.
In Karachi, wanted terrorist Ramzi bin al-Shibh (also known as Ramzi Omar) is among five alleged terrorists captured by Pakistani authorities at a Defence Housing Authority estate. Bin al-Shibh is wanted by US authorities in relation to the September 11 attacks. His capture does not become public knowledge for two days, but photographs featuring him being led away blindfolded are published on the day.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation selects six new design teams from around the globe for the World Trade Center site.
The City of New York renames 81 streets, 79 in Staten Island and two in Manhattan, after victims.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation announces that construction equipment at the World Trade Center site will have to use ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.
Daniel Libeskind's design is announced as the winner and future occupant of the former World Trade Center site. The design includes an office building and a Wedge of Light which will honor the victims of the terrorist attacks by shutting down its lights between 8:46AM and 10:28AM EST every September 11. It will also use the WTC's foundations.
The 9/11 Commission Report is published.
Between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and midnight on September 11, 2006, on CNN, viewers could watch CNN footage of the attacks, as it happened as it was broadcast on that day. At 8:49 a.m. ET, during American Morning, CNN rebroadcast the first minute of its coverage, as it was the moment it broke the news.
MSNBC broadcasts national NBC News coverage from 8:52 to 12:00 ET, branding it as a "Living History Event". They would do it again annually since then.
Pope Benedict XVI made a visit to the World Trade Center Site during his visit to the United States. He is the first pope to visit the site since the attacks.
George W. Bush dedicates the Pentagon Memorial to the public on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Osama bin Laden, the founder of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda who was responsible for the September 11 attacks, was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The death of bin Laden was announced by the President of the United States Barack Obama in a nationwide address.
The tenth anniversary of the attacks was the anticipated final display of the Tribute in Light, though it continued past this date. Dedication of the World Trade Center Memorial (the new One World Trade Center building at the World Trade Center site in New York City was originally supposed to be dedicated and opened at this time, but that will not occur until around 2013). The dedication of the permanent Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania took place on September 10, 2011.
