9/11 was my birthday, and I was just outside of NYC in school that day.<p>I was in math class. The phone in the classroom rang and my teacher turned on the radio (1010 WINS) immediately. After hearing what had happened she broke down in tears because her husband worked in WTC. My parents worked in NYC (as did most of my classmates' parents) and was very concerned.<p>The school district evacuated the elementary schools to the gym at the middle school because our town had a major dam and there were concerns that could be attacked too, which would've flooded the low-lying areas where the elementary schools are. Eventually, school was dismissed and I ended up at my neighbor's house. Her husband was a FDNY Captain.<p>So many people I know died or were permanently harmed (physically or mentally) that day.<p>While nearly every second of that day is permanently etched into my brain, there's one day that's even more vivid. My FDNY Captain neighbor took me to ground zero in early November 2001. I'll never, ever forget the smell of burning flesh and the hundreds of firefighters using rakes looking for human remains. He told me to never forget, and I never will.
When reviewing 9/11 attacks (likely the biggest and most disastrous intelligence failure in U.S. history, give or take Pearl Harbor), it's worth remembering that it could have been much worse. If the first plane had hit Indian Point nuclear reactor what, 30 miles from NYC and upwind? It's likely a Chernobyl/Fukushima disaster would have resulted with an exclusion zone well into NYC. That was reportedly part of the plan but as I recall they wanted a more media-friendly target.<p>Additionally, the fact that members of the Saudi government aided and assisted the hijackers, and that they were tracked and monitored by both the FBI and the CIA, yet no action was taken to stop them, not even a simple warning to airlines to increase security after that Aug 6th Presidential Daily Briefing? What a debacle.<p>We should have left Iraq and Afghanistan alone and done the regime change op in Saudi Arabia, except that Wall Street likes its petrodollars so Washington props up the House of Saud and its theocratic dictatorship. And that's still going on.
I was in the Navy and had been at my first command at a nuke base in the PNW. I walked to the galley for breakfast and they had some TVs you could watch while eating. I watched the second plane hit.
I walked to work which was a telecommunications station. We processed messages for different regional commands and would call them directly whenever they had an emergency action message (EAM). I walked in to a completely chaotic watch floor. Every message was an EAM that day. Every phone was ringing or in use, every computer that could alarm was alarming, our dial up modems were constantly busy. All my coworkers were shouting and running here and there. I had never seen it like that and as a young Sailor it was very worrying. Everyone we called to inform them of their EAMs would ask if we knew what was going on or knew if someone was mobilizing but we were just as much in the dark as everyone else.<p>I remember at one point our Leading Chief Petty Officer (LPCO) yelled for everyone to stop what they were doing and told us to call our parents and loved ones to let them know we were safe. That was the longest day I’d ever worked at that command and no one left that day, even those from the previous night shift. The fact that no one, even our CO, had any idea what was going on…that the military was in the dark, was such an unnerving feeling.
I was in USMC boot camp on 9/11/2001. You don't get much chance to consume media during training, and they put us on lock down and gave us only limited information. We knew kind of serious attack had happened, but not exactly what.<p>By the time I got out of training, the news cycle had moved on so it wasn't until the first anniversary of 9/11 that I saw the news footage of the event for the first time.<p>Coincidentally I ended up stationed in Washington, D.C. and from my barracks I could see the construction cranes working on the damage to the Pentagon.<p>So it's this weird combination of feeling connected since I was in the military when it happened and then lived near one of the sites, but I also missed a lot. This site could help me see some of the experience I missed.
I hitchhiked and walked to New York 20 years ago today.<p>I had my firefighter and medic credentials faxed to FEMA and then went into ground zero for ~24 hours to dig.<p>I wrote about all of this, later, in what became cDc t-file #396.[1]<p>[1] <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20041208005336/http://www.cultdeadcow.com/cDc_files/cDc-0396.html" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20041208005336/http://www.cultde...</a>
I sometimes forget how surreal that day was. Was in high school at the time and sort of at “that age” where the world was still pretty small and revolved around me.<p>Mom waking me up to say “you need to watch this,” with the TV on and both towers are on fire. The morning variety newscasters breaking their household familiarity speaking in a frightening shock that was so out of character.<p>Still went to school that day and there was a big assembly and then we sort of carried on as normal through motions. I remember every week on Tuesday we had to turn in an analysis of a world event for one of our classes and mine suddenly felt so insignificant compared to the attacks (kinda wish I remember what I had written).<p>I think the pandemic has far more historical significance but nothing for me will feel more visceral than 9/11. I appreciate this is likely a very <i>American</i> -centric perspective but it’s how I feel.
I had to stop watching this when it caught up to the part I saw live. I live on the west coast, so I was sleeping when the first plane hit. My mom for some reason was still up from the night before and saw it on the news, so she called me and told me to turn on the TV.<p>I watched the second plane hit live on CNN. I then spent the rest of the day on my couch watching CNN. My girlfriend was sent home from work around noon and came to join me.<p>I remember the confusion as to what happened and no one knew if anything else would blow up.<p>But the other day I remember just as clearly was September 14th, 2001, because I flew on an airplane that day.<p>The Jewish Holidays were starting on Monday, and my dad and I were flying home together from the Bay Area to LA, and had a flight from Oakland to Burbank. We were told to get there four hours before our flight due to enhanced security, so we did.<p>The airport was empty. Every airline was offering full refunds to anyone who was scared to fly, and most people took them up on it. My dad and I figured a one hour flight within California probably wasn't going to be a target and decided to risk it.<p>There were national guardsmen all over the airport open-carrying rifles and handguns. After the metal detectors we had to do a full pat-down and have all of our carry on luggage fully inspected. But since the airport was nearly empty, we were through all of the security in about 10 minutes.<p>So we walked up to the airline counter to check in for our flight (back when you still had to check in in-person at the counter) and asked them if we could take an earlier flight. There happen to be one leaving in 15 minutes, and the lady thanked us for flying that day and put us on the flight. It was so empty we each had a row to ourselves.<p>Sept 14th, 2001. The best airport/flying experience I've ever had in my life.
I'm old enough to have pretty vivid memories of watching a lot of this live. I don't really want to relive it. Keep the memories alive? Certainly. But rewatching? Too much.<p>Also, while we can't change the past, we're facing a massive challenge that is devouring thousands of people on a daily basis; let's commit to doing everything we can to defeat that particular monster. That is something we can all help with, in our own way.
I was 9 and angry that they interupted my tv show to show news (adult stuff) from the other side of the world. 20 years later and I have a better understanding of the situation but in a lot of ways I think everyone reacted and keeps reacting just how the terrorists wanted.<p>It's tragic but if this wasn't in America I likely wouldnt have even heard about the event nor would it be influencing my life this much later due to the ways others have reacted to it. I hope this doesn't read as disrespectful.
This site is interesting, but I was surprised to see some 9/11 conspiracy theory elements in the News Ticker.<p>Specifically, the "Janitor Hears Explosion from WTC Basement" in the news ticker includes claims that an explosion occurred in the basement 40 seconds before the first plane impact. Some quick Googling shows that this janitor and another associate went on to try to build a careers on top of these conspiracy theories. One of them even tried to sue President Bush and 155 others over 9/11 with a rambling lawsuit that alleges everything from controlled demolition of the towers to sex trafficking by the defendents.<p>Not a credible source, to say the least. I have no idea why this site thought to include his claims, but I suspect they're trying to seed doubt about the official timelines.<p>Cool site, but take some of the editorialized content with a huge grain of salt.
If anyone is confused about the BBC not syncing up with the other news coverage, it seems like the creators did not take the time difference into account. You will need to get to 13:59 GMT.<p>On a personal note, that's the channel I was watching on that day 20 years ago. Watching the exact same coverage again is just ... unsettling.
Really fascinating project. It sent a chill down my spine as I suddenly recalled being in school, both because of the videos as well as the OS (we used Macs in art/design class). This was before streaming and smartphones were around so the only way we could see what was happening was by going into classrooms with TV's hooked up. I don't think we had access to CNN but we probably watched some American channel. I felt like the world was going to enter a third World War, what with the immediate connection to Pearl Harbor. It was impossible to continue doing school work that day.
Watching the footage on this site reminds me of how I watched the events unfold on 9/11. I was at work at Apple in IL2 (Building 2 of the Infinite Loop campus.) People started getting calls on their desk phones and co-workers coming in started to share the news. An email came from Steve Jobs which I can't remember the exact contents of. One thing the email did have, was a link that was a live video news stream of the events unfolding.<p>The campus entered a type of lock-down. The gates to the parking garages were closed, the front-doors to the building were locked and security blocked the entrances to the campus with their vehicles. At the time, work was sort of my family so I didn't consider that some people probably wanted to leave right away to be with their loved ones. I assume they were able to do so with some effort.<p>Things obviously changed in the world that day. At Apple, the underground gates to the garages were always closed and you had to badge in. Security personnel were posted in the lobbies and badging in and "tailgating" were taken very seriously. The doors to the inner campus were now locked and you had to badge in and out. These were all really minor things, but it made you realize that things were no longer going to be the same as before.
Cool site, but the News Ticker is absolutely infested with debunked 9/11 truther "evidence". (Go to the point where the first plane hits and the point where each tower collapses, and you'll see what I mean.)<p>The whole thing kinda seems like a sly attempt by a truther to indoctrinate schoolkids. A little distasteful.
My life partner died on 9/11. Not that 9/11. Two years ago. Because of a brain tumor.<p>That personal 9/11 will always overshadow for me the one that this site is about. The one that from my point of view was a kind of natural disaster caused by fifth elemental force, the force of human stupidity. The one that triggered secondary wave of human stupidity that toppled any illusion that USA is a righteous and effective country that anyone could still have. Terrorists really did hurt USA on 9/11 but 99% of the ultimate damage was self inflicted.
Stuff like this makes me wonder if in the future there are entire planets where life is simulated virtually. "Live through the 90s" planet.<p>Would be interesting to have an entire website like this where you can tune to any day and hear the news. And eventually more than just media.
Something really fascinating here is how each of the different news agencies handle the event.<p>CNN seems incredibly clinical, if a bit gore-wanting (asking about what's falling from the towers, if the plane is inside still, over and over again)<p>Fox News was instantly talking terrorism.<p>CBS was panic and raw emotion, followed by aggressive tracking of facts to try and figure out what they saw.<p>At least from the 9:02:57 timestamp (second plane hit), as I click through them.
This needs to be archived but I have no interest in rewatching it. That day, I was a 14 year old kid across the ocean. I had just gotten home from school and was watching my favorite youth program when the guy said there has been a plane crash in NYC. I switched to CNN (or maybe Euronews?) and saw the first tower burning. Then, on live TV, on the other side of Atlantic, I watched as the second plane crashed into the second tower and later how the towers came down.
Writing this brings tears into my eyes.
I'm actually seeing events I missed in real time - I was up overnight working. I worked for Sabre HR at the time, and kept going up to the office to run a massive PDF generation process for our performance reviews. (It was a terribly leaky VB process). I didn't wake up until after it happened, so I was hearing about it on the drive into the office. We all went home before noon. Within days the software we were writing for bonuses etc was for naught, as our stock price was crushed (Sabre came out of American Airlines, focusing primarily on travel agency software and Travelocity). Within a month I was let go (I was a contractor)
To fix the broken timestamp in the upper right, open your JS console and set timeZone.diff equal to your negative UTC offset.<p>I'm in US Pacific Time, so I ran<p><pre><code> timeZone.diff = 8</code></pre>
I was a quarter of a mile away, saw the buildings fall and I knew people who died.<p>I hate the reminders of 9/11 every anniversary. I know "never forget" is a slogan, but I really am trying to forget. It impacted me deeply. I left NYC and never came back.
I lived just outside of NYC when this happened. I'll leave it to others to explain what that was like.<p>What stuck with me was the eeriness of the serene skies after it happened. There are several international airports in the vicinity. There wasn't a plane in the sky afterwards, and the usual contrails were absent.<p>I didn't see something like that happen again for about another 20 years until the first wave of COVID hit and essentially shutdown air transport.
Almost everyone remembers what they were doing when the events happened, a Flashbulb Memory.<p>There's actually research on the specific memories of 9/11 : <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2925254/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2925254/</a><p>Anyone remember what they were doing the next day at the same time?
They should include C-SPAN coverage.<p><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?165916-101" rel="nofollow">https://www.c-span.org/video/?165916-101</a><p><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?165959-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.c-span.org/video/?165959-2</a><p>The second link is a particularly disheartening time capsule of political discourse that morning.
The resulting war took many more human lives [1] including children who couldn't handle the
White phosphorus munitions the US military targeted them with.
1) <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War" rel="nofollow">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War</a>
I was in elementary school at the time 11 miles away, just across the river, in NJ. They really didn't want us to see the news so they took all of us into the main auditorium and had us just sit. A few of the parents of the other children worked in the city. They made it an early release day.<p>One of my parents worked close by my school and my cousin lived close too. Her house had a clear line of sight to the towers with some binoculars. I remember seeing little black dots fall out of buildings and I remember wondering if they were chairs. I am older now and understand it was people. I missed the collapse of the first tower but saw the second fall through the binoculars.<p>A lot of my classmates didn't show up for a few days. I didn't understand the gravity of what had happened until was quite a bit older.
I've never seen this site before, but I noticed that it appears to be questioning the official timeline and story at various points. For example, it indicates that a janitor heard an explosion first from the basement, not from above. I noticed a few other elements like this as well.
@dang, can we get the obvious spam crap removed somehow? Maybe instantly hide or at least minimize dead content?<p>Or maybe restrict discussion to people who get at least some karma?
At the risk of diluting the discussion here, do we know where they got the "TV Tuner" footage? I've been tuned to a channel with "WJLA" at the upper left (I think, aka "ABC 7"---I don't know I'm not American) for some time now; it started with a clip that is related to the 9/11 attacks but after heaps of ads I'm now watching relatively mundane news (traffic and weather updates, anyone?).<p>On one hand it's just impressive to me that they have this footage and it made my curiosity itch. On the other hand, a project like this can only gain from having verifiable sources. So do we know how/where they got all these footage?
on this day several years ago, one of my mom's friends was on her way home when a random white asshole rolled down his windshield and screamed "Iranian bitch" at her. She was terrified and came to our house. My sister was convinced that they were going to start rounding us up. My dad put up a patriotic flag, not out fo patriotism, but out of fear of retaliation by people who didn't think we were patriotic enough. None of us are Iranian or middle eastern but given the climate, everyone that even looked like they could be from that region were terrified.<p>Fun times, I think its a reason I generally like to stay outside the united states these days.
I remember sitting on the other side of Boston Harbour on the eve of September 11th, watching planes start and land while drinking a beer. I have often thought: please, god, take me back to that evening, let me call the police and tell them what will happen the next day. Then I think: they wouldn't have believed me anyway and arrested me instead.<p>I will never forget the days of chaos that ensued. Boston is close to NYC. We knew back then that things would be very different from then on. For at least a year I would open news pages and except something terrible terrible until that fear faded slowly over time.
It was the first or second week of the school year and I was 15 when this happened. My dad was on a business trip and was scheduled to fly back that day. I recall every period we'd be shuffled to the library to pick up our textbooks for the year, where I'd catch glimpses of the live news broadcast they had on the old TVs set up there. My teachers would take us back to class where they attempted to get us engaged in whatever subject-related lecture was on the schedule. Not my world history teacher though. I remember walking into class and he had hooked up his classroom computer to the television (I don't recall the tech involved) and we spent the entire hour watching the news in silence.<p>When I got home my mom told me my dad's plane had been diverted to Salt Lake City and that he'd be driving back to California where we lived. Dad's best friend was a high ranking US Army officer at the Pentagon. My mom spent all day on the phone with the helpline trying to find out if he was all right. Fortunately she was able to talk to someone there who mentioned they had seen him that day and that he hadn't been in the building.<p>To me this still feels recent. I don't know that it ever won't.
Wayback machine for some web news of the day:<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010911230123/http://www.nytimes.com/" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20010911230123/http://www.nytime...</a><p><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010911204733/http://www2.cnn.com/" rel="nofollow">http://web.archive.org/web/20010911204733/http://www2.cnn.co...</a>
For anyone who doesn't consider themselves a conspiracy theorist, but who still wonders how the hell 9/11 could've possibly happened, I'd highly recommend the 2011 podcast episode "Who Is Rich Blee?" [1] and the documentary "9/11: Press for Truth" [2], both by Ray Nowosielski and John Duffy. They're both <i>critical</i> (as in thinking) without being unhinged -- no inside job shit, no controlled demolition stuff, no "plane was fake". Just a close look at the years and months leading up to 9/11, with some terrific interviews with major players (Richard Clarke, Bush's Counter-Terrorism "Czar"; Mark Rossini, the FBI agent assigned to the CIA's Bin Laden Issue Station who was prevented by the CIA from notifying the FBI that 2 of the 9/11 hijackers had multiple entry visas to the US and were planning to travel there).<p>The documentary's particularly interesting, as it follows the efforts of four New Jersey women who lost their husbands in the World Trade Center as they struggle to figure out what happened that day. I hadn't realized that a "9/11 Commission" hadn't been planned or even wanted by people in Washington, and that the victims' families had to make a stink to get one created.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.doubleasteriskmedia.com/rich-blee-podcast" rel="nofollow">https://www.doubleasteriskmedia.com/rich-blee-podcast</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhQXKJCJ5Q" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KhQXKJCJ5Q</a><p>[2] <a href="https://youtu.be/9KhQXKJCJ5Q" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/9KhQXKJCJ5Q</a>
This website is a really good resource. The thing I remember from that day, I was 18, was that every channel on cable tv cut over to news: MTV, VH1, History Channel, every channel. cnn.com wouldn't load because it was being ddosed by all of the requests.
Why does 9/11 matter so much but not the many far more horrible atrocities that the US regularly supports or commits (and that 9/11 was partly a response to). Clearly some lives are considered worth far more than others.
They put "About" in the Help menu?!<p>Jokes aside this is an incredibly well executed visual, and the throwback to the MacOS 8 era of my high school (where I was when this was happening) adds meaningfully to the impact.
The ad on CNN that started with "would you like to lower your mortgage payments" before it got cut to the first live footage of the towers has to be the worst television timing in history
I went to Stuyvesant high school, and graduated in 2000. Stuy was a few blocks from the trade center, and I had friends who were still in high school that day. I knew people who saw the first plane fly in.<p>Was a bad day. There was a part of me that felt a weird guilt for not being there. Like, as a lifelong New Yorker, the trauma was part of my birthright somehow, and being away for school made me feel strangely removed when I felt like I should be feeling it in my bones.<p>My mother had PTSD for a good while afterward, and she lived way uptown from the trade center.<p>Was a bad day.
News multiplex on Youtube, 6 channels in one video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUnXM5swn0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUnXM5swn0</a>
Besides the whole 9/11 thing, if you have 'showdead' set, you see the spam 'bot' in this thread. I always wonder if it's really a bot or someone with a lot of time to waste but let's assume it's someone real... do you know what their end game is? It can't be propaganda because it's clearly a spam and no one read those. Also, not many people respond to spam so I don't think 'dopamine hit' is a part of it.<p>Confusing
It's crazy how influential this event would be on years to come. It has this huge cascade of other events directly affected by it, and it caused America to dump >1 trillion dollars on a compete wasteland of a country. The US had this urge to do something about it, but not sure what exactly. There were a lot of seemingly irrational policies following 9/11.<p>I still can't believe Bin Laden has not been named the Times Person of the Year at the end of 2001.
A couple of months ago I listened to the Air Traffic Control recordings of the morning of the attacks, really puts in perspective the confusion and chaos in the air that day.<p>It's really haunting, includes calls from inside one of the planes (I think the one who crashed?) so be warned.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBhgEm3j7A" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBhgEm3j7A</a>
Man, seeing this thing sorta took me back to that day. I was in high school and remember my buddy coming in late and telling me about the event and I was incredulous about what he was saying. Went home early for lunch to watch the news and sure enough, all the shit he was saying was happening .... was happening.<p>Also, WTF BBC? You guys never covered this event in the first couple of hours!
It's interesting how little the broadcasts of other nations changed whereas American news just replayed 9/11 footage time and time again. The CCTV played a soap opera and BBC was focused on mad cow's disease. It also appears that NHK was much more focused on a typhoon in Hokkaido.
Was in a Beijing hotel and not sleepy so I turned on the TV. I could not believe what I was seeing and first thought it was a movie. After flipping through a few channels I realized it was real. I woke up my wife and told her that we were at war. We were stuck in China until flights resumed.
I was in my room, studying for some school test. My parents used to let me study, while they watched TV after dinner. That night they called me and showed the news to me. I recall it was CNN they were tuned into, and the second plane hit the tower right in front of my eyes.
For a second I thought this might be an emulated machine like <a href="http://oldweb.today" rel="nofollow">http://oldweb.today</a> has but it's clearly just a neat interface. Nicely done.
This is a really cool and useful project. For some reason, the TV tuner shows static on all channels for me. Is it supposed to show coverage from those stations for those times?
Nice idea. I personally can't go back to that day via something like this but I appreciate the historical necessity for such things in the age of the internet and information.
Whatever happened, it happened.<p>I'm not american, but just wanted to say I'm sorry for the good people you lost there guys.<p>Let's hope for better days ahead, more peaceful for all of us.
All I can think of is the people in Afghanistan when asked about 9/11 had never heard of it. We were attacked and then went after the wrong people.
To get a sense of how our nation felt in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the mail column Jerry Pournelle (R.I.P.) had at the time gives a very good perspective: <a href="https://jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail170.html#Tuesday" rel="nofollow">https://jerrypournelle.com/archives2/archives2mail/mail170.h...</a><p>“yes, we are at war. This is our generation's Pearl Harbor.”
Being old enough to remember this very vividly.<p>Sitting in an office in Denmark - the world did change.<p>All the political acts around terrorim that followed has been a sad experience.<p>I never truly believed in these Arabs was clever enough to pull of this stunt, and the amount of missing evidence from that date is to much.<p>Sad day to remember but even more sad that people still don't demand answers
I was in middle school in Russia back then. I remember our teacher dedicated a whole hour to watching and discussing the news. It resonated because Russia was also experiencing acts of terror by Muslim fundamentalists. It was way before USA and Russia became enemies again. Two months later Putin would visit Bush's ranch.
Metafilter was around back then, I wont link to it but its pretty easy to find the metafilter thread from that day, its a way of sensing the confusion that I remember from that day as events unfolded. Reading through it I was suprised to see that the US was sending cruise missiles into Afghanistan within about 9 hours.
If watching this footage makes you want to stand up and do something, remember that Covid-19 is killing as many people in the US every two days as died in these attacks.<p>Take small steps to make the world a better place, helping your neighbors, and you can take a stand against entropy.
Wow, such a big event in US and world history. Zero top level comment reflects the historical missteps and lessons learned during these 20 years.<p>Guys, wake up. The world is changed and there is a reason. One who cannot understand the momentum behind history, is destined to repeat them.
I'm impressed at how to little the States achieved since 9/11. A lot of war expenses with little results and now an even stronger Taliban, parading with US army war machines.<p>I remember a joke from 20 years ago: It's 2021, a son and a father are walking in front of Ground Zero and the father says "... and here the World Trade Center was standing, before it was destroyed on 9/11 by Arab terrorists"
"But dad, who are the Arabs?"<p>I guess 10 year old me didn't know how incompetent and/or corrupted by oil money our leaders are
What is the rationale for this kind of thing? What motivates a person to construct such a strange relic to 9/11 like this?<p>And how come, after doing so, did the creator fail to make any sort of reasonable points about the event?<p>This feels like some sort of opportunistic resume-building kind of project, made from the very real deaths of thousands of innocent people.<p>And not one mention was made about the US's horrific foreign policy that led to 9/11 in the first place. Such a wasted opportunity.