On 11 September 2001, four hijacked planes killed nearly 3,000 people, a date that falls at the height of the US presidential election period every four years.
ADVERTISEMENTThe United States is marking 23 years since the September 11 terror attacks, when nearly 3,000 people were killed in the coordinated hijack of four airplanes.
The planes purposely crashed into the Pentagon, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre and a field in Pennsylvania.
President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald Trump and Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance attended the 9/11 memorial ceremony at the World Trade Centre in New York.
Biden and Harris are also set to attend similar events in Pennsylvania and the Pentagon, while Trump will visit the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville in Pennsylvania.
Since 2012 politicians have been excluded from speaking at anniversary ceremonies in order to place more focus on survivors and relatives of victims.
The 9/11 attacks have left a scar on American history, leaving thousands of bereaved relatives and traumatised survivors.
They also altered US foreign policy and domestic security practices and shifted the mindset of many Americans who had not previously felt vulnerable to attacks by foreign extremists.
Effects rippled around the world and through generations as the US responded by leading a “Global War on Terrorism,” which included invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those operations killed hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis and thousands of American troops, and Afghanistan became the site of the United States’ longest war.
As the complex legacy of 9/11 continues to evolve, communities around the country have developed remembrance traditions that range from laying wreaths to displaying flags, from marches to police radio messages. Volunteer projects also mark the anniversary, which Congress has titled both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.
At ground zero, presidents and other officeholders read poems, parts of the Declaration of Independence and other texts during the first several anniversaries.
But that ended after the National 11 September Memorial and Museum decided in 2012 to limit the ceremony to relatives reading victims’ names.
