On September 11, 2001, a group of nineteen terrorists attacked the Unites States. In separate yet coordinated incidents, they hijacked four airplanes in mid-flight. They flew two of these planes into the two skyscrapers of New York’s World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, which destroyed the buildings and much of the surrounding neighborhood.  They flew another plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.  A fourth plane, originally intended to target either the White House or the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., crashed in a remote hillside location near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.  In total, 2,996 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, including 246 people on the four airplanes, 2,606 in the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center, and 125 people at the Pentagon.

People from 92 countries died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. See Casualties by Country for more information.