9/11: Biden speaks at Pentagon ceremony honoring victims of Sept. 11, 2001, attacks

President Joe Biden was set to mark the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in a somber ceremony on a rainy day at the Pentagon on Sunday. In New York City, a moment of silence marked the moment when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

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Victims’ relatives and dignitaries convened where four hijacked jets crashed on Sept. 11, 2001 -- the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

Update 10:28 a.m. EDT Sept. 11: A bell was rung in New York City to commemorate the moment the north tower of the World Trade Center crumbled to the ground.

Update 9:55 a.m. EDT Sept. 11: President Joe Biden spoke at the Pentagon on Sunday morning, recognizing the impact the Sept. 11 attacks had on the U.S. and the world.

“Twenty-one years and we still kept our promises to never forget,’ Biden said. “These memories help us heal but also reopen the hurt.”

“Terror struck us in that brilliant blue morning,” Biden added before a crowd of 9/11 families of victims and first responders who were at the Pentagon on the day of the attack. “The air filled with smoke and then came the sirens and the stories.

“The American story itself changed that day. (But) what we will not change, what we cannot change, never will, is the character of this nation.”

Update 9:03 a.m. EDT Sept. 11: A second moment of silence was observed, marking the moment a second plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The second plane hit the south tower of the building.

Update 9:02 a.m. EDT Sept. 11: President Joe Biden laid a wreath at the Pentagon to honor the 184 people killed when a plane crashed into the Pentagon 21 years ago. All 63 people aboard the plane were killed, along with 125 people at the Pentagon.

Original report: A moment of silence was observed at 8:46 a.m. EDT, when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. New York Police Department officers, led by a band of bagpipe players, proceeded to the site. Vice President Kamala Harris was in attendance.

By tradition, political figures do not speak at the ground zero ceremony. Center stage is taken by the victims’ relatives, who read aloud the names of those people killed at the twin towers in lower Manhattan.

In his remarks, the president was expected to recognize the impact the attacks had on the U.S. and the world. He also laid a wreath at the Pentagon.

First lady Jill Biden was expected to speak at the Flight 93 National Memorial Observance in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Harris and her husband were in New York City for a ceremony at the National September 11th Memorial.

Nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida terrorists took control of four commercial flights in the northeast U.S. Two of the planes hit each of the twin towers at the World Trade Center, and one struck the Pentagon in Virginia. The fourth plane, which hijackers had turned toward Washington, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.

The first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. EDT on Sept. 11. A second plane hit the south tower at 9:03 a.m.

The plane that hit the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. struck the building’s southwest corner and sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky.

“You could feel the building shake when it hit,” Wes Miller, who was a colonel at the Pentagon in 2001, told the Army News Service in 2020. “We immediately got up and started to go through our evacuation procedures. It wasn’t very long before they started making announcements for anyone that had medical training. They needed individuals to come back into the building (after evacuating) and assist.”

The attack heavily damaged the building and claimed the lives of 184 people between the ages of 3 and 71. All 64 passengers and crew members aboard American Airlines Flight 77 were killed, along with 125 people in the Pentagon.

Flight 93, which was apparently headed toward Washington, D.C., crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m.

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NYPD police officer Ken Radigan rubs his eyes after briefly sleeping in a pew at St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel, near the site of the World Trade Center attack, September 21, 2001 in New York City. The chapel served as a relief area for rescue workers. 

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