Tomorrow is the 20th Anniversary of 911. Some were too young to remember. Some were not alive and learned about it in history class. The rest of us probably remember exactly where we were.
I was a punk kid that had just started being on the radio. i had no business talking to people about subject matter like this. I grew up real fast. Here are the facts from 20 years ago…
1. It’s the deadliest terror attack in history. 2,977 people were killed on September 11th, 2001: 2,753 at the World Trade Center . . . 184 at the Pentagon . . . and 40 passengers and crew in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. (Many of the remains still haven’t been identified. Two more victims were just ID’d this week through DNA.)
2. 343 New York City firefighters . . . 23 NYPD officers . . . and 37 Port Authority officers lost their lives. Over 6,000 people were also injured. (Thousands of deaths have also been linked to health problems caused by toxic dust at Ground Zero.)
3. More than 80 nationalities lost at least one life that day. The British lost the second highest number of people. 372 non-Americans were killed, including 67 Brits.
4. 20 people were pulled out of the World Trade Center rubble alive. The last survivor was trapped 27 hours before she was rescued.
5. The attacks were devastating, but Americans came together. In the first two days after 9/11, more than 1.5 million units of blood were donated nationwide. And that September alone, people donated $657 million to help the victims’ families.
By the end of the year, over $2 BILLION had been donated. Around 60% of Americans gave money, donated blood, or volunteered in various ways. (WeAreTheMighty.com did a great article a while back called “7 Incredible Stories of Heroism on 9/11.”)
Do you remember where you were when the world as we knew it changed forever?
