Remembering the 9/11 attacks
Remembering the 9/11 attacks
Learn more about how the September 11 attacks were remembered in 2021.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn more about how the September 11 attacks were remembered in 2021.
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News •
Arthur Higgins, broadcaster who covered Moon landing and 9/11, dies aged 85
• Dec. 3, 2025, 8:03 PM ET (ABC News (Australia))
James Riches, Fire Chief Who Lost Firefighter Son on 9/11, Dies at 74
• Dec. 3, 2025, 11:03 AM ET (New York Times)
Transcript
Nicole DiGiacomo: “I think about this day probably every day or every other day…”
Nicole DiGiacomo: “Originally they thought it was a small plane and it was an accident. And that I wasn’t in the office long and I remember looking up at the television and seeing the second plane come in, and I went, wait, where’s that? And the second plane hit the second tower. And that’s when everyone knew it wasn’t an accident anymore.”
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in the United States, crashing three into buildings.
Some 3,000 people were killed.
Among the major moments of loss broadcast live on television,
9/11 became a nearly universal memory...
one that the American public promised to “Never Forget.”
What does remembrance look like decades later?
Alice Greenwald: “I think it is essential to tell young people, and this next generation that has no lived memory of 9/11, that as important as it is to remember the events of 9/11 and to commemorate the lives of innocent people who were killed, that it is equally essential that we remember how we responded.”
Alice Greenwald: “This country, and actually the world community, came together in a combination of shared grief and shock, but
also unity and compassion and empathy. Service to others and to community and to nation were very much privileged in that moment in time. Caring for one another. And there was a sense of hope that renewal was possible even in the face of such enormous destruction and unimaginable loss.”
Alice Greenwald: “I think so often people think of history as this objective narrative, right? And in fact, history is simply the compilation of human experience. So, at this museum, we try to teach history, I always say, from a human perspective. It isn’t a “historian’s analysis” of what happened. It is the human experience of that moment that we all knew at the time was history happening in front of us.”
Alice Greenwald: “What you hear from people when they share a remembrance of a loved one, is not the sadness of the loss. It’s what they loved about the person that’s no longer here.”
Nicole DiGiacomo: “Originally they thought it was a small plane and it was an accident. And that I wasn’t in the office long and I remember looking up at the television and seeing the second plane come in, and I went, wait, where’s that? And the second plane hit the second tower. And that’s when everyone knew it wasn’t an accident anymore.”
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in the United States, crashing three into buildings.
Some 3,000 people were killed.
Among the major moments of loss broadcast live on television,
9/11 became a nearly universal memory...
one that the American public promised to “Never Forget.”
What does remembrance look like decades later?
Alice Greenwald: “I think it is essential to tell young people, and this next generation that has no lived memory of 9/11, that as important as it is to remember the events of 9/11 and to commemorate the lives of innocent people who were killed, that it is equally essential that we remember how we responded.”
Alice Greenwald: “This country, and actually the world community, came together in a combination of shared grief and shock, but
also unity and compassion and empathy. Service to others and to community and to nation were very much privileged in that moment in time. Caring for one another. And there was a sense of hope that renewal was possible even in the face of such enormous destruction and unimaginable loss.”
Alice Greenwald: “I think so often people think of history as this objective narrative, right? And in fact, history is simply the compilation of human experience. So, at this museum, we try to teach history, I always say, from a human perspective. It isn’t a “historian’s analysis” of what happened. It is the human experience of that moment that we all knew at the time was history happening in front of us.”
Alice Greenwald: “What you hear from people when they share a remembrance of a loved one, is not the sadness of the loss. It’s what they loved about the person that’s no longer here.”
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