Flight 93 passengers fought back and prevented a fourth target

American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon's west side, destroying a section of the building and killing all 59 on board, along with 125 military and civilian personnel, making it the deadliest attack on the US military headquarters.

Todd Beamer was a religious family man. Mark Bingham was gay, a PR executive and a keen sportsman. The story of Flight 93 shows how these two very different men became heroes of America.

This National Geographic episode reconstructs the events of 9/11—highlighting the Pentagon attack, Flight 93 hijacking, South Tower collapse, and rescue efforts—offering a detailed, chronological account of how the day unfolded.

On Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 lost both engines after hitting birds and was safely landed in the Hudson River. The event was a turning point for Twitter, as a photo and a tweet quickly spread—marking Twitter's rise as a real-time news source.

The Associated Press shares 20 photographers’ frames from Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers crashed commercial planes into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field.

Japan’s air assault sank or damaged 18 warships (including eight battleships) and destroyed 188 aircraft, killing 2,403 Americans, yet all three Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers were absent and survived, and vital infrastructure like oil depots and repair yards remained intact—preserving core US naval power and enabling a rapid recovery. Watch original reporting here.

As Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 climbed just over 16,000 feet into the sky, a refrigerator-sized panel was ripped from its side, forcing it to land. Few of the 171 passengers were injured. This infographic explains how the panel tore from the body of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane, which had only been in service for eight weeks.

In the weeks following 9/11, 79% of US adults reported displaying the American flag, and a year later, 62% said they "often felt patriotic" due to the attacks.

After a Japanese pilot crash-landed on the Hawaiian island of Niʻihau, residents first sheltered him. Once news of the Pearl Harbor attack arrived, two locals tried to help him escape, leading to a violent struggle in which Native Hawaiians ultimately stopped and killed him.

Before 9/11, al-Qaeda carried out several deadly attacks on US targets—including the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole—killing hundreds of people.

Rarely are there survivors when airplanes explode in air or crash due to the extreme speeds and elevation of the craft. Sometimes, though, people survive. Here are six stories of people who defied the odds and lived after falling from a plane.

Grief, conspiracy theories, and a family's search for meaning in the two decades since the attacks. On Sept. 11, 2001, Bobby McIlvaine was killed, along with nearly 3,000 other Americans. In the years since, his parents and brother have searched for...

Do you remember the photograph above? In the US, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of Sept. 11, 2001. Here's a detailed account of the story behind it, the search for the man pictured in it, and its impact on those who lived through the tragic day.

The collective defense clause of the NATO constitution has only been invoked one time: after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. This video explores the immediate actions NATO took to respond to the attacks to support the United States. These firsthand clips from 2001 give a sense of the magnitude of the moment and the difficult decisions facing NATO leaders at the time.

As the first plane struck at 8:46 a.m. ET, CNN's live feed broadcast images worldwide within minutes. An estimated 2 billion people watched the collapse of the Twin Towers live.

On any given day, over 3 million passengers fly on roughly 45,000 flights in the US. Flying today is safer than ever, but air traffic controllers deal with outdated technology that can interfere with pilot communication.

On Feb. 24-25, 1942, weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack, a US military radar warned of enemy aircraft. A citywide blackout went into effect, powerful searchlights were lit up, and US forces fired artillery at what they believed to be the enemy. However, no confirmed enemy planes were ever identified. Eyewitnesses reported seeing large objects flying overhead, and much of the public speculated about UFOs and extraterrestrial attacks.

Recovery of the intact crew cabin and later analysis of flight data led investigators to conclude the astronauts likely survived the initial breakup and remained alive during the roughly two-minute descent before the cabin struck the ocean.

On the evening of the 9/11 anniversary in 2023, a double rainbow appeared after a thunderstorm across Manhattan, providing inspiration 22 years after the terrorist attacks there. Peruse several amateur images taken of the phenomenon which were shared on social media, including shots from up high in condos overlooking Central Park and from across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

Read the story of the Flying Tigers, a unit of American pilots, many Chinese-Americans, hired by the Chinese in 1941 to fight the Japanese in the skies. While the US wasn't officially at war with Japan until later on, some of the earliest American "victories" over the Japanese were won by the Flying Tigers. Read more of this amazing bit of aviation history here.

In the final two years of the war, over 9,000 Fu-Go balloon bombs were launched from Japan, with about a thousand estimated to have reached North America. Six civilians killed by a Fu-Go bomb in Bly, Oregon, on May 5, 1945, became the only known deaths on American soil by enemy action during the war.

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Despite breaking Japan’s diplomatic codes, US agencies failed to integrate warnings, successfully track Japan’s carriers, or even believe a Hawaii strike was possible (they also had not cracked Japan’s naval codes). Missed signals, ignored reports and poor coordination led to one of the worst intelligence failures in US history.

In a Gallup poll taken days after the attack, an extraordinary 97% of Americans approved Congress declaring war on Japan—reflecting overwhelming national unity in the wake of the strike.

Against long odds, Fidel Castro launched a socialist revolution just 90 miles from the US and kept it alive for decades. This 10-part podcast traces Washington's pivot from early support to an obsessive campaign of sabotage and hundreds of alleged assassination plots.

Outraged by the US decision to allow the exiled Shah to enter the United States for medical treatment, student protesters stormed the embassy in November 1979. The crisis paralyzed the Carter presidency and ended with a negotiated release on the day of Ronald Reagan's inauguration.

This podcast recounts the 1942 Doolittle Raid, when US airmen launched a risky bombing mission over Japan just months after Pearl Harbor. The episode also highlights Jimmy Doolittle's leadership, piloting skills, and his lifelong impact on aviation.

Oliver Stone's film "JFK" (1991) imagined the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy as the result of a conspiracy by US government agents. Before the film, this belief was not common, but it became widely adopted afterward. The film's impact contributed to the release of major CIA files in subsequent decades.