How are people remembering 9/11 today?
The first DNA identifications of World Trade Center victims in two years were announced last Friday, just several days before the 22nd anniversary of 9/11, CBS News reported. They are the 1,648th and 1,649th people to be identified out of nearly 3,000.
The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, said in a statement on Friday, “We hope these new identifications can bring some measure of comfort to the families of these victims, and the ongoing efforts by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner attest to the city’s unwavering commitment to reunite all the World Trade Center victims with their loved ones.”
Though the attack was over two decades ago, communities all over the United States are coming together to remember the largest loss of life on American soil from a foreign attack.
Here’s how Americans are remembering 9/11 today.
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1. Remember the sky
A digital commemoration put on by the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Remember the Sky, is “inspired by the clear blue sky that was present in New York City and across the country on 9/11,” per the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.
Anyone in the world can engage with this commemoration by simply posting a picture of the sky and including the hashtags #neverforget911 and #rememberthesky. This commemoration was likewise inspired by the ash that hung in the air for three months after 9/11. The plume rose to a height of nearly a mile before spreading out 44 miles laterally, according to NASA.
2. Minutes of silence
At 8:46 a.m., there was a nationwide minute of silence on radio broadcasts and at schools. Also observed on Wall Street, bells, speakers and military personnel remembered the first crash of Flight 11 into the north tower.
During the 9/11 Memorial & Museum’s annual commemoration ceremony, which includes six moments of silence, will be observed for the following time-stamps. The public is also invited to participate, per ABC.
8:46 a.m. EDT: Hijackers crash Flight 11 into the north tower.
9:03 a.m.: Hijackers crash United Airlines Flight 175 into the south tower.
9:37 a.m.: Hijackers crash American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
9:59 a.m.: The south tower collapses.
10:03 a.m.: Passengers launch a counterattack on hijackers aboard United Airlines Flight 93. The hijackers crash the plane into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
10:28 a.m.: The north tower collapses.
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3. Tribute in light
The Tribute in Light consists of “88 7,000-watt lights that are set up on the roof of a parking garage near the Battery Park Tunnel — just blocks from where the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers once stood,” according to ABC.
It will run from dusk to dawn on the night of Sept. 11 and “has become an iconic symbol that both honors those killed and celebrates the unbreakable spirit of New York,” per the 9/11 Memorial. This tribute will be visible within a 60 mile radius of lower Manhattan and originally debuted six months after the attacks, in 2002.
