Collection

The Sept. 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.

Those attacks against the U.S. changed history and, unfortunately, inspired many to attempt to rewrite it.

Published Sept. 11, 2019

394261 11: Smoke pours from the World Trade Center after it was hit by two hijacjked passenger planes September 11, 2001 in New York City in an alleged terrorist attack. (Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images) (Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images)
Image Via Photo by Robert Giroux/Getty Images

“The nation was unprepared.” So wrote the authors of the The 9/11 Commission Report. And so might many witnesses remember feeling as they helplessly watched so many terrifying events unfold on Sept. 11, 2001.

Who among us could prepare to watch a commercial airplane fly into the North Tower of the World Trade Center? Or for a second to strike the South Tower minutes later? Or for yet another, at the Pentagon? Or for what would play out on Flight 93, when passengers tried to fight back?

No one could prepare for any of it — including seeing the towers fall or losing so many firefighters, police officers, and first responders, who had rushed in to help the people trapped inside.

No one was prepared to watch, in seconds, skyscrapers turn to dust.

The deadly, coordinated terror attacks against the U.S. stole nearly 3,000 lives and left behind permanent scars for countless others.

They also spurred lasting conspiracy theories and rumors that readers search on our site to this day.

What follows are some of those our fact-checkers have debunked.

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Bond Huberman is a former editor for Snopes.