9/11

In Memoriam

Plus: Rest in peace Andrew Wimsatt, Vance ascendant, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 9.11.2026 9:30 AM

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(Robert J. Fisch/Wikimedia Commons/U.S. National Archives)

Scenes from New York: Twenty-five years ago today, Islamic extremist terrorists hijacked planes headed for Los Angeles and San Francisco from Boston, Newark, and Dulles and flew them into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, killing thousands in one fell swoop. A fourth plane was headed for an unspecified location, likely in Washington, D.C., but the terrorists were overtaken by passengers who crashed the plane into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, so the hijackers could do no further damage.

Over the years, many thousands of people died from various conditions resulting from the toxic dust at Ground Zero, including first responders. And many stories have emerged of the many heroes who sacrificed themselves to save others. Here's some of the best reading about that day and its impact decades later:

"Fighting to Live as the Towers Died" from The New York Times.

A full accounting of the morning—at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville—from The Washington Post.

Pictures of lower Manhattan from 25 years ago, and today, from The New York Times.

Maybe a city forgets, from Vital City.

A tribute to Mychal Judge, FDNY chaplain, from The Irish Times:

"Judge was a man who encompassed a number of seeming contradictions. He was not a typical priest. From 1971 to 1978, he struggled with alcoholism, battling his addiction with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was gay, a fact known only by a number of his closer friends. Judge synthesised his experiences in order to access a spiritual empathy that allowed him to reach out to the poor and the dispossessed when they needed it most.

He was a peacemaker. In 1986, when Detective Steven McDonald was shot in Central Park by a youth and left paralysed, Judge prayed with the victim and later brought about a reconciliation between the two.........

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