Oral+History+Topic

Topic - World Trade Center Bombing (9/11) Interview Subject -Mom-Melinda Florsheim

On September 11th an event happened that changed the way we look at the world, on that date the worst, and most well known act of terrorism ever in the US occurred. The even included the destruction of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, and a large part of the Pentagon. Terrorists hijacked 4 different planes, and crashed one into each of the Twin Towers, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania; it is suspected that the plane crashed into the field because the passengers attempted to overthrow the hijackers. We believe that the plane was headed for either the White House or Camp David.

The first plane ( American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston) crashed into the North Tower at 8:45 AM, the second plane (United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston) crashed into the South Tower at 9:03 AM. The Federal Aviation Administration then stopped all air traffic at 9:40, this was the first time in history that all air traffic was stopped. They also ordered to stop all incoming flights from Canada. The order did not come soon enough, at 9:43 AM the American Airlines Flight 77 from Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C collided into the Pentagon. Soon following at 10:10 AM United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All of the flights were cross-country flights, and all were carrying a full load of fuel.

Both the North and South Towers collapsed, the South Tower collapsed at 10:05 AM and the North at 10:28 AM. Thousands of people were killed trying to escape the building, and some near the building were also killed by debris. This occurrence followed with the evacuation of almost all federal buildings in the US, and all US federal buildings in other countries.

President Bush became the first president to address an emergency joint session of Congress since FDR gave his war message to Congress on behalf of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The aftermath of 9/11 caused the US government to look for a way to stop terrorism. Since the attack affected many different ethnicity's the US had large support from over 100 other countries to try to stop terrorism.

There are many different "explanations" on 9/11 but the person that has been blamed the most is Osama Bin Laden. He has been linked to many other terrorist attacks which is what makes him the prime suspect.

Brown, Chip. " 11 September 2004 Third Anniversary: A Letter from New York Written at 3 AM 12 September 2001." Web.16 May 2009. .

"World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks." __American History__. 2009. ABC-CLIO. 18 May 2009 .
media type="custom" key="3902329" media type="youtube" key="J0Qu6eyyr4c" height="344" width="425"

media type="youtube" key="ulMKlBinqYI" height="344" width="425"

media type="youtube" key="dqMmCZobl4M" height="344" width="425" media type="youtube" key="paWiZ2Y8fRg" height="344" width="425"
 * Planes go fast, a surveillance camera might not be able to pick it up, take that into consideration before thinking that there was no plane.**