On September 11…

History is often not for the faint of heart. There are hard lessons to be learned and while it may be easier to tuck a few of them into a vault and lock them away forever, neither you nor I can do that.
While there were several “happy” events that took place on this date in history, many others stagger the imagination. They are not by any stretch, pleasant reminders of where we have been, but they are all a part of our history.
This Is Our Story.

As tragic as September 11, 2001 was, it does not stand alone
The date of September 11 is truly a date from Hell
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1297 – William Wallace and Andrew Moray led an army of 6,000 Scots to victory over an English Army of 10,000 at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
The battle was depicted in the film Braveheart, although the battle scene – and the entire movie – was filled with numerous historical errors.
The battle was fought on and near a wooden bridge, not in an open field. Before the English could finish crossing, the Scots attacked. In the frenzy to retreat back over the bridge, the whole thing collapsed into the River Forth. Many of the English drowned while those trapped on the wrong side were slaughtered by the Scots.
The rebuilt bridge (shown above with the Wallace Monument in the background) is approximately 200 feet downstream of the original bridge.
In summary … The events in the film aren’t accurate, the dates aren’t accurate, the characters aren’t accurate, the names aren’t accurate, and the clothes aren’t accurate.
So even though Braveheart was, in director Mel Gibson’s words, “cinematically compelling,” it remains one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever produced.

1609 – Explorer Henry Hudson sailed into New York harbor and discovered Manhattan Island and the river which would bear his name – 392 years to the day before that island would be the site of the worst attack on American soil in history.

1649 – At the Massacre of Drogheda, Ireland, Oliver Cromwell – Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England – ordered the deaths of 3,000 English Royalist and Irish Confederate soldiers.
The day before, Cromwell had a letter delivered to Millmount Fort, warning the governor, Sir Arthur Aston, of the consequences if he refused to surrender.
Even though his garrison was critically short of gunpowder and ammunition, Aston did refuse, and so on this date, Cromwell’s forces, outnumbering the Irish by a 4-to-1 ratio, crushed the opposition.
In an act of unparalleled savagery and treachery beyond any slaughterhouse, Cromwell’s troops also murdered an estimated 2,000 civilians.
According to British historian John Morrill, the massacre at Drogheda, “was without straightforward parallel in 17th century British or Irish history.”

1683 – 150,000 warriors from the Muslim Ottoman Empire, led by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha, began a 2-day battle at Kahlenberg mountain in Vienna against the Holy Roman Empire (in league with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) under the command of King John III Sobieski.
The Battle of Vienna was notable for the largest cavalry charge in history – 18,000 Polish horsemen charging down the hills and routing the Ottoman forces – leaving 15,000 Turks dead.

1697 – It was another bad day for the Turks.
The Ottoman army, led by Sultan Mustafa II, was overtaken by the Austrians under Prince Eugene of Savoy as it was crossing the Tisa River near present day Senta, Vojvodina, Serbia.
As his troops were raining down gunfire on the helpless Turks, Eugene mounted an additional assault on the rear flanks of the Turkish army, leaving the Turks hemmed in between the river and Eugene’s army.
More than 10,000 Ottoman troops drowned in the river. Up to 20,000 more soldiers were slaughtered on the battlefield.
The Battle of Zenta was arguably the most ignominious defeat ever inflicted on the Turkish Empire. The threat of Ottoman dominance over Europe was ended forever.

1776 – The Staten Island Peace Conference took place at Billop Manor on Staten Island, NY.
The participants were the British Admiral Lord Richard Howe, and members of the Second Continental Congress – John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Rutledge.
The conference, held only days after the British capture of Long Island, lasted just three hours and was a failure. The Americans insisted on recognition of their recently declared independence, and Howe’s limited authority was inadequate to deal with that development.
When Lord Howe stated he could not view the American delegates as anything but British subjects, Adams – never one to hold his tongue – replied, “Your lordship may consider me in what light you please, except that of a British subject.”
Four days after the conference, British troops landed on Manhattan and occupied New York City.

1777 – General Sir William Howe and General Charles Cornwallis launched a full-scale British attack on General George Washington and the Patriot outpost at Brandywine Creek near Chadds Ford, in Delaware County, PA.
A combined 30,000 troops fought at Brandywine, more than any other battle of the American Revolution. It was also the longest single-day battle of the war, with continuous fighting for 11 hours.
Washington’s defeat left Philadelphia vulnerable.
The British captured the city two weeks later.

1814 – At the Battle of Plattsburgh (a/k/a Battle of Lake Champlain), British forces were defeated, effectively bringing an end to the War of 1812.
The British, with 9,000 troops available, held a strong manpower advantage over the 3,000 U.S. regulars, but the addition of 2,000 volunteers from the Vermont militia – and 700 more from New York – turned the tide.

1851 – Maryland planter Edward Gorsuch was shot and killed by African Americans in Christiana, PA as he tried to take possession of three young men who had escaped from his ownership two years earlier.
Gorsuch had information that his slaves were at William Parker’s farmhouse. Parker – a former slave – had received word that Gorsuch, a federal marshal and others were on their way to his farmhouse.
Both sides were resolute in their determination to prevail: Parker convinced of the immorality of slavery, and Gorsuch confident in the law and his right to own slaves. There are conflicting stories of why and how the shooting started, but it resulted in the death of Gorsuch and severe wounding of his son Dickinson.
In the days that followed, several groups of vigilantes terrorized African Americans living in Lancaster County in search of participants in the riot. Parker and his family had already fled to Canada, traveling through Rochester, NY, where abolitionist Frederick Douglass helped them obtain passage on a steamer to Toronto.
The law was swift in its response. A grand jury in Lancaster County indicted thirty-eight men on 117 counts of treason – the largest number of Americans ever charged with treason in the history of the United States – including Castner Hanway, one of five white men charged and alleged to be the ringleader.
Following an eighteen-day trial, Hanway was acquitted by a jury after 15 minutes of deliberation.
Lacking witnesses who could definitively testify to their guilt, the grand jury also dropped all of the charges against the other men in custody. In the end, the state courts failed to indict anyone for any crimes associated with the Christiana riot.
The Christiana “Tragedy,” as it became known, ignited a nation increasingly divided over the issue of slavery.
Many in the South viewed the failure of the Pennsylvania courts to convict any of the dozens of men who had participated in the riot that resulted in Gorsuch’s murder a willful violation of federal law; a violation that threatened the property rights of Southerners and the stability of the Union. Northern abolitionists, however, viewed it as a victory of liberty against the vile institution of slavery and slave hunters.
If nothing else, what happened in Christiana on that fateful September 11 would one day have a profound effect on the nation.
Edward Gorsuch’s youngest son, Thomas Gorsuch, and his schoolmate – a 13-year old named John Wilkes Booth – swore revenge for his death.

1857 – SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot sidewheel steamer that operated between Central America and the eastern coast of the United States during the 1850s.
On September 9, the ship – with 477 passengers and 101 crew members (and carrying 13-15 tons of gold) – was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas.
By September 11, the 105 mph winds and heavy seas had shredded her sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to fail. A leak in one of the seals between the paddle wheel shafts and the ship’s sides sealed its fate.
At noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire. Steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the bilge pumps. The paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind failed as the ship settled by the stern. The passengers and crew flew the ship’s flag inverted (a distress sign in the U.S.) to signal a passing ship. No one came.
A bucket brigade was formed, and her passengers and crew spent the night fighting a losing battle against the rising water. The second half of the storm then struck. The ship was now on the verge of foundering.
The story continues tomorrow

1857 – Approximately 120 men, women and children in a wagon train traveling from Arkansas and Missouri to California were murdered by Mormon militiamen at the Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah.
In the summer of 1857, the Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance ad spent months preparing for a siege. They stockpiled grain and were warned about selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed.
They sought to enlist the help of Native American tribes in fighting the “Americans,” encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.
Intending to give the appearance of Native American aggression, the militia’s plan was to arm a band of Southern Paiute Native Americans and persuade them to join with a larger party of their own militiamen – disguised as Native Americans – in an attack.
During the militia’s first assault on the wagon train (Sept. 7) the emigrants fought back, and a five-day siege ensued.
The wagon train was running low on water and provisions and allowed several approaching members of the militia – who carried a white flag – to enter their camp. The militia members assured the emigrants they were protected and escorted them from the hasty fortification.
After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of auxiliary forces hiding nearby, attacked the travelers and killed all of them they thought were old enough to be potential witnesses to report the attack.
Seventeen children, all younger than seven, were the only travelers spared.

1916 – The Quebec Bridge – a road, rail and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Quebec City and Lévis, Quebec, Canada – collapsed for the second time in nine years.
In 1907, 75 workers were killed and 11 injured when the bridge, the design of which was later determined to be insufficient to support its own weight, completely collapsed.
On September 11, 1916, the center span of the bridge fell into the St. Lawrence River while it was being hoisted into place, killing 13 workers.

1921 – Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, a silent-film era performer at the height of his fame, was arrested in San Francisco for the rape and murder of aspiring actress Virginia Rappe.
Arbuckle was later acquitted by a jury, but the scandal essentially put an end to his career.

1939 – Lieutenant Commander H.G. Bowerman, Commander of HMS Oxley and Able Seaman Gluckes, a lookout, were rescued at sea by the crew of HMS Triton.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is Oxley had been torpedoed hours earlier by … Triton!
On the evening of September 10, a lookout on the Triton had spotted another vessel off the coast of Norway. After four challenges over several minutes with a box lamp went unanswered, Lieutenant Commander Hugh Patrick de Crecy Steel, Commander of Triton, determined that he was seeing a German U-boat and fired two torpedoes, sinking Oxley and killing 53 members of the crew..
A Board of Enquiry found that Steel had done all he reasonably could in the circumstances, and the first Allied submarine casualty of World War II was due to “friendly fire.”
During the war, the loss of Oxley was attributed to an accidental explosion. After the war, it was explained to have been a collision with Triton. The truth was not revealed until the 1950s.

1941 – In a speech at an America First rally at the Des Moines Coliseum in Iowa, aviator Charles Lindbergh sparked charges of anti-Semitism when he blamed “the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration” for trying to draw the United States into World War II.
“No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”
Response to his speech was immediate and angry.
Time magazine ran an editorial blasting Lindbergh as a Nazi sympathizer.
“Last week freedom-loving U.S. citizens – heirs of Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and a great host of heroes – had genuinely good reason to fear that Freedom might perish from their land.
For last week Charles Augustus Lindbergh and Gerald Prentice Nye cast aside all but the last veil of pretense and, in the pattern established by Adolf Hitler years ago, sought to make the Jews a public national issue in the U.S.”
President Roosevelt was even more direct – albeit privately. He told Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, “If I should die tomorrow, I want you to know this, I am absolutely convinced Lindbergh is a Nazi.”
He also wrote to Secretary of War Henry Stimson: “When I read Lindbergh’s speech I felt that it could not have been better put if it had been written by Goebbels himself.”

1941 – Construction on the Pentagon began – 60 years to the day before the terrorist attacks of 2001.
The U.S. War Department was rapidly expanding in anticipation that the United States would be drawn into World War II. Secretary of War Henry Stinson told President Franklin Roosevelt that a permanent building was needed; one large enough to hold 40,000 people.
Requirements for the new building were that it be no more than five stories tall, and that it use a minimal amount of steel. The requirements meant that instead of rising vertically, the building would be sprawling over a large area.
With a square or rectangle shape ruled out, the building design was modified into a pentagon which was reminiscent of a 17th-century fortress or a “star fort” Civil War battlement, such as Fort McHenry (shown above).
The Pentagon included a five-acre central plaza, which was informally known as “ground zero” – a nickname originating during the Cold War on the presumption that it would be targeted by the Soviet Union at the outbreak of nuclear war.

1944 – A Royal Air Force bombing raid on Darmstadt, Germany created a firestorm which had devastating results.
To create the firestorm, a number of incendiary bombs were dropped around the city before explosive blast bombs were dropped, thus beginning a self-sustaining combustion process in which winds generated by the fire ensured it continued to burn until everything possible has been consumed.
An estimated 12,500 of the inhabitants burned to death, and 70,000 were left homeless

1945 – Hideki Tojo, Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, tried to avoid the gallows by attempting suicide.
After Japan’s unconditional surrender in 1945, General Douglas MacArthur ordered the arrest of forty alleged war criminals, including Tojo. As American soldiers surrounded Tojo’s house to serve the arrest warrant, he shot himself in the chest with a pistol but missed his heart.
Tojo was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes and found guilty of, among other things, waging wars of aggression; war in violation of international law; unprovoked or aggressive war against various nations; and ordering, authorizing, and permitting inhumane treatment of prisoners of war.
He was executed by hanging on December 23, 1948.
Crimes committed by Imperial Japan were responsible for the deaths of millions, some estimate between 3 million and 14 million civilians and prisoners of war through massacre, human experimentation, starvation, and forced labor that was either directly perpetrated or condoned by the Japanese military and government with a significant portion of them occurring during Tojo’s rule of the military.

1954 – The 28th Miss America pageant, held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, NJ, marked the first live nationally televised broadcast of the annual event.
Miss California – Lee Meriwether, who later came to fame as co-star of the television series Barnaby Jones and as the ‘Catwoman’ character in the 1966 film version of Batman — was the winner.

1959 – Actor Paul Douglas died of a heart attack at the age of 52.
Among his more than 40 films, Douglas is best remembered for two baseball comedy movies; It Happens Every Spring and Angels in the Outfield.

1962 – The Beatles recorded their first single, Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You, at EMI Studios – long before the name was changed to Abbey Road Studios – in London.
Producer George Martin brought in drummer Andy White (pictured above), for the session and relegated Ringo Starr to playing a tambourine. White’s version can be heard on the Please Please Me album, while Ringo’s drumming (recorded one week earlier) was heard on the single.
There is a very easy way to tell the difference between the two versions. If you can hear a tambourine, then you’re listening to Andy White – who died in 2015 – on drums.

1967 – The Carol Burnett Show debuted on CBS. The show would run until 1978 and win 25 prime-time Emmy Awards.

1967 – The Beach Boys recorded Never Learn Not To Love.
Manson Factoid: The song – released as the b-side of the Bluebirds Over The Mountain single and on the band’s 20/20 album – was notable for one reason. It was written by Charles Manson (yes, that Charles Manson) under the title of Cease To Exist.
The Beach Boys changed the key phrase to “cease to resist”, but otherwise left the melody essentially unchanged. Dennis Wilson – not Manson – was credited as the writer of the song.
Manson Factoid #2: Manson exchanged his writing credit for a sum of cash and a motorcycle, but was incensed when he learned that Wilson had changed his original lyrics.
Beach Boys collaborator Van Dyke Parks recalled that Manson brought a bullet and showed it to Dennis, who asked, “What’s this?” Manson replied, “It’s a bullet. Every time you look at it, I want you to think how nice it is your kids are still safe.”
Manson Factoid #3: During Manson’s trial for the 1969 Tate/LaBianca murders, he released his debut studio album, Lie: The Love and Terror Cult. It included Manson’s original arrangement of Cease To Exist.
Only 300 albums were reportedly sold.

1970 – Ford introduced the Pinto under the tagline The Little Carefree Car.
That proved to be far from the truth.
1 / Less than two months after introduction, 26,000 Pintos were recalled to address a possible problem with the accelerator sticking on once engaged at more than halfway.
2 / On March 29, 1971, Ford recalled 220,000 Pintos to address a possible problem with fuel vapors in the engine air filter igniting by a backfire through the carburetor.
3 / The Pinto’s design positioned its fuel tank between the rear axle and the rear bumper. The Pinto’s vulnerability to fuel leakage and fire in a rear-end collision was exacerbated by reduced rear “crush space”, a lack of structural reinforcement in the rear, and an “essentially ornamental” rear bumper.
4 / On June 9, 1978, days before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was to issue Ford a formal recall order, Ford recalled 1.5 million Ford Pintos and Mercury Bobcats, the largest recall in automotive history at the time.
Ford finally cancelled production of the car in 1980.
The controversy surrounding the Pinto has resulted in inclusion in retrospective automotive lists. In 2004, Forbes included the Pinto among its fourteen Worst Cars of All Time, saying “When people talk about how bad American small cars created an opportunity for the Japanese to come in and clean house in the 1970s and ’80s, they are referring to vehicles like this.”
In 2008, Time magazine included the Pinto in The Fifty Worst Cars of All Time, citing the Pinto’s “rather volatile nature. The car tended to erupt in flame in rear-end collisions.”

1971 – Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, one of the most significant figures of the Cold War, died at the age of 77.
The 1962 Cuban missile crisis was viewed as a terrible embarrassment for the Soviet Union. In 1964, Khrushchev’s opponents organized a political coup against him and he was forced into retirement.
The remainder of his life was rather solitary as he was forgotten by most and reviled by many in Russia.

1973 – Chile’s armed forces staged a coup d’état against the government of President Salvador Allende.
He survived the attack but reportedly committed suicide – although many still believe he was murdered – as troops stormed the burning palace.

1974 – Little House On The Prairie premiered on NBC.
The program would run for nine seasons.

1976 – A group of Croatian nationalists planted a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal.
After stating their political demands, they revealed the location and provided instructions for disarming the bomb. The disarming operation was not executed properly and the bomb exploded, killing Brian Murray, a NYPD bomb squad specialist.

1977 – Irony Department…
Bing Crosby and David Bowie filmed a scene for Bing’s last Christmas TV special, singing a medley of Little Drummer Boy and Peace On Earth.

1977 – Steve Biko, leader of South Africa’s “Black Consciousness Movement,” was dumped, naked and shackled, on the floor of a police vehicle and driven 740 miles to Pretoria Central Prison.
How and why he was in that situation (and condition) still defies belief.
Biko and an associate had been arrested on August 18 and held prisoner under the 1967 Terrorism Act that allowed indefinite detention without trial for the purposes of interrogation in solitary confinement.
On the morning of September 6, Biko was being interrogated by five policemen when a “scuffle” erupted. Biko was beaten with a pipe, and thrown headfirst into a wall, after which he collapsed. The policemen then shackled Biko upright to a security gate with his arms spread out and his feet chained to the gate, in a crucifixion position. They left Biko chained to the gate and did not call for a doctor for 24 hours.
District surgeons employed by the government examined Biko on September 7. Despite evidence of neurological damage, the doctors did not record any external injuries.
When Biko’s condition did not improve and he lapsed into semi-consciousness, Dr. Benjamin Tucker recommended that Biko be sent to a hospital. On September 11, the security police transported Biko to Pretoria Central Prison (without any medical records).
Biko died the next day, shortly after his arrival in Pretoria.
An autopsy revealed an “extensive brain injury” had caused “centralization of the blood circulation to such an extent that there had been intravasal blood coagulation, acute kidney failure, and uremia”.
In announcing his death, South African authorities claimed Biko died after refusing food and water for a week in a hunger strike.

1978 – Gerald and Charlene Adelle Gallego began a two-year killing spree in Sacramento, CA. They killed a total of 10 victims, mostly teenagers they kept as sex slaves before killing them.
In 1984, Gerald Gallego was tried for murder in both California and Nevada (where several of the murders took place). In exchange for her testimony against Gerald, Charlene was not charged in California and she agreed to plead guilty to murder and received a sentence of sixteen years and eight months in Nevada.
Gerald was convicted in both states and sentenced to death in both of them, but he died in prison before his sentence could be carried out.
Charlene Gallego was released from prison in Nevada in July 1997.

1985 – Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds recorded his 4,192nd base hit, breaking Ty Cobb’s career record.

1987 – Actor Lorne Greene of Bonanza and Battlestar Galactica fame died of complications from pneumonia, following ulcer surgery. He was 72.
Long before he became a household name on American television, Greene – a native Canadian – was the news anchor on the CBC National News and his deep, authoritarian voice quickly propelled him to prominence as Canada’s top newscaster.

1987 – Dan Rather, angered because CBS decided to shorten the CBS Evening News to broadcast the end of a U.S. Open tennis tournament, walked off the set and caused the network to “go black” for six minutes.

1987 – Musician Peter Tosh – second only in reggae fame to the legendary Bob Marley – was murdered during a home invasion.
Tosh was one of the core members of Marley’s band (The Wailers), after which he established himself as a successful solo artist.
Dennis Lobban, a man whom Tosh had previously befriended and tried to help find work after a long jail sentence, entered Tosh’s home with a small gang of friends and attempted to rob the singer.
Even though Tosh claimed he had no money in the house, the gang tortured him for several hours before losing patience and shooting Tosh and his houseguests in the head. Tosh died instantly, as did two of his friends, though three others somehow survived.
Lobban was sentenced to death by hanging for his crime, though his sentence was later commuted and he remains in prison in Jamaica.

1988 – The Saint-Jean Bosco massacre took place in Haiti.
At the conclusion of a three-hour rampage on the Saint-Jean Bosco church packed with 1000 parishioners, the church was burned down thereby making it impossible to verify the total number of deaths.
The massacre was carried out without resistance by police or the army, despite the church being opposite a barracks. According to one witness, the police and army provided protection for the attackers encircling the church.

1991 – A Continental Express commuter plane bound for Houston crashed after breaking up in mid-air, killing 14 people. The aircraft wreckage hit an area near Eagle Lake, TX, located approximately 65 miles from its destination.
The Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia aircraft was scheduled for maintenance the afternoon before its scheduled 7 a.m. flight on this date. Short of workers, an inspector was drafted to assist the afternoon maintenance crew.
The inspector worked on putting the screws on the horizontal stabilizer but did not finish the job. When his shift was over, he told the foreman about the remaining screws but did not write it down, as proper procedure required.
The foreman failed to tell the workers on the late-night shift about the unfinished work; they saw the horizontal stabilizer in its correct position but did not notice that all the screws were not properly in place.

1992 – Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful hurricane to strike the state of Hawaii in recorded history, slammed into the island of Kauai with sustained winds of 145 miles per hour – and gusts as high as 225 mph.
Over 1,400 houses were destroyed and more than 5,000 more were severely damaged. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center failed to issue tropical cyclone warnings and watches 24 hours in advance, yet miraculously, only six deaths ensued.

1994 – Academy Award winning actress Jessica Tandy died at the age of 85.
She appeared in over 100 stage productions, winning the Tony Award for Best Actress three times. Her movie career was equally successful. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in Driving Miss Daisy, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fried Green Tomatoes.

1998 – Independent counsel Kenneth Starr sent a report to the U.S. Congress accusing President Bill Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses.
The report offered graphic details of Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct and leveled accusations of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2001 – In a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda, the United States suffered the darkest day in its history.
Two hijacked aircraft crashed into the North and South towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center complex in New York City. Within an hour and 42 minutes, both 110-story towers collapsed, with debris and the resulting fires causing partial or complete collapse of other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower, as well as significant damage to ten other large surrounding structures.
A third plane smashed into The Pentagon, while a fourth plane crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
A total of 2,977 innocent people were killed.
President George W. Bush addressed the nation that evening.
“Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices: secretaries, business men and women, military and Federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.”
Although al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, initially denied any involvement, he claimed responsibility in 2004 for the attacks, citing U.S. support of Israel, the presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, and sanctions against Iraq as motives.
They say the wheels of justice turn slowly — but now they’ve ground to a virtual halt. Eighteen years after the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, five 9/11 suspects — including self-avowed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — have not faced trial.
Prosecutors, seeking the death penalty for all five men, have attempted for years to try the case, but a constantly shifting venue, questions over coerced evidence and the limitations of holding trials at Guantanamo Bay have slowed the case to a crawl.
Defense attorneys, in an effort to ensure Mohammed gets the fair trial they say he deserves under U.S. law, contend that much of the evidence U.S. officials gathered during interviews with Mohammed was gained through torture and that they haven’t been given clear answers from the federal government on what role “enhanced interrogation techniques” played in getting a confession.
David Nevin, Mohammed’s lead attorney, has said, “It doesn’t make any difference how big the case is, how awful the circumstances of 9/11 were. It’s a criminal prosecution in the United States of America, and it has to be fair.”
Nevin argued that the charges against Mohammed contain numerous technical problems, mainly that he is charged with “murder in violation of the law of war” and similar crimes.
“There was no war on September 11,” Nevin contends.
Personal Opinion: Bullshit.
The attacks on September 11 were an act of war

2001 – Terrible Timing, Part 1:
Dream Theater, a progressive metal band, released a live album (Live Scenes from New York).
The cover depicted an apple (as in “Big Apple”) and a burning New York City skyline (including the World Trade Center buildings) in the flame above the apple.
The album was quickly recalled by the band and was re-released with revised artwork.

2001 – Terrible Timing, Part 2:
A rap group named The Coup were scheduled to release a new album called Party Music.
The original album cover art depicted the 2 group members standing in front of the World Trade Center towers as they are destroyed by huge explosions in the background.
By an incredible coincidence, the album cover was designed and finished in June 2001, 3 months prior to the 9/11 attacks, and was originally scheduled to be released in mid-September.
In response to the uncanny similarity to the September 11 attacks, the album release was delayed until November of that year, and the released album cover was completely changed.

2002 – Academy Award winning actress Kim Hunter died of a heart attack at the age of 79.
She was best known for her performance as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, which earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

2002 – Football Hall of Fame quarterback Johnny Unitas died at the age of 69.
Unitas, a two-time NFL Most Valuable Player, is considered by many as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time.

2003 – Actor John Ritter died during surgery to repair a torn aortic dissection. He was 54.
He was best known for playing Jack Tripper on the ABC sitcom Three’s Company, and for his masterful dramatic performance in the film Sling Blade.

2009 – Larry Gelbart, most famous as a creator and producer of the television series M*A*S*H, died of cancer at the age of 81.
Gelbart’s best known screen work was Tootsie, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

2010 – Actor Kevin McCarthy died of pneumonia at the age of 96.
Although he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Death Of A Salesman, McCarthy was perhaps best known for his role in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

2012 – The U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was stormed, looted and burned down, resulting in the deaths of U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and Information Officer Sean Smith.
Several hours later, a second assault targeted a different compound about one mile away, killing CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
Initially, top U.S. officials and the media reported that the Benghazi attack was a spontaneous protest triggered by an anti-Muslim video, Innocence of Muslims. Subsequent investigations determined that there was no such protest and that the incident started as a premeditated attack that was quickly joined by rioters and looters.
On September 28 – 17 days after the attack – a spokesman for the Director of National Intelligence stated “As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists.”

2014 – Bob Crewe, producer and co-writer of many hits by the Four Seasons, died at the age of 83.
Together with Four Seasons keyboardist Bob Gaudio, Crewe co-wrote and produced a string of Top 10 singles for the group, including Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like A Man, Rag Doll, Silence Is Golden, Dawn (Go Away), and Sherry.
Crewe and Gaudio also teamed up to write My Eyes Adored You and Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, both smash solo hits for Frankie Valli.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2019 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.