09/11/2026
Twenty-five years have passed since the September 11 terrorist attacks, but for millions of Americans, this is not simply a date in a history book.
It is a morning we remember.
At 8:46 AM, American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
At 9:03 AM, United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower.
At 9:37 AM, American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.
At 9:59 AM, the South Tower collapsed.
At 10:03 AM, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.
At 10:28 AM, the North Tower collapsed.
From the first impact to the fall of the North Tower, just 102 minutes had passed.
By the end of that morning, 2,977 people had been killed — 2,753 in New York, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93. The victims came from more than 90 nations.
But numbers alone cannot explain what September 11 meant.
We remember the firefighters, police officers, paramedics and ordinary citizens who ran toward danger while thousands of others were trying to escape.
We remember the phone calls made to husbands, wives, parents and children.
We remember the images on television, the uncertainty of that morning and the feeling that the world had suddenly changed.
And many of us remember exactly where we were when we first heard the news.
Maybe you were at work.
Maybe you were in school.
Maybe you were at home, driving or listening to the radio.
Maybe you remember gathering around a television with coworkers, classmates or family members trying to understand what was happening.
Now, 25 years later, there is an entire generation that knows September 11 only through video, photographs and the stories passed down by those who remember that day firsthand.
That makes those memories even more important.
Today, we invite our listeners and neighbors to share theirs.
Where were you on September 11, 2001, when you first learned something was happening?
Who were you with?
What moment from that day has stayed with you for the last 25 years?
And for those who were too young to remember, what stories about September 11 were passed down to you?
“Never Forget” means more than remembering a date.
It means remembering the people, remembering what happened, and continuing to tell those stories.
Today, WCSM remembers the 2,977 lives lost on September 11, 2001, honors those who responded, and remembers a day that changed our country forever.