*Post written by James Wethington, library assistant of the University Archives and Special Collections.
On this day in 2001, over 2,900 lives were lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in a plane crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania in three separate terrorist attacks. The attack was carried out by al-Qaeda: it is “… the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in U.S. history” and first international attack on American soil since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941 (Bergen, 2017). The last terrorist attack on American soil was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, killing 168 and injuring over 500 (Jenkins, n.d.).
After September 11th, numerous events spurred such as U.S. and NATO declaring war on Afghanistan, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, passing of the Patriot Act, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 (Bergen, 2017).
References
Bergen, P. L. (2017 April 5). September 11 attacks. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/September-11-attacks
Jenkins, J. P. (n.d.) Oklahoma City bombing. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/event/Oklahoma-City-bombing
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