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Google on 9/11  (View post)

jf [PersonRank 5]

Monday, September 11, 2006
17 years ago15,104 views


i remember the CNN site going entirely text based that day, such was the amount of traffic.

pretty sure the BBC had to do the same as well.

Aaron Bassett [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Was sitting in a bus station when friend got an SMS saying the towers & pentagon had been hit. I still remember both of us being confused when we scrolled to the end of the SMS and there was no punchline.

Ludwik Trammer [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I was in... Polish Harry Potter chatroom and for about first five minutes I thought they are talking about a movie, or something... I was 15.

Teodor Filimon [PersonRank 3]

17 years ago #

I was 15 too, and ironically i was watching CNN when it happened; btw i compiled on my blog a small list of other interesting events (and birthdays) which happened on September 11th throughout history: http://teodorfilimon.blogspot.com/2006/09/911-what-else-happened-on-september.html

[Permalinked the link. -Philipp]

Char [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Yes. I had just taken my daughter to preschool and heard of the first airplane on the radio on the way home. I got back to the house and turned on CNN and watched the rest of it unfold on TV. I was in shock. My husband was out of town and was due to return that fateful day. I knew he was not scheduled to be on a commercial airline, but I was still terrified. That day changed our lives forever.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Danny Sullivan points to this overview of how other search engines reacted that day:
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2164171

jf [PersonRank 5]

17 years ago #

my friend had a very very freaky experience.

he was on a city-break in Amsterdam, and he was in one of those hash cafes. He didnt realise it WASN'T a hollywood film until he saw the newspaper headlines the next day.

jf [PersonRank 5]

17 years ago #

first time i heard about it , was during my lunchtime coffee (i was in the UK). on the Yahoo site there was a headline about a small aircraft hitting the WTC. i remember turning around to my colleagues pointing it out to them. it didnt appear to be a big disaster initially. we didnt really think anything of it , beyond a slight curiosity about an odd accident.

a few minutes later , yahoo changed the headline & story to report that it was actually a passenger jet... and thats when we knew something very very big was happening.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

yes, 5yrs ago, this time @ 8.54 PM, we had the first confirmed red alert.

As we were sitatuted close to a major Airport, we dived into a crisis mode meeting. I can still remember the faces of my co workers and friend as we watched the second plane zoom into the north tower.

There were tears, disbelif, ridiculus comment. But, there was also a sense of bewilderment and the feeling of being lost, scared and lonely.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

not sure if this is the ribbon for the anniversary or not!!

http://slash.pd.googlepages.com/911ribbon.gif

Allison [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I remember I was eating eggs and toast at my dinner table when my uncle came in and said "The towers are gone" Instantly I went to the TV and new exactly what he was talking about. He said that before they even fell to the ground. I just remember how confused I was, I was 18, and was terrified for the nation. I will never forgot that day, b/c it touched my life even when I didn't know a single person in new york that day.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Google put up a special video page showcasing "7 Days in September":
http://video.google.com/911anniversary.html

TerrenceM [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Is there a reason Google isn't memorializing 9/11 on it's front page? I know they steer clear of political stuff, but I haven't read anything about the specifics of 9/11. Just curious....

Josue R. [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

My experience that day was like a moment of history similar to the famous 1938 radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" when everyone paniced and thought we were all under attack, but i was only young in the middle of class and everyone was glued to CNN/FoxNews/etc at once to reconfirm over and over that it was not a joke or a fake movie scene. It didn't really hit me that it was real until the second plane hit and notice all news stations websites unreachable.

Gary Price [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Ask.com has a "Smart Answer" with numerous 9/11 informational resources located at the top of the results page. Searches for 9/11
http://www.ask.com/web?q=9%2F11+&qsrc=0&o=333&l=dir
or
September 11th will trigger.
http://www.ask.com/web?q=september+11&qsrc=1&o=333&l=dir

On ResourceShelf we've also posted many links to a ton of resources including a couple of sites that have front pages from newspapers around the world from 9/11/2001. We also have video from PBS.

We also link to a free archive containing over 50,000 full text articles about the topic. Content is free and full image. Delivered in PDF.
http://www.september11archive.com/

See:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/09/11/arlington-county-virginia-public-library-home-of-the-pentagon-offers-september-11th-resources/

and

http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/09/07/september-11th-resources-and-archives/
Links to newspaper front pages.

/pd [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Gary, what were you doing on 9.11 morning ?

I mean, I totally understand that resourceshelf has numerous 9/11 informational resources, but do you remember what you were doing that morning ??

Brian [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I had stayed up all night playing everquest. I was on summer break from college, and was 19. I remember logging off after being up all night and visited a gaming news site, voodooextreme, and the first post was, "a plane just crashed into the world trade center!"

i went out to the living room and turned on the tv, and watched from that point on.

Tom [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

lol.
i can remember hearing about it at school. i live in the uk, and rumours that something was up started in our break. i can then remember seeing it on TV later, although it didnt quite hit me how serious the WTC etc were as i was only 11

Chachie [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I can remember eating Kraft dinner from a pot , had the day off that day when it happenned,, watched CNN the whole day. My wife came home from work crying because people were saying it was the "end of the world" comming.

Funny thing my views on theism went down a notch that day.

David Z [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in math class in school. The teacher was in the middle of a lesson, and another teacher came in the room and spoke to her outside. She walked back in, clearly upset, and explained what had happened.

The rest of the day was spent moving from class to class, watching CNN. In history class, the teacher explained how this was history in the making and we discussed the impact this was going to have on the world.

At lunch, I was standing in line (To this day, I remember where I was standing to within a few feet) and watched the TV as I waited. The second tower collapsed on live TV as I watched.

My memory of the events immediately following that are quite fuzzy- I believe I had a mini panic attack. I just remember all my friends telling me to calm down.

I got home, my family sat down and my dad explained that there was going to be a war now.

Tom [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

After the 2nd plane it hit & it became clear we were under attack I went & picked up my then 5 year old daughter from school & spent the rest of the afternoon watching the news.

The only way I could figure out to make sure that a 5 year old would remember that day for the rest of her life was to pick some significant thing that a five year old would remember. Several times that day we went outside & looked for airplanes. We live close to Patrick Air Force Base, Kennedy Space Center, and Orlando so air traffic is usually heavy.

To this day she remembers that on that one day there were no airplanes flying.

cpbrown [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

was at school in PE when was told about twin towers attack

good friend vehmently denied the possibility sayin that he was in the twin towers in eastasia only a month ago and they're nowhere near NY

walked past 6th form centre saw all the older students gathered morose around the TV

hurried to mum in car

turned on radio

got home watched TV footage

missed the deadline for an assignment the next day

got into school everyone silent

waiting

cb.

Mohammed Al-Achmed [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in my cave in Afghanistan, celebrating with the rest of the guys.

JD52 [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was sleeping until after the second plane hit. I was unemployed at the time. I got a call from my girlfriend at the time. I turned on the TV and two minutes later the first tower fell.

After the second one fell i just sat there for a moment.

After about 20 minutes of utter disbelief I pinched myself on the arm very hard. I hoped that I was dreaming. Unfortunatly I was not.

Endy [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I remember running late for school that day, and making it to class about 5 minutes late, which was some Computer Concepts class. When I sat down at my computer, there was a video running from CNN running of the first tower smoking (obviously after the first was hit). I wasn't paying much attention to it, paying more attention to the lecture, when I looked down and saw both towers smoking. We stopped class then and just discussed what was going on.

The next day, I had an Economics class, and we didn't do the normal lecture, but discussed what had happened and what would happen to the economy. I didn't pay much attention, since the teacher sucked.

I do remember seeing that Google page, though, trying to figure out what was going on.

Tom Parker [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I do remember what I did, I was at school the schools never told us what had happened until we got home also we got a new pc that day so happy bday Pentium 4 – 1.4Ghz

- Tom – http://www.tomwrote.info

Shawn Starbird [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was working in Boston at the time. I generally listened to Howard Stern, but would turn it down when someone came in my cube. My wife called to tell me a delivery guy just said a small plane hit one of the WTC towers, I turned up Stern, and listened to him until they evacuated our building at 11:30 AM (we were in a high rise, and all high rises in Boston were evacuated) and all the way home.

A scarry day, one i'll never forget.

Yeoman Rudolph [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in the subway under the WTC when the first plane hit. My wife got off on her stop (right down the street from the WTC), and others were boarding the train in turn, visibly upset.

I didn't think much of it at the moment – until one person started saying how there was an explosion in one of the towers and there were "all these papers" raining down from where the explosion was. I finally exited my train a few stops later and looked downtown and saw the smoking Trade Center. I initially thought it was just a large fire.

When I entered my office, people had the televisions on, watching. Just then the second plane hit, and I went immediately to CNN.com, which was down due to the overload of others doing the same. Suddenly, my thoughts went to my wife, who I had just left see leave to her office by the WTC. Thankfully, she was safe (though I didnt know that for a few hours afterwards).

XZ [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was starting the second day of my first year of undergrad. As I was leaving the residence building, I overheard somebody saying, "Did you hear? A plane hit the World Trade Center!" My first thought was some unlucky guy must have accidentally hit the tower in a small turboprop. It wasn't until lunch time that I got access to a TV and saw the flames.

That night I had my first sociology class. Coincidentally the topic was about the psychology of suicide. It was a bleak day.

Long live free America.

JP N [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in Boston that morning, flying back to chicago. I get chills that I may have passed any of those souls on the concourse...

Ky [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

i remember hearing about it and putting the tv on after the first plane hit, i cried with happiness, i thought finally america is getting what it deserved , shame its just bush making an excuse for war....

'where is your god now ?'

Brandon Wittwer [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I drove to work and found everyone crowded around a small tv they had bought that morning. We got nothing done that day. We all just sat in utter shock. I still ache almost daily. My flag has flown ever since.

Those bastards can take our lives but they cant steal our freedom.

Pat [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in an American Airline plane going to Oregan from Montreal,QC with a connection to Dallas.

I was sitting in my chair, dead tired because the the 10th I flew out of vancouver BC (from my honeymoon) back to montreal with my wife. Spent the night up going back to my parents house, got changed and drove back to the airport for a business trip.

Well, needless to say, my plane got grounded. I ended up in Little rock arkansas. Scared as hell. We were told that Dallas had too many airplane and we couldn't land there. Once on the runway in Arkansas, I got to my wife over the phone. She was screaming of joy hearing me talking! I was originally supposed to have my connection to New York and I forgot to tell her that my connection had been changed to dallas. 1 hour later we were out of the plane!

To make the story short, I took a greyhound bus on september 11 5PM. Rode the bus to Nashville Tenessee. Got there around Midnight. Spent the night scared at the bus station. Got into antther bus up to detroit. Got in Detroit at around 5 PM the 12th. Waited in line to go to Toronto only to be told by a bus driver that the border were closed.

Rented a car from Detroit to Rochester NY (This is where I was living at the time, I left from Montreal cause my parents were watching my kids :) I am from Montreal!). I got lost in Ohio in the evening. Finally made it to Rochester on the 13th.

The last time I slept was September 9th. I had a good night. Rented another car and drove to Montreal to get my car at the airport. Crossing the border was painfull. Trying to explain my story and the fact that my visa was a duplicate cause the original was lost was a lot of fun!!!

I'll never forget that day!!!

Erik K [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I was a freshman in high school. The west coast is three hours behind New York, so my mom woke me up at 6:30 for school like always, which must have been about 15 minutes after the first hit. She told me that a Cesna (small one-or-two person plane) had hit the World Trade Center. I watched it on TV as I ate breakfast, then went to school.

At school, there was announcement early in the morning from the principal about what had happened and how it would affect all of our lives. My first class was physics, which we spent watching the news. I don't remember what happened the rest of the day. I think I would have remembered moments like the collapse of either tower or the second hit, so I must have missed them. One thing I do remember was a kid in my class who I had liked somewhat talking to another guy about the attack, acting the crash out with his hand and saying how it looked "sweet". I didn't respect him a whole lot after that.

Jason D [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was going to work at my campus bookstare, arriving to hear mixed news about what was going on. I remember feeling sick to my stomach, not understanding what was happening or why.

Ryan [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in my eighth grade choir class at the time. I really only got to see the pictures of the attacks an hour later in my earth science class, but none of my other teachers would even turn on the news. It was like we should have been blinded from even knowing it happened. After school was over, I finally got to hear more about the attacks and was completely dumbfounded. I also remember how all of the cable stations on TV were off the air or switched over to news stations.

wtc [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

at the same time the 1st plane struck the WTC i had a car accident... SERIOUSLY. after talking to the police i witnessed the second plane struck the towers on tv. and i then saw the 2 towers colapse on tv.

it was horrible. and i instantly knew that the usa will make someone pay for this atrocity!

Steve M. [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was closing the windows of my house, getting dressed to get out to have my hairs cut. I was opening the door, when the phone ringed. It was my father, telling me to turn on the tv. It just took me a couple of seconds to understand i was not going to go anywhere that day.
I closed the door and connected my computer to the internet via dialup (no adsl at that time) to read the international news websites. It's been one of my longest day of my life.

Goff Harris [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

"and i instantly knew that the usa will make someone pay for this atrocity!"

Yes, and regardless of whether they had anything to do with it or not.

Ben Owens [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in a hotel in Dallas, supporting 1400 new people from all over the country who had just hired on at my employer.

What I remember most was that there was another group at that hotel, some sort of convention. Their support staff was a convention services company headquartered in the WTC. The 30 or so people running their convention would, on a normal day, be in those towers. On that day, though, they got to watch most of their friends and coworkers die on television. One woman who lived (so I was told) in a building virtually next door to the WTC saw the towers fall, saw the damage to her building, and it dawned on her that her pets had all probably just died. She collapsed in a skyway connecting the hotel to a building across the street; her friends had to carry her to her room.

That other group cancelled their convention and set about getting their people home. They tried mightily to rent every bus in Dallas and managed to line up 30 or 40 charter buses in a vacant lot next door by noon; boy, did they move fast. Then they planned routes and sent everyone home. They did everything they could to take care of the convention services employees, sending them out on the first available buses. Everyone just sort of pulled together.

I spent a couple of days printing maps and finding rental cars for employees who were driving long distances to get home during the ground stop. It was just surreal.

On the stupider side of things, my boss freaked out and ordered everyone out of downtown. I guess he thought the baddies were going to flatten every skyscraper in the country or something. I refused to go and, frankly, he was so pissed at me that our relationship was permanently and irrecoverably damaged. Funny how a major event in NY can have little, weird consequences all the way away in Texas.

Matt Cutts [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I worked very late on Sept. 10th and I ended up sleeping at Google. I woke up the morning of Sept. 11th, logged into my workstation, and saw an email from another Googler, saying that one world trade center had collapsed and asking if the Google NY office was alive. The rest of the day was really chaotic--just trying to get news and current info up however we could. What an awful day.

Perry L [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I remember sitting on NJ Transit bus 192 stuck in traffic on RT 3 and seeing the first tower on fire across from Giant Stadium. I then saw the fireball of the second plane colliding with the second tower. As I sat in the bus that day, I mentioned to the person sitting next to me that Osama would have no place left to hide. Guess I was wrong...

As traffic slowly moved around the Helix to the lincoln tunnel, they closed the tunnel and turned us all around.

When they opened the city, I spent a day loading up the van with loads of socks, t-shirts, underwear, towels, crowbars and pick axes into the city. The officers at the tunnel took their time going through the contents and waived us on. When I got to the Javitts center, my van was emptied in about 20 seconds.

paw [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

When I saw it on TV... totally shock....am i watching Hollywood movie or real?

Justin [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Was in the office, seemed really empty, until I went to the breakroom and found everyone staring at the TV.. and when I saw the towers on fire, I had the wind knocked out of me. I don't ever cry, but I did when I saw that. They sent everyone home, and I spent the day trying not to think about it, but I couldn't look away from the TV.

John [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Was off the coast of Portmouth England, downloading off the Internet all the news we could find to pass along the information, to all the crew onboard the USS WInston S Churchill.

Lauren, Fort Myers, FL. [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in bed around 9am (I'm a night-owl) and my phone rang and I picked it up and nobody was there. I laid back down. Then my mom called to say to turn on the tv. I was shocked. I never did find out who called me before that. I spent the day watching the live news, on the phone w/ my brother (who has now died), my mom, my husband, and many others, throughout the day.

Stefan, Sweden [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I remeber that i was sitting at work listening to the radio. At first i dident even know if it was real or not. Look it up on the internet, chatted with friends from new york, just to get some information. Later my boss walked in from a meeting, and we told him what have happend. He only loaght and said that they deserved it. I hate him still for saying that.

Gary Price [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Yes, PD I do know what I was doing that morning. I was living about 15 minutes from the Pentagon and preparing for a WebSearch University in Reston, VA. near Dulles Airport. As I prepared at home I learned of the first tower being hit. I went to my TV to see the second tower being struck.

As I drove to the conference, the Pentagon was hit.

When I arrived at the hotel the conference had begun and the room was listening to a speaker. Then, as the speech ended an organized got up
and said what had happened.

I was told that the conference would continue. I was not sure about this but I had to go on. The room was full but it was a very difficult situation especially for me since I had actually seen the buildings hit. I'm still not sure it was the correct decision to continue but several hundred people with little knowledge of what was going on were waiting. Of course, doing net demos were nearly impossible and personally, my mind was somewhere else.

After my session and lunch the conf continued. It was difficult but sessions were still taking place. Many people from out of town were left stranded here in DC. I know several people who drove back West. The rest of the day and the following days are just blurs as I worked with my newspaper and media librarian colleagues.

Eric [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in History class in the 8th grade. My teacher left the room to talk to someone and came back in and told all of us what happened. For the rest of the day, most of my classes consisted of us glued to the tv screen.

Jake's View [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Google has posted a post relating to 9/11 here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/7-days-in-september.html

John Gill [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I woke up and was getting ready for class when my roomate (Egyptian) turned on the news and immediately knew it was Bin Laden – all the speculation from the reporters sounded odd after he told me that.

David W [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

Wow, an awful lot of student readers you have here Philipp. I was in New Jersey at a bus stop and ran into a friend of mine who had heard about the planes hitting the tower. We both walked to a nearby library to check the news on Yahoo. That's about the time the South Tower collapsed and the Yahoo news story was only a few sentences long. As we were leaving we heard a plane fly very low overhead – we both hugged each other!

Svenjick [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Was working for my exams... took a break, and landed on CNN which had a webcam-sort-of view of WTC, from far out, with what seemed like some smoke, and no noise. A few minutes laters, a TV speaker "fumbled" into the studio, switched on the mic, and started improvising, clearly rushed into the studio... things started moving slowly and by the time they had gathere some info and a few more tv-camera feeds, the second plane crashed ...

Tim Almond [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was at work at a company in Oxford, UK and I worked with someone who always had a radio in 1 ear.

She suddenly said "A plane's just flown into the World Trade Centre" and we all thought it had been a terrible accident. Then later, she said "Oh no, another plane's flown in"and we realised what was going on. I remember the whole office being completely stunned and unable to work. By the time I got home from work, the footage of the buildings collapsing was on.

I then remember the next day phoning my family, just to talk to them. And emailling my friends in Atlanta, GA offering support.

Nancy [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in Spanish class, on the tenth floor of Stuyvesant High School, about 4 blocks away. I heard the huge crash, saw the huge gaping hole in the side of the building, and people jumping out of the hole. Our school had to evacuate, and as we walked away from the smoke and debris, I couldn't turn around.

My friend said that "everyone was glued to their TV screen" and that I was the exception. The only people glued to their TV screens were people who weren't actually there. I saw more than enough. I can't even look at pictures without feeling a mess of emotions.

You can't really forget a giant flaming hole in the side of the World Trade Center.

I wish so much that I wasn't there. Then maybe I could have the same morbid fascination that other observers have, instead of an actual memory of the event.

Ben Newhouse [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was in middle school at the time and I went to the high school for math classes. Our school district for some reason made the executive decision that middle school students would not be informed until we got home. For some reason, however, the high schools were all glued to the TV.

I came back from class and told my 8th grade friends and they told me I was joking and blew me off. Then during Tech class I broke school rules by going to CNN and seeing the text only page with "America is under attack." I showed it to a friend to confirm it.

The rest of the day consisted of all of us trying to imagine what was going on outside the school walls. After seeing that CNN page, for all we knew we could've been in nuclear war. Our teachers were sworn to silence.

If anyone knows where I could find a version of that first horrifying CNN page, that looked like it could've been made in about 30 seconds with Microsoft Word, I would me most thankful. Internet archive missed it.

Aldo Kingma [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was at school, (6th Grade), and we were doing... something, I think....
Anyway, in the middle of the lesson the teacher of the classroom next to ours "drops in", and tells us about an aiplane having flown into one of the twin towers.
Later on that day I was at a friends' house, and his mom was watching the whole thing on CNN. For some reason I didn't really understand how serious it was back then.

Carmen [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was 18 at the time. The night before my mother was having an attack, at first she thought it was heart attack but we later found out to be an anxiety attack. She didn't know what was wrong with her and we had an ambulance come by to pick her up and she stayed over night for observation. In the morning my dad and I were going to pick her up from the hospital before driving me to school. We were listening to the Doghouse which is 94.9's early morning show. They were listening to CNN I think and commenting every so often. We thought they were talking about a movie as they sometimes do that and adlib or make fun of certain scenes. It wasn't until we picked up my mom and she told us what happened. The nurses were afraid to tell her in fear she'd have another attack but as it was on every channel, she found out.

I still went to school, kinda in a daze. Most of my class periods were spent talking about while some teachers thought to just simply go on with our schedule. Lots of my friends' parents came to pick them up and there was all day counseling with our normal counselers and the Jesuit priests.

My family was worried for a while as we had a family friend who was visiting New York at the time who's daughter was working in the towers. They were safe as she had taken the day off to spend with her mother.

The next few days were a blur.

Hansen [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

We had a military exercise here in Norway. The big one without food for a week. Then the offisers did told us what happened, but we did not believe. 2 days later the priest came with newspapers. When we returned a few days laters we saw it for first time on tv.

unlucky [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was walking to the Pentagon City metro station in DC, a few blocks away from the Pentagon. I distinctly heard what I thought was a small airplane flying low, followed by a crash noise. I turn around, and saw a huge cloud of smoke coming from behind the one (and only!) building that blocked my sight to the Pentagon. Somebody said to me: "We're under attack! They've already hit the WTC!". I rank back to my apartment to tell my wife about what was going on. Shortly, we were evacuated from the building (the great majority of tenants worked at the Pentagon) and had to spend about three hours in the street. A couple of months after this event, we had to endure the fear of having to walk DC and its suburbs with a sniper. Talk about a good welcome for a newcomer to this country!

Sam [PersonRank 3]

17 years ago #

In Australia it happened late at night.
I was watching a movie with my girlfriend at the time. It finished so we flicked to one of the TV channels and saw a fire in the pentagon. "Crappy action movie" we thought.
The problem was there was "Crappy action movie" on all the channels. It was entirely surreal to see the what was happening live; honestly it still is watching the replays.

chiho [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

i remember that day, i was on the way to college i the morning to downtown campus in edmonton, alberta, canada, and hear the news from a fellow bus passenger saying to me that the twin towers were struck , i thought that he was joking until i arrived at school and seen all the tvs were on and everyone was shocked . then when i arrived at my first class at 8:00am (MT) my e0business pro say he did not feel like teaching and told us to surf the internet on the cnn.com and other sites. i remember all the sites were down and had a strip down version text one (no ads) GOD BLESS US ALL (western nations vs terrorist people)

Ray [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was 15, playing TFC on my PC when one of the guys I was playing with said something along the lines of " **** guys, go check the news channel" and then signed off the game.

I went downstairs to find my Dad watching Sky News with all these strange images and people shouting...

I admit to being a typically cynical and bitter teen back then. I remember saying some things, before the gravity of the situation hit me, that I wish I could take back...

Regardless, I remember sitting down and talking to my parents and sisters about what had unfolded that day. I think we all grew up a little after that.

It's still surreal to me. I have never been to America, I knew very little about the WTC before the event and I didn't know anyone, back then, who would have been affected by it. As such, it was hard to comprehend that what I was seeing was real footage, of history in the making.

It was the first time in my life that I realised that the world wasn't completely safe. I'd obviously studied conflict and war at school, but to me that was a million year ago, just sepia tinted images of past that had nothing to do with me now.

I can't help but think how 50 years from now, my grandchild will look at these images of 9/11 and brush it off, just as I did with footage of WW2.

Planet Malaysia [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was remember I fetch my girl friend back home. When reached there, her father told me about 911 incident & I can't believe & said this must be a jokes.

Adam [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Actually I heard the security guys in my building talk about it, so i immediately called my friend and congratulated him that the american bastards finally get to pay for what they've done, i considered it a great victory

jf [PersonRank 5]

17 years ago #


"If anyone knows where I could find a version of that first horrifying CNN page, that looked like it could've been made in about 30 seconds with Microsoft Word, I would me most thankful. Internet archive missed it."

yeah – i remember that page as well. the BBC went text only as well. has anyone preserved screen captures of these pages?

John Honeck [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I was sitting in the cafeteria at IBM, waiting for a meeting to start. I heard on the radio before I got let into the building about the first plane hitting. While we were sitting around the 2nd building got hit. We never had the meeting that day...

Innocent bystander [PersonRank 1]

17 years ago #

I was preparing a potato casserole and helping my girlfriend with her laptop in the afternoon (GMT+2) when my best friend called and told me to turn on CNN. We saw the 2nd plane coming in while still on the phone, and I spent the rest of the day simultaneously in front of the tube and on the web. The casserole turned out pretty well, actually.

s.aalbersberg [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was sitting by the dentist,and a man came in the waitingroom and he said, I saw a airplane flying in a tower!
when I heard that I'm going outsite the building and look for the news on my phone
The dentist a female came outsite too
   And say its your turn,but look first for the news, because mabye the world is lost now!!
Sjaco
http://www.bloggen.be/familieaalbersberg

C.Hauser [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Was packing my packs getting ready to head to the airport to go home from Sandiego..then all hell broke loose.

J.D'Angelo [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was 9, I remember waking up and watching Planet of the Apes without turning on the T.V. My dad woke up and heard the radio so I turned it over to the T'V. and I thought it was a movie or something, I didn't believe it. (I live in Australia, it was around midnight that it happened in NY).

Wake_Up & Open_Your_Eyes [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

How many of you still believe a 100t boeing 757 hit the pentagon?

The official report has nothing in common with the reality.

Wake up!

Seek Answers!

Demand Justice!

War MUST NOT become business

REMEMBER the FAREWELL ADDRESS of president Eisenhower

[Edited name to include spaces around the ampersand – Tony]

Travis Harris [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

Since we are telling stories :)

I just got home from a business trip. My first time in NYC. I stayed at the Millennium Hilton (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&q=Millenium+Hilton&ie=UTF8&lr=lang_en&near=&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=47.167389,82.441406&z=17&ll=40.711972,-74.011567&spn=0.005546,0.010064&t=k&om=1&iwloc=A)

When I was there, I just stood at my window in awe staring at the thousands of people scurrying around like little ants around the world trade center.

My wife came and woke me up to tell me that they just said on the news that a plane hit the first tower. When I got to the TV, everyone was speculating that it was a hobbyist plan or something, and then they got images. Not long after, we watched the second tower get hit live! At the point where the pentagon and field (which I live very close to) got hit, we were just numb.

It really hurts to know that I was in those buildings days before. I stood between them in awe staring straight up between them. I watched thousands of people around them who are now dead. It is a real eye opener. That day will forever be burned into my mind.

Matt Duke [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

I was at home in Aus, watching a movie when it was interrupted by the news live from the States.

I then watched till like 4am!! I couldn't believe it. My Dad had only been up to the top of one of the Towers like 2 months earlier on holiday! That really hit home.

[Signature removed – Tony]

DPic [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I was in the fifth grade, and there was no specific announcement of the loudspeaker about it because they left it up to our parents to let us know what was going on. When I got to my moms car she seemed upset but I wasn't sure until she asked me if I knew what had happened that morning. At the time I didn't understand, but it quickly sunk in and that's probably where I started becoming interested in what was going on in the world beyond my life and the city of Newton, MA (safest in the country). 5 years later I'm an activist and environmentalist, but even back then I'd already had a love for nature. I was lucky though, I didn't lose one person in my life. My dad has thirteen brothers and sisters most of which are married with kids and not one was there. It was scary learning about something like that for the first time. I had never really been exposed to the rest of the world and it was difficult for me to figure out what was going on.

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