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On Friday, July 17, 1987, I was born in Atlanta, Ga. Little did anyone know this newborn would follow the footsteps of her grandparents, Verta and Arthur Owens and also become an educator.

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6th grade at Flat Rock Middle School. As a student at Flat Rock Middle School was the first time I was told I "acted white" and was labeled an Oreo. Similar to Bria Coleman's experience, I didn't think there was anything necessarily bad about it. I simply liked what everyone else liked.

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On April 20, 1999, in Littleton, CO, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, two students from Columbine High School went on a shooting spree that resulted in 13 deaths and over 20 injuries to students and teachers. The Columbine High School would be, at the time, the worse high school shooting in U.S. history.

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Table of Contents

1. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris

2. Columbine Shooting Victims

3. She Said 'Yes'

4. Columbine Shooting Investigation

5. Columbine Massacre Aftermath

The Columbine shooting on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, occurred when two teens went on a shooting spree, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others, before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide.

The Columbine shooting was, at the time, the worst high school shooting in U.S. history and prompted a national debate on gun control and school safety, as well as a major investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen, Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17. Subsequent school shootings, including at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, continue to raise questions about school safety and gun control in the United States.

Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris

At approximately 11:19 a.m., Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, dressed in trench coats, began shooting fellow students outside Columbine High School, located in a suburb south of Denver. The pair then moved inside the school, where they gunned down many of their victims in the library.

By approximately 11:35 a.m., Klebold and Harris had killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded more than 20 other people. Shortly after 12 p.m., the two teens turned their guns on themselves.

Investigators later learned Harris and Klebold had arrived in separate cars at Columbine around 11:10 on the morning of the massacre. The two then walked into the school cafeteria, where they placed two duffel bags each containing a 20-pound propane bomb set to explode at 11:17 a.m.

The teens then went back outside to their cars to wait for the bombs to go off. When the bombs failed to detonate, Harris and Klebold began their shooting spree.

Columbine Shooting Victims

Victims of the Columbine shooting include Cassie Bernall, 17; Steven Curnow, 14; Corey DePooter, 17; Kelly Fleming, 16; Matthew Kechter, 16; Daniel Mauser, 15; Daniel Rohrbough, 15; William "Dave" Sanders, 47; Rachel Scott, 17; Isaiah Shoels, 18; John Tomlin, 16; Lauren Townsend, 18, and Kyle Velasquez, 16.

She Said 'Yes'

In the days immediately following the shootings, it was speculated that Harris and Klebold purposely chose athletes, minorities and Christians as their victims.

It initially was reported that one student, Cassie Bernall, was asked by one of the gunmen if she believed in God. When Bernall allegedly said, "Yes," she was shot to death. Her parents later wrote a book titled She Said Yes, honoring their daughter.

However, it later was determined the question was not posed to Bernall but to another student who already had been wounded by a gunshot. When that victim replied, "Yes," the shooter walked away.

Columbine Shooting Investigation

Subsequent investigations determined Harris and Klebold chose their victims randomly, and the two teens originally had intended to bomb their school, potentially killing hundreds of people.

There was speculation that Harris and Klebold committed the killings because they were members of a group of social outcasts called the Trenchcoat Mafia that was fascinated by Goth culture. It also was speculated that Harris and Klebold had carried out the shootings as retaliation for being bullied.

Additionally, violent video games and music were blamed for influencing the killers. However, none of these theories was ever proven.

Through journals left behind by Harris and Klebold, investigators eventually discovered the teens had been planning for a year to bomb the school in an attack similar to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Investigative journalist Dave Cullen, author of the 2009 book Columbine, described Harris as "the callously brutal mastermind," while Klebold was a "quivering depressive who journaled obsessively about love and attended the Columbine prom three days before opening fire."

Did you know? The deadliest school shooting in U.S. history took place on April 16, 2007, when a gunman killed 32 people before killing himself at Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Columbine Massacre Aftermath

In the aftermath of the shootings, many schools across America enacted "zero-tolerance" rules regarding disruptive behavior and threats of violence from students. Columbine High School reopened in the fall of 1999, but the massacre left a scar on the Littleton community.

Mark Manes, the man who sold a gun to Harris and bought him 100 rounds of ammunition the day before the murders, was sentenced to six years in prison. Another man, Philip Duran, who introduced Harris and Klebold to Manes, also was sentenced to prison time.

Some victims and families of people killed or injured filed suit against the school and the police; most of these suits were later dismissed in court.

The list of school shootings in the United States grows longer every year, and includes the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Robb Elementary shooting in 2022, the University of Texas tower shooting in 1966, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018, the Santa Fe High School shooting in 2018 and the Umpqua Community College shooting in 2015, among others.

Gun control and disagreements over the interpretation of the Second Amendment continue to be a controversial issue in the United States, where 45,000 people die from gun-related injuries each year.

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Columbine High School Shooting: Victims & Killers

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The Columbine shooting on April 20, 1999 at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, occurred when two teens went on a shooting spree, killing 13 people and wounding more than 20 others, before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide.

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In 6th grade, I read Are You There God? It's Me, Margret and realized I was not as "weird" as I thought I was. 6th grade was the first time I was exposed to YA literature, because my parents felt the content was too "mature" for me at the time. Although this wasn't a text that was read by my entire class, it was highly recommended by my ELA teacher at the time, which stood out to me because it seemed like she knew what I needed at the time. As mentioned by Coleman in her article, "current young adult literature allows students to find characters with whom they identify; by teaching these identities in the classroom, students understand that their identities are worth talking about and relevant to our study of literature" (Coleman, 2019, p. 95).

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GAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! I'm feeling nostalgic!!!!

Oh I remember reading this book when I was 11 years old and I'd just gotten my first period (oh the trauma!!!!!!) and knew NOTHING about EVERYTHING even though I refused to admit publicly that I didn't understand anything!!!

And there was Margaret. As clued in and as clue less as I was!!! She was a wonderful protagonist. And I DISTINCTLY remember the contraptions that Judy Blume described as for use as a sanitary towel in this book.... belts and all sort...more

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Danielle The Book Huntress (Back to the Books)

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GAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! I'm feeling nostalgic!!!! Oh I remember reading this book when I was 11 years old and I'd just gotten my first period (oh the trauma!!!!!!) and knew NOTHING about EVERYTHING even though I refused to admit publicly that I didn't understand anything!!! And there was Margaret.

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Joined Flat Rock Middle School band. I was never athletic, but my parents were adamant that I participated in an after-school activity, so I chose band. I would eventually join my high school's marching band and play the clarinet until my senior year.

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In 7th grade, I began to develop a love for music. 2000s era music will always favorite genre of music ever.

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I also became obsessed with TRL and would rush home from the bus stop every afternoon to watch Carson Daly and call my best friend Christine Fludd.

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In celebration of New York Magazine's 50th anniversary, this weekly series, which will continue through October 2018, tells the stories behind key moments that shaped the city's culture.

When MTV debuted a video-countdown show called Total Request Live on September 14, 1998, the cable network was in the throes of an identity crisis - a perpetual state for the flailing company in recent years but only a recurring one back then.

The problem, as it tended to be, was with music videos, which were synonymous with MTV but were no longer engaging its young audience the way they once had. Tom Freston and Judy McGrath, who ran the network and had been there since Neil Armstrong planted an MTV flag on the moon in 1981, had weathered this storm before through one programming sleight of hand after another, either by grouping videos into genre-specific blocks that platformed metal or rap or alternative rock, or by presenting an animated series in which two teenage dirtbags named Beavis and Butt-Head deconstructed videos, or by ghosting videos altogether and green-lighting the first reality-TV show, The Real World.

Typically, a new artist or sound would come along and make music videos, as happened with gangsta rap and grunge in the early '90s, and the network would become relevant again. But when production executive Bob Kusbit came to MTV in '97, in the wake of Kurt Cobain's suicide and Michael Jackson's child-abuse scandal, popular music lacked a signature star or scene. The network's marquee attraction was neither a musician nor even a housemate with boundary issues, but ex- Playboy centerfold Jenny McCarthy, who co-hosted a dating show. And she bolted MTV later that year.

"It was a real down period," recounts Kusbit. "Everyone was trying to figure out what MTV should be." When a bank vacated its offices at 1515 Broadway, where MTV was headquartered, the network took possession and built a studio. The new programming mandate was "live," and the space featured floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Times Square. "The ceiling was too low, the glass wasn't bulletproof, and the space was noisy, but we just blew through all of that in the interest of that great window," says McGrath. But MTV didn't know what to do with their new toy. They broadcast a lifeless daytime program called MTV Live, minus a studio audience and with a rotating cast of VJs, including a genial new hire plucked from L.A. rock radio named Carson Daly. Daly would host a variety of pop-up shows in the spring and summer of '98, from empty studios and from sticky beach houses, most revolving around countdowns of the day's most requested videos. "Some of our roots were in top 40 radio, things like countdowns," says McGrath. With those dial-in shows, "we were grasping at early technology, but it was a way to try to get fans more involved."

For their fall programming slate, Kusbit proposed merging two of the summer experiments - Total Request and The Carson Daly Show - into one hour-long countdown show, to be broadcast live from the new studio at 3:30 p.m., when kids would be returning home from school. "There was no genius to it," he says. "When we started TRL it was just Carson, the camera guys, and a floor director. There wasn't a studio audience. And we never thought about people showing up to Times Square."

The Christmas prior, the romantic blockbuster Titanic had become the most successful movie in history, thanks in large part to the tween and teenage girls who couldn't get enough of Leo and Kate's watery love story and who would see the film as many times as their parents, and allowances, could bear. Those same girls were also latching onto a talented song-and-dance group from Orlando, Florida, called the Backstreet Boys, who, when they signed to Jive Records, were forced to barnstorm Europe while waiting for the American market to shift away from grunge and hard-core hip-hop. "We spent so much time over there that we ended up dating German girls," says Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough. "We called America 'No-Fan-Land.'"

But Jive's South African-born founder Clive Calder, who would also preside over (and monumentally profit from) the careers of teen pop superstars Britney Spears and 'N Sync, saw a steamship-sized gap in the marketplace: By 1998, adolescent girls were spending $60 billion annually. Rolling Stone saw fit to embed a reporter in a Connecticut suburb for an 8,000-word explainer called "The Secret Life of Teenage Girls," as if high-school-age boy-band fans were a lost tribe of the Amazon. Barry Weiss, then president of Jive, recalls Calder coming back to the New York office after one his many jaunts abroad. "He said, 'When I was at the airport in Geneva, the teen magazines all have boy bands and pop stars on the cover. But when I come through JFK, the covers of those magazines all have actors.' He thought American record companies were snobbish, and they weren't into pop music because they were too cool for school. We weren't snobs, we were entrepreneurs. We thought the coolest thing was green, was cash. What's not cool about making money?"

And thus, on TRL's first-ever countdown, the show's cultural identity would be permanently forged, when Backstreet's "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and 'N Sync's "Tearin' Up My Heart" came in at Nos. 1 and 2. "MTV had to play the video because the fans wanted it," says Backstreet's AJ McLean, recalling that the network barely aired their earlier video "Quit Playing Games With My Heart." "A bunch of guys in linen shirts dancing in the rain showing off their abs?" laughs McLean of the clip. "Wasn't gonna happen. But once the fans banded together and forced MTV's hand, they didn't have a choice." Backstreet, 'N Sync, Britney, and Christina Aguilera videos became so dominant that producers invented a rule whereby videos that spent 65 days at No. 1 were "retired," in order to allow other acts, and their fan armies, to taste victory.

Those young female devotees - daughters of Beatlemaniacs, future moms to Beliebers - became the heart (there's that word again) of TRL. "Girls were able to see themselves as the authors of culture," explains Gayle Wald, professor of English and American Studies at George Washington University. "They were pulling all the strings. The show became this really fun excuse for them to display their consumer power."

While the show ostensibly revolved around the music-video countdown - YouTube was still years away - the real reason to tune in quickly became the dizzying, empowering spectacle of the female fans themselves. "The second week," says Kusbit, "a girl showed up outside with a sign that says, 'Hey Carson, Let Me Up.' The third week, there were 30 kids out there." At a company meeting at Gurney's Inn in Montauk, Kusbit and TRL co-creator Tony DiSanto presented a new idea to their bosses. "We secretly shipped a bunch of kids to Gurney's and had them line up outside these big windows, with the shades drawn," says DiSanto. "We lifted the shades, and all of a sudden you saw all these kids with signs, screaming. Then we opened the doors and they all ran in. That was the way we told the network we wanted to start bringing kids into the studio. And that's when TRL really started to take off."

En masse, girls - and their moms, plus a smattering of fearless boys - would flock after school to the sidewalks outside 1515 Broadway, hoping to be whisked inside the studio, or for a wave from their crush, or to get picked to record a 15-second shout-out that would appear, screen-within-screen, during the airing of a music video, or to just bond with other superfans, take stock of their newfound clout, and scream for joy. "Imagine being in the world's largest exotic bird shop," says Dave Holmes, a VJ during the TRL reign, when asked to describe the sound made by the crowd. "There's a weird, primal nature to it where they all hit the same very loud note at once. It's almost like a mating call."

Soon, TRL became a must-stop on every celebrity's promotional itinerary. During a three-day span in May 1999, the Backstreet Boys shut down Times Square not once but twice, when they appeared first on a Sunday afternoon "Backstreet Boys Live" two-hour special, and then again on Tuesday's TRL to launch their new album, Millennium. (Not coincidentally, Millennium would be the best-selling album of 1999, moving 9.5 million copies.) "The police came and asked us to lower the studio blinds because kids were backing up into traffic," remembers Kusbit. "We all looked at each other in amazement." "It was like a state of emergency out there," says Dorough. Where typically a couple hundred kids might amass after school on the sidewalks, "5,000 kids showed up. It was mayhem. We couldn't have gone down to the street if we wanted to. But for me, it was flattering. What guy wouldn't want a bunch of screaming girls?"

Not everyone was comfortable reckoning with the show's demographic. "A lot of celebrities were terrified of coming on TRL," says Tim Healy, the show's head writer. "They were fine with Letterman or Conan because that was an adult audience, but they found TRL a challenge. I remember Mel Gibson rolling in, and he was not in the mood to be there. One of the recurring bits we did was having guests draw a self-portrait. And after his appearance - and it was an unnerving appearance - I looked at his drawing. It was terrifying, and in bold letters he'd written, 'I offer you my decrepit soul.'"

Scenes of pandemonium became commonplace, but Healy says that few guests could remain unaffected by the intensity of the moment. "Eminem came on, and he was so moved by the number of people out there that he was brought to tears. That was a weird moment for me. Eminem was an edgy guy. I was like, dude, Marshall is crying."

TRL wasn't all fidelity-pledging boy bands and bubblegum ingenues proffering impeccably written and produced Max Martin songs (would that it were). Musical acts of all denominations, with the exception of anything vaguely alt-hipster, got love on TRL, especially the aggro antidote to teen-pop gush: rap-rock, from Limp Bizkit and Korn in particular, often dueled with Jive's holy trinity for glory at the top of the countdown. "We always called the third spot on the countdown 'the Korn spot' because they could never get past number three," says Kusbit. In fact, Korn had four videos "retired" from TRL, and Limp Bizkit six. "It was like professional wrestling," says Healy of the warring tribes. "The heels versus the baby faces." R&B and hip-hop stars also figured prominently, albeit rarely collecting the most votes from the predominantly white viewership. When Saturday Night Live satirized TRL, while Jimmy Fallon mocked the host ("I'm Carson Daly and I'm a big tool"), Maya Rudolph and Ana Gasteyer played two-thirds of Gemini's Twin, an R&B group modeled after frequent TRL guests Destiny's Child.

At its peak, TRL crossed the star-making machinery of American Bandstand with the psychosexual erotics of Twilight. In 1999, at the zenith of the teen-pop boom, the show averaged 853,000 viewers, according to Nielsen, and helped establish tween and teen girls as not just a flush consumer group, but one whose aesthetic choices had just as much value and integrity as their broseph counterparts (this came to be called "poptimism" in music-critic circles). And via its windowed stage set, TRL sold a vision of a G-rated Times Square that brought middle-American parents and their BSB-adoring kids on pilgrimages to the MTV studio. "We loved our city and wanted it to look great to the rest of the world," says McGrath.

The original TRL enjoyed a ten-year run, but, bound to the teen-pop boom, it pretty much peaked in 1999. Viewership would decline more or less every year thereafter, until MTV finally pulled the plug, after 2,247 episodes, in November 2008. Daly left in 2003, and now hosts the musical talent show The Voice, which, like its antecedent American Idol, utilizes the "fans pick the winner" model institutionalized by TRL. And the existential dilemma regarding music videos that nagged at MTV execs in the '90s seems quaint today, as millennials have all but abandoned or ignored the network's programming during the past decade.

Seemingly out of ideas, MTV has opted to hit the rewind button, dialing up a new version of NBC's gross-out game show Fear Factor, a Laguna Beach simulacrum called Siesta Key, and, most fraught of all, a reboot of TRL, now largely absent videos and requests, but still with bracingly upbeat hosts, a vista of Times Square, and teens who squeal on cue. Critics have not been kind to the sequel, but with a new album coming by year's end, the Backstreet Boys, some now with TRL-aged kids of their own, have their sights set on a triumphant return to the show, and perhaps to 1999. "With the right song, I think we could actually re-create that moment," declares AJ McLean. "Who knows? Maybe even bigger!"
Order Highbrow, Lowbrow, Brilliant, Despicable: 50 Years of New York, a celebratory book chronicling the magazine's history with powerful images and behind-the-scenes stories from staff and subjects.

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How Total Request Live Created the Boy-Band Boom and Saved MTV (for a While)

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In celebration of New York Magazine's 50th anniversary, this weekly series, which will continue through October 2018, tells the stories behind key moments that shaped the city's culture. When MTV debuted a video-countdown show called Total Request Live on September 14, 1998, the cable network was in the throes of an identity crisis - a perpetual state for the flailing company in recent years but only a recurring one back then.

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Bring It On was the first movie I was able to go to with my friends. It is still one of my favorite movies. Up to this point, most of the movies I had seen were animated or very childish, so it was a very big deal to be able to see this movie. This was also one of the first times I saw a main character of a movie who looked like me.

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Quotes

[first lines]
: I'm sexy, I'm cute, / I'm popular to boot.
, , , , , , Torrance Shipman : I'm bitchin', great hair, / The boys all love to stare, / I'm wanted, I'm hot, / I'm everything you're not, / I'm pretty, I'm cool, / I dominate this school, / Who am I? Just guess, / Guys wanna touch my chest, / I'm rockin', I smile, / And many think I'm vile, / I'm flyin', I jump, / You can look but don't you hump, / Whoo / I'm major, I roar, / I swear I'm not a whore, / We cheer and we lead, / We act like we're on speed, / Hate us 'cause...
[...]
See more "

Connections

Features Sweet Charity (1969) See more "

Soundtracks

JUST WHAT I NEED
Written by Steve Mott / Octavio Gallardo / Scott Price
Performed by Rufus King
Courtesy of No Fidel No Music
See more "

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Directed by Peyton Reed. With Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union. A champion high school cheerleading squad discovers its previous captain stole all their best routines from an inner-city school and must scramble to compete at this year's championships.

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First Formal Dance (8th grade) with my best friend, Christine Fludd. Christine and I became friends in 6th grade. We were both very into Nsync and all of the other boy bands. We were both the same awkward so I always felt comfortable around her.

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9th grade. Once I started high school, I was introduced to the best ELA teacher ever, Mr. Tom Lewis. Before meeting Mr. Lewis, none of my ELA teachers had ever shown an interest in any of my work, however, Mr. Lewis believed in me and challenged me in ways I had never been challenged before.

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On September 11, 2001, an airplane crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC at 8:45 am. An hour later, another plane crashed into the Pentagon. A total of 2,996 people died that day.

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World Trade Center

On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767-United Airlines Flight 175-appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center and sliced into the south tower near the 60th floor.

The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and onto the streets below. It immediately became clear that America was under attack.

Osama bin Laden

The hijackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by the al Qaeda terrorist organization of Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War and its continued military presence in the Middle East.

Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the country in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation.

Where Did the 9/11 Planes Take Off From?

The 19 terrorists smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports-Logan International Airport in Boston, Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. and Newark International Airport in New Jersey-and boarded four early-morning flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming ordinary passenger jets into guided missiles.

Pentagon Attack

As millions watched the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C., before crashing into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m.

Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to the structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building, which is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense.

All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon, along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Twin Towers Collapse

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke.

The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 miles per hour and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel.

At 10:30 a.m., the north building of the twin towers collapsed. Only 18 people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of the collapse survived. Most were with a group of FDNY firefighters in the North Tower's Stairwell B, which remained intact. One woman survived after the stairs she was rushing down disintegrated around her. Almost 10,000 others were treated for injuries, many severe.

Flight 93

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane- United Flight 93-was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground.

Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection.

One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger-Todd Beamer-was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line.

Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field near Shanksville in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m.

All 44 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

How Many People Died in the 9/11 Attacks?

A total of 2,996 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, including the 19 terrorist hijackers aboard the four airplanes. Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

At the World Trade Center, 2,763 died after the two planes slammed into the twin towers. That figure includes 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors.

At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building. On Flight 93, 44 people died when the plane crash-landed in Pennsylvania.

America Responds to the Attacks

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the attacks and had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House.

At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring, "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Operation Enduring Freedom, the American-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7. Within two months, U.S. forces had effectively removed the Taliban from operational power, but the war continued, as U.S. and coalition forces attempted to defeat a Taliban insurgency campaign based in neighboring Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks, remained at large until May 2, 2011, when he was finally tracked down and killed by U.S. forces at a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In June 2011, then-President Barack Obama announced the beginning of large-scale troop withdrawals from Afghanistan; it took until August 2021 for all U.S. forces to withdraw.

Department of Homeland Security Is Created

In the wake of security fears raised by 9/11 and the mailing of letters containing anthrax that killed two and infected 17, The Homeland Security Act of 2002 created the Department of Homeland Security. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 25, 2002. Today, the Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet responsible for preventing terror attacks, border security, immigrations and customs and disaster relief and prevention.

The act was followed two days later by the formation of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. The bipartisan " 9/11 Commission," as it came to be known, was charged with investigating the events that lead up to September 11th. The 9/11 Commission Report was released on July 22, 2004. It named Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind behind 9/11, "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks."

Mohammed led propaganda operations for al Qaeda from 1999-2001. He was captured on March 1, 2003 by the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and interrogated before being imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay detention camp with four other accused terrorists charged with 9/11-related war crimes. The use of torture, including waterboarding, during Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's interrogation has received international attention. In August 2019, a U.S. military court judge in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba set a trial date for Mohammed and the other four men charged with plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks to begin in 2021; it was later postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic Impact of 9/11

The 9/11 attacks had an immediate negative effect on the U.S. economy. Many Wall Street institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange, were evacuated during the attacks. On the first day of trading after the attacks, the market fell 7.1 percent, or 684 points. New York City's economy alone lost 143,000 jobs a month and $2.8 billion wages in the first three months. The heaviest losses were in finance and air transportation, which accounted for 60 percent of lost jobs. The estimated cost of the World Trade Center damage is $60 billion. The cost to clean the debris at Ground Zero was $750 million.

Victim Compensation Fund

Thousands of first responders and people working and living in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero were exposed to toxic fumes and particles emanating from the towers as they burned and fell. By 2018, 10,000 people were diagnosed with 9/11-related cancer.

From 2001 to 2004, over $7 billion dollars in compensation was given to families of the 9/11 victims and the 2,680 people injured in the attacks. Funding was renewed on January 2, 2011, when President Barack Obama signed The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act into law. Named for James Zadroga, a New York City Police officer who died of respiratory disease he contracted after rescuing people from the rubble at Ground Zero, the law continued health monitoring and compensation for 9/11 first responders and survivors.

In 2015, funding for the treatment of 9/11-related illness was renewed for five more years at a total of $7.4 billion. The Victim Compensation Fund was set to stop accepting claims in December 2020.

On July 29, 2019, then-President Trump signed a law authorizing support for the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund through 2092. Previously, administrators had cut benefits by up to 70 percent as the $7.4 billion fund depleted. Vocal lobbyists for the fund included Jon Stewart, 9/11 first responder John Feal and retired New York Police Department detective and 9/11 responder Luis Alvarez, who died of cancer 18 days after testifying before Congress.

Anniversary and Memorial

On December 18, 2001, Congress approved naming September 11 "Patriot Day" to commemorate the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In 2009, Congress named September 11 a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

The first memorials to September 11 came in the immediate wake of the attacks, with candlelight vigils and flower tributes at U.S. embassies around the world. In Great Britain, Queen Elizabeth sang the American national anthem during the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Rio de Janeiro put up billboards showing the city's Christ the Redeemer statue embracing the New York City skyline.

For the first anniversary of the attacks in New York City in 2002, two bright columns of light were shot up into the sky from where the Twin Towers once stood. The "Tribute in Light" then became an annual installation run by the Municipal Art Society of New York. On clear nights, the beams are visible from over 60 miles away.

A World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to select an appropriate permanent memorial to the victims of 9/11. The winning design by Michael Arad, "Reflecting Absence," now sits outside the museum in an eight-acre park. It consists of two reflecting pools with waterfalls rushing down where the Twin Towers once rose into the sky.

The names of all 2,983 victims are engraved on the 152 bronze panels surrounding the pools, arranged by where individuals were on the day of the attacks, so coworkers and people on the same flight are memorialized together. The site was opened to the public on September 11, 2011, to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum followed, opening on the original World Trade Center site in May 2014. The Freedom Tower, also on the original World Trade Center site, opened in November 2014.

Sources

"Study Confirms 9/11 Impact on New York City Economy." The New York Times
"September 11: nearly 10,000 people affected by 'cesspool of cancer.'" The Guardian.
"Congress passes 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund extension championed by Jon Stewart." CNN.com
The Encyclopedia of 9/11. New York Magazine.
FAQ About 9/11. 9/11 Memorial.
September 11th Terror Attacks Fast Facts. CNN.
9/11 Death Statistics. StatisticBrain.com.

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September 11 Attacks: Facts, Background & Impact

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On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

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The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law by George W. Bush.

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In her article, Coleman asserts "many canonical texts used in the English classroom include diverse characters...these stories are dated and offer tragic representations of people of color" (Coleman, 2019, p. 95). I read Their Eyes Were Watching God in English class and finally saw myself represented in a character I was reading. Janie Starks was not a tragic representation of a Black woman, despite all she endured. While I had recognized the lack of diversity in the texts I read in English class, I don't think it really resonated with me until I was presented with a text that had the representation I was looking for. A few years later, I would use Their Eyes Were Watching God to write my entrance essay to Spelman.

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Overview To call Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God an "African American feminist classic" may be an accurate statement-it is certainly a frequent statement-but it is a misleadingly narrow and rather dull way to introduce a vibrant and achingly human novel.

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Merit Award for Band. I was never really good at band, but I've always loved (listening to) music. For this particular school year, I decided to put more effort into practicing, and as a result I became first chair and received this award.

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After I received a merit award for band the year before, I continued to excel. It was like everything finally "clicked".

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Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson Superbowl Halftime Show controversy. At the time, Justin Timberlake was one of my favorite artists. I vividly remember watching the halftime show because I HAD to see JT! I was a little naive at the time, so I didn't really comprehend what had occurred, but I will never forget this halftime show.

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Watch Justin Timberlake's controversial Super Bowl 2004 halftime performance with Janet Jackson

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In 2004, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson performed in Super Bowl halftime show that would be remember for years to come.

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Story Time: The guy I had a crush on at the time decided to take another girl to prom, which destroyed me. In an honest attempt to be helpful, my mom started asking her coworkers with sons if one of them would escort me to prom, and Derick's mom volunteered him. At the time, I wasn't too thrilled to have him as my date, but we had a good time, so much so, we went to prom together the next year...because the same guy didn't ask me to prom....again!

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In Ing & Nylund's research about the importance of early attitudes in math and science, they state "children without early supportive mathematics and science experiences may be less likely to develop positive attitudes toward mathematics and science and may be less likely to develop interests in STEM careers" (Ing & Nyland, 2017, p. 4). In October 2004, I was inducted into Mu Alpha Theta math honors society, which is ironic, because my relationship with math was a bit tumultuous. I struggled with math in elementary and middle school, which resulted in my parent's employing a number of tutors, but by 11th grade, I finally had a supportive teacher who helped changed my mindset about math.

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Principal's Honor Roll certificates. I spent most of my high school years pretending I wasn't smart because I already struggled to make friends, and didn't think anyone wanted to be friends with the "nerdy" girl. There was no way I could hide my intelligence, so I decided to just be myself.

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Beginning of senior year with my best friend, Krish Karunanidhi. Krish and I met in 7th grade, but didn't really become good friends until high school. I was bullied a lot in middle and high school, but Krish was always supportive and continuously had my back. Krish is also the person who confronted me when I didn't want to be labeled as "smart" because it wasn't "cool."

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Senior Year Memories. I hated high school. Senior year was the best year because I knew I was finally getting away from all of the issues I had in high school, as referenced in the section "what you'll miss least".

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Senior Honors Night Program. I don't know if I received any significant awards that night, but it was such a great moment to finally sit back and be recognized for all of the hard work I put forth in high school. All of my closest friends (all 4 of them, ha) were also there receiving various awards.

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Baccalaureate with my best friend Christine Fludd. We would both attend Spelman College (where I would be a 4th generation Spelman student) in August 2005. I spent most of my life being against going to Spelman because it was an all girls school and I wasn't sure if it would be academically challenging enough because I had heard so many varying options on HBCU's. My parents wanted me to go not only because of family history, but they wanted me to be around girls who were similar to me. Spelman will always be the best decision I have ever made.