On this day something happened

[griffin]

A topic for people to reflect on and share about events that occurred on a particular day, in the past... personal events that were significant to you, or major events that were well known to others (or should be).

[griffin]

Later today (10.46pm on the Eastern coast of Australia), was the time 20 years ago that changed the world, and was a day that us older fans will remember quite well, as one of those events that everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened.
(and if you didn't know about it, just about every free-to-air TV channel has been playing multiple programs and documentaries all week about it)

That exact time was when the first plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers, which was 8.46am in New York, September 11th, 2001.

I didn't realise it was that early here (before midnight), as I remember waking up the next morning (apparently September 12th was a Wednesday) and turned on my computer to log into telnet(?) for the Transformers chat channel, and the first line of new dialogue popped up as, "Tower 7 has just collapsed"... and it was a puzzling thing to have these Transformers fans talking about something that I didn't recognise as being Transformers related. So after about a minute or so of comments about that and people mentioning that certain people they knew were safe, I eventually turned on the TV to see news coverage of the New York Trade Center site, and noticed that every channel was covering it (this was back when there was only 5 national free TV channels, and none of them wanted to be the first to stop covering it, so it wasn't until the mid afternoon that some entertainment programs started up again).
Since this was before social media was really a thing, and the internet was still a fairly young beast at that time, it was quicker and easier to get the catch-up information from the live news coverage on TV than searching for it online.
Since Tower 7 (the third largest building (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_(1973%E2%80%932001)) in the 7-building World Trade Center site) collapsed 8 & half hours after the first plane hit Tower 1 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_of_the_World_Trade_Center), I must have gotten up shortly after 7.21am (which was 5.21pm in New York, when it collapsed)... and since I was between jobs at that time, I was at home all day and stayed online for a few hours reading the comments online of those who were from the area, or knew people from there (remembering that this was before facebook and twitter... and I think usenet was still the main form of "messageboard" styled interaction. And even back then, I think I still knew more American fans than local fans, so it was more interesting to see what they were saying, from their closer perspective.
If I had been working at the time, or had my current sleeping habits, I think I would have been up when TV channels here would have started covering it by midnight, and then watching it throughout the night, but by the time I switched on the next morning, it was already all over, but every channel spent the entire day covering the events, replaying them over and over.
Despite all of my trips over to America, I never saw the trade center towers, as I had only been over there 3 times at this time, but my trip in July 2001 had me using one of the NY Airports for a change over of flights to and from North Carolina... but I doubt I even saw NY City while in the planes I was on, as the JFK airport is about 20kms from NY city and the planes would have flown out over the ocean before turning towards their intended destination.

Anyone else old enough, remember what they were doing when they first found out about the attack?

[DELTAprime]

I still remember watching live as the second plane with the second tower as I was staying up late to watch Star Trek Voyager.

So much needless waste of life on both sides since that day.

[Handsprime]

I just remember lying down on the floor, watching the news reports on the TV.

Sure I was 6, but I can still remember where I was when I heard about 9/11.

[Dkaris]

I remember getting up for school. I was in year 8 I think. Dad told me the United states would be going to war soon. I remember watching it on tv and seeing those poor people jumping to their deaths. School was really weird. The teachers didn't want to hide it from us, everyone knew by now. I remember my woodwork teacher telling us that no one really knew what had happened, but tried to assure everyone that we'd be safe. It was a surreal day.

[1AZRAEL1]

I was in bed when it was on the news, I did get up because my parents were watching. I was in year 10. I do remember thinking I'd say jokes the next morning to my school mates, but when I got there it didn't feel right. World changed that day

[Paulbot]

To fill in some time between Rove and Star Trek, I put in my VHS copy of Transformers The Movie and watched through the Battle of Autobot City(!!). I stopped it and saw the infamous Sandra Sully coverage of reports of a plane having hit the tower. Then I stayed up to maybe 4am watching the ongoing coverage, worried more attacks were coming. The second hit was shocking, the building collapse was shocking, I couldn’t look away.

The memorial in New York is worth a visit, was there in September 2019 a few days before the anniversary. It’s a very moving tribute. The first time I visited NY in 2007 and visited the area, still being cleared, it was terribly upsetting to be in the place where such horror occurred.

[Kyle]

I remember I was working on an uni assignment that night (Perth time), planning to pull an all-nighter. The chat program (can't remember if it was icq or msn messenger...) was on between me and some of my uni classmates. Then one of my uni classmates told us to switch on the television, and I saw one of the World Trade Centre towers on fire and smoke. Needless to say I lost my focus on working on the assignment...

[griffin]

The memorial in New York is worth a visit, was there in September 2019 a few days before the anniversary. It’s a very moving tribute. The first time I visited NY in 2007 and visited the area, still being cleared, it was terribly upsetting to be in the place where such horror occurred.

I was in NYC in June 2007 (http://www.toycollectors.com.au/bc07/bc07jun26.html) (on the way to Rhode Island), but only got to within eye-sight of the World Trade Center site, on a tour bus one block away... and if I had stayed another day, I would have gone to have a closer look.
Even though it was almost 6 years after the destruction of the buildings, and the site was cleared by May 2002 (10 months later), bureaucracy and committees dragged out the beginning of construction of the new buildings for 5 years. Aside from Tower 7 which wasn't on the actual WTC site, nothing significant started on the actual site until 2006 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Trade_Center_site#New_structures), and took another 5 years until the first above-ground structures were completed. So even if I had have been at the site on that trip in June 2007, I probably wouldn't have seen much more than what I did from a block away.
(the couple of photos that I managed to take as the tour bus was driving past showed a fair bit of debris on the site, with a number of cranes, so they had definitely started doing something... it would just be another 4 years after that until the memorial site would be ready)

[Paulbot]

I remember I couldn’t get very close in 2007 or 2009 but by 2009 there were viewing areas and memorial walls with the names of the victims.

[Tha_Phantom]

I saw this tribute to the victims while I was on a NY tour bus in 2012.
https://i.ibb.co/BrGh6XC/185458-10151790800832137-1435247154-n.jpg (https://ibb.co/z7F32y4)

As for the actual day itself, I was too young at the time to understand the gravity of it. I remember waking up on September 12 and instead of my morning cartoons there was news coverage.

[Seraphim Prime]

Like Griffin has said, I'm surprised it was so relatively early our time - friends talk about watching The West Wing that night and at first thinking it was a stunning twist, the moment was just so surreal.

I personally remember waking up the next morning to headlines of "Attack on America" and thinking it was overblown until I saw the footage.

Classes that day in school were pretty distracted most of the morning - our maths class was basically taken up purely on discussions around what was happening.

I went to America a year later on a school tour and it was clear the wounds were still tender - I stayed for a couple of nights with a Las Vegas firefighter who's crew had volunteered to travel across the country to New York to help - and flight screenings and check ins were unscrupulous.

I personally visited New York years later in 2015 and the WTC plaza was still under construction, but it was pleasing to see that life had returned to the area. Freedom Tower had just opened and I was able to visit the memorial and museum on the grounds of the original towers. It's a stark and humbling place to be.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

I was working two jobs at the time and one of them started at 5 am in the morning. I turned on the TV as I got ready for work and saw the footage and thought, "Damn thats one heck of an accident, someone can't fly a plane" and went to work. I worked by myself at a petrol station and the whole time people kept coming in and saying "something whacky is happening in America! and me being in customer service mode was just "yeah, right hey?" but I had no idea as I had no access to any up to date news source.
When I finished work at 12, I went home and the TV was still broadcasting the same footage and the better half gave me an update as to what was going on.
Dang thought I. Went off to second job that started at 4pm and people were talking about it all there too.

It was a confusing day for me, but I remember it quite vividly.

When I caught up on everything that was going on, I thought, this will change the world. I also wondered what America would do about it.
Thinking back on it, GW Bush was in a bad spot. With that many deaths, people wouldn't have accepted him just going "Bummer." The US govt would have had to find an enemy and do something about it. I'm glad I wasn't in his shoes at that time, I don't know what I would do if faced with the same circumstances (although I'm sure I'd have better informational resources if I were the US president).

[Skyfire]

I was working two jobs at the time

If Mt Fuji blew up, would anyone in Tokyo notice? Watch out for that karoshi, Tets! ;)

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

If Mt Fuji blew up, would anyone in Tokyo notice? Watch out for that karoshi, Tets! ;)

Ha ha ha! thanks for the concern, but at that time I was in Australia, studying at university. In my currentl position I made it plainly clear that when there is work to do I don't mind pulling together with the team and doing overtime, but if I have no task to do, then I will not just chill at the office. i see too much inefficieny in Japanese work places and will not be a part of that (whenever possible).

As for your first question, the last eruption of Mt Fuji in 1707 was noticed by those in Edo, now Tokyo. Now I suspect it would be noticed as the big earners, the owners of businesses and politicians would find it inconvenient going to the surrounding area for their hot spring visits.

[Caffinetron]

I woke up to the news on Sept 12 with the radio crew talking about it and not really sure what song to play. I remember laying there thinking what on earth are they talking about and why do they seem so downhearted. I switched the tv on while i was getting ready for work and saw the coverage and couldn't believe what i was seeing. At the time i was thinking about going to the USA to work in the Summer camp system for the next summer so i was genuinely interested in what was happening.

I went through with my plans to go there for the summer of 2002. I'm glad i did as i was there for the 1year anniversary and got to sit and watch the event with my then girlfriend who i met at the camp. I purchased a copy of the USA Today newspaper as a memory moment, which i still have. I returned home in late September 2002 and then returned for an 18month stint working year round at the camp and at the end of August 2003 i went to NY with some friends and we went to the site. Was really eerie standing there looking at the site that had been dug out for clearing and still seeing the massive drapes of covering over the other damaged buildings and just seeing the sheer scale of destruction. The most poignant part for me was standing there and not hearing any horn beeps from cars around that area, as far as i was concerned Lower Manhattan had become a place of peace as a mark of respect for the site.