(VIDEO) What Time Did the September 11 Attacks Happen? Full Minute-by-Minute Timeline

Twenty-five years ago today, the United States experienced the deadliest terrorist attack in its history when al-Qaida hijackers commandeered four commercial airliners and turned them into weapons, killing nearly 3,000 people in a span of roughly 102 minutes. The attacks unfolded in a precise, devastating sequence beginning in the early morning hours of Sept. 11, 2001, and the exact timeline remains one of the most studied chronologies in modern American history.

All times below are in Eastern Daylight Time, matching the time zone in which the attacks occurred.

The hijacked flights take off

The morning began ordinarily. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 carrying 92 people, departed Boston’s Logan International Airport at 7:59 a.m., bound for Los Angeles. United Airlines Flight 175, also departing from Boston and headed to Los Angeles, took off shortly afterward at 8:14 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77 left Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20 a.m. en route to Los Angeles, and United Airlines Flight 93 departed Newark International Airport at 8:42 a.m., also headed for the West Coast. All four aircraft were hijacked within the first hour after takeoff.

First impact: North Tower

At 8:46 a.m., Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, striking between the 93rd and 99th floors. The impact killed everyone aboard the aircraft and hundreds of people inside the building instantly. Initial news coverage in the moments afterward described the event as a possible accident, with many assuming a small aircraft had strayed off course.

That assumption was shattered 17 minutes later. At 9:03 a.m., Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower, striking between the 77th and 85th floors, in an impact captured live on television by news crews that had already converged on Lower Manhattan to cover the first crash. The scene, broadcast to millions of viewers in real time, made clear within seconds that the United States was under a coordinated attack.

The Pentagon is struck

At 9:37 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, killing all 64 people aboard the aircraft and 125 people inside the building. The attack on the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, underscored that the assault was targeting the core symbols of American military and financial power.

Eight minutes later, at 9:45 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration made the unprecedented decision to ground all civilian aircraft in the United States, ordering more than 4,500 planes then in the air to land at the nearest airport as quickly as possible. At the same time, the U.S. Capitol and the White House’s West Wing began evacuating, with the House of Representatives and Senate both in session at the time.

The South Tower falls

At 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, sending a massive cloud of dust and debris through Lower Manhattan. The collapse came as a shock even to rescue personnel who had assumed the structure could withstand the fire, and it dramatically increased the death toll among first responders who were still inside or near the building.

Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania

Passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93, who had learned via phone calls of the earlier attacks in New York and Washington, attempted to storm the cockpit and retake control of the aircraft from the hijackers. At 9:58 a.m., passenger Edward P. Felt managed to hide in a bathroom and place a call to 911, reporting the hijacking in progress. Shortly afterward, at 10:03 a.m., Flight 93 crashed into a field near Shanksville, in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people aboard. Investigators later concluded the plane had likely been intended for the U.S. Capitol or the White House, and that the passengers’ revolt prevented a fifth strike on a national landmark.

The North Tower collapses

At 10:15 a.m., a damaged section of the Pentagon’s E Ring, an outer ring of the building, collapsed. Thirteen minutes later, at 10:28 a.m., after burning for 102 minutes, the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed as well, completing the destruction of the twin towers and marking the end of the main phase of the attacks.

Toll and aftermath

By the time the smoke cleared, the attacks had killed 2,977 people, not including the 19 hijackers, making it the deadliest act of terrorism in world history and the deadliest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier. The World Trade Center attacks alone claimed 2,753 lives, including 343 New York City firefighters and rescue workers who died attempting to evacuate the towers and assist survivors.

That evening, President George W. Bush addressed the nation from the White House. “Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts,” Bush said in his address.

A quarter-century later

The attacks, carried out by 19 hijackers affiliated with al-Qaida under the direction of Osama bin Laden, reshaped American foreign policy, domestic security infrastructure and daily life in ways that persist today, from airport screening procedures to the broader war on terrorism that followed in Afghanistan and beyond. The 9/11 Commission Report later described the day as the moment “the United States became a nation transformed.”

Twenty-five years on, memorial ceremonies are being held Friday at all three attack sites — the World Trade Center site in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia, and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania — as survivors, victims’ families and public officials gather to mark the anniversary. A recent survey found that the vast majority of Americans who lived through the day still recall with vivid clarity exactly where they were and what they were doing when the attacks unfolded, a testament to how deeply the events of that Tuesday morning remain etched in the national memory.