Timeline of the September 11 attacks

Background history

• 1931: Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden founds the Saudi Binladin Group, which grows to be one of the largest construction firms in the Middle East and makes him a billionaire.
• 1939: The New York World's Fair includes an exhibit entitled the "World Trade Center."
• 1946: Winthrop W. Aldrich, the organizer of the World Trade Center exhibit at the World's Fair, first proposes a permanent World Trade Center in New York City, but the State of New York opts to modernize the city's existing ports instead.
• 1950: Sayyid Qutb returns to Egypt from a two-year visit from the United States sponsored by the Ministry of Education, and joins the Muslim Brotherhood due to his disgust towards Western culture.
• 1951–1965: Qutb writes the book Fi Zilal al-Quran while in prison for an assassination attempt against Gamal Abdel Nasser. The book claims that Israel and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf are American satellite states and calls for an Islamist revolution against secularism—including Arab nationalism, socialism, and liberal democracy—to establish a Middle Eastern theocracy rooted in sharia law. The book becomes highly influential towards Islamic terrorists.
• March 10, 1957: Osama bin Laden, Mohammed bin Awad's son, is born in Riyadh.
• 1959: David Rockefeller revives the idea of a "World Trade Center" to revitalize Lower Manhattan, and creates the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association to lobby for a $250 million complex close to the Fulton Fish Market centered around a single 70-story office building. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey under the directorship of Austin J. Tobin soon approves the plan and specifies that it must be taller than the Empire State Building, at the time the tallest building in both in the United States and the world.
• 1964: Minoru Yamasaki's design for the original World Trade Center, including the Twin Towers, is unveiled by the Port Authority.
• 1966: Construction begins on the original World Trade Center.
• 1966: Sayyid Qutb is executed in Egypt and his brother Muhammad Qutb flees to Saudi Arabia, acquiring a teaching position at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah.
• 1970: The North Tower of the original World Trade Center is completed.
• 1973: The South Tower of the original World Trade Center is completed. The Kingdom of Afghanistan under King Mohammed Zahir Shah is overthrown in a coup d'etat by Prime Minister Mohammed Daoud Khan.
• 1976–1979: Bin Laden is radicalized by Qutb while attending King Abdulaziz University for business administration.
• 1978: Khan is overthrown in the Saur Revolution, and the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan a year later.
• 1979: Bin Laden travels to Afghanistan to assist the Sunni Mujahideen in the Afghan-Soviet War. The United States first becomes concerned over Islamic extremism after the Iranian Revolution, the Iran hostage crisis, and the Grand Mosque seizure.
• 1981: Bin Laden's future deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Jama At al-Jihad, is arrested for his role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat and imprisoned for three years.
• 1983: The 1983 Beirut barracks bombings targeting the Multinational Force in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War provides inspiration for Bin Laden.
• 1984: Bin Laden cofounds a network, the Maktab al-Khidamat, with Abdullah Yusuf Azzam in Afghanistan and Pakistan to recruit Muslims for the Afghan resistance.
• 1987: Bin Laden expresses vocal support for the First Intifada, and begins to advocate in favor of jihad against the West.
• 1988: Osama bin Laden forms a computer database of Islamist militants, founding al-Qaeda. He declares that Muslims must protect the holy sites of Mecca and Medina from foreign control as a religious duty.
• 1989: The Soviet Army withdraws from Afghanistan, and bin Laden advocates transforming al-Qaeda into a global network to fund jihad. Azzam prefers to focus on the Afghan Civil War but is assassinated in a car bombing. After the 1989 coup d'état in Sudan the country's spiritual leader Hassan Al-Turabi would invite bin Laden to stay there.
• 1990: Bin Laden makes an offer to Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to defend Saudi Arabia from Ba'athist Iraq with 100,000 fighters after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. He is turned down, and becomes embittered by the intervention of non-Islamic troops from the U.S.-led international coalition in the Gulf War.
• April 1991: Bin Laden moves to Sudan and begins expanding al-Qaeda.
• April 1992: The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan collapses after Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin seizes Kabul, but a new stage of civil war begins when the Peshawar Accords collapse.
• December 29, 1992: Al-Qaeda attacks the United States for the first time in the Yemen hotel bombings in Aden.
• February 26, 1993: World Trade Center bombing.
• April 1994: Bin Laden's Saudi citizenship is revoked.
• September 1994: Mohammed Omar founds the Taliban in Kandahar.
• December 24, 1994: Armed Islamic Group of Algeria militants attempt to crash Air France Flight 8969 into Eiffel Tower, influencing al-Qaeda's future planning.
• January 6, 1995: Operation Bojinka is discovered by Manila police on a laptop computer in an apartment after a fire.
• January 8, 1996: As Bin Laden makes bellicose statements regarding United States and Saudi Arabia. Michael Scheuer creates a CIA unit, the Bin Laden Issue Station, to gather intelligence on Bin Laden and discovers the existence of al-Qaeda.
• May 1996: Bin Laden moves to Afghanistan.
• June 25, 1996: Al-Qaeda commits the Khobar Towers bombing targeting American servicemen in Saudi Arabia to participate in Operation Southern Watch.
• August 23, 1996: Bin Ladin issues a fatwa declaring war on the United States, which is published in the Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi in London.
• September 27, 1996: The Taliban, a radical Islamic movement, rises to power by conquering Kabul and declares the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
• November 23, 1996: A suicide attack aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is narrowly averted.
• February 1998: Bin Laden expands religious edict against US and allies by issuing a second fatwa calling on Muslims to join a jihad against Jews and Christians until the United States and Israel evacuate the Middle East, and reiterates the themes in a televised interview with ABC News.
• 1998: Suspect claims 'extensive network of al-Qaeda sleeper agents' is planning 'big attack' inside US.
• 1998: 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and associates are monitored some by US and Germany in their Hamburg apartment.
• August 7, 1998: The 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are carried out by Al-Qaeda.
• August 8–10, 1998: In Mazar-i-Sharif, the Taliban and Al Qaeda's 055 Brigade massacred between 4,000 to 8,000 people, including 11 Iranian diplomats. Iran threatened to intervene, but relented after mediation by the United Nations.
• August 20, 1998: Operation Infinite Reach, U.S. cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda training camp in Khost, Afghanistan, in retaliation of Al-Qaeda's U.S. embassy bombings two weeks earlier.
• October 8, 1999: Al-Qaeda is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation by the U.S. State Department.
• October 15, 1999: The United Nations Security Council passes a resolution demanding that the Taliban extradite Bin Ladin.
• October 31, 1999: Suicide pilot crashes EgyptAir Flight 990 into the ocean.
• November–December 1999: The 2000 millennium attack plots for bombings in Jordan and Los Angeles International Airport are discovered and prevented.
• December 1999: Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacked. One passenger dies while the others are released.
• October 12, 2000: The USS Cole is bombed in Yemen by Al-Qaeda.
• August 6, 2001: President George W. Bush receives the President's Daily Brief Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US warning of an imminent attack on the United States by al-Qaeda.
• September 9, 2001: Al-Qaeda assassinates Ahmad Shah Massoud, commander of the Northern Alliance in the Afghan Civil War.

  Planning

• 1992: Mohamed Atta arrives in Germany.
• 1994: Planning on Operation Bojinka begins in the Philippines.
• 1995: Operation Bojinka foiled, Said Bahaji and Ramzi bin al-Shibh arrive in Germany.
• 1996: Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah arrive in Germany.
• 1997: Zakariyah Essabar arrives in Germany.
• 1998: Recruitment of terrorists in Germany starts.
• 1998: Bill Clinton warned 'bin Laden preparing to hijack US aircraft' inside US.
• 1999: Hamburg cell is fully formed.
• 1999: Germany monitors call to 9/11 hijacker al-Shehhi, shares information with CIA.
• 1999: Germans monitor call mentioning key al-Qaeda Hamburg cell members, including 9/11 hijacker Atta's full name and number.
• 1999: 9/11 hijacker Jarrah has unofficial wedding; photograph later suggests German intelligence has informant.
• 1999: Three 9/11 hijackers obtain US visas.
• 1999: Hani Hanjour gets pilot's license despite dubious skills.
• 1999: German intelligence records calls between 9/11 hijacker al-Shehhi and others linked to al-Qaeda.
• 1999: Saudi ambassador's wife gives funds that are possibly passed to 9/11 hijackers.
• 1999: President Clinton warned about al-Qaeda operatives living in US.
• 1999: Watch list importance is stressed but procedures are not followed.
• 1999: NSA tells CIA about planned al-Qaeda summit involving future hijackers.
• 2000: 2000 al-Qaeda Summit in Malaysia, pilots head to the United States and train in flying schools.
• 2001: Remaining hijackers go to the United States, Zacarias Moussaoui goes to the United States and is arrested, other cell members flee Germany.

  September 11, 2001

• 7:59 A.M.: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Boston Logan International Airport, bound for Los Angeles International Airport.
• 8:14 A.M.: Flight 11 is hijacked.
• 8:14 A.M.: United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Boston Logan, also bound for Los Angeles.
• 8:20 A.M.: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington Dulles International Airport, also bound for Los Angeles.
• 8:42 A.M.: United Airlines Flight 93 takes off from Newark International Airport, bound for San Francisco International Airport.
• 8:42–46 A.M.: Flight 175 is hijacked.
• 8:46:40 A.M.: Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center between the 93rd and 99th floors.
• 8:50–54 A.M.: Flight 77 is hijacked.
• 9:03:02 A.M.: Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center between the 77th and 85th floors.
• 9:28 A.M.: Flight 93 is hijacked.
• 9:37:46 A.M.: Flight 77 crashes into The Pentagon.
• 9:59:00 A.M.: The South Tower collapses.
• 10:03:11 A.M.: Flight 93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
• 10:28:22 A.M.: The North Tower collapses.

  Rest of September

• September 13: On the personal orders of Queen Elizabeth II, The 'Star-Spangled Banner' is played during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, marking the first time a foreign national anthem was played outside Buckingham Palace on an occasion other than a state visit. Russia observes a minute's silence.
• September 14 to September 21: Worldwide stock markets plummet.
• September 15: CIA director George Tenet presents the Worldwide Attack Matrix.
• September 20: George W. Bush announces that the US is at war.

  October

• October 1: Rudy Giuliani speaks to the United Nations General Assembly.
• October 7: U.S. Attack on Afghanistan commences.

  Beyond October

• March 2002: The Tribute in Light project begins.
• September 11, 2002: First anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks commemorations are held throughout the world, particularly the U.S.