ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – The 25th anniversary of America’s biggest attack on its own soil this century takes place on Friday.
Winthrop University joins the country in remembering “9/11,” shorthand for September 11, 2001, when four coordinated terrorist attacks were carried out in America by al-Qaeda, an Islamist extremist group. The first took place in New York City when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. A third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virgina, and the fourth plane crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.
The campus community will gather at the Tillman Fountain Plaza at 8:30 a.m. Gary Simrill ’91, part of Winthrop’s leadership team, will deliver brief remarks and recall when the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. ROTC cadets will salute the flag while Music Professor Elisa Koehler will complete the moment with the solemn, 24-note tune, Taps. Wade Britton, a junior music education major, will sing the National Anthem. The gathering will conclude with the Tillman chimes playing patriotic songs.
Meanwhile at the Winthrop Coliseum, another 9/11 event begins at 8:52 a.m. to commemorate when N.Y. firefighters first entered the North Tower. Local first responders will be joined by Eagle student-athletes in a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb until 11 a.m., paying tribute to the brave firefighters who tried to save who they could. With both buildings containing 110 flights of stairs, that distance is used during annual memorials.
25 Years Ago
On that fateful day, 19 terrorists from al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial airplanes, deliberately crashing two of the planes into the upper floors of the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City and a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. The Twin Towers ultimately collapsed because of the damage sustained from the impacts and the resulting fires. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, fought back, and the plane was crashed into an empty field in western Pennsylvania.
The attacks killed 2,977 people from 90 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu.
