• 8:45 a.m. (all times are EDT): A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 traveling from Boston to Los Angeles, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, ripping a hole in the building and setting it on fire.

• 9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 traveling from Boston to Los Angeles, crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both buildings are burning.

• 9:40 a.m.: The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air traffic nationwide has been frozen.

• 9:43 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77, traveling from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, crashes into the Pentagon.

• 10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

• 10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses.

• 10:10 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, also hijacked on its way from Newark to San Francisco, crashes in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.

• 10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses.

• 11:02 a.m.: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay at home and orders an evacuation of the area south of Canal Street.

• 1:04 p.m.: Bush, speaking from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, says that all appropriate security measures are being taken, including putting the U.S. military on high alert worldwide. He asks for prayers for those killed or wounded in the attacks and says, "Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."

• 1:27 p.m.: A state of emergency is declared by the city of Washington.

• 3:55 p.m.: Giuliani now says the number of critically injured in New York City is up to 200 with 2,100 total injuries reported.

• 4 p.m: CNN reports that U.S. officials say there are "good indications" that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, suspected of coordinating the bombings of two U.S. embassies in 1998, is involved in the attacks, based on "new and specific" information developed since the attacks.

• 4:10 p.m.: Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex is reported on fire.

• 5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex collapses. The evacuated building is damaged when the twin towers across the street collapse earlier in the day. Other nearby buildings in the area remain ablaze.

• 5:30 p.m.: CNN reports that U.S. officials say the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible targets: Camp David, the White House or the U.S. Capitol building.

• 7:45 p.m.: The New York Police Department says that at least 78 officers are missing. The city also says that as many as half of the first 400 firefighters on the scene were killed.

• 8:30 p.m.: President Bush addresses the nation, saying "thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil" and asks for prayers for the families and friends of Tuesday's victims. "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve," he says. The president says the U.S. government will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed the acts and those who harbor them. He adds that government offices in Washington are reopening for essential personnel Tuesday night and for all workers Wednesday.

• 10:49 p.m.: CNN reports that Attorney General Ashcroft told members of Congress that there were three to five hijackers on each plane armed only with knives.
  Source: CNN

Facts About The World Trade Center:
The twin towers at the World Trade Center were massive structures. They were 1,368 feet (417 meters) tall and had 110 stories. Each floor was approximately 210 feet by 210 feet in size. In other words, each floor held approximately an acre of rentable floor space, giving the twin towers a combined 220 acres of space (approximately 9 million square feet, or 840,000 square meters). It cost over $1 billion to build the towers circa 1970. It could easily cost $5 billion to replace them today. It is estimated that 10 percent of the office space in Manhattan was lost on September 11.
Source: HowStuffWorks.com

Citizens from more than 60 countries are victims of the World Trade center disaster.
Source: Reuters

Facts About The Pentagon:
The Pentagon-- a building, institution, and symbol-- was conceived at the request of Brigadier General Brehon B. Sommervell, Chief of the Construction Division of the Office of the Quartermaster General, on a weekend in mid-July 1941. The purpose was to provide a temporary solution to the War Department’s critical shortage of space.The groundbreaking ceremony took place on September 11, 1941. The building was dedicated on January 15, 1943, nearly 16 months to the day after the groundbreaking. The Pentagon is virtually a city in itself. Approximately 23,000 employees, both military and civilian, contribute to the planning and execution of the defense of our country.
Source: The Pentagon

Facts About Osama bin Laden:
Bin Laden is the seventeenth child of 52 born into one of the wealthiest families in Saudi Arabia. He was born in 1958. He is an Islamic fundamentalist, the most conservative sect of Islam. Fundamentalists believe in the creation of a nation where political and spiritual ideologies of Islam play a major role in governing. Bin Laden is also considered the leader of al Qaeda (Arabic for "the Base"). The organization is a worldwide network that many believe is responsible for the recent terrorist attacks around the world. These attacks include:

• February 1993: A bombing at the World Trade Center in New York that takes the life of six people.
• October 1993: Troops, believed to be backed by bin Laden, shoot down two American military helicopters over Somalia. At least 18 American soldiers die.
• June 1996: A bombing at the Khobar Towers, a American military housing complex in Saudi Arabia, kills 19 soldiers and injures hundreds of others.
• August 1998: A bombing attack on the same day at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. More than 200 people, including Americans, are killed.
• 1999: Bin Laden is expected to be behind a plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport at the millennium. Fortunately, one of bin Laden's followers, trying to cross the Canadian border with explosives in his car, is arrested before he can attack.
• October 2000: The USS Cole is bombed as it was anchored in the harbor at Aden, Yemen. The blast leaves a massive hole in the ship and kills 17 sailors.
• September 2001: Suicide pilots hijack four planes and crash them. Two hit the twin towers at the World Trade Center in New York City. One hits the Pentagon outside of Washington, DC. The fourth crash lands in a rural area of Pennsylvania.

Bin Laden has not always disliked America. Many point to the Gulf War as his turning point. In 1990, Saudi Arabia, where he was then living, allowed the U.S. to bring in military troops and fight against Iraq from Saudi soil. The influx of Americans, and their lifestyles and culture upset bin Laden who is completely committed to Islam.

After a quarrel with his family in 1991, bin Laden left Saudi Arabia permanently. Many believe he now lives in Afghanistan, yet his current whereabouts remain unconfirmed. Bin Laden has been able to mastermind many of his attacks because of his wealth. Some estimate that he is worth up to $250 million. Now known around the world for his terrorist, anti-American activities, bin Laden's family in Saudi Arabia disowned him. The Saudi government took away his right of citizenship and froze his remaining assets in that country.
Source: Channel One

Facts About The Taliban:
The group has formally been in existence for less than a decade, starting in refugee camps along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in the early 1990s. Originally, the male Afghan religious students who made up the early Taliban were sent out to protect people and trade in the neighboring country of Pakistan. But it did not take long before the Taliban moved on to taking a more powerful role in Afghanistan. They took control of smaller cities first, then captured Kabul, Afghanistan's capital, in 1996.

Though the Taliban is currently the ruling power in Afghanistan, they are not formally recognized as the government there. In fact, the United Nations representative from Afghanistan is actually the exiled president, Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was in power prior to the Taliban's rule. Rabbani fled the country in 1996.

After decades of war - a civil war and a bloody war with the Soviet Union - Afghanistan was left poor and lawless. The political parties were corrupt and did little to help the people in that country. So when the Taliban started to take power in the 1990s, many people embraced their cause, hoping that the country could redevelop under Taliban rule. But that was not necessarily the case after the Taliban overran Kabul.
Source: Channel One