Americans commemorated the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks with solemn ceremonies to remember the lives lost and to call for a sense of national unity not seen since the aftermath of the deadliest strikes on US soil.
With a tolling bell, a service at Ground Zero in New York on Saturday started exactly two decades after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. It was the first of four planes Al Qaeda hijacked and used to kill 2,977 people.
Relatives of some of the victims read out the names of their loved ones as President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton looked on.
“It felt like an evil spectre had descended on our world, but it was also a time when many people acted above and beyond the ordinary,” said Mike Low, whose daughter, Sara Low, was a flight attendant on that first plane.
In the weeks after 9/11, Americans came together in shock and mourning, and countries the world over rallied behind the US in solidarity.
But 20 years and two costly conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq later, Americans are at war with themselves over any number of issues.
Whether it is mask-wearing and vaccinations to tackle Covid-19 or the very notion of democracy itself, the US public is more divided than at any other time in modern history.
“Following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people,” former president George W Bush said in a speech at the memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a hijacked plane crashed.
“When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own ... So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together.”
He called on Americans to confront domestic extremists who destroy “national symbols”, a reference to the supporters of former president Donald Trump who desecrated the US Capitol in a deadly rampage on January 6 and tried to overturn the results of last year’s presidential elections.
“The dangers to our country can come not only across borders but from violence that gathers within,” Mr Bush said.
Mr Bush is remembered as rallying the nation in the days after 9/11, including famously giving a rousing speech through a megaphone at Ground Zero three days after the attacks.
But the fiasco of his war in Iraq has been blamed as a root cause for much of the division in the US today.
In a recorded address on Friday, Mr Biden said Americans must strive for common ground.
“In the days that followed September 11, 2001, we saw heroism everywhere, in places expected and unexpected. We also saw something all too rare: a true sense of national unity,” he said.
Mr Biden did not deliver remarks at any of the sites. After Saturday's ceremony in Shanksville, he said: "The core of who we are is not divided" during a visit to a fire station.
Mr Trump meanwhile released a video message slamming Mr Biden’s “inept administration” for its "incompetence” over the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The former president, who had been in New York, did not attend the main memorial service in Manhattan and was to later deliver ringside commentary at a boxing match at a casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Mr Clinton, who was president in the years leading up to 9/11, said: “America will never forget those who lost their lives, those who risked or gave their own lives to save others, and those whose lives were forever changed 20 years ago. We owe it to all of them to come together again with unity, hope, compassion and resolve.”
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Retired Willow Springs, Illinois Chief of Police Sam Pulia and his nephew, Chicago Police Sgt Daniel Pulia, place flags at the South Tower ahead of ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. EPA -
People visit the 9/11 memorial on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, New York. EPA -
A woman places flowers on the 9/11 memorial. EPA -
A man takes a moment to remember those who lost their lives in the attacks. EPA -
A woman places flowers at the South Tower ahead of ceremonies to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. EPA -
Claudia Castano speaks about her memory of her brother German who's name is etched at the Empty Sky 9/11 Memorial in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. AFP -
People mourn at the 9/11 Memorial on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, New York City, U. S. EPA -
Members of the New York Police and Fire Department hold a flag for the national anthem during the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City. AFP -
Kirsten Gillibrand arrives at a ceremony at Ground Zero held in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, held in lower Manhattan, New York City. -
Police commissioner Dermot Shea arrives at a ceremony at Ground Zero held in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, held in lower Manhattan, New York. AFP -
An American flag placed along with a photo of the Twin Towers and the name Daniel P. Trant, a Cantor Fitzgerald bond trader that died during 9/11, before ceremonies to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. AP -
A 9. 11 Memorial staff member places a flag at the South Tower before ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the 9. 11 attack at the World Trade Center in New York which killed almost 3,000 people. EPA -
A U. S. flag is seen on the 9/11 Memorial on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks in Manhattan, New York City, U. S. EPA -
A NYPD Honor Guard marches in with a damaged American Flag at the South Tower before ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the 9. 11 attack at the World Trade Center in New York which killed almost 3,000 people. EPA -
New York police and firefighters hold a US flag as a band plays the US National Anthem at the National 9/11 Memorial during a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York. AFP -
A 9. 11 Memorial staff member places a flag at the South Tower before ceremonies marking the 20th anniversary of the 9. 11 attack at the World Trade Center in New York which killed almost 3,000 people. AFP -
Flowers placed at the name of Frank Spinelli at the 9/11 memorial during a ceremony at Ground Zero held in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA, held in lower Manhattan, New York City, NY, USA. EPA -
New York police and firefighters hold a US flag as a band plays the US National Anthem at the National 9/11 Memorial during a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York. AFP -
A man places American flags on the South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial during a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, New York, USA,. EPA -
Family members sit on a bench that honors their loved one at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial opened in 2008, that commemorates the lives lost at the Pentagon and onboard American Airlines Flight 77, at the Pentagon in Washington. An American flag was unfurled at the Pentagon at sunrise on the morning of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks and is draped over the site of impact at the Pentagon. AP -
A rose lays on a bench at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Virginia. The nation is marking the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, when the terrorist group al-Qaeda flew hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center, Shanksville, PA and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people. AFP -
US Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff make their way to board a flight before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland . - Vice President Harris is heading to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to attend a 9/11 commemoration. AFP -
US Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff make their way to board a flight before departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. - Vice President Harris is heading to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to attend a 9/11 commemoration. AFP -
People attend a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at the Greek Orthodox St Nicholas National Shrine adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York. AFP -
People walk among the flags of the commemorative installation 'Waves of Flags' on the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 at the Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. EPA -
People sit in front of the 'Tribute in Light' installation in New York, commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks. AFP -
The annual 'Tribute in Light' marking the the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre shines within lower Manhattan's skyline in New York. AFP -
People hold candles in New York as they remember those who lost their lives in the attacks. AFP -
People watch the cast of the Broadway musical ‘Come From Away' perform a free concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. AFP -
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Friends of Flight 93 host the Luminaria Ceremony at Flight 93 National Memorial Plaza in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. EPA -
Sergeant Edwin Morales holds a photo of his cousin, Rubin Correa from Engine 74, by the Tribute in Light installation in New York. Reuters -
The Tribute in Light installation and World Trade Centre shine bright at night. Reuters -
A candlelight memorial remembers the passengers and crew of United Flight 93 at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville. AP -
A flight attendant reads a card with flowers at the Wall of Names at the Flight 93 National Monument during the Luminaria Ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. AFP -
Finley, three, runs among the 'Waves of Flags' installation at the Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. EPA
In addition to the people killed on 9/11, a similar number of first responders who helped clean up the toxic remnants of the attacks are thought to have died of cancer, lung disease and other health conditions stemming from their work in the weeks after the atrocity.
Ceremonies were held at the Pentagon, in Guantanamo Bay, where five men accused of assisting the 9/11 hijackers are still awaiting trial, and throughout the US.
In Britain, Queen Elizabeth II offered her “thoughts and prayers”.
“We also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild,” she said.
