7. The September 11, 2001 Attacks
The September 11, 2001 attacks were a series of coordinated terrorist assaults carried out by the extremist group al-Qaeda. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes, crashing two into New York City’s World Trade Center towers, one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and the fourth into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to overcome the hijackers. These attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,977 people, marking the single largest loss of life from a foreign attack on American soil (911memorial.org).
In response, the U.S. government initiated the Global War on Terror, deploying troops to Afghanistan in October 2001 and later to Iraq. The attacks also led to the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act in October 2001, which expanded the government’s intelligence-gathering capabilities and its authority to detain and deport individuals suspected of terrorism. These measures have been subjects of ongoing debate regarding their impact on civil liberties (911memorial.org).
