I was at work, got home that afternoon and was reminded of the Challenger disaster which occurred when I was in 3rd Grade. Everything was replayed repeatedly, just like in 1986 and had John Madden showed up with a telestrator marker I wouldn't have been surprised.
Here are some tidbits related to September 11, 2001.
Seth McFarlane was supposed to be one of the victims of the attacks, but he missed his flight due to a hangover from the night before. While waiting at the airport for his backup flight, footage showed on the TV of the immediate aftermath of American 11, the plane Seth was supposed to be aboard impacting World Trade Center Tower 1.
Marky Mark Wahlberg canceled his American 11 flight at the last minute. Ditto for Leighann Litrell, wife of Backstreet Boys singer Brian Litrell.
Many of the flight victims of the attacks, be they staff or passengers wound up aboard their fateful flight last minute. Among those are Jeremy Glick who missed United 93 the previous day due to traffic and thus had to use today's flight. Another 93 victim was Mark Bingham who delayed his flight from the day before due to a hangover.
Delta 1989 suffered a comedy of misunderstandings that day as they were mistaken as a hijack in the midst of the chaos unfolding around them.
One of the top political items prior to that morning involved California US Representative Gary Condit and the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Levy's body would be found in 2002 and Condit would no longer be Representative in 2003.
The headline item that morning before history took over was Michael Jordan preparing for a return to the NBA. The Mountain Time Zone feed for NBC's Today started with the normal open with only a message at the bottom of the screen noting the attacks with the Jordan item taking center stage until United 75 hit World Trade Center Tower 2, forcing NBC to cut to the live footage from the Eastern Time Zone.
Michael Jackson, who had spent the past several days performing concerts at Madison Square Garden was scheduled to visit the World Trade Center that afternoon.
Jackie Chan was supposed to be atop WTC 1 that morning to shoot a scene for a film called Nosebleed whose plot revolved around the WTC itself. Instead he was in Toronto filming another movie as the Nosebleed script for the scene in question was late to arrive. Nosebleed was canceled after the attacks for obvious reasons. Chan desribed himself as being "like a walking corpse" after seeing the attacks on a TV on set.
New music albums dropped that day including Mariah Carey's Glitter soundtrack, Jay-Z's the Blueprint, and Nickelback's breakthrough Silver Side Up. The Latin Grammys, scheduled for that night were canceled.
Governor Jeb Bush of Florida was the first to declare a state of emergency as his brother, President George W. Bush was in there instead of the White House, visiting a school. It would at Emma E. Booker Elementary in Sarasota where Bush would make his first statement. Vice President Dick Cheney was at the White House. Cheney's wife, Lynne was getting her hair done and didn't allow the attacks to get in the way of that. Bush's wife, Laura was scheduled to speak at the Capitol about education, but that would be canceled in the wake of the attacks. Instead, Bush and Massachusetts US Senator Ted Kennedy offered a joint statement.
Ziad Jarrah was cited for speeding in Maryland 2 days earlier.
The night before the attacks, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari spent the night in Portland, Maine. They ate pizza and shopped at Walmart.
According to the FBI, a woman claiming to be Atta's wife showed up at a court in Broward County, Florida wanting to clear her alleged husband's driving record, having received a citation back in April.
Both the United States and Russia had military exercises going that morning. The US had pilots monitoring the Russians' exercise near the North Pole. Shortly after the attacks, Russia sent their pilots home, cancelling the exercise for the rest of the week.
Many channels suspended programming that day as the attacks unfolded, either breaking in with news coverage or simply plugging in reporting from a sister channel. MTV broadcast CBS's coverage. Children's networks and the Weather Channel continued as normal.
Osama bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks.
A flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Chicago, Illinois may have been linked to the attacks. As they unfolded the flight in question was diverted to Toronto and it would be there where passenger Nageed Abdul Jabar Mohamed al-Hadi would be detained after Customs officers checked his baggage, finding pilot uniforms, forged passports, and a cryptic message. In 2002 he'll be convicted on forgery charges. Nageeb was connected to Nabil al-Marabh.
The attacks caused the abortion of a major TV event scheduled for May 2002 on NBC involving a crossover called Terror, set in the Law & Order universe including all 3 shows airing at the time.
Liz Lange was hosting her first fashion runway event for maternity wear in New York City at the time of the attacks. They found out as the show was ending what had occurred with reporters rushing out during the presentation. Prior to the attacks, members of the press had been there as it was part of New York's Fashion Week and Liz had been interviewed on TV right before American 11 hit WTC1.
This was Ben Sliney's first day as FAA National Operations Manager.
Perhaps I'll share other tidbits later, but I think I've flooded y'all enough for now.
VIPPrimo at YouTube put together this real time montage including simulations of American 11, United 75, American 77, and United 93 along with media footage.
