American Airlines Flight 11 was American Airlines' morning, daily scheduled transcontinental flight, from Boston, Massachusetts to Los Angeles, California. On September 11, 2001, the aircraft flying this route was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists, and deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, as part of the September 11 attacks. Fifteen minutes into the flight, the hijackers forcibly breached the cockpit, and overpowered the pilot and first officer. Mohamed Atta, an al-Qaeda member and trained pilot, took over the controls. Air traffic controllers noticed the flight was in distress when the crew stopped responding to them. They realized the flight had been hijacked when Atta mistakenly transmitted announcements for passengers to air traffic control. On board, Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong contacted American Airlines, and provided information about the hijackers and injuries to passengers and crew. The aircraft crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 08:46 local time; the impact killed all 92 people aboard. The impact and subsequent fire caused the North Tower to collapse, which resulted in thousands of additional casualties. During the recovery effort at the World Trade Center site, workers recovered and identified dozens of remains from Flight 11 victims, but many other body fragments could not be identified. (more...)

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1709:

An allied British-Dutch-Austrian force defeated the French at the Battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest battles of the War of the Spanish Succession. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Malplaquet

1914:

During World War I, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force invaded German New Guinea, winning the Battle of Bita Paka. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bita_Paka

1945:

The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang, Sarawak, in Borneo was liberated by the Australian 9th Division, averting the planned massacre of its 2,000-plus Allied POWs and civilian internees by four days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Lintang_camp

1992:

The eye of Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful hurricane to strike the state of Hawaii and the Hawaiian Islands in recorded history, passed directly over the island of Kauai, killing six people and causing around USD$1.8 billion dollars in damage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Iniki

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

in memoriam (adv): In memory (of); as a memorial http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/in_memoriam

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further — we will realize that humanity is indivisible. New threats make no distinction between races, nations or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status. A deeper awareness of the bonds that bind us all — in pain as in prosperity — has gripped young and old. --Kofi Annan http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kofi_Annan