911 attacks

September 11 attacks

Background Information

(often referred to as nine-eleven, written 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001.

On that morning, 19 Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.

The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others.

The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died in the attacks.

The Bush Government responded to the attacks by launching a "War on Terrorism", invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists.

Effect to Economy

The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and NASDAQ did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17.

When the stock markets reopened, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8921, a record-setting one-day point decline.

By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history, though later surpassed in 2008 during the global financial crisis. U.S. stocks lost $1.4 trillion in value for the week.This is equivalent to $1.7 trillion in present day terms.

Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks