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From today's featured article

Path of American Airlines Flight 11

American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the 9/11 attacks. The airliner was deliberately crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, killing everyone aboard the flight and resulting in the deaths of more than one thousand people. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767 with 92 passengers and crew, was flying American Airlines' morning transcontinental service from Logan Airport to Los Angeles International Airport. The hijackers breached the cockpit, forcing the passengers and crew to the rear. Mohamed Atta took the controls and flew the plane into the North Tower from floors 93 through 99 at 08:46 local time. Seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center's South Tower, dispelling any notion that the attacks were accidental. The North Tower collapsed at 10:28, resulting in hundreds of casualties. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Sultanhisar, a Demirhisar-class torpedo boat

... that the Ottoman Navy procured the Akhisar-, Antalya-, and Demirhisar-class torpedo boats (example pictured) from foreign countries as a diplomatic measure, instead of ordering warships for their capabilities?
... that a 32-year-old NFL rookie lied about his age in 2001?
... that the 1986 Greek constitutional amendment elevated the prime minister into a "parliamentary autocrat" by stripping away most powers of the president?
... that Byzantine commander Conon was killed by his own soldiers because he was accused of trafficking and profiteering of their food supplies?
... that, in the 1936 Liechtenstein general election, the Patriotic Union received over 40% of the vote, but won only four of the fifteen seats?
... that VTuber Nekomata Okayu stars in two romantic visual novels?
... that the Gulf Coast Parkway, intended to supplement the storm surge-prone U.S. Route 98, was only built along roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) of its planned 36 (58 km)?
... that Swiss sculptor Oscar Wiggli used the sound of hammer blows in his electroacoustic compositions?
... that jerk off instruction content has been described as "a masturbatory trance experience"?

In the news

Gloria Steinem in 1977

In Yemen, heavy fighting between the Houthis and the Presidential Leadership Council leaves hundreds of people dead.
American journalist and feminist activist Gloria Steinem (pictured) dies at the age of 92.
Following the Kazakh legislative election, Oljas Bektenov is reappointed Prime Minister of Kazakhstan by the newly established Kurultai.
Duane Davis is convicted of orchestrating the 1996 murder of American rapper Tupac Shakur.
In a referendum, Icelanders reject European Union membership negotiations.

On this day

September 11: National Day of Catalonia

Alexander Hamilton

1776 – British and American leaders held a peace conference on Staten Island, New York, in the hopes of bringing an end to the nascent American Revolutionary War.
1789 – Alexander Hamilton (pictured), co-writer of The Federalist Papers, became the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.
1851 – In a fight near Christiana, Pennsylvania, a group of escaped slaves and free Blacks led by William Parker fought off a federal posse seeking to arrest and return the escapees to slavery.
1945 – The Japanese-run camp at Batu Lintang 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.
2025 – Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his involvement in a coup plot.

Johann Bernhard Basedow (b. 1724)
Paul Nahaolelua (b. 1806)
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (b. 1982)
Alberto Fujimori (d. 2024)

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From today's featured list

Brian Lara

A quadruple century has been scored eleven times by nine different players in first-class cricket. The first player to achieve a quadruple century (an individual score of 400 runs or more) was Archie MacLaren in 1895, playing for Lancashire against Somerset, while the most recent was achieved by Sam Northeast. Brian Lara (pictured) is the only player to have scored a quadruple century in Test cricket. Lara holds the record for the highest score in first-class cricket, having made 501 not out in 1994. Bill Ponsford is the only other player to have scored two quadruple centuries, doing so in 1923 and 1927 for the Victoria cricket team. Don Bradman's score of 452 not out was made in the shortest time of all quadruple centuries; his innings lasted 415 minutes (6 hours and 55 minutes). Lara's Test quadruple was the longest, taking 778 minutes (12 hours and 58 minutes). (Full list...)

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Today's featured picture

The World Trade Center was a large complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The complex featured landmark twin towers, which opened on April 4, 1973, and were the tallest buildings in the world from 1970 to 1973. On the morning of September 11, 2001, hijackers affiliated with al-Qaeda flew two Boeing 767 jets into the twin towers in a coordinated act of terrorism. After burning for 56 minutes, the South Tower collapsed, followed 29 minutes later by the North Tower. Falling debris and fires led to the partial or complete collapse of all other buildings in the complex and caused catastrophic damage to surrounding structures. The attacks killed 2,606 people in and around the towers, as well as all 157 on board the two aircraft. This aerial photograph by Carol M. Highsmith, taken earlier in 2001, shows the World Trade Center twin towers dominating the New York City skyline, with Battery Park City in the foreground on the waterfront of the Hudson River.

Photograph credit: Carol M. Highsmith; edited by Soerfm

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