Sept. 11, 2001 – A timeline

Jan. 15, 1943: Construction of the Petagon is completed.

1970: One World Trade Center, the north tower, is built.

1972: Construction is completed on the second tower.

1988: Saudi exile and millionair Osama bin Laden establishes al Qaeda to support Islamic resistance in Afghanistan.

Feb. 26, 1993: A 1,000-lb. bomb in a Ryder van explodes in the garage of the World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring 1, 042.

Jan. 7, 1998: A US judge sentences Ramzi Yousef, a ontime follower of bin Laden, to life in prison without parole for masterminding the 1993 bombing.

Feb. 22, 1998: Bin Laden issues an edict calling for attacks on all Americans, including civilians.

1998-99: A grand jury indicts bin Laden in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa, which killed 224 people.

July 2000: Two men named Mohamed Atta and Marwa Alshehhi reportedly begin flight school at Huffman Aviation in Venice, Fla. At least seven of the hijackers are believed to have been trained pilots.

May 29, 2001: Four followers of bin Laden are found guilty in a US district court of conspiring to kill Americans around the world, including those in the 1998 embassy bombings.

7:59 a.m. EDT: American Airlines Flight 11, carrying 92 people, leaves Boston's Logan International Airport for Los Angeles.

8:01 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, carrying 45 people, leaves Newark, N.J., International Airport for San Francisco.

8:10 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77, carrying 64 people, takes off from Washington's Dulles Airport for Los Angeles.

8:14 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 people, leaves Boston for Los Angeles.

8:28 a.m.: American flight 11 veers south toward New York. The air-traffic controller handling the plane in Nashua, N.H., hears a conversation in the cockpit and realizes a hijacking is under way.

8:48 a.m.: American flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

9 a.m.: President Bush arrives at a Sarasota, Fla., school to give a speech, when he is informed a plane hs crashed into the World Trade Center.

9:03 a.m.: United Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center.

9:05 a.m.: Bush is visiting a class when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispers to him that a second plane has struck the World Trade Center.

9:31 a.m.: Bush calls the crashes an "apparent terrorist attack on our country."

9:43 a.m.: American Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. Trading on Wall Street is called off.

9:48 a.m.: The Capitol and West Wing of the White House are evacuated.

9:49 a.m.: The Federal Aviation Administration bars aircraft takeoffs across the country. International flights in progress are told to land in Canada.

9:50 a.m.: Two World Trade Center - the north tower - collapses.

9:58 a.m.: Emergency dispatcher in Pennsylvania receives a call from a passenger on United Flight 93 about hijacking. "We are being hijacked! We are being hijacked!"

10:10 a.m.: United Flight 93 crashes 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

10:29 a.m.: One World Trade Center - the north tower - collapses.

10-11:30 a.m.: Government buildings around the US are evacuated. The UN closes down. All US financial markets are closed. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani calls for evacuation of lower Manhattan.

11:40 a.m.: Bush arrives at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, from Florida.

1:04 p.m.: Bush says US armed forces are on maximum alert and vows to "hunt down and punish" those responsible. "We will make no distinction between terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," he says.

2:51 p.m.: The Navy dispatches missile destroyers and other equipment to New York and Washington.

3:07 p.m.: Bush arrives at US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

4:36 p.m.: Bush departs for Wasington. En route, he phones Laura Bush, the first lady, and says, "I'm coming home, see you at the White House."

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