The day America changed

• 5:45 a.m. EDT: Hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdulaziz al-Omari pass through airport security in Portland, Maine, and board a flight for Boston. Over the next 90 minutes, 17 other hijackers clear security at three other Eastern airports.

• 6:00 a.m.: Polls open in New York City for primary elections.

• 7:59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Boston, with Atta and Omari on board, bound for Los Angeles.

• 8:14 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 takes off from Boston with other hijackers on board.

• 8:20 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 takes off from Washington Dulles airport en route to Los Angeles.

• 8:24 a.m.: On Flight 11, Atta, trying to communicate with the cabin, mistakenly contacts air traffic control.

• 8:37 a.m.: Air traffic control reports the hijacking to the US military.

• 8:42 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 departs Newark, N.J., with hijackers aboard.

• 8:46 a.m.: Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC).

• 8:50 a.m.: White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card tells President George W. Bush, who's visiting a Florida elementary school, about the crash.

• 8:55 a.m.: Occupants of the unhit WTC's South Tower are told not to evacuate. The building is secure. Then, minutes later, the New York Port Authority initiates an evacuation.

• 9:03 a.m.: Flight 175 smashes into the South Tower.

• 9:31 a.m.: Bush, speaking in Florida, says the country has suffered an "apparent terrorist attack."

• 9:37 a.m.: Hijackers crash Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

• 9:42 a.m.: The FAA, for the first time in history, halts all flights in the US and orders those in the air to land.

• 9:48 a.m.: US authorities evacuate the US Capitol and the White House's West Wing.

• 9:59 a.m.: The South Tower collapses.

• 10:03 a.m.: Hijackers, trying to prevent passengers from retaking the plane, crash Flight 93 in a field southeast of Pittsburgh.

• 10:28 a.m.: The North Tower collapses.

• 10:50 a.m.: New York postpones primary elections.

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