9/11 timeline

March 11, 2002

Sept. 11: Hijacked airliners crash in N.Y.C., at Pentagon, in Pennsylvania.

Sept. 11: Wal-Mart reports nationwide sales of US flags are up 1,800 percent over a year ago. Ammunition purchases rise 100 percent.

Sept. 13: Commercial air traffic resumes, and Broadway shows reopen. Sept. 21: Two-hour celebrity telethon takes in $150 million in pledges for 9/11 victims.

Sept. 15: Bush tells US: "We're at war," names Osama bin Laden "prime suspect."

Sept. 27: Bush authorizes National Guard troops for airport security.

Sept. 20: Bush creates cabinet-level Office of Homeland Security.

Airline travel drops:

33 percent in September, 21 percent in October, 18 percent in November, 13 percent in December.

Oct. 5: First of five anthrax deaths in several weeks of disease-by-mail attacks.

Oct. 7: US, British missiles strike Taliban military targets and Al Qaeda camps.

Oct. 19: US ground forces battle for first time in Afghanistan.

Oct. 26: Bush signs antiterrorism bill. 11/12 Taliban abandons Kabul.

Oct. 27: Of 25,000 FBI employees, 7,000 are working terror cases exclusively. The agency has received 394,523 tips on terrorist activity since 9/11.

Nov. 8: US Post Offices handle 6.6 billion fewer items since 9/11 and anthrax attacks.

Nov. 28: First American dies in Afghanistan - during Taliban prisoner uprising.

Dec. 6: A university study shows substance-abuse admissions to treatment facilities jump 10 to 12 percent nationwide after 9/11.

Dec. 15: Bible sales in last four months of year are up 25 percent worldwide.

Dec. 22: Air passenger tries to ignite shoe bomb on flight from Paris to Miami.

Jan. 17: US announces hunt for five Al Qaeda operatives planning suicide bombing.

Jan. 26: Wall Street Journal reporter abducted in Pakistan, later killed.

Jan. 27: Six largest 9/11 charities raise $1.7 billion to date - exceeding estimated need by $600 million.

Jan. 30: Bush expands scope of war on terror to include broader 'axis of evil.'

Jan. 30: Ground-zero viewing platform opens to the public - tickets have to be issued to control large numbers of visitors.

Feb. 2: More than a dozen individuals and companies battle over trademark to the phrase "Let's roll," cried out by one of the passengers confronting hijackers on the 9/11 flight that crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Feb. 4, 8-24: Super Bowl and Olympics held under extraordinary security measures.

Feb. 6: CIA says 1,000 al Qaeda operatives detained in 60 countries since 9/11.

Feb. 15: "Collateral Damage," a movie about a terrorist attack whose release was delayed after 9/11, opens nationwide, earning $15 million in its first weekend at theaters.

March 2-11: In biggest battle of the war, US leads assault on al Qaeda stronghold.

March 7: Workers have removed 1.4 million tons of debris - 95,000 truckloads - from ground zero since 9/11.

March 7: The National Guard begins phased withdrawal through May of airport security-duty throughout the nation.

March 11: Twin towers of light shining where the World Trade Center once stood will be switched on tonight in a temporary memorial to the nearly 3,000 killed in the terrorist attack.