Biden lays wreath at Pentagon, events in NYC and Pennsylvania mark 21 years since 9/11 attacks

ARLINGTON, Va. – President Biden laid a wreath at the Pentagon, first lady Jill Biden was speaking in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and the families of victims gathered in New York on Sunday as the nation marked 21 years since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks that rocked the world and killed almost 3,000 Americans.

Events at all three sites included a reading of the names of those who died.

Other communities around the country were holding candlelight vigils, interfaith services and other commemorations. Some Americans are joining in volunteer projects on a day that is federally recognized as Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“America itself changed that day,” Biden told a somber crowd in the rain outside the Pentagon. “But what we will not change, and never will, is the character of this nation that the terrorist thought they could wound.”

In New York, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum was hosting its annual ceremony, with family members of the victims once again reading the names of the fallen.

Six moments of silence will be observed during the ceremony to mark when each of the World Trade Center towers were struck, when they fell, when a plane slammed into the Pentagon and when United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a Shanksville field.

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Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff will also be at the events in New York, but by tradition, no political figures speak at the ground zero ceremony.

In Shanksville, the names of the passengers and crew members will be read with the ringing of the Bells of Remembrance starting at 10:03 a.m., the moment Flight 93 crashed. That plane went down after passengers and crew members tried to storm the cockpit as the hijackers headed for Washington.

The attacks were the work of 19 al-Qaeda conspirators who seized control of two passengers jets departing from Boston, one from Newark, N.J., and one from Washington-Dulles. The turned the planes into weapons.

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The deadly morning spurred a global “war on terror” that continues today – month ago a U.S. drone strike killed, Ayman al-Zawahri, a key al-Qaida figure who helped plot the 9/11 attacks.

Contributing: The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 9/11 remembered: Biden lays wreath at Pentagon; names read in New York