Twenty-five years on

September 11, 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the attacks. Families gathered at ground zero for the ceremony, the same ritual held every year since.

Seared into the consciousness

Presidential historian Mark Updegrove frames the day as something Americans cannot put down, a fixed point in the country's memory rather than a closed chapter.

“seared into the consciousness of Americans”

Former presidents show up

Former presidents attended the New York ceremony, and President Trump went to the Pentagon. The anniversary still pulls the whole political class to the same few places.

Families still want answers

Some 9/11 families used the NYC ceremony to press Trump to hold the Saudis accountable. The grievance has outlasted four administrations.

The illness that came after

Coverage from ground zero looks at the health toll on people who worked the site, and at the security measures that have shaped the location ever since.

Survivors and successors

The last person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble speaks out. A son now carries on the work of a father who helped people escape the South Tower.

Rebuilt on the same ground

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, crushed when the towers fell, has been rebuilt on the site. Drones lit the skyline with the shape of the Twin Towers.

Explaining it to kids

Most students now in school were born long after 2001. Parents and teachers have to teach the day as history, not as something everyone in the room lived through.