The tragedy of Sept. 11 instantly transformed not just the New York City skyline, but the country and the world we live in. 

Within weeks, the U.S. declared a global war on terror, launching what would become a 20-year military campaign in the Middle East – first in Afghanistan and eventually in Iraq. 

Thousands of U.S. service members died and trillions of dollars were spent, ending with a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban back in power there.

9/11 led to the creation of a brand-new, Cabinet-level department: Homeland Security, and beneath it, a host of new agencies from the TSA – overseeing heightened restrictions on commercial air travel – to CBP and ICE, taking on expanded border patrol and immigration enforcement responsibilities.

The government also established a director of national intelligence and grew surveillance operations in the name of inter-agency collaboration, precaution and safety — viewed by some critics as mass overreach. 

In the attacks’ immediate aftermath, the nation was united by sorrow, love and defiance. And from the ashes of the destruction came new monuments to American resilience: the 9/11 memorial, One World Trade Center, the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, and a restored Pentagon.

Twenty-five years after the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, the alleged plotters still have not faced a trial. 

After rejecting prosecutors’ request to begin the trial in January 2027, a military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ordered jury selection for the trial of four alleged 9/11 plotters — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused principal architect of the attacks — to begin on June 5, 2028. 

“There’s significant frustration,” Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, told CBS News. Felt is the brother of Flight 93 passenger Edward Felt and leads efforts to share his story and that of all 40 passengers and crew members who fought back against hijackers. 

“We’ve yet to see justice or accountability. The trials are still in a pre-trial phase at Guantanamo … that’s been dragging on endlessly,” he said.

Read more here.

Twenty-five years after Sept. 11, 2001, the casualties are still mounting. Roughly 6,000 first responders, survivors and volunteers have died from illnesses related to the attacks. The New York City Fire Department recently added the names of 36 firefighters who died from related diseases to its memorial wall.

“Thirty-six more reminders that the legacy of September 11th doesn’t end on one single day,” said FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore.

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund has received at least 112,000 claims, awarding more than $18 billion.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani recently documents from the aftermath of 9/11, which show that the city was aware of airborne toxins that later sickened and killed thousands.

“The government told us the air was safe to breathe,” said Peter Raho, who worked as an accountant near Ground Zero and was later diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Speaking at his presidential library in Dallas earlier this week, former President George W. Bush reflected on the response he led after the 9/11 attacks.

“Our nation occasionally goes through isolationist periods, where the attitude is, ‘Well, we’ve got too many problems at home. Therefore, who cares about what happens overseas?'” said Bush, who wasn’t yet eight months into his first term when the attacks occurred. “Which really means to me they just don’t pay attention to the lessons of 9/11, because what happens overseas matters to our national security at home.”

As president, he launched the war in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, and then supported the development of a democratic government after years of humanitarian abuses by the Taliban. But the conflict dragged on for 20 years, becoming America’s longest war, until the U.S. withdrew and Afghanistan came under Taliban rule again in 2021. 

Bush also recalled how he had been visiting an elementary school on Sept. 11, 2001, when his then-chief of staff Andy Card first told him about the attacks. 

In that moment, “I became a wartime president,” Bush said. “This was a war, and that the job of the president and the country and his team is to rally the nation and to do what’s necessary to protect our people.” 

Read more here.

The reading of the names of the deceased at Ground Zero will be punctuated by seven moments of silence:

• 8:46 a.m. ET: Hijackers deliberately crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center
• 9:03 a.m. ET: Hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower
• 9:37 a.m. ET: Hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon
• 9:59 a.m. ET: South Tower collapses
• 10:03 a.m. ET: Passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 launch a counterattack on hijackers aboard their plane, causing hijackers to crash into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania
• 10:38 a.m. ET: North Tower collapses
• After the reading of names concludes at 12:30 or 1 p.m. ET: A seventh moment of silence for those who died from 9/11-related health effects

The final moment of silence was added to this year’s program, recognizing thousands of first responders, rescuers, recovery workers and local residents who died from health complications, in some cases years after the attacks. 

CBS News will have live coverage of the memorial events taking place at the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan; the Pentagon, where President Trump is attending; and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Vice President JD Vance and four former U.S. presidents join the ceremony Friday morning at the World Trade Center memorial site in Lower Manhattan, which is set to begin at 8:40 a.m. ET.

Prominent leaders attending the New York City events include:

• Former President George W. Bush & Laura Bush, who were in office at the time of the attacks.
• Former President Bill Clinton & former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York in 2001. 
• Former President Barack Obama & Michelle Obama
• Former President Joe Biden & Jill Biden  
• Vice President JD Vance 
• New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
• New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani
• Former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was in office at the time of the attacks.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will recognize 25 years since Sept. 11, 2001, at the Pentagon, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

The event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. ET, with a wreath-laying ceremony set for 10:25 a.m. 

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump held an event to honor 9/11 heroes on the Ellipse near the White House. He gave Welles Crowther, remembered as the “man in the red bandana” for his heroism on 9/11, a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. 

The New York City Police Department is planning a “massive” deployment on Friday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

“There will be layers of security that are highly visible and others that the public will not see,” Tisch told reporters at a news conference Wednesday.

She said New Yorkers can expect to see uniformed officers throughout the area, along with members of the Counterterrorism Bureau, including heavy weapons teams and counter-drone teams.

Tisch told New Yorkers to expect “significant traffic and pedestrian restrictions throughout Lower Manhattan,” with street closures covering a large portion of the neighborhood. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani encouraged the public not to drive downtown in Manhattan.

Mamdani said the ceremony at Ground Zero is not open to the general public and there will be security screenings for those invited.

Read more here.

The spot where the Twin Towers once stood remains a sacred space for remembering those lost in the attacks. The memorial — which includes pools of water in the footprints of the towers — is surrounded by a neighborhood brought back from devastation.

Rebuilding the area around Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks took years, and included battles between various stakeholders with interest in the future of Lower Manhattan. Even today, 25 years later, it is still not complete.

Explore satellite images, photos and video of the site’s transformation

This year’s 9/11 memorial service is Zohran Mamdani’s first as mayor of New York City.  

In an interview last week, he said he views it as an “enormous responsibility” at a very somber time, and he wants to make sure the day is about remembrance, not about politics. 

“It’s about those that were killed that day. It’s about their families. It’s about the lives that have been shattered. And when you go through the museum, you see in those portraits an entire city. You see the breadth of what makes this city New York,” Mamdani said, “and on these anniversaries, you have an opportunity to recognize those, to remember those.”

Read more and watch the interview here.

In a silent tribute that has become a New York City tradition, the Tribute in Light returned this week to mark 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. The towering beams of light fill the night skies where the Twin Towers once stood. 

After extensive live coverage of the events on Friday, Tony Dokoupil anchors the “CBS Evening News” from Ground Zero, and then two primetime specials will spotlight stories of lives touched in different ways by the tragedy.

At 8 p.m. ET, the CBS News special “9/11: We Remember” features three stories of survival, loss and hope. “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl will revisit a story reported by her late colleague Ed Bradley, looking at Summit, N.J., which lost nine residents in the attacks. Dokoupil talks with a family that escaped the World Trade Center with their toddler but lost their family patriarch, an FDNY hero. And Norah O’Donnell interviews the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, who shares his experience as a young fighter pilot mobilized on 9/11.

Then at 9 p.m. ET on CBS and Paramount+, “Daughters of 9/11″ follows two friends who lost their fathers, Elizabeth Miller and Jessica Trant, and FBI special agent Frank Pellegrino as they confront whether the man accused of masterminding the attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will ever face justice. Read more of their story here.

Americans view the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as a defining event — one that fundamentally changed the country.

In a CBS/YouGov poll conducted earlier this month, 68% of respondents said the attacks changed America permanently. Since the events of that day, 60% say the U.S. war on terrorism has been very or somewhat successful, while 40% say it was somewhat unsuccessful or very unsuccessful. 

Americans are roughly split on whether they think America is prepared for terrorist attacks now. Forty-eight percent of Americans say the U.S. is prepared, while 52% say the country is unprepared. 

Read more here.