TWENTY years ago terrorists struck with horrific consequences at the heart of America. The shockwaves are still reverberating around the world as we remember the thousands who died.

The moment when Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center is no doubt one of the most defining moments in American history.

New York was just waking up, yawning, stretching and going to work when the country became the victim of the deadliest terrorist attack it has ever faced.

But who could have foretold that the plumes of black smoke pouring from the scraper’s upper storeys into the blue sky were a mere taster of the horrors to come?

Events unfolded with ominous speed.

The explosion as the second plane was swallowed up by the south tower; the piercing screams of bystanders; the denting of the Pentagon’s famous shape by a third passenger jet; selfless firefighters swarming into the doomed buildings; clouds of rubble and dust enveloping Lower Manhattan as the towers collapsed and the deep, rasping sobs of relatives, for whom an answerphone message from a doomed plane had been the final farewell.

We simply cannot imagine the adrenalin-pounding hell endured by those who chose to throw themselves from the windows of the twin towers rather than submit themselves to a choking, fiery death.

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New York, the United States and the world reeled.

Public opinion soon gave President Bush the mandate to launch military reprisals against Al Qaida.

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However, the country’s usual granite-hard self-assurance was cracked as it suddenly experienced the new sensation of vulnerability.

It was a defining moment for the United States, a time remembered by the world as when the nation displayed dignity and a dogged determination.