America marks 25 years since Sept. 11 attacks

Americans gathered Friday to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, with families reading the names of the dead in New York, President Trump honoring victims at the Pentagon and ceremonies unfolding in Pennsylvania for the passengers and crew who fought back aboard Flight 93.

At the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan, families of those killed gathered at Ground Zero for the annual remembrance ceremony. The observance began with the national anthem, followed by the first of seven planned moments of silence and the ringing of a bell to mark the moment the first tower was struck. Relatives then began reading the names of those who died, with children and grandchildren of victims among those taking part as cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed a musical tribute.

This year’s New York ceremony included an additional moment of silence for people who later became ill from exposure tied to the attacks. Roughly 6,000 first responders, survivors and volunteers have died from 9/11-related illnesses, CBS News reported. The New York City Fire Department recently added 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,” FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore said.

Vice President JD Vance and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani attended the New York ceremony, along with all living former presidents. Mamdani also planned to attend other memorial events in the city.

At the Pentagon, Trump and first lady Melania Trump joined Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a ceremony that began at 9 a.m. Trump saluted as the national anthem played. The names of the 125 people killed inside the Pentagon were read aloud, along with remembrance of the 59 passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the building at 9:37 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, observances began at the Flight 93 National Memorial. United Airlines Flight 93 was believed to have been headed toward the U.S. Capitol when passengers and crew fought the hijackers, causing the plane to crash into an empty field. All 33 passengers and seven crew members were killed.

Gordon Felt, whose brother Ed was aboard Flight 93, told CBS News that the story of those who resisted the hijackers must continue to be told. “These were the citizen soldiers of the new century. And then the battle got handed over to the military,” he said.

The anniversary also highlighted unresolved legal and health consequences from the attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. A military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ordered jury selection for the trial of four alleged 9/11 plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to begin June 5, 2028, after rejecting prosecutors’ request to start in January 2027.

“There’s significant frustration,” Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, told CBS News. “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.”

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund has received at least 112,000 claims and awarded more than $18 billion. Peter Raho, who worked as an accountant near Ground Zero and was later diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, said, “The government told us the air was safe to breathe.”

Former President George W. Bush, speaking earlier in the week at his presidential library in Dallas, said Americans should remember the broader lesson of the attacks. “What happens overseas matters to our national security at home,” he said.