911

Today is September 11th.

13 years ago in 2001, the world was glued to its TV sets as the full horror, of what has become known as Nine Eleven, unfolded.

Four planes were hijacked. One was overcome by the passengers and crashed into a field. Another was flown into the side of the Pentagon. At quarter to nine in the morning, the first of the other two planes crashed into the north tower of World Trade Centre in New York, and less than 20 minutes later the other was crashed into the south tower. By 10.30am both 1378 foot buildings would be a pile of rubble and twisted metal on the ground.

By the end of the day just short of 3,000 people would be dead.

On May 2nd ten years later, the designer of these senseless attacks by al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, was hunted down in Pakistan and killed.

One year later, in May 2012, the New World Trade Centre building was completed, becoming the 4th largest skyscraper in the world at 1776 feet, a symbolic number referencing the US Declaration of Independence of that year. The 104 storey structure will open sometime in the Fall this year.

New York City has a new iconic skyline.

This coming week I will start teaching young students the art of film making, and the vast majority of those children were not alive in 2001. For them it is an event from the history books, albeit very recent. In many ways it will be the same for them as it is for most of us reading and watching stories about WWI, disconnected as we are by the passage of time, and occurring in a different generation.

Today is September 11th.