Americans mark the 18th anniversary of 9/11

Families of terror victims gathered with U.S. leaders and emergency responders Wednesday at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.; and a field near Shanksville, Pa.—all of the places where terrorists crashed passenger planes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people.

How are the country’s leaders spending the day? After holding a moment of silence at the White House, President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended a private memorial for survivors, family members, and law enforcement personnel at the Pentagon Memorial. At a ceremony in Pennsylvania, Vice President Mike Pence remembered the passengers who overwhelmed terrorists and forced United Airlines Flight 93 to crash into a field instead of a populated area. Pence noted that a generation “has come of age with no personal memory of 9/11 … so the rest of us, my fellow Americans, must tell the story.”

Dig deeper: Read my report on Trump’s recent approval of a law to ensure funding to support the victims and first responders of 9/11. Deaths from illnesses related to rescue and recovery at the sites may soon surpass the number of those killed in the attacks. On Wednesday’s The World and Everything in It, WORLD’s Nick Eicher and University of Texas professor Will Inboden discuss how national security has changed since 9/11. And from our archives, read WORLD Magazine’s cover story after the attacks.