11Heather Penney and Marc Sasseville
On 9/11, two jet fighters (Heather Penney and Marc Sasseville) took to the air without live ammunition, knowing that to prevent the hijackers from striking their intended targets, the pilots might have to intercept and crash their fighters into the hijacked planes, ejecting at the last moment.
12Search and rescue dogs
During the aftermath of 9/11, search and rescue dogs found so few living people, that it caused them great stress because they believed they had failed. Handlers and rescue workers had to regularly hide in the rubble in order to give the rescue dogs a successful find and keep their spirits up.
13Tania Head
Tania Head, a well-known 9/11 survivor, faked being in the South Tower during the attacks and served as President of The WTC Survivors Network before people found out she was lying. She was not even in the United States during the attacks.
14Whales
Scientists were monitoring whale stress levels by analyzing their poop and found that their stress plummeted immediately following the 9/11 attacks. It turns out this was due to all the ship traffic being halted which quieted the oceans of low-frequency noise which whales use to communicate.
15John Perry
On September 11th, 2001, Officer John Perry was at police headquarters filing his retirement papers when he was notified about the first airplane striking the first tower. He rushed to the scene to assist with rescue operations and was killed when one of the towers collapsed. He was the only off-duty officer killed on 9/11.
16Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda initially planned to target nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but decided against it, fearing things could “get out of control.”
17Frank L. Culbertson
Astronaut Frank L. Culbertson was the only American not on the Earth during 9/11 recorded the event from the ISS. He later learned that the pilot (Charles Burlingame) of the plane that struck The Pentagon was a classmate of his from the US Naval Academy.
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18Kenya Masai tribesmen
After 9/11, the Masai tribesmen of Kenya donated 14 cows to the US to help with the aftermath of 9/11. To the Masai, the cow equals life.
19Operation Yellow Ribbon
Operation Yellow Ribbon was commenced by Canada to handle the diversion of civilian airline flights in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001. Canada took in 255 diverted flights from the US on 9/11 and then the Canadians fed the diverted passengers.
20Queen Elizabeth
After 9/11, Queen Elizabeth authorized the Coldstream Guards to break protocol and play the US national anthem during the Changing of the Guard, giving some comfort to Americans stranded in London due to airport closures.
