On this notable day in history, do you recall where you were, what you were doing when you heard the planes hit the WTC, 16 years ago?

I was a new employee for Social Security and was in training. We didn't know anything was happening until after the second plane hit, and administration had started making plans. Our dept. Head came down and interrupted our class, and then talked to the instructors privately while we tried to get online. We got online shortly before the first tower collapsed.

I was actually in a huge departmental meeting and one of the Managers was using his laptop for a presentation. He had a link pop up on the bottom of his screen - I cannot remember what the headline was - but it caused him to open the link up. We saw a pix of the first tower and then saw the plane strike the 2nd tower. We forgot about the agenda and just concentrated on what we were seeing. Twenty minutes later, we come out of our meeting to see everyone in a conference room that had a cable connection so we could see what was going on.

My son was in elementary school - I, like so many other parents, tried not to panic until we heard from the school about how they were keeping the kids safe.

In the womb listening to paranoia and mass censorship of everything with a skyscraper in it. Me and useless airport security laws almost share a day of birth :P

I was finishing gypsum wallboard at a customer's house when I heard it on the radio. After the first tower collapsed, the homeowners invited us downstairs to watch the news on TV. We were there to see the second tower collapse.

Back then, my wife was very ill and I had just given her a bath, set her in the recliner, turned on the TV and went about cleaning up. A little later, I went into the living room and she was sitting there crying. I looked at the TV just as the second plane hit the tower and said "this must be a really sad movie to make you cry". Then, she told me what was going on. We both sat there numb and watched for hours.

I was just getting ready for work and was listening to the news on t.v. When I caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a horrible accident, but within minutes played out to be something unspeakably evil.  I'll never forget that helpless, horrified feeling.

I was sitting in front of an embroidery shop waiting for them to open to have my little 4year old granddaughter's uniform done.  I had the radio on and heard the news about the first plane. I was like wow, then the second one, I knew I needed to go home.  We never stopped watching the tv all day. That little girl is now a senior honor student at VMI.

I was in England on 9/11, scheduled to fly out of Heathrow into Miami the next morning. The BBC broke into the local TV broadcast while we were at lunch, I remember gasps and shouts ("Oh bloody hell!", I believe it was) drew my attention to the "Telly" on the far wall of the tavern. We saw the second plane hit, over and over. Totally surreal.

The subsequent shutdown of US air traffic kept me in the UK five extra days. The outpouring of kindness and empathy toward this American from my unfailingly gracious hosts still brings warmth to my heart. 

Love the Brits (the food, not so much 🤢). 

Yes. It was my day off work and I had just turned on the news with my first cup of coffee in hand when they were talking about a tower being hit, then all of a sudden I see the plane hitting the second tower. I remember shouting, OMG is this real!

I was at my mothers house here in tx. When the second plane hit i just cried no one to stop these idiots

The Love of My Life and I happened to be in a "building security class" in Baltimore. She and I were the heads of security for our agencies in DC. One of the attendees received an emergency phone call then he stood up and announced to the class what was happening.  He then received another call about the Pentagon being hit. That is when the class dispersed. We jumped into our car and "flew" down the parkway, which had no traffic at all. I remember we were nervous wrecks when ever we heard a plane fly over. The commercial planes were all grounded so the only planes over our heads were Air Force.

I was at work.  One guy was listening to a radio and just blurted out what had happened.

My upbringing unfortunately made me expect that bad things which may randomly affect me are more likely to occur and screw up things rather than good things which add to one's happiness.

That's not the best way to be raised---and I have tamed that presumption to the point that while it is still a wild horse, it can be ridden---and it does tend to give me an advantage when I must manage a crisis.

(I remember the Challenger disaster vividly as well.)