On September 11, 2001, terrorists allegedly associated with al Qaeda hijacked four US commercial airliners, two of which were crashed into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, with a third hitting the Pentagon in Washington DC. The fourth plane went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks spawned an immediate tightening of aviation security regulations and in October 2001 led to Congressional passage of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, giving the executive broad new national security powers.

On September 11, 1978, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt agreed to the Camp David Accords, a plan for peace between the two countries. This led to the signing of the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty. U.S. President Jimmy Carter played a major role in the negotiations.

On September 11, 1998, Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr delivered an extensive report to Congress accusing President Clinton of 11 possible impeachable offenses - including perjury, obstruction of justice, tampering with witnesses and abuse of his powers of office - in connection with his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Within minutes of its much-anticipated release on the Internet, JURIST carried the report here.