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On This Day: Terror attacks kill nearly 3,000 in U.S.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacked the U.S., crashing airliners into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.

By UPI Staff
New York City firefighters observe the remnants of the World Trade Center's North Tower an hour before the sun began to rise over New York City the day after two hijacked commercial airplanes were flown into the Twin Towers, destroying the World Trade Center. File Photo by Steven E. Frischling/UPI
1 of 3 | New York City firefighters observe the remnants of the World Trade Center's North Tower an hour before the sun began to rise over New York City the day after two hijacked commercial airplanes were flown into the Twin Towers, destroying the World Trade Center. File Photo by Steven E. Frischling/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- On this date in history:

In 1777, troops commanded by Gen. George Washington were defeated by the British under Gen. William Howe in the Battle of Brandywine.

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In 1847, Stephen Foster's first hit, "Oh! Susanna," had its debut at a concert in a Pittsburgh saloon and soon became a standard for minstrel troupes.

In 1921, Fatty Arbuckle, one of the foremost comedians of the silent movie days, was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in the death of a starlet in an alleged sexual assault during a wild drinking party. Arbuckle eventually was cleared but his career had been ruined.

In 1959, Congress passed a bill authorizing food stamps for low-income Americans.

In 1971, former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev died of a heart attack in Moscow.

File Photo by Gary Haynes/UPI

In 1973, the elected Socialist government of Salvador Allende of Chile was toppled in a right-wing military coup supported by the CIA. Authorities said Allende committed suicide the same day.

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In 1985, Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit broke Ty Cobb's 57-year-old career Major League Baseball record. Rose finished his career with 4,256 hits.

In 2001, Islamic terrorists attacked the United States, crashing two hijacked airliners into the Twin Towers at New York's World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon outside Washington. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently en route to Washington, after passengers attacked their captors. Nearly 3,000 people were killed, most of them in the two towers, which collapsed. U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to destroy the responsible terrorist organizations and the regimes that supported them. Osama bin Laden, a wealthy anti-American Saudi exile operating out of Afghanistan and leader of al-Qaida, a shadowy, far-flung terrorist organization, was identified as the ringleader of the attacks.

In 2008, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, forced into a runoff after a disputed election, agreed on a power-sharing arrangement.

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In 2011, the National September 11 Memorial was dedicated in New York City on the site of the iconic Twin Towers, destroyed 10 years earlier in terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. The memorial features the nation's largest man-made waterfalls cascading into two sunken pools marking footprints of the decimated skyscrapers, with 2,980 names nearby, etched in granite.

File Photo by Justin Lane/Pool

In 2012, heavily armed attackers killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

In 2014, a CIA official said the Islamic State forces, which had seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, were much larger than previously believed -- up to 31,500 fighters in the two countries instead of the previous estimate of 10,000.

File Photo by Eric Garst/U.S. Navy

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