NEW YORK – For Americans, September 11 is now inseparable from the terrorist attacks of 2001. Twenty-five years later, simply saying “9/11” immediately identifies one of the darkest days in American history.
But September 11 was already a consequential date long before the World Trade Center attacks. George Washington fought the British on that date, American forces stopped a British invasion, construction began on the Pentagon exactly 60 years before it was attacked, and Chile’s government was overthrown in a military coup.
George Washington Fought the British on Sept. 11, 1777
One of the largest battles of the American Revolution unfolded on Sept. 11, 1777, when George Washington’s Continental Army confronted British forces at the Battle of Brandywine in Pennsylvania.
British Gen. William Howe was attempting to capture Philadelphia, then the seat of the Continental Congress. British troops outmaneuvered Washington’s forces with a major flanking movement, eventually forcing the Americans from the battlefield.
The defeat cleared the way for British forces to occupy Philadelphia later that month.
Washington’s army survived the campaign and continued fighting. Several months later, his troops entered their famous winter encampment at Valley Forge.
Americans Stopped a British Invasion on Sept. 11, 1814
Another major American battle reached its climax exactly 37 years later.
The Battle of Plattsburgh, also known as the Battle of Lake Champlain, was fought during the War of 1812 as British forces advanced south from Canada into New York.
On Sept. 11, 1814, an American naval force commanded by Thomas Macdonough defeated a British squadron on Lake Champlain.
The naval defeat left the British ground force in a difficult position. British commander Sir George Prevost abandoned the offensive and withdrew toward Canada.
The victory came as American and British diplomats were negotiating an end to the War of 1812. The Treaty of Ghent was signed later that year.
Construction of the Pentagon Began Sept. 11, 1941
One of history’s most striking September 11 coincidences involves the Pentagon.
Construction of the massive military headquarters began on Sept. 11, 1941.
Exactly 60 years later, on Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon as part of the coordinated terrorist attacks against the United States.
The Pentagon project had been launched as the War Department struggled with severe office-space shortages while the United States prepared for the possibility of entering World War II.
Japan attacked Pearl Harbor less than three months after construction began, bringing the United States directly into the war.
The Pentagon was constructed at extraordinary speed, with the building completed in roughly 16 months.
On Sept. 11, 2001, 184 people were killed at the Pentagon and aboard Flight 77.
Two defining moments in the building’s history — the beginning of its construction and the terrorist attack against it — happened exactly six decades apart.
Sept. 11, 1973 Changed Chile
September 11 carries another meaning entirely in Chile.
On Sept. 11, 1973, Chile’s military launched a coup against President Salvador Allende.
Military forces surrounded the presidential palace, La Moneda, which was attacked from the ground and bombed from the air. Allende refused to resign and delivered a final radio address as the coup unfolded.
He died inside the presidential palace that day. Investigations have concluded that Allende died by suicide.
The coup brought a military junta to power, with Gen. Augusto Pinochet eventually emerging as the country’s dominant leader.
Pinochet’s dictatorship lasted until 1990 and became associated with widespread imprisonment, torture, killings and disappearances of political opponents and suspected opponents of the regime.
For generations of Chileans, September 11 was already a date associated with national trauma nearly three decades before the attacks in the United States.
Sept. 11, 2001 Gave the Date a New Meaning in America
Then came Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001.
Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger aircraft. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the World Trade Center towers in New York City.
American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. United Airlines Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members fought back against the hijackers.
The attacks killed 2,977 people and transformed American life.
They led to sweeping changes in airport security, intelligence gathering and domestic security while launching the United States into wars and military operations that would extend across the next two decades.
Twenty-five years later, September 11 has effectively become a dividing line in modern American history: before 9/11 and after 9/11.
Yet the date itself reaches much further back.
Washington fought the British on September 11. American forces helped stop a British invasion on September 11. Construction of the Pentagon began on September 11. Chile’s government fell on September 11.
Then, exactly 60 years after workers began building the Pentagon, the date acquired the meaning most Americans immediately recognize today.