# The Last Night (September 11 attacks)
**The Last Night**The Last Night is a document containing practical instructions and religious guidance for the September 11, 2001 hijackers; it is distinct from the evening of September 10 discussed in the article[8](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/personal/instructions.html). It is remembered both as the last night the victims and the hijackers spent before the attacks and, in popular memory, as a marker of the pre-9/11 era that ended the next day.
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date | date not established; the subject is an instructions document for the final operation[1](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf) |
| Hijackers' activities | The two hijackers who flew to Boston that night spent it on ordinary activities: making ATM withdrawals, eating pizza, and shopping at a convenience store[1](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf) |
| Next morning's weather | Tuesday, September 11, 2001, dawned temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States[2](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm) |
| Deaths the next day | 2,977 people were killed on September 11, 2001, in the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history[3](https://millercenter.org/remembering-september-11/september-11-terrorist-attacks) |
| Presidential framing | President George W. Bush later described September 11 as the day when "night fell on a different world"[4](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/93328/1/Jack%20Holland%20and%20Lee%20Jarvis%20-%20Night%20fell%20on%20a%20different%20world%20-%20Critical%20Studies%20on%20Terrorsim.pdf) |
## What is documented about the night itself
The most concrete account of the last night comes from the 9/11 Commission Report. The two hijackers who boarded [American Airlines Flight 11](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-airlines-flight-11) spent their last night pursuing ordinary activities: making ATM withdrawals, eating pizza, and shopping at a convenience store; in the early morning hours of September 11 they boarded a commuter flight to Boston to connect to Flight 11[1](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf). The commission also recorded the weather at dawn: September 11 opened temperate and nearly cloudless in the eastern United States[2](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm).
For the people who died the next day, the last night passed with no public warning. At 8:46 a.m. the following morning, a hijacked airliner struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, beginning a sequence that killed 2,977 people[3](https://millercenter.org/remembering-september-11/september-11-terrorist-attacks). For many families, the last words of their loved ones are the phone calls and voicemails left during the attacks themselves, messages that are now treasured as final records[5](https://www.history.com/articles/september-11-attacks-final-phone-calls).
## In memory and commemoration
The night of September 10 has become a shorthand in American memory for the world before the attacks. President [George W. Bush](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-w-bush) gave that contrast its most quoted form, saying that on September 11 "night fell on a different world," a phrase scholars have examined as a marker of crisis and historical discontinuity[4](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/93328/1/Jack%20Holland%20and%20Lee%20Jarvis%20-%20Night%20fell%20on%20a%20different%20world%20-%20Critical%20Studies%20on%20Terrorsim.pdf). The 9/11 Commission, reporting on the day itself, called September 11, 2001, "a day of unprecedented shock and suffering in the history of the United States"[6](https://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm), and retrospectives on the attacks' twenty-fifth anniversary note that Americans' memories of the events, and of the world they interrupted, are varied rather than single[7](https://apnews.com/article/a677ea529e6f42147fde2d01ce9a6d9b).
## References
1. [The 9/11 Commission Report, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf)
2. [The 9/11 Commission Report, Chapter 1](https://www.911commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.htm)
3. [Timeline: The September 11 terrorist attacks, Miller Center](https://millercenter.org/remembering-september-11/september-11-terrorist-attacks)
4. [Holland, Jack, and Jarvis, Lee, "Night fell on a different world": experiencing, constructing and remembering 9/11, Critical Studies on Terrorism](https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/93328/1/Jack%20Holland%20and%20Lee%20Jarvis%20-%20Night%20fell%20on%20a%20different%20world%20-%20Critical%20Studies%20on%20Terrorsim.pdf)
5. [How Final Calls From 9/11 Became a Record of the Tragedy, HISTORY](https://www.history.com/articles/september-11-attacks-final-phone-calls)
6. [The 9/11 Commission Report, Executive Summary](https://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Exec.htm)
7. [One attack, many Americas: Why 9/11 and its many griefs land differently 25 years later, AP News](https://apnews.com/article/a677ea529e6f42147fde2d01ce9a6d9b)
8. [pbs.org](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/network/personal/instructions.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Conflict and security › Wars, campaigns, and incidents › Massacres, mass violence, and terrorist attacks › Terrorist attacks and mass-casualty incidents › September 11 attacks and aftermath*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license