The MEMO Blog

John O’Neill was a leading figure in the FBI’s fight against terrorism at home and abroad in the years leading up to 9/11. He repeatedly sounded the alarm about the rising threat posed by organizations like al-Qaeda—and his life would ultimately be cut short in that group’s plot to attack the World Trade Center.

On Thursday, March 5, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum will host a public program featuring celebrated restaurateur Danny Meyer, who will reflect upon the impact of the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the restorative role of restaurants as sites of community and connection.

On September 11, 2001, Jon Leiken was in his law office in Times Square when he received a phone call from his wife, Erika, who was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant. At the time, Erika was working as an attorney with the Legal Aid Society just a few blocks from the World Trade Center. 

Retired FBI agent Wesley Wong recalls noting what a beautiful morning it was on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. His workday began at an FBI garage facility just north of the World Trade Center, where he learned from a mechanic that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. 

I first met Sonia Agron in 2014 during training for the opening of the 9/11 Memorial Museum. We were both preparing to be part of the Museum’s Education team, she as a docent and I as an Interpretive Guide. 

Michael Hingson has been blind since birth due to a disease called retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). In his infancy, doctors suggested his parents send him to a home for the blind, where they could take better care of him.

When Julie Sweeney Roth first saw Brian Sweeney, she told a  friend “that’s the kind of guy [she] would marry.” Seven months later, she and Brian had their wedding on Cape Cod, a place Brian had always loved and where the couple would eventually live permanently.

Twenty-seven years ago, terrorists detonated an explosive-filled van on the B2 level of the underground parking garage in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. While the terrorists’ mission to destroy the towers failed, six people were killed in the attack and hundreds were injured. We share this history from the events of the day to the investigation inside the 9/11 Memorial Museum through artifacts and firsthand accounts.

Today we honor the six victims of the first attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993.

A 9/11 family member reflects on how seemingly ordinary objects, like a floppy disk currently on view in the memorial exhibition, provide a tangible connection to our collective past.