Today in History in 2001 in the September 11 attacks, Islamic extremists destroy the World Trade Center in New York City and part of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia by crashing passenger planes into them. Another airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 were killed. The term "9/11" is often used to refer to these attacks.

The on this day in history archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

September 11 is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 111 days remaining until the end of the year.

EVENTS

9 – The Battle of Teutoburg Forest finishes.

1041 – Fire destroys most of Bremen's Old Town.

1297 – Led by William Wallace, the Scots defeat the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

1390 – The Teutonic Knights besiege Vilnius.

1541 – Santiago, Chile, is destroyed by indigenous warriors led by Michimalonko.

1565 – Ottoman Empire forces retreat from Malta, ending the Great Siege of Malta.

1609 – Henry Hudson arrives at the island of Manhattan.

1649 – Under orders from Oliver Cromwell, the Drogheda Massacre is committed in Ireland.

1708 – King Charles XII of Sweden stops his march to Moscow, by halting outside Smolensk, marking a turning point in the Great Northern War.

1714 – Siege of Barcelona: Barcelona, capital city of Catalonia, surrenders to French and Spanish Bourbon armies in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1758 – Seven Years' War: In the Battle of Saint Cast, France holds off a British invasion.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: Benedict Arnold's expedition leaves Cambridge, Massachusetts, as part of the invasion of Quebec.

1776 – A British-American peace conference on Staten Island fails to stop the already started American Revolutionary War.

1789 – Alexander Hamilton becomes the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.

1802 – France annexes the Kingdom of Piedmont.

1813 – War of 1812: British troops arrive in Mount Vernon and prepare to march and invade Washington, DC.

1814 – War of 1812: Climax of the Battle of Plattsburgh, a major US victory in the war.

1852 – The State of Buenos Aires separates from the Argentine federal government, before re-joining on September 17, 1861.

1857 – Mountain Meadows massacre: Mormon settlers and Paiutes massacre 120 pioneers at Mountain Meadows, Utah.

1877 – British three-mast sailing boat collides with another vessel off the Isle of Portland, sinking shortly after, killing 106 people.

1897 – After months of pursuit, generals of Menelik II of Ethiopia capture Gaki Sherocho, the last King of Kaffa, bringing the ancient kingdom of Kaffa to an end.

1906 – Mahatma Gandhi coins the term Satyagraha for the non-violent rights movement in South Africa.

1914 – World War I: Australia invades the island of New Britain, defeating a German contingent at the Battle of Bita Paka.

1914 – World War I: A battle at what is now Lviv, results in a Russian victory over Austria-Hungary, a defeat that the Habsburg monarchy never fully recovers from.

1916 – The Quebec Bridge collapses, killing 11 people.

1918 – The Boston Red Sox win their fifth World Series title, defeating the Chicago Cubs in six games. This was their last title until 2004.

1919 – US Marines invade Honduras.

1922 – The Treaty of Kars is ratified in Yerevan, Armenia.

1922 – The British Mandate for Palestine begins.

1930 – The biggest-recorded eruption of the Stromboli volcano in Italy takes place.

1931 – Salvatore Maranzano is murdered by Lucky Luciano's hitmen.

1941 – Ground is broken for the construction of the Pentagon building.

1943 – Holocaust: Start of the liquidation of the Ghettos in Minsk and Lida by the Nazis.

1944 – An RAF bombing raid destroys the city of Darmstadt in Germany killing around 11,500 people.

1954 – Hurricane Edna strikes New England, killing 29 people.

1961 – Hurricane Carla hits Texas.

1961 – The World Wide Fund for Nature is founded.

1962 – The Beatles record their first single, Love Me Do.

1968 – An Air France plane crashes in Nice, France, killing 95 people.

1971 – The Egyptian Constitution becomes official.

1972 – The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system has its opening day of passenger service.

1973 – A military coup in Chile removes President Salvador Allende, who is subsequently killed in the event, from office. General Augusto Pinochet is installed in his place, and remains in power until March 11, 1990.

1974 – An Eastern Airlines plane crashes in Charlotte in North Carolina, killing 69 people.

1974 – Charles T. Kowal discovers Jupiter's moon Leda.

1978 – Janet Parker becomes the last person to die of smallpox.

1978 – Georgi Markov dies four days after being attacked in London.

1985 – Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's baseball record of most career hits when he hits his 4,192nd hit.

1989 – Hungary opens the Iron Curtain for refugees from East Germany to travel to the West.

1990 – US President George H. W. Bush proclaims a "New World Order".

1992 – Hurricane Iniki hits the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai.

1997 – In a referendum, the people of Scotland vote in favour of a new Scottish Parliament.

1997 – NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reaches Mars.

1997 – Fourteen Estonian soldiers die in the Kurkse Tragedy, drowning in the Baltic Sea.

1998 – Beginning of the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the first time these games are held in Asia.

1999 – Tennis player Serena Williams wins her first Grand Slam, at the US Open.

From 2001

2001 – In the September 11 attacks, Islamic extremists destroy the World Trade Center in New York City and part of The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia by crashing passenger planes into them. Another airliner crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 were killed. The term "9/11" is often used to refer to these attacks.

2003 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies aged 46, following a knife attack the previous day. After Olof Palme in 1986, she is the second high-profile Swedish politician to be murdered.

2004 – A helicopter crashes in the Aegean Sea, killing 17 people, including Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria.

2006 – George Tupou V becomes king of Tonga, after the death of his father Taufa'ahau Tupou IV.

2007 – Russia tests a thermobaric weapon.

2012 – The US Embassy in Cairo, Egypt and Consulate in Benghazi, Libya are targeted in terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists. 4 Americans are killed in the attacks, including US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

2012 – A total of 315 people are killed in two garment factory fires in Pakistan.

2015 – A crane collapse at Mecca's Central Mosque kills over 100 people.

2017 – The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says that a security operation targeting Rohingya people in Myanmar is a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".