Danbury To Mark 25th Anniversary Of 9/11

DANBURY, CT — Danbury residents, first responders, veterans and community leaders will gather Friday to mark 25 years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and remember those killed that day, including two victims with ties to the city.

The city's 25th anniversary remembrance ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11, at the Danbury 9/11 Memorial at Elmwood Park.

Mayor Roberto Alves and the city are hosting the observance, which will bring together the Danbury Police and Fire departments, Danbury Council of Veterans, St. Peter Church, Immaculate High School, Salvation Army and New Hope Baptist Church. Speakers personally impacted by the attacks are also expected to participate.

Danbury's connection to Sept. 11 is reflected in the memorial where Friday's ceremony will take place.

The 12-foot glass tower, designed by artist Henry Richardson, sits on a pentagon of Connecticut granite and contains the names of Connecticut victims of the attacks. The names of victims from Danbury are highlighted at eye level. The memorial was dedicated on Sept. 11, 2004, after a community fundraising effort helped bring the project to $110,000.

Among those remembered are Candace Lee Williams and Michael Grady Jacobs, both of whom had ties to Danbury.

Williams was just 20 years old and a graduate of Immaculate High School who was attending Northeastern University. She was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, traveling from Boston to Los Angeles to visit a college roommate, when terrorists hijacked the plane and crashed it into the World Trade Center's North Tower.

Jacobs, 54, was born and raised in Danbury and worked as an accountant and vice president for tax operations at Fiduciary Trust International. He was working on the 90th floor of the World Trade Center's South Tower on Sept. 11.

On Sept. 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaida terrorists hijacked four airplanes, flying two into New York City's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. Passengers fought back aboard United Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The attacks killed 2,977 victims.

The toll has continued to grow in the years since, as thousands of survivors, first responders and people who lived, worked or attended school near the attack sites have developed illnesses linked to toxic exposure during rescue, recovery and cleanup operations.

Former Presidents At Ground Zero

As is traditional, the names of the 2,977 people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks and six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing will be read during a ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Manhattan.

Four former presidents — Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — are expected to attend the 25th-anniversary ceremony. President Donald Trump is expected to attend an observance at the Pentagon, while Vice President JD Vance is expected to represent the administration in New York.

The Ground Zero ceremony will be livestreamed. That evening, the annual Tribute in Light will send twin beams into the sky.

Pentagon, Flight 93 Observances

Trump is expected to attend the observance at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed when American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and flown into the building.

At the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a remembrance ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday with the reading of the names of the 40 passengers and crew members killed aboard the flight, the Bells of Remembrance and wreath-layings timed to the four attacks.

A second ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m.