Sept. 11 ranks among the most historic events in many Americans’ lifetimes, polling shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-five years later, the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, are still remembered as among the most important historic events in many Americans’ lives, according to a new poll. adults name the 9/11 attacks in an open-ended question about the most important historic occurrences in their lifetimes.

That's despite other momentous events that have happened since then, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the elections of Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump.The polling points to the enduring legacy of 9/11, even as many Americans today are too young to have experienced or comprehended the event a quarter century ago. Ipsos found that the vast majority of Americans remember where they were when they heard about the attacks, and about two-thirds of Americans say it impacted the country “a great deal.” Separate polling from Gallup finds about 3 in 10 U.S. adults say they permanently changed the way they live their lives because of the attacks.Despite the widespread impact, the Ipsos poll finds relatively few Americans will be marking the anniversary in some way.

adults plans to do something to commemorate Friday's 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.Kevin Noel, 51, remembers watching the catastrophe unfold after he got out of a subway station to head to work near the World Trade Center that morning. To this day, the smell of the deadly inferno comes back to him whenever he’s in the area.

He views 9/11 as the most historic event he’s lived through and believes “we’re going to be remembering this for the rest of history.” He plans to reflect on it privately on Friday.“Every Sept. 11, I just — it’s a traumatic day for me where I just go silent,” Noel said.The 9/11 attacks top the list of historic events in many Americans’ lifetimeFor Americans who can remember the Sept. 11 attacks, they were a defining moment.When U.S.

adults were asked to list up to five of the most important historic events in their lifetime in the open-ended question -- where respondents answered in their own words -- the Sept. 11 attacks overshadowed the much more recent COVID-19 pandemic, which 31% of U.S. adults mentioned.Other events, including the elections of Trump and Obama, space expeditions and the fall of the Berlin Wall, were cited by many Americans as defining moments.