9/11: the news that everyone already knew

The terrorist attacks on the New York World Trade Centre and the Pentagon gave editors worldwide a wide selection of images to put on their front pages. Even broadsheets like The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times rejected their usual reserved style to place images from the attack on the front page and countless inside pages.

Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2001		Financial Times, 12 September 2001
The British Library gratefully acknowledges the John Frost Newspaper Archive for permission to reproduce these front pages.

As the events unfolded live on television, it was soon apparent that the first crash into the north tower of the World Trade Centre was no accident. Despite watching hours of coverage, people still wanted to read about it in their newspapers the next day. In the 16 days after 11 September 2001, 28 million extra copies of national newspapers were sold.

The Telegraph's front page was voted the most memorable of the last 100 years in BBC Newsnight's Big-Read-All-About-It competition.