Titans of History

Apocalyptic scenes followed in New York. The Twin Towers, both of which had been fatally weakened by the impact of the jets and ensuing fires, collapsed to the ground—the south at 9:59 a.m. and the north at 10:28 a.m.—killing thousands of victims still trapped inside, and sending out a cloud of dust that engulfed the south side of Manhattan. Excluding the hijackers, nearly 3000 people died that day—246 on the jets, 125 in the Pentagon and 2603 in the Twin Towers (including 341 heroic firefighters and 2 paramedics).

Committing itself to a war on terror, America vowed to hunt down bin Laden, who already topped the FBI’s most wanted list. Allied forces soon toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, where Al-Qaeda had been allowed to operate for years, but bin Laden fled to the mountains bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan. A chance to capture him there was missed in late 2001 when advancing troops failed to search the Tora Bora caves where he was almost certainly hiding. When the caves were subsequently raided in August 2007, he was gone.

Since 9/11, radicalized Muslims, led by bin Laden’s twisted message of hate and violence, have relentlessly continued Al-Qaeda’s murderous campaign. On October 12, 2002, three bombs exploded in Bali, killing 202 people and injuring a further 209. Then, in 2004, a series of bombs exploded on the Madrid rail network, killing 191 people and wounding 1755. The following year, on July 7, London was the target, three bombs exploding within a minute of each other during the morning rush hour on the London Underground system and another on a bus in Tavistock Square less than an hour later. Besides the four suicide bombers, fifty-two commuters were killed and 700 injured. Further carnage was only avoided a fortnight later when the bombs of four would-be suicide bombers failed to explode. October of the same year saw a second attack on Bali, twenty people being killed and 129 injured. In Iraq, through a ruthless campaign of bombing, Al-Qaeda has focused on fomenting sectarian slaughter between Sunni and Shia Muslims to foil American plans for Iraqi democracy. On May 2 after the biggest manhunt in history, US commandos raided a house in Abbottabad, the town in Pakistan that houses Pakistan’s military academy, and killed bin Laden. His body was buried at sea.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Alexander the Great, from “The Alexander Mosaic,” 1st Century BC. (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy, / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Suleiman II, oil on canvas, 16th century. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Elizabeth I, c. 1600. (Private Collection / Photo © Philip Mould Ltd., London / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Akbar the Great giving an audience, by Husays Naggash and Kesu, from the “Akbarnama,” Mughal, c. 1590. (Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Louis XIV in Royal Costume, 1701, by Hyacinthe Rigaud. (Louvre, Paris, France / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Grigory Potemkin, courtesy of author.

Portrait of Alexander Pushkin, 1827, by Orest Adamovich Kiprensky. (Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, photographed by Jabez Hughes at Osborne House, Isle of Wight. (Private Collection / The Bridgeman Art Library)

Wilhelm II on a picture postcard, 1905. Author: Reichard und Lindner; publisher: Gustav Liersch & Co. (http://www.dhm.de/lemo/objekte/pict/95007746/index.htmlD)

Sarah Bernhardt, c. 1900 (Photo by APIC/Getty Images)

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

King Ibn Saud, of Saudi Arabia pictured with his four grandchildren, 1935. (Photo by Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Joseph Stalin. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Gamal Abdel Nasser. (STAFF/AFP/Getty Images)

Elvis Presley recording in the studio. (Photo by Don Cravens//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Idi Amin Dada, the president of Uganda, takes the oath of allegiance of twelve British ex-army officers who are to serve in Amin’s armed forces. November 3, 1975. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

Kim Jong-Il and Kim Il-Sung inspecting a soccer ground in Pyongyang. (AFP/Getty Images)

Mao Zedong shaking hands in 1974 in Beijing with Deng Xiaoping. (AFP/Getty Images)

The Shah of Iran adorned with diamond-encrusted regalia for his coronation. (Photo by James L. Stanfield/National Geographic/Getty Images)

Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader Of Iran, 1978. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Libyan leader Muammar Kadaffi salutes his soldiers during a five-hour military parade in Tripoli to mark the 30th anniversary of the Libyan Revolution that brought him to power. September 7, 1999. (MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kiy after her victory in the Parliamentary Election In Yangon, Myanmar. April 2012. (Photo by Amandine Roche/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)