sacrifice '' shown that day . `` Eight Septembers have come and gone , '' Obama said . `` Nearly 3,000 days have passed , almost one for each one who has been taken from us . `` We recall the beauty and meaning of their lives , '' he said . `` No passage of time , no dark skies can dull the meaning of that moment . Watch a slideshow of Obama 's speech and the day 's events '' `` Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this violent act , '' Obama said . The nation paused at the moments when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon -- symbols of America 's financial and military might -- and at a field near Shanksville , Pennsylvania . Officials believe that plane 's target was either the White House or the Capitol . There was silence at the site of the former World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. , the time the first plane struck the North Tower , followed by another at 9:03 a.m. when a jet struck the South Tower . iReport.com : 9/11 emotions surge back in
NEW YORK -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- President Obama spoke at the Pentagon on Friday to those who lost loved ones on September 11 , 2001 , telling them no words would heal their pain yet calling for a renewed resolve against the ones who attacked the country eight years ago . President Obama addresses family members and friends who lost loved ones on September 11 , 2001 . Obama laid a wreath of white flowers at the Pentagon , where 184 people lost their lives when a hijacked jet smashed into the military icon outside the nation 's capital . `` No words can ease the ache of your hearts , '' Obama told a crowd of relatives and friends standing under umbrellas in a steady rain . The plane , American Airlines Flight 77 , struck the Pentagon 's west wall . Earlier in the day , the president and first lady Michelle Obama held a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,752 people . At the Pentagon , Obama was introduced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates , who spoke of the `` great pinnacle of