5 Crazy True 9/11 Stories You’ve Never Heard Before

And then 9/11 happened and ruined everything for Limp Bizkit. And probably some other people, too.

Following the attacks, the video for “Rollin'” was pulled from the channel because executives (correctly) figured that no one wanted to be engulfed by sadness while watching the crazy antics of those rap ‘n’ roll boys.

2

An 18th-Century Ship Was Discovered Beneath The WTC Site

The attacks on the World Trade Center left a figurative hole in the heart of New York City … and also a literal one. And you know who likes holes?

Get your mind out of the gutter, we’re talking about archaeologists. This is a classy website, and there is no room for perversion here.

In 2010, excavations on the south side of Ground Zero stumbled across some old wood. And because archaeologists, like your mom, love touching wood regardless of its cleanliness, they were sent in to have a poke around. They found the intact framework of a wooden sloop from the 1770s.

The ship was used by the Dutch to carry passengers up and down the Hudson, at least up until the 1790s, when it was thrown into a massive landfill with the intention of building a solid foundation of garbage so the settlers could expand the island into the Hudson River. Basically, it was the reverse of Lex Luthor’s plan from Superman, with really old trash instead of nuclear missiles. The archaeologists found a wealth of other items from that time too, including butchered animal bones, bottles, shoes, and a single human hair with a louse still attached to it. It just wouldn’t be New York if you didn’t find a single human hair with a louse still attached to it.

1

The Guy Who Closed U.S. Airspace? It Was His First Day On The Job

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Ben Sliney was settling into his first day as FAA Operations Manager. He probably managed to shake a few hands, immediately forget everyone’s names, and have an awkward employee ID photo taken before news erupted about multiple aircraft getting hijacked in what was obviously a coordinated attack on America. At the time, nobody knew if any of the other thousand-plus planes in the skies were also compromised.

Getty Images News“I’ve seen Die Hard 2, trust no one.”

Sliney sent a message to his bosses, asking for permission to cancel all take-offs across the country. He never heard back, so he decided to go big or big home and ordered, without consulting anyone, all planes in the air to immediately divert to the nearest airport. It was an unprecedented shutdown of U.S. airspace.

After all 4,500 of the affected planes had safely landed, Sliney held his breath and waited for his bosses to demand his ass for breakfast. If he was wrong, he’d cost the airline industry billions of dollars for nothing. In the end, however, no one came for Sliney … except to ask why he didn’t order the shutdown sooner, because bureaucrats are never satisfied.

Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook, and has a newsletter about depressing history that you should definitely subscribe to.

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For more, check out 7 Bizarre Ways You Didn’t Know 9/11 Changed The World and The 9 Most Offensive 9/11 References In Pop Culture.

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