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Obviously, September 11 is a day that kinda sucks

So let me tell you the story of Todd Beamer

He was born on November 24, 1968. Played sports in school, attended California State, and married Lisa Brosious in 1991. They were going to celebrate their 10-year anniversary on November 2, 2001.

His job - an Account Manager - required him to travel several times a month. This time he opted to take a late flight to stay with his pregnant wife after returning from a five-day vacation on September 10, boarding a flight to San Francisco the following morning. The Boeing 757 - Flight 93 - was delayed forty-two minutes before lifting off.

Four minutes later, Flight 11 destroyed the North Tower. Thirteen minutes after that, Flight 175 destroyed the South Tower. Twelve minutes later, at 9:25, the cockpit of Flight 93 was taken by terrorists. They kept the passengers seated with the threat of a bomb, and changed the course of the plane towards Washington D.C. not long afterwards.

Several passengers managed to make calls to their families, who informed them about the three other attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Beamer placed a call from the plane seat phone, who only reached a supervisor and the FBI listening in. He informed them that a passenger had been killed (we do not know who), and shouted repeatedly "we're going down" when the plane turned sharply south.

He and his fellow passengers decided to act. Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, Jeremy Glick, Lou Nacke, Rich Guadagno, Alan Beaven, Honor Elizabeth Wainio, Linda Gronlund, William Cashman, Sandra Bradshaw, CeeCee Lyles, and Todd Beamer voted to storm the cockpit - take it back if they could, fly it into the ground if they must. There are several exchanges that have been recovered from the plane's voice data recorder, but the most famous was the last heard on Todd Beamer's call, in which he said to the rest of the passengers "Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."

The suspected target of Flight 93 was likely the White House or the Capitol Building. Orders had been given to shoot the plane down if it continued its approach - this was not necessary.

It's unclear, but given the last recorded audio that was recovered before the crash - of the terrorist Ziad Jarrah, repeating the words "give it to me" - one could assume that the passengers completed their mission by intentionally crashing the plane into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.

He's immortalized in two movies, as well as several speeches and - oddly enough - An Amazing Spider-Man comic issue. In that, the titular characters says "Ordinary men. Ordinary women. Refusing to surrender."