Thirty-three years have passed since terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center on a cold February afternoon in 1993, but the memories of those killed remain vivid for family members, first responders, and survivors.

On Feb. 26, 1993, at approximately 12:18 p.m., terrorists led by Ramzi Yousef detonated a rental truck packed with roughly 1,200 pounds of explosives in the public parking garage beneath the North Tower. The powerful blast tore through multiple sub-basement levels, killing six innocent people and injuring more than 1,000 others. Tens of thousands of workers were forced to evacuate as thick, black smoke filled stairwells and corridors throughout both towers.

The attackers intended for the explosion to topple the North Tower into the South Tower, a catastrophic plan that ultimately failed. However, the devastation near the blast zone was immediate and deadly.

The six victims killed in the bombing were John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick of Suffern, NY, Stephen A. Knapp, William Macko, Wilfredo Mercado, and Monica Rodriguez, who was seven months pregnant at the time.

On Thursday afternoon, hundreds gathered at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza in Lower Manhattan for the annual remembrance ceremony. Family members of the victims stood alongside first responders and Port Authority employees who were present during the 1993 attack. Together, they honored the lives lost in what would become a grim precursor to future acts of terrorism on American soil.

Though the 1993 bombing did not bring down the towers, history would later mark it as a harbinger of the devastation that followed on September 11, 2001. On that day, terrorists succeeded in destroying the Twin Towers, killing nearly 3,000 people and forever changing the nation.

More than three decades later, the 1993 bombing remains a solemn reminder of the lives taken, the resilience of New York City, and the enduring commitment to remember those who were lost.