Rear mirror What the world was like before everything changed

There is always an eeriness in the archives of days that immediately precede tragedy. The newspapers of the day before the Titanic’s maiden voyage, or the reports from the eve of President Kennedy’s visit to Dallas, for ever after take on the shadow of innocent, sunlit photos of a suddenly lost loved-one. We have come to accept that, 20 years ago this week, on the morning of 11 September, the world as we knew it changed for ever. But from what? What were the immediate befores of that indelible after?

What was on the Observer’s