New York marks World Trade Center bombing NEW Yorkers have observed a moment of silence to remember the first bombing of the World Trade Center 20 years ago, in what turned out to be a precursor to far deadlier attacks on September 11, 2001. The moment of silence was held at 12.18pm on Tuesday (0418 AEDT), the time when the 1993 bomb exploded in a parking garage underneath the Twin Towers, killing six people and injuring more than 1000. Eight years later airliners hijacked by anti-American Islamist militants slammed into the towers, causing their collapse and killing nearly 3000 people.