The Associated Press

Schedule of events marking the seven-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks:

New York 

The ceremony begins near ground zero at 8:40 a.m. Thursday and proceeds soon after to memorial site. Mayor Michael Bloomberg will introduce four moments of silence to commemorate the precise times each plane hit the World Trade Center towers and each tower fell. Readings scheduled by New York Gov. David Paterson, New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Gov. George E. Pataki.

Names of all 2,751 victims will be read. Music will be performed by bagpipers, drummers and the Young People's Chorus of New York. Houses of worship throughout the city will toll bells. At sunset, “Tribute in Light” will return to the skies for the night, fading at dawn.

Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama will visit ground zero in the afternoon. They are scheduled for a joint appearance at 8 p.m. at Columbia University to discuss their views on public service.

Pennsylvania

A ceremony in honor of the 40 passengers and crew killed on Flight 93 when it crashed into a field near rural Shanksville will be held Thursday at 9:55 a.m. – the time the plane went down – at a temporary memorial near the crash site. Names of the victims will be read, with two bells tolled for each and a laying of wreaths. McCain is scheduled to attend.

Washington 

The dedication ceremony for the Pentagon Sept. 11 memorial will begin at 8 a.m. Thursday. President Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates will participate in the ceremony, which will include wreath laying, music and a reading of victims' names. The memorial, built at the spot where Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon's west wall, killing 184 people, opens to the public at 7 p.m.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush also will mark the anniversary during a moment of silence on South Lawn of the White House at 8:46 a.m.

At the Capitol, members of Congress will gather on steps for ceremony, with members singing “God Bless America” at 12:03 p.m.