By Luis Perez
Newsday (New York)
Copyright 2006 Newsday, Inc.

The governor and the mayor released a detailed timeline yesterday of the events to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

The spouses, partners and significant others of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks will for the first time lead the reading of the names during next month's memorial ceremony, city and state officials announced yesterday.

In past years, the siblings, parents and children of victims each took turns reciting the names, a ritual that is punctuated by pauses marking the moments when two jetliners struck the towers, and when each tower fell, killing 2,749 people in New York.

During the reading, family members descend to the bottom of the site to lay flowers there.

Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg will lead the ceremonies with speeches, and city police, Port Authority police and Fire Department color guards will participate, officials said.

"The anniversary is a time for prayer and requiem, and it is also an occasion to recommit ourselves to the unwavering spirit that carried us through the worst day in our city's history ..." Bloomberg said in a statement.

Pataki's and Bloomberg's offices released this timeline yesterday:

8:46 a.m. First moment of silence (for plane that struck the north tower)

Reading of the names by spouses and significant others begins.

8:47 a.m. Families begin to descend ramp to the floor of the World Trade Center site.

9:03 a.m. Second moment of silence (for plane that struck the south tower)

9:59 a.m. Third moment of silence (fall of the south tower)

10:29 a.m. Fourth moment of silence (fall of the north tower)

"Taps" performed by police and Fire Department trumpeters.

The ceremony ends about noon. At sundown, the "Tribute in Light" will return, in remembrance of the victims. It will be located at West and Morris streets in lower Manhattan.