Saturday marks the 30-year anniversary of the infamous Oklahoma City bombing that resulted in a rescue effort lasting two weeks and the deaths of 168 people. Thirty years later, the incident is still the worst terrorist attack ever committed by an American on U.S. soil.
On the morning of April 19, 1995, a truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, collapsing the north face of the nine-story building and instantly killing more than 100 people as well as trapping more in the rubble.
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“Emergency crews raced to Oklahoma City from across the country, and when the rescue effort finally ended two weeks later the death toll stood at 168 people killed, including 19 young children who were in the building’s day-care center at the time of the blast,” History.com recalled.
In the days that followed, a sweeping manhunt for the suspects ended with the apprehension of then-27-year-old Timothy McVeigh and his associate Terry Nichols, who surrendered himself to authorities.
A grand jury would then later indict McVeigh and Nichols on murder and conspiracy charges.
McVeigh, a former U.S. Army soldier who was decorated with medals, had served in the Persian Gulf War in early 1991, only to be later discharged from the Army at the end of the year due to the U.S. military downsizing that transpired following the Soviet Union collapse.
After being discharged, an apparently disgruntled McVeigh “shifted his ideology from a hatred of foreign communist governments to a suspicion of the U.S. federal government,” History.com noted.
Notably, the Oklahoma City bombing was carried out on the two-year anniversary of the fire near Waco, Texas, “that killed some 80 Branch Davidians,” the history website recalled, noting that this event had “deeply radicalized” McVeigh and Nichols.
Moreover, the April 19, 1993, Waco fire came less than a year after a shoot-out between federal agents and survivalist Randy Weaver in Idaho in which Weaver’s wife and son were killed.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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