The history of attacks dealing with the United States started way back in 1920 when a man, who didn’t seem out of the ordinary, stopped his wagon that he was driving and disappeared off into the crowd of people on Wall Street. Shortly afterward, the cart exploded and sent fragments everywhere. More than 30 people were killed. There will be more attacks on the US as time goes. Some with a bigger magnitude than others.
After a couple of decades, another attack happened. One Thursday in 1975, a bomb rocked the headquarters of the U.S State Department in Washington D.C. The bombing did not hurt anyone but it caused some damage to 20 offices that were located on three separate floors of that building. The attack was claimed by a domestic terrorist group called the Weather Underground.
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport and was headed for New York with a total passenger count of 259 people on board, 189 of them Americans. Not even 40 minutes into the flight, the plane exploded at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Everyone on board was killed as well as 11 Scottish people who were on the ground. Until 9/11, it was one of the most lethal acts of air terrorism.
April 19, 1995, a man named Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Timothy drove away in his escape vehicle at 9:02 a.m the truck exploded, turning a third of the building into rubble and damaging or destroying over 300 nearby buildings. This was an attack that was made from someone in our own country. It was the worst act of homegrown terrorism in our nation’s history.
Not all terrorist attacks are made from some other country. Over the course from 1920-2013 there were almost 60 terrorist attacks or acts dealing with terrorism. Our nation has been through a lot with terrorism and it isn’t something that can be stopped forever. One thing that can be changed is how we deal with it. They will happen, but it only matters how it affects it target. We must stay strong even in hours of disaster.
Sources:
- Website Title: FBI
- Article Title: Past and Present
- Publisher: FBI
- Electronically Published: August 30, 2010
- Date Accessed: September 14, 2014
Comments
While this wasn't really one of the topics, it is interesting and well written. Good job!