Oklahoma City Bombing

In Oklahoma City, at 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a Ryder truck full of fertilizer and fuel oil parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building exploded, blasting a crater 30 feet wide and 8 feet deep. The front third of the nine-floor building disintegrated in a blast that was heard 15 miles away. The final death count would be 149 men and women and 19 children, with more than 500 people wounded.

The government and the American people initially suspected outside terrorist responsibility, but in reality the plan was devised by two American antigovernment survivalists in response to the Branch Davidian fire that had resulted in 84 deaths in Waco, Texas in 1993. They targeted the Murrah Building because they erroneously believed ...