History of Oklahoma City - The Oklahoma City Bombing

The Oklahoma City Bombing

See main article: Oklahoma City bombing

In the midst of this atmosphere of optimism and change, Timothy McVeigh drove a rented truck full of explosives to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The explosion killed 168 people (including 19 children) and injured more than 680, as well as damaging and destroying many surrounding buildings. Until the attacks of September 11, it was the largest terrorist attack on American soil, and it remains the single largest domestic terrorist attack in American history.

The site is now home to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. The memorial was designed by Oklahoma City architects Hans and Torrey Butzer and Sven Berg and dedicated by President Clinton on April 19, 2000, exactly five years after the bombing. Oklahoma City has since rebuilt, and except for the memorial, there is little evidence of the bombing.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation led an investigation, known as OKBOMB, the largest criminal case in America's history (FBI agents conducted 28,000 interviews, amassed 3.5 short tons (3.2 t) of evidence, and collected nearly one billion pieces of information). Special Agent in Charge Weldon L. Kennedy. commanded the largest crime task force since the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The task force included 300 FBI agents, 200 officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, 125 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, and 55 officers from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.