
A domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people, including 19 children — the deadliest act of homegrown terrorism in U.S. history at the time.

On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children in the building's daycare center, and injured over 680 others. The attack destroyed one-third of the building and damaged 324 surrounding structures.
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On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children in the building's daycare center, and injured over 680 others. The attack destroyed one-third of the building and damaged 324 surrounding structures. McVeigh, an anti-government extremist radicalized by the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents, was convicted of 11 federal offenses and executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001. Co-conspirator Terry Nichols received life in prison. The bombing led to the passage of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
Morning Timeline: From Attack to Arrest
8:50 AM: Timothy McVeigh drives a rented Ryder truck, packed with nearly 5,000 pounds of improvised explosives, into downtown Oklahoma City.
8:57 AM: McVeigh parks the truck in a drop-off zone directly outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, lights a slow-burning timing fuse, locks the vehicle, and walks toward a getaway car.
9:02 AM: The bomb detonates with massive force, completely tearing away the entire north face of the nine-story building, flattening floors, and shattering windows for blocks HISTORY.
9:03 AM: Local emergency channels flood with calls, and first responders immediately rush to the site, initiating a massive search and rescue operation in the unstable, burning rubble.
10:20 AM: Roughly 80 miles north of the city near Billings, Oklahoma, State Trooper Charlie Hanger pulls over a yellow Mercury Marquis for driving without a rear license plate.
10:30 AM: Trooper Hanger discovers a concealed handgun on the driver—who identifies himself as Timothy McVeigh—and arrests him on firearms charges, entirely unaware that McVeigh just bombed the federal building Study.com. McVeigh is booked into the Noble County Jail in Perry, Oklahoma.
Timothy McVeigh was executed on Monday, June 11, 2001
Method and Location: He died by lethal injection at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana Twenty-five years ago, on June 11, 2001, Timothy McVeigh was .... He was pronounced dead at 8:14 a.m.
Historical Significance: His execution was the first federal death penalty carried out in 38 years.
Terry Nicholsa a co-conspirator was sentenced to 161 consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole, which stands as one of the longest criminal sentences ever handed down to an individual.
The Charges: A federal jury convicted Nichols of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter. The manslaughter counts represented the eight federal law enforcement officers killed in the blast.
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