Oklahoma City bombing

===Bombing===
[[File:Timothy McVeigh's movements during Oklahoma City bombing.svg|thumb|right|300px|alt=Map showing the layout of downtown Oklahoma City near the bombed building. The map uses simple shapes to identify some notable nearby buildings and roads. A large circle covers half the map, illustrating the extent of damage from the bomb. A red path shows the path McVeigh took to get to the building with the Ryder truck, and a blue line shows his escape on foot.|McVeigh's movement in the Ryder truck (red dashed line) and escape on foot (blue dashed line) on the day of the bombing]]
McVeigh's original plan had been to detonate the bomb at 11:00&nbsp;a.m., but at dawn on April 19, 1995, he decided instead to destroy the building at 9:00&nbsp;a.m.{{sfnp|Michel|Herbeck|2001|p=220}} As he drove toward the Murrah Federal Building in the Ryder truck, McVeigh carried with him an envelope containing pages from ''[[The Turner Diaries]]''&nbsp;– a fictional account of [[White supremacy|white supremacists]] who ignite a revolution by blowing up the FBI headquarters at 9:15 one morning using a truck bomb.<ref name="TimeWeight"/> McVeigh wore a printed T-shirt with ''[[Sic semper tyrannis]]'' ("Thus always to tyrants")—what according to legend Brutus said as he [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|assassinated Julius Caesar]] and is also claimed to have been shouted by [[John Wilkes Booth]] immediately after the [[assassination of Abraham Lincoln]]—and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (from [[Thomas Jefferson]]).{{sfnp|Michel|Herbeck|2001|p=226}} He also carried an envelope full of revolutionary materials that included a bumper sticker with the slogan, falsely attributed<ref name="SpuriousJefferson">{{cite web |url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/when-government-fears-people-there-liberty-spurious-quotation |title=When government fears the people, there is liberty... (Spurious Quotation) |website=Thomas Jefferson's Monticello |access-date=May 22, 2020 |quote=We have not found any evidence that Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, "When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny," nor any evidence that he wrote its listed variations.}}</ref> to Thomas Jefferson, "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Underneath, McVeigh had written, "Maybe now, there will be liberty!" with a hand-copied quote by [[John Locke]] asserting that a man has a right to kill someone who takes away his liberty.<ref name="TimeWeight"/>{{sfnp|Michel|Herbeck|2001|p=228}}

McVeigh entered Oklahoma City at 8:50&nbsp;a.m.{{sfnp|Michel|Herbeck|2001|p=229}} At 8:57&nbsp;a.m., the Regency Towers Apartments' lobby security camera that had recorded Nichols's pickup truck three days earlier recorded the Ryder truck heading towards the Murrah Federal Building.<ref name="RTASecurityRyder">{{cite news|first=Talley |last=Tim |title=Man testifies axle of truck fell from sky after Oklahoma City bombing |url=http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040415-1925-nicholstrial.html |work=U-T San Diego |date=April 15, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313182753/http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20040415-1925-nicholstrial.html |archive-date=March 13, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> At the same moment, McVeigh lit the five-minute fuse. Three minutes later, still a block away, he lit the two-minute fuse. He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone situated under the building's day-care center, exited and locked the truck. As he headed to his getaway vehicle, he dropped the keys to the truck a few blocks away.<ref name="HomelandStudyKeys1042">{{cite episode|title=A Study of the Oklahoma City Bombing|series=Homeland Security Television|minutes=10:42|airdate=2006}}</ref>

[[File:Murrah Building - Aerial.jpg|left|thumb|alt=An overhead view shows the Alfred P. Murrah building, half of it destroyed from the bomb's blast. Near the building are various rescue vehicles and cranes. Some damage is visible to nearby buildings.|An aerial view, looking from the north, of the destruction]]

At 9:02&nbsp;a.m. (14:02 [[Coordinated Universal Time|UTC]]), the Ryder truck, containing over {{convert|4800|lb|kg}}<ref name="ITN76">{{cite book|last=Irving|first=Clive|title=In Their Name|page=[https://archive.org/details/intheirnamededic00irvi/page/76 76]|isbn=978-0-679-44825-9|year=1995|publisher=Random House |url=https://archive.org/details/intheirnamededic00irvi/page/76}}</ref> of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.<ref name="McVeighBomb33">{{cite news |first=Jo |last=Thomas |title=For First Time, Woman Says McVeigh Told of Bomb Plan |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/30/us/for-first-time-woman-says-mcveigh-told-of-bomb-plan.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=April 30, 1996 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425082855/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/04/30/us/for-first-time-woman-says-mcveigh-told-of-bomb-plan.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |archive-date=April 25, 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 168 people were killed and hundreds more injured. One-third of the building was destroyed by the explosion,<ref name="Terrorism Info">{{cite web|title=The Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management After Action Report|url=http://www.ok.gov/OEM/documents/Bombing%20After%20Action%20Report.pdf|page=77|publisher=Department of Central Services Central Printing Division|year=1996|access-date=June 26, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121223730/http://www.ok.gov/OEM/documents/Bombing%20After%20Action%20Report.pdf|archive-date=January 21, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> which created a {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=mid|-wide}}, {{convert|8|ft|m|adj=mid|-deep}} crater on NW 5th Street next to the building.<ref name="FinalReport">{{cite book|last=City of Oklahoma City Document Management|title=Final Report|pages=10–12|isbn=978-0-87939-130-0|year=1996|publisher=Fire Protection Publications, Oklahoma State U. }}</ref> The blast destroyed or damaged 324&nbsp;buildings within a 4-block radius, and shattered glass in 258&nbsp;nearby buildings.<ref name="TI3"/><ref name="Safety"/> The broken glass alone accounted for 5&nbsp;percent of the death total and 69&nbsp;percent of the injuries outside the Murrah Federal Building.<ref name="Safety"/> The blast destroyed or burned 86&nbsp;cars around the site.<ref name="TI3"/><ref name="ITN52">{{cite book|last=Irving|first=Clive|title=In Their Name|page=[https://archive.org/details/intheirnamededic00irvi/page/52 52]|isbn=978-0-679-44825-9|year=1995|publisher=Random House |url=https://archive.org/details/intheirnamededic00irvi/page/52}}</ref> The destruction of the buildings left several hundred people homeless and shut down a number of offices in downtown Oklahoma City.<ref name="USDJ"/> The explosion was estimated to have caused at least $652&nbsp;million worth of damage.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hewitt|first=Christopher |title=Understanding Terrorism in America|page=[https://archive.org/details/understandingter0000hewi/page/106 106] |isbn=978-0-415-27766-2|year=2003 |url=https://archive.org/details/understandingter0000hewi/page/106 }}</ref>

The effects of the blast were equivalent to over {{convert|5000|lb|kg}} of [[trinitrotoluene|TNT]],<ref name="web.mst.edu"/><ref name="JournalBlastDamage">{{cite journal|last=Mlakar|first=Paul F. Sr.|author2=W. Gene Corley|author2-link=W. Gene Corley|author3=Mete A. Sozen|author4=Charles H. Thornton|title=The Oklahoma City Bombing: Analysis of Blast Damage to the Murrah Building|journal=Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities|volume=12|issue=3|date=August 1998|pages=113–119|doi=10.1061/(ASCE)0887-3828(1998)12:3(113)}}</ref> and could be heard and felt up to {{convert|55|mi|km}} away.<ref name="USDJ">{{cite web|title=Responding to Terrorism Victims: Oklahoma City and Beyond: Chapter I, Bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building|work=[[U.S. Department of Justice]] |url=http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/respterrorism/chap1.html |date=October 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105193322/http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov//ovc/publications/infores/respterrorism/chap2.html |archive-date=November 5, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Seismometer]]s at the [[Science Museum Oklahoma|Omniplex Science Museum]] in Oklahoma City, {{convert|4.3|mi|km}} away, and in [[Norman, Oklahoma]], {{convert|16.1|mi|km}} away, recorded the blast as measuring approximately 3.0 on the [[Richter magnitude scale]].<ref name="HolzerSiesmograms">{{cite journal|last=Holzer|first=T. L.|author2=Joe B. Fletcher|author3=Gary S. Fuis|author4=Trond Ryberg|author5=Thomas M. Brocher|author6=Christopher M. Dietel|year=1996|title=Seismograms Offer Insight into Oklahoma City Bombing |journal=Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union|pages=393, 396–397|volume=77|issue=41 |doi=10.1029/96EO00269 |bibcode=1996EOSTr..77..393H |url=http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/eosholzer.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113185155/http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/eosholzer.html |archive-date=November 13, 2007}}</ref>

The collapse of the northern half of the building took roughly 7 seconds. As the truck exploded, it first destroyed the column next to it, designated as G20, and shattered the entire glass facade of the building. The shockwave of the explosion forced the lower floors upwards, before the fourth and fifth floors collapsed onto the third floor, which housed a transfer beam that ran the length of the building and was being supported by four pillars below, as well as supporting the pillars that hold the upper floors. The added weight meant that the third floor gave way along with the transfer beam, which in turn caused the collapse of the building.<ref name="Seconds">"The Bomb in Oklahoma City" ("Oklahoma City"). ''[[Seconds From Disaster]]''.</ref>