Top 10 Infamous Bombings

In order to spread his anti-abortion and anti-gay beliefs, Eric Robert Rudolph committed four terrorist bombings in two southern American states. The first and most fatal of these was his attempt to disrupt the Atlanta Summer Olympics by placing a pipe bomb in Centennial Olympic Park on July 27th, 1996. The blast harmed over 100 people and caused two deaths.

Eight years before the events of 9/11, the World Trade Center suffered a brutal attack on February 26th, 1993 when a truck bomb went off below the building’s North Tower. Six people lost their lives and thousands were hurt by the terrorist act, which was planned and executed by a group of Islamic fundamentalists.

While the bombing efforts of Theodore John Kaczynski did not result in hundreds of deaths, they did wound many and caused the FBI to label him a domestic terrorist. Between 1978 and 1995, the Unabomber targeted computer stores, universities, airlines and more with his mail bombs as a way to draw attention to his anti-technology and anti-industrial views.

Iron Workers union members J.J. and J.B. McNamara were arrested and tried for the October 1st, 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. J.B. later confessed to planting the suitcase bomb in response to the poor treatment of union workers. The blast ultimately triggered a fire that engulfed the building as well as a neighboring structure. Over one hundred people were injured in the blaze, and more than twenty died.

On September 16th, 1920, a bomb was carried into New York City’s Financial District via horse-drawn carriage. It detonated on Wall Street across from the J.P. Morgan bank building and resulted in 38 deaths and over 100 injuries. The perpetrators were never apprehended but the most popular theory holds that followers of Italian anarchist Luigi Galleani orchestrated the crime based on their anti-government beliefs.

On that date, London’s public transport system was targeted by Islamist terrorists who set off several bombs on three Underground trains and one double-decker bus. The terrorists intentionally killed themselves and took over fifty civilians with them. The 7/7 blasts ultimately harmed more than 700 people.

Spain, and Europe itself, had never seen a terrorist attack as devastating as the Madrid train bombings on March 11th, 2004. That morning, ten homemade bombs placed on commuter trains in Madrid exploded, leaving almost two hundred people dead and close to 2000 injured. The Spanish National Court attributed the 11-M attacks to a loose group of terrorists, though this decision wasn’t without controversy.

While making its journey from London to New York, Pan Am Flight 103 was disrupted by the explosion of an onboard bomb on December 21st, 1988. All passengers and crew members aboard the Boeing 747 died, resulting in 259 casualties. Almost a dozen residents of the Scottish town of Lockerbie also perished after being hit by pieces of the aircraft. Two Libyan intelligence operatives were indicted for murder and the Libyan government later accepted responsibility for the attack. Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has also been linked to the crime.

Timothy McVeigh was the mastermind behind one of the deadliest acts of terrorism the United States had seen to that point, as a result of his dissenting views about the American government. On April 19th, 1995, McVeigh left the truck bomb he and Terry Nichols constructed near the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The explosion resulted in over 150 casualties, more than 600 injuries and over 600 million of dollars worth in damages.

Northern Ireland and England were terrorized by the Provisional Irish Republican Army for almost three decades between 1969 and 1997. In an attempt to protest British rule and presence in Northern Ireland, the paramilitary organization undertook a campaign involving shootings, bombings and other violent acts and cost the lives of almost 2000 people, with thousands more harmed. Notable incidents included Bloody Friday and the Brighton hotel bombing. Following the declaration of a ceasefire in 1997, the group officially terminated its campaign in 2005.