Oklahoma City Bombing (1995)

On 19 April 1995, a bomb in a Ryder rental truck exploded outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City in the US, killing 168 people and injuring 680 others.

The blast destroyed more than one-third of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (which subsequently had to be demolished) and destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings within a 16-block radius, shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings, and destroyed 86 cars, causing an estimated $652 million worth of damage.

Most of the deaths resulted from the collapse of the building rather than the bomb blast itself.

Suspects Timothy McVeigh (a veteran of the Gulf War and a sympathiser with the militia movement) and Terry Nichols were indicted on 10 August.

McVeigh (pictured) was eventually found guilty on 11 counts of murder and conspiracy and sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection on 11 June 2001 at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004.

Motivated by his dislike for the US federal government and unhappy about its handling of the Ruby Ridge incident in 1992 and the Waco siege in 1993, McVeigh timed the attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the fire that ended the siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial was dedicated in April 2000 on the site of the Murrah Federal Building, commemorating the victims of the bombing. Remembrance services are held every year on 19 April at the time of the explosion.