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April 19, 2007
Today in History: April 19th
From Those Were the Day - Today in History:
1993 - The Branch-Davidian’s compound in Waco, Texas burned to the ground. It was the anticlimax of a 51-day standoff between the religious cult led by David Koresh and U.S. federal agents (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms). 86 perished including 17 children. Koresh and his followers opted not to surrender themselves and the children to the agents; exchanging gun fire, instead. Nine members of the cult escaped.Read more: 1993 : Branch Davidian compound burns - This Day in History -History.com
Learning lessons from Waco : when the parties bring their Gods to the negotiation table / Jayne Seminare Docherty.
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From the ashes : making sense of Waco / James R. Lewis, editor.
BP605.B72 F761994
1995 - The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK was destroyed by a bomb estimated at 5,000 pounds, hidden in a rent-a-truck. The blast was the worst bombing on U.S. soil. Timothy McVeigh was charged with terroristic murder. 168 people including 19 children died in the blast. 490 were injured. On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on 11 different counts, including several first degree murder convictions for the deaths of federal officers. He was executed (lethal injection) on June 11, 2001 at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Terry L. Nichols, an Army buddy of McVeigh, was sentenced to life in prison.
View video clip: 1995 - Truck Bomb Explodes in Oklahoma City
Read about:
In bad company : America’s terrorist underground / Mark S. Hamm.
HV6432.5.A79 H362002
The unfinished bombing : Oklahoma City in American memory / Edward T. Linenthal
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2000 - “The empty chairs are a simple yet powerful portrayal of someone’s absence. Like an empty chair at a dinner table, we are always aware of the presence of a loved one’s absence,” said architects Hans and Torrey Butzer and Sven Berg, explaining their inclusion of 168 bronze and stone chairs, each inscribed with a victim's name and mounted on a glass base, the focus at the opening of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. This memorial marks the place where 168 people died in 1995 in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. A new expanse of green lawn was once the site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and a 320-foot-long reflecting pool lined with black stone has replaced the bombed-out street. The chairs, symbolic of tombstones, are also placed in symbolic positions: Nine rows representing the nine floors of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, with each victim's chair placed in the row according to the floor on which he or she worked or was visiting at the time of the blast. 19 of the chairs are smaller, representing the children who were murdered in the attack. Ironically, A 70-year-old elm tree survived the bombing. “The Survivor Tree” is now protected by the Rescuer's Orchard: Fruit trees symbolic of the many rescue workers who pulled survivors from the rubble.
I was actually in Oklahoma City in February. I will post some of the photos I took while I was viewing the Memorial.
Vist it the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum - Official Website.
To find more information on the above events, check the GSU Library Catalog.
Posted by d-nadler at April 19, 2007 11:36 AM