Terrorist incidents
Acts and failed attempts that can be considered terrorism.
15th Century
- 1492-1502 In a series of four expeditions to what is now the West Indies, Christopher Columbus launched a genocidal campaign against native Arawaks that monks described as including murder, torture, dismemberment and mass rape.
17th Century
18th Century
- 1793/1794 During the Reign of Terror in France hundreds were killed in public executions of those accused of treason by a Revolutionary Tribunal.
19th Century
1910s-1960s
- 1910 A bomb at the Los Angeles Times newspaper building in Los Angeles, California killed 21 workers.
- 1914 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, precipitating World War I.
- 1920 Jerusalem pogrom of April, 1920 incited by Haj Amin Al-Husseini (subsequently the grand mufti of Jerusalem).
- 1920 A bomb exploded on Wall Street in New York City, killing 30 people and wounding 400 others.
- 1929 August 23. The ancient Jewish community of Hebron is destroyed in the Hebron massacre. [1]
- 1937 - 1945 Hundreds of thousands of civilians were intintionally killed in aerial bombardment of cities first by German forces then mutually by warring nations throughout WWII.
- 1945 Allied troops discovered large scale detention camps in Germany, where millions had died of starvation, disease and murder in group-sized gas chambers during a reign of wartime terror.
- 1946 Bombing of King David Hotel, the British Army HQ, by the Zionist terrorist group Irgun.
- 1946 July 4. The Kielce pogrom of Jews who returned home from the death camps: 42 dead, 200 wounded.
- 1948 Deir Yassin massacre
- 1953 Qibya massacre
- 1962 In Operation Northwoods U.S. Secretary of Defense proposed U.S. operatives could hijack airliners, assassinate Cuban refugees and commit other acts of terrorism in the U.S. to be blamed on Cubans.
- 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. A member of the Ku Klux Klan bombed a Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls.
- 1965 March 5 The U.S. president starts "Rolling Thunder" bombing campaign to terrorize Ho Chi Minh into negotiating with the U.S.
- 1969 A bomb in a Bank killed 16 people in Milan
1970s
1980s
- 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero assassinated by Death squads in El Salvador
- 1980 Four US nuns killed by death squads in El Salvador
- 1980 December U.S. trained Salvadoran Army unit executes 800 civilians at the village of El Mozote
- 1980 Neo-Fascist bomb kills more than 80 people in Bologna railway station
- 1982 In the September 16-18 Sabra and Shatila Refugee Camp Massacre, Christian Phalangist irregular army units massacre several thousand men, women and children. An Isreali Commission found then defense minister Ariel Sharon partially responsible.
- 1982 Two bombs in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, London by the IRA killl 8 members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets seven horses are also killed.
- 1983 US Embassy Bombing in Beirut, Lebanon kills 63.
- 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing in Beirut kills 241 US Marines.
- 1983 Harrods bomb by the IRA. Six are killed (including three police officers) and 90 wounded during Christmas shopping at the West London department store.
- 1983 Gulf Air Flight 771
- 1984 IRA bomb in the Grand Hotel Brighton 5 are killed in an attempt to kill members of the British cabinet.
- 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking
- 1985 Achille Lauro cruise ship hijacking by Palestinian Liberation Front
- 1985 IRA mortar attack kills nine soldiers in Newry
- 1985 Air India flight 182 is blown up by a bomb put onboard the flight from Canada by Sikh nationalists. All 329 passengers are killed.
- 1985 EgyptAir Flight 648 hijacked by Abu Nidal group, flown to Malta, where Egyptian commandos storm plane; 60 are killed by gunfire and explosions.
- 1985 Palestinian terrorists kill twenty people inside Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport near Rome and Vienna International Airport in Vienna.
- 1985 Investigators associated with the WHO reported that U.S.-funded Contras repeatedly destroyed health-care facilities and murdered health-care workers in Nicaraqua.
- 1986 New Year's Eve fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, claimed 97 lives, mainly in the casino area. Fire set by 3 hotel workers, trying to make tourists stay away from Puerto Rico as a protest to their working wages.
- 1986 TWA Flight 840 bombed on approach to Athens airport; 4 Americans, including an infant, are killed.
- 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing On April 6, the La Belle discotheque, a known hangout for U.S. soldiers, was bombed, killing 3 and injuring 230 people, for which Libya is held responsible.
- 1986 Pan Am Flight 73 is hijacked; 22 people die when plane is stormed in Karachi, Pakistan.
- 1987 Enniskillen massacre. Remembrance Day parade in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh is bombed by the IRA and 11 are killed and 63 injured
- 1987 KAL Flight 858 bombed by North Korea.
- 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing (Lockerbie)
- 1989 Ten Royal Marines bandsmen are killed and 22 injured when base in Deal, Kent is bombed by the IRA.
- 1989 UTA Flight UT-772
- 1989 Avianca Flight 203 bombed over Colombia
1990s
- 1990 A series of car bombings directed by the IRA in Northern Ireland leave 7 people dead and 37 wounded.
- 1991 Two IRA members are killed by their own bomb in St Albans.
- 1992 Israeli Embassy destroyed by car bomb in Buenos Aires, Argentina; 29 die.
- 1992 Eight Protestant builders killed by an IRA bomb on their way to work at an Army base near Omagh.
- 1993 World Trade Center bombing
- 1993 Failed New York City landmark bomb plot
- 1993 Mumbai car bombings in India
- 1993 IRA bomb in Warrington kills two children.
- 1993 IRA detonate a huge truck bomb in the City of London at Bishopsgate, killing two and causing approximately £350m of damage.
- 1993 A bomb at a fish and chip shop on the Protestant Shankill Road, Belfast kills 10 people, including two children.
- 1994 Bombing of Jewish Center in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 86 and wounds 300.
- 1994 Baruch Goldstein machine gun attack on mosque in Hebron.
- 1994 Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked by GIA members who planned to crash the plane on Paris but didn't succeed.
- 1994 A small bomb explodes on board Philippine Airlines flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. Authorities found out that Ramzi Yousef planted the bomb to test it for his planned terrorist attack.
- 1995 Operation Bojinka is discovered on a laptop computer in a Manila, Philippines apartment by authorities after an apartment fire occurred in the apartment.
- 1995 Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway
- 1995 Oklahoma City bombing
- 1995 Bombing of military compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 1996 Central Bank Bombing in Sri Lanka kills 90 and wounds 1,400.
- 1996 A series of four suicide bombings in Israel leave 67 dead and 161 wounded within 10 days.
- 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing, killing one and wounding 111.
- 1996 IRA break their cease-fire and kill two in a bomb at the Canary Wharf towers in London.
- 1996 Manchester bombing by IRA
- 1996 Khobar Towers bombing
- 1997 Islamic terrorists attack tourists in Luxor, Egypt, killing 71 people, most of them European and Japanese vacationers.
- 1998 U.S. embassy bombings
- 1998 Omagh bombing by the so-called "Real IRA" kills 29.
- 1999 Gunmen opened fire on Shi'a Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque killing 16 people injuring 25.
- 1999 David Copeland nail bomb attacks against ethnic minorities and gays in London.
- 1999 Ahmed Ressam is arrested on the US-Canada border in Port Angeles, Washington; he confessed to planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 celebration terrorist attacks plot
- 1999 May 9 Chinese authorites claim U.S. attacked the Chinese embassy in Yugoslovia as an act of terrorism in response to suspected Chinese support for U.S. enemies.
- 1999 Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb US and Israeli tourists in Jordan and pick up 28 suspects as part of the 2000 celebration terrorist attacks plot
- 1999 Indian Airlines Flight 814, which just took off from Kathmandu, Nepal for Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India is hijacked, one passenger is killed and some hostages are released. After negotiations between the Taliban and the Indian government, the last of the remaining hostages on board Flight 814 are released
- 1999 Russian Apartment Bombings lead Russia into Second Chechen War.
2000s
- 2000 The last part of the 2000 celebration terrorist attacks plot fails, as the boat meant to bomb the USS The Sullivans sinks
- 2000 Beginning of a campaign of attacks on civilians in Israel - see Terrorism against Israel in 2000.
- 2000 USS Cole bombing
- 2000 German police foil plot to attack a cathedral in Strasbourg, France
- 2001 September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack ("9/11") kills thousands in New York, and hundreds in Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
- 2001 Paris embassy terrorist attack plot foiled
- 2001 December 13, 2001 Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.
- 2001 Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians continue - see Terrorism against Israel in 2001.
- 2001 Richard Reid attempts to destroy American Airlines Flight 63, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb
- 2002 Singapore embassies terrorist attack plot foiled
- 2002 June 14 terrorist attack outside US Consulate in Karachi
- 2002 Limburg tanker bombing in Yemen
- 2002 Murder of Daniel Pearl
- 2002 Bali car bombing of holidaymakers
- 2002 Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines
- 2002 Moscow theatre siege
- 2002 Most deadly year of Palestinian terror campaign against Israel, including the Passover Massacre in which 30 people are killed - see Terrorism against Israel in 2002.
- 2002 Kenyan hotel bombing
- 2002 Beltway sniper attacks
- 2003 Palestinian terror attacks against Israel continue - see Terrorism against Israel in 2003.
- 2003 Chechen militants carry out several deadly suicide bombings across Russia and nearby provinces, killing more than 250 people.
- May 12, 2003 - Riyadh Compound Bombings--bombings of United States expat housing compounds in Saudi Arabia kill 26 and injure 160. Al-Qaeda blamed.
- May 16, 2003 - Casablanca Attacks in Casablanca, Morocco leaves 41 dead. The attack involved 12 bombers and 5 targets. The targets were "Western and Jewish". Attack attributed to a Moroccan al-Qaeda-linked group.
- August 19, 2003- Canal Hotel Bombing in Baghdad, Iraq kills 22 people including the top UN representative, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
- 2003 Borrowing a name from a 1996 book on the tactic, Shock and Awe, the U.S. president targeted the civil infrastructure of Iraq to terrorize supporters of Saddam Hussein.
- 2003 In response to the US invasion of Iraq, terrorists in that country stage dozens of suicide bombings targeting Iraqi and Coalition targets.
- 2003 Istanbul Bombings- Within five days, truck bombs go off at two synagogues, the British Consulate, and the HSBC Bank in Istanbul, Turkey.
- October 15, 2003 - A bomb is detonated by Palestinians against a US diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip.
- 2003 - 2004 Ohio highway sniper attacks
- 2004 109 Kurds are killed in 2 suicide bombings in Arbil, Iraq.
- 2004 Bomb on Moscow subway kills 41.
See also: aircraft hijacking, Palestinian terrorism, Israeli terrorism, IRA, suicide bombing, assassinations, Dupont Plaza Hotel, GIA
External links, resources, references
Referenced By
Atrocities | Atrocity | FBI Most Wanted Terrorists
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