On April 19, 1995, a rental truck filled with explosives was detonated outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The blast killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured several hundred more.
Timothy J. McVeigh and Terry L. Nichols, both former US Army soldiers associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement, were convicted of the attack.
McVeigh claimed he targeted the building in Oklahoma City to avenge the FBI's 1993 raid on the compound of a religious sect in Waco, Texas. He was executed in 2001. Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.
Editor’s note: Some of these images are graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.
A woman comforts an injured child following the explosion.
David Longstreath/AP
Oklahoma City District Fire Chief Mike Shannon searches through the rubble after the explosion. He was one of the first to arrive on scene.
David Longstreath/AP
People stare in shock at the site of the destroyed building.
Ralf-Finn Hestoft/Corbis via Getty Images
A person is helped near the scene.
Jim Argo/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
This aerial photo, taken on the day of the bombing, shows the damaged north side of the building.
AP
Relief workers carry boxes of medical supplies.
Gregory Smith/Corbis via Getty Images
Bombing survivor Barry Fogerty is helped by Oklahoma City firefighters.
Jim Argo/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
Rescue workers dig through debris.
Greg Smith/Pool/AP
FBI and ATF agents search a car transmission thrown by the explosion.
Greg Smith/Corbis via Getty Images
Ron West, a respiratory therapist, assists in organizing groups of medical volunteers at St. Anthony Hospital after the explosion.
Roger Klock/The Oklahoman/USA Today Network/Imagn Images
Firefighters examine the wreckage of the building as night falls on the day after the bombing.
Reuters
People wait for news of friends and family in the aftermath of the bombing.
David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images
Two days after the bombing, suspect Timothy J. McVeigh is led out of the Noble County Courthouse by state and federal law enforcement officials in Perry, Oklahoma.
John Gaps III/AP
Rescue workers search the rubble in the days after the attack.
Greg Smith/Pool/AP
An Oklahoma City police car is decorated with the words "we will never forget."
Rick Bowmer/AP
Edye and Tony Smith are embraced beside the casket of their two young sons during a burial service in Oklahoma City on April 25, 1995. Chase and Colton Smith were 3 and 2 years old.
Win McNamee/Reuters
Suspect Terry L. Nichols, wearing a bulletproof vest, is escorted by US marshals as he leaves a federal courthouse in Wichita, Kansas, on April 26, 1995.
Steve Rasmussen/AP
Rescue workers cut through the building's rubble.
Roman Bas/AFP via Getty Images
A firefighter crawls through a tight crevice deep inside the rubble of the bombed building.
Reuters
Tributes were left near the scene for those who died in the bombing.
Greg Smith/Corbis via Getty Images
What was left of the building was imploded a month after the attack.
Greg Smith/Corbis via Getty Images
A woman grieves for family and friends lost in the attack.
David Butow/Corbis via Getty Images
The Field of Empty Chairs, a reminder of the 168 people killed in the attack, is seen at the Oklahoma City National Memorial on April 10, 2020.
Nick Oxford/The New York Times/Redux