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The Munich Olympics
During the Summer Olympics in Munich, 1972, eleven people of the Israeli Olympic Team were kidnapped, kept hostage and later killed by a Palestinian group who called themselves "Black September". This was a turning point in terrorism. Though there had been previous attacks around the world, this was the first one that caught national attention. This then influenced other terrorist groups to make their attacks known world wide. -
Iranian Embassy
The Iranian Embassy siege happened from 30 April to 5 May 1980, when a group of six armed men took over the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, London. The hostages captured included mostly embassy staff, several visitors, and a police officer who was guarding the embassy at the time to make a total of 26 people. This was done in demand of the release of Arab prisoners from jails in Khūzestān and their own safe passage out of the United Kingdom. Of course, after six days, this did not end well. -
Beirut Barracks Bombing
On October 23rd,1983, during the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs went off destroying buildings housing United States and French military forces. This terrorist attack by a group called the Islamic Jihad, killed 299 American and French servicemen. -
Achille Lauro
Four members of the Palestine Liberation Front took over the Achille Lauro cruise ship on October 7th, 1985. They took hostage of all the passengers and crew members in demand of the release of the Palestinian prisoners being held in Israel. The Egyption president Hosni Mubarak convinced the hijackers to surrender but not before the death of wheelchair bound Jewish passenger from America named Leon Klinghoffer. Once captured, the hijackers were sentenced to many lifetimes in prison. -
Pan Am flight 103
On December 21, 1988, the terror of Pan Am flight 103 occurred. Pan Am flight 103 was a flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport that was destroyed by a bomb on the plane. This bomb ended up killing all 243 passengers, 16 crew members, and 11 people on the ground due to the large sections of the plane that crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland. -
World Trade Center Bombing
On February 26th 1993, a bomb exploded in the garage of the World Trade Center in New York. A truck bomb was placed in the garage of the north tower in an attempt to collapse it. This wounded hundreds of people and killed six. This was linked back to Osama bin Laden. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. No one would have guessed that an ex-Army soldier and security guard was about to commit mass murder. At 9:02 a.m. a powerful bomb made out of a deadly cocktail of agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and other chemicals exploded. This caused the death of 168 people including 19 children and an additional several hundred more people were injured. Also, 300 -
9/11
On September 11th, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 were overtaken by hijackers and then crashed into the North and South towers. Another plane, American Airlines Flight 77 was crashed into the Pentagon. An estimated 3,000 people died whether they were on the plane, or in the buildings. This was a horrific day but improved security all around America. -
Car bombing in Indonesia
On August 5th, 2003, in Mega Kuningan, a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the lobby of the JW Marriott Hotel, killing twelve people and injuring 150 others. As a result, the hotel was closed for five weeks and reopened to the public on 8 September. Mobile phones were used as detonators in this case and the blast radius of the car bomb shattered windows of nearby buildings. -
Beslan School
The Beslan school hostage crisis lasted three days starting on September 1st, and involved over 1,100 people as hostages including 777 children. This ended with a total of 380 deaths The crisis began when a group of armed Islamic separatist militants occupied School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia. This led to security and political repercussions in Russia. -
London Train and Bus Bombings
On July 7th, 2007, at 8:50 a.m. three bombs exploded simultaneously in London, destroying sections of three different London Underground trains. An hour later at 9:50 a.m. there was another explosion on the top level of a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square caused by a similar device to the ones used on the underground. These explosions left 52 innocent people dead and over 700 injured. The bombers were later confirmed to be Muslim extremists. -
Boston Bombing
The Boston Bombing occurred on April 15th, 2013 during the Boston Marathon. Two pressure cooker bombs about 210 yards away from each other went off at 2:49 pm. This killed 3 people, injured an additional 264 and affected millions. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov were the two brothers who Set up these bombs. After a long manhunt through the surrounding cities, one brother was killed and the other was sentenced to life in prison.
