Terrorism in the United States
# Date Type Dead Injured Location ( s ) Details Perpetrator
29 September 6 , 1901 Assassination , shooting 1 0 Buffalo , New York Assassination of William McKinley - President William McKinley is assassinated by Michigan-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz , in Buffalo , New York Leon Czolgosz
30 December 30 , 1905 Assassination , bombing 1 0 Caldwell , Idaho Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is killed by a bomb in front of his Caldwell , Idaho home . The assassin , Harry Orchard , turned state 's evidence and accused the Western Federation of Miners of having hired him to assassinate Steunenberg in retaliation for breaking up miners ' strikes . However , the labor leaders put on trial due to his accusations were acquitted as defense attorneys Clarence Darrow and Edmund F. Richardson successfully discredited Orchard 's testimony Harry Orchard
31 October 1 , 1910 Bombing 21 100+ Los Angeles , California Los Angeles Times bombing - The Los Angeles Times building in Los Angeles was destroyed by dynamite , killing 21 workers . The bomb was apparently placed due to the paper 's opposition to unionization in the city ; two labor organizers , the McNamara brothers , then pled guilty to escape a death sentence , receiving fifteen years and life in prison respectively James and John McNamara
32 May 30 , 1915 Bombing 0 0 Harbor Island , Seattle , Washington German agents blew up a barge carrying 15 tons of refined gunpowder just off of Harbor Island , Seattle , Washington Imperial German agents
33 July 2-3 , 1915 Bombing , shooting 0 1 District of Columbia / Glen Cove , New York Frank Holt ( also known as Eric Muenter ) , a German professor who wanted to stop American support of the Allies in World War I , exploded a bomb in the reception room of the U.S. Senate . The next morning he tried to assassinate J. P. Morgan , Jr. , the son of the financier whose company served as Great Britain 's principal U.S. purchasing agent for munitions and other war supplies . Muenter was overpowered by Morgan in Morgan 's Long Island home before killing himself in prison on July 7 Eric Muenter
34 July 22 , 1916 Bombing 10 40 San Francisco , California Preparedness Day Bombing - Ten people killed and 40 injured by an explosion during a Preparedness Day parade in San Francisco . Two radical labor leaders , Warren K. Billings and Thomas Mooney , were convicted of the crime and sentenced to hang , but with little evidence of their guilt both sentences were commuted to life imprisonment . They were both eventually pardoned , and the actual bombers ' identities remain unknown Galleanist anarchists ( suspected )
35 July 30 , 1916 Bombing , sabotage 7 Hundreds Jersey City , New Jersey Black Tom explosion - in Jersey City , New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I Imperial German agents
36 October 21 , 1916 Lynching 1 1 Abbeville County , South Carolina Anthony Crawford , a prominent black landowner and businessman , was attacked , arrested for his own protection , abducted from jail , hung and shot . He managed to hit one of his attackers ( McKinny Cann ) in the head with a hammer White mob
37 November 24 , 1917 Bombing 10 2 Milwaukee , Wisconsin A bomb exploded in a Milwaukee police station , killing nine officers and a civilian . Anarchists were suspected Galleanist anarchists ( suspected )
38 1919 Bombings 1 Several Across the country 1919 United States anarchist bombings : A series of package bombs were mailed to prominent business and government leaders around the country . Most were intercepted and did not go off , with only one person killed ( a bomber whose bomb went off accidentally ) . Italian Galleanist anarchists were suspected , but not convicted Galleanist anarchists ( suspected )
39 September 16 , 1920 Bombing 38 143 New York City , New York Wall Street bombing : A horse-drawn wagon filled with explosives was detonated in front of the J. P. Morgan bank on Wall Street , killing 38 and wounding 143 . Galleanist anarchists were again suspected , but the perpetrators were never caught Galleanist anarchists ( suspected )
40 June 1 , 1921 Riot 150-300 800+ Tulsa , Oklahoma Tulsa race riot : White mobs of approximately 500-1000 people , instigated by the rumor of an assault of a white woman and subsequent minor riot , armed themselves and attacked a black neighborhood in Tulsa known as the Black Wall Street . The riot killed 150-300 people and destroyed more than 1,100 homes and hundreds of businesses , leaving over 9,000 people homeless . Airplanes were reported to have dropped incendiary devices on the city , contributing to a firestorm White mobs
41 May 18 , 1927 Bombing 44 ( +1 ) 58 Bath Township , Michigan Bath School disaster : 55-year-old school board treasurer Andrew Kehoe , angered by his property taxes being raised and having been defeated in a campaign for township clerk , detonated a cache of dynamite he placed in the Bath Consolidated School as revenge , destroying the north wing . In the explosion 36 school children and two teachers were killed . As rescuers arrived to help , Kehoe drove up in his truck and detonated another cache of dynamite stored there , which killed himself , the school superintendent , and several others , while injuring bystanders as well . Afterward , 500 more pounds of dynamite with a timing device were found in the south wing which Kehoe apparently set to go off at the same time but failed , and would have succeeded in destroying the entire school . Prior to the bombings , Kehoe murdered his wife and also destroyed his farm buildings with dynamite . The worst mass murder at a school in US history , it may also be the first suicide truck bombing . A sign Kehoe placed on his property was found afterward reading Criminals are made , not born Andrew Kehoe
42 July 4 , 1940 Bombing 2 2 New York City , New York Two New York City policemen were killed and two critically wounded while examining a bomb they had found at the British Pavilion at the World 's Fair Unknown
43 1940-1956 Bombing 0 10 New York City , New York George Metesky , the Mad Bomber , placed over 30 bombs in New York City in public places such as Grand Central Station and the Paramount Theatre , injuring 10 , in protest of the high rates of a local electric utility . He also sent many threatening letters to various high-profile individuals George Metesky
44 February 12 , 1941 Lynching 1 0 Fort Benning Military Base , Georgia Private Felix Hall was strangled to death on base after an argument with his white boss and walking through a white neighborhood . His murder by a number of assailants was poorly investigated by the army , which kept insisting that he strangled himself despite the evidence White supremacists
45 1951 Bombings , shootings , melee attacks Several Several Florida A wave of hate-related terrorist attacks occurred in Florida . African-Americans were dragged and beaten to death , with 11 race-related bombings , the dynamiting of synagogues , and a Jewish School in Miami and explosives found outside of Catholic Churches in Miami White supremacists
46 1957 Bombing 0 0 Nashville , Tennessee Before school day started on September 10 , the day after the first African American student started attending Hattie Cotton Elementary School a bomb exploded , destroying part of the building and causing $ 71,000 damage White supremacists
47 October 12 , 1958 Bombings 0 0 Atlanta , Georgia Bombing of the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple of Atlanta , Georgia . The acts were carried out by white supremacists National States ' Rights Party ( suspected )
Attacks by date -- 1900–59
In the United States a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts of terrorism, and other such items pertaining to terrorist activities within the domestic borders of the United States by non-state actors or spies acting in the interests of or persons acting without approval of state actors. According to a 2017 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent). The total number of fatalities is about the same for far right wing violent extremists and radical Islamist violent extremists over the approximately 15-year period (106 and 119, respectively). 52 percent of the deaths attributable to radical Islamist violent extremists occurred in a single event - an attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida in 2016. In 2018, most ideologically motivated murders were linked to right-wing extremism. According to Slate, after the occurrence of the 2019 El Paso shooting, right wing terrorism has been responsible for more killings on US soil than Jihadi terrorists since the September 11 attacks, while Jihadi terrorists have been responsible for more killings since the Orlando nightclub shooting of 2016.