Terrorism in the United States
# Date Type Dead Injured Location Details Perpetrator
48 September 15 , 1963 Bombings 4 22 Birmingham , Alabama 16th Street Baptist Church bombing : Members of the Ku Klux Klan and segregationists plant bombs inside the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , killing four young African American girls and injuring 22 more Ku Klux Klan and segregationists
49 November 22 , 1963 Assassination , shooting 2 2 Dallas , Texas Assassination of John F. Kennedy : U.S. president John Fitzgerald Kennedy is killed by communist Lee Harvey Oswald in Dealey Plaza in Dallas . Oswald kills Dallas police officer J.D . Tippit while fleeing Lee Harvey Oswald
50 June 16 , 1964 Burning 0 0 Neshoba County , Mississippi Mt . Zion Baptist Church is burned as part of a campaign to stop integration and the Civil Rights Movement Ku Klux Klan
51 June 21 , 1964 Murder 3 0 Philadelphia , Mississippi Michael ( Mickey ) Schwerner , James Chaney , and Andrew Goodman are detained by Mississippi police then abducted and murdered for their work with Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) Ku Klux Klan
52 April 1968 Hostage-taking 0 0 Hartford , Connecticut Students at Trinity College hold the board of trustees captive until their demands were met Trinity College students
53 April 4 , 1968 Assassination , shooting 1 0 Memphis , Tennessee Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated James Earl Ray , anti-communist and white supremacist
54 April 23-30 , 1968 Hostage-taking 0 0 New York City , New York During a student rebellion at New York 's Columbia University , members of the New Left organization Students for a Democratic Society and the Student Afro-American Society held a dean hostage , demanding an end to both military research on campus and an end to construction of a gymnasium in nearby Harlem Students for a Democratic Society Student Afro-American Society
55 June 5 , 1968 Assassination , shooting 1 5 Los Angeles , California Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy : Senator Robert F. Kennedy , while campaigning for U.S. presidency during the 1968 United States Presidential election , is shot to death by Palestinian-Jordanian Sirhan Sirhan in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles , California . Sirhan was angered over Kennedy 's support for Israel Sirhan Sirhan
56 November 1968 Hostage taking 0 0 Los Angeles , California Officials of San Fernando State College are held at knife point by students San Fernando State College students
57 January 1 , 1969 - April 15 , 1970 Widespread violence Unknown Unknown United States 8200 Bombings , attempted bombings and bomb threats attributed to campus disturbances and student unrest University students across America , many members of Students for a Democratic Society
58 February 1969 Bombing 0 1 Claremont , California A secretary at Pomona College is severely injured by bomb Left-wing student radicals
59 March 1969 Bombing 0 0 ( +1 ) San Francisco , California A student is critically injured while attempting to bomb a San Francisco State College classroom Left-wing student radical
60 August 20 , 1969 Bombing 0 20 New York City , New York Twenty are injured by radical leftist Sam Melville in a bombing of the Marine Midland Building in New York City Sam Melville
61 September 18 , 1969 Bombing 0 0 New York City , New York The Federal Building in New York City is bombed by radical leftist Jane Alpert Jane Alpert
62 October 7 , 1969 Bombing 0 0 New York City , New York Fifth floor of the Armed Forces Induction Center in New York City is devastated by explosion attributed to radical leftist Jane Alpert Jane Alpert
63 November 12 , 1969 Bombing 0 0 New York City , New York A bomb is detonated in the Manhattan Criminal Court building in New York City . Jane Alpert , Sam Melville , and 3 other militant radical leftists are arrested hours later Jane Alpert , Sam Melville and others
Attacks by date -- 1960–69
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.