Bombings across public places, transit systems, campaigns, and conflicts — recorded through the people they were aimed at and the aftermath that followed.
A bomb is aimed at a place, but its reach is a whole society's sense of safety. The files here trace attacks that changed the ordinary texture of public life — the barriers around a federal building, the search of a bag at a concert, the screening of a package — each one bought at a terrible price.
The people killed were commuters, shoppers, worshippers, schoolchildren, and police officers. Four girls at a church in Birmingham, Alabama, on a Sunday morning in 1963. A hundred and sixty-eight in Oklahoma City in 1995, nineteen of them children. Twenty-two leaving a concert in Manchester in 2017. Some cases were solved within days; Omagh, the deadliest single attack of the Northern Irish Troubles, still has not been.
Most of these are acts of political violence, one is a case of private rage, and their motives run from sectarian hatred to anti-war protest. The frame stays the same as everywhere in the archive: the loss first, and what a society built afterward to keep it from happening again.
§ The route
15 stops, in order
01
Stop 1 of 15· opened
Manchester Arena exterior, (2) May19 — Credit: G-13114·CC BY-SA 4.0·Source
SOLVED AudioManchester Arena bombingManchester Arena, Manchester, England · 2017 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Why it’s hereA suicide bomb in the arena foyer killed 22 people, many of them children and parents, as an Ariana Grande concert let out.
02
Stop 2 of 15· opened
SOLVED AudioBoston Marathon BombingBoylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts · 2013 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Why it’s hereTwo pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line killed three people and injured hundreds; the manhunt shut down a city.
03
Stop 3 of 15· opened
Oslo after the terror (5988160220) — Credit: nrkbeta·CC BY-SA 2.0·Source
SOLVED Audio2011 Norway AttacksOslo and Utøya, Norway · 2011 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Why it’s hereA car bomb in Oslo and a shooting at a youth summer camp on Utøya killed 77 people, most of them teenagers.
UNSOLVED AudioOmagh bombingMarket Street, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland · 1998 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Why it’s hereA Real IRA car bomb killed 29 people in a County Tyrone market town — the deadliest single incident of the Troubles, still unsolved.
08
Stop 8 of 15· opened
Murrah Building - Aerial — Credit: Leonard Brakebill, Oklahoma Air National Guard·Public domain·Source
SOLVED AudioOklahoma City bombingAlfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma · 1995 · 7 to watch & hear
Why it’s hereA truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people, including 19 children — the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in US history.
Why it’s hereKlansmen bombed a Birmingham church, killing four Black girls — a turning point in the civil-rights movement.
15
Stop 15 of 15· opened
Kahoe House — Credit: unknown, no credit in original source·Public domain·Source
SOLVED AudioBath School disasterBath Township, Michigan, United States · 1927 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Why it’s hereA school-board member detonated explosives hidden under a Michigan school, killing 38 people, most of them children — the deadliest school attack in US history.
End of the route. Listen to it end to end, or walk it on the map.
Manchester Arena exterior, (2) May19 — Credit: G-13114CC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVED AudioManchester Arena bombingManchester Arena, Manchester, England · 2017 · 1 thing to watch or hear
SOLVED AudioBoston Marathon BombingBoylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts · 2013 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Oslo after the terror (5988160220) — Credit: nrkbetaCC BY-SA 2.0Source
Benazir Bhutto — Credit: Oliver MarkCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVED AudioAssassination of Benazir BhuttoLiaquat National Bagh, Rawalpindi, Pakistan · 2007 · 1 thing to watch or hear
AvoidLondon77 — Credit: David Wulff (David Wulff)CC BY-SA 2.0SourceSOLVED Audio7 July 2005 London BombingsLondon, England, United Kingdom · 2005 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Bali 2002 bombing Memorial Melbourne — Credit: User:Peter EllisCC BY-SA 3.0Source
File:Lower Market Street, Omagh County Tyrone.jpg — Credit: Jeanne Boleyn ( talk )Public domainSourceUNSOLVED AudioOmagh bombingMarket Street, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland · 1998 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Murrah Building - Aerial — Credit: Leonard Brakebill, Oklahoma Air National GuardPublic domainSourceSOLVED AudioOklahoma City bombingAlfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma · 1995 · 7 to watch & hear
Rajiv Gandhi (1987) — Credit: Bart Molendijk / AnefoCC BY-SA 3.0 NLSourceSOLVED AudioAssassination of Rajiv GandhiSriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, India · 1991 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Officials observe damage of MOVE bombing on 6200 block at Osage Avenue — Credit: Sam KushnerPublic domainSourceUNSOLVED Audio1985 MOVE bombing6221 Osage Avenue, Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · 1985 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Close-up of the damage caused by the Brighton Bomb — Credit: D4444n at en.wikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0Source
Police In Scene After 1983 Harrods Bombing — Credit: Unknown authorCC BY-SA 2.5SourceUNSOLVED Audio1983 Harrods bombingHarrods, Hans Crescent, Knightsbridge, London · 1983 · 1 thing to watch or hear
1554 sterlingmarker — Credit: Original uploader was Dpbsmith at en.wikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVED AudioSterling Hall bombingSterling Hall, University of Wisconsin–Madison · 1970 · 1 thing to watch or hear
16th Street Baptist Church bombing girls — Credit: Unknown authorPublic domainSourceSOLVED Audio16th Street Baptist Church bombing16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama · 1963 · 1 thing to watch or hear
Kahoe House — Credit: unknown, no credit in original sourcePublic domainSourceSOLVED AudioBath School disasterBath Township, Michigan, United States · 1927 · 1 thing to watch or hear