Timeline of Terror

Terrorism, as we know, did not start up on September 11, 2001. For decades, there were multiple terrorist attacks all over the globe. From our pre-internet archives, here is a listing of some pre-9/11 terrorist attacks:

September 5, 1972 - Palestinian terrorist belonging to the group “Black September” opened fire on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, killing 11 athletes and coaches.

April 1983 - A suicide car bombing against the U.S. embassy in Beirut kills 63, including 17 Americans.

October 1983 - A suicide car bomb attack against the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut kills 241 servicemen. A simultaneous attack on a French base kills 58 paratroopers.

November 1984 - A bomb attack against the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Columbia kills a passer-by. The attack was preceded by death threats against U.S. officials by drug traffickers.

April 1985 - A bomb explodes in a restaurant near a U.S. airbase in Madrid, Spain, killing 18, all Spaniards, and wounded 82, including 15 Americans.

June 1985 - In San Salvador, El Salvador, 13 people are killed in a machine-gun attack at an outdoor cafe, including 4 U.S. Marines and 2 U.S. businessmen.

June 1985 - A TWA airliner is hijacked over the Mediterranean, the start of a two-week hostage ordeal. The last 39 passengers are eventually released in Damascus after being held in various locations over Beirut.

August 1985 - A car bomb at a U.S. military base in Frankfurt, Germany kills 2 and injures 20. A U.S. soldier murdered for his identity papers is found a day later.

October 1985 - Palestinian terrorist hijack the cruise liner Achille Lauro (in response to the Israeli attack on PLO headquarters in Tunisia). Leon Klinghoffer, and elderly man in a wheelchair is killed and thrown overboard.

November 1985 - Hijackers aboard an EgyptAir flight kill one American. Egyptian commandos later storm the aircraft on the isle of Malta, and 60 people are killed.

December 1985 - Simultaneous suicide attacks are carried out against U.S. and Israeli check-in desk at Rome and Vienna International Airports. The two attacks killed 20 people, including 4 terrorist.

April 1986 - A bomb destroys a West Berlin disco frequented by U.S. servicemen, killing one American and one German women and wounding 150, including 44 Americans.

April 1986 - An explosion damages a TWA flight as it prepares to land in Athens, Greece. Four people are killed when they are sucked out of the aircraft.

December 21, 1988 - A bomb destroys Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people aboard the Boeing 747 are killed when they are sucked out of the aircraft.

March 1992 - A bomb destroyed the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, New York, killing 28 people.

1993 - 11 people were arrested in connection with a conspiracy to bomb New York landmarks.

January 25, 1993 - CIA communications worker Frank Darling, along with analyst and physician Lansing Bennet were killed by a Muslim extremist as they sat in their cars at a stoplight outside the CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Aimal Khan Kasi, the person who carried out the attack, said it was in response to U.S. policy in the Middle-East.

February 26, 1993 - For approximately two months prior to the bombing the conspirators gathered materials needed for the terrorist act. They resided in New Jersey and apparently rented storage space that was used as a staging area for the bomb and subsequent loading of it into a Ryder rental van. The terrorists drove the 1,500-pound urea-nitrate bomb into the basement area of the World Trade Center and then set the timer and left. The explosion rocked the World Trade Center killing six people and injuring over a thousand others. These criminals dawned a new age in terrorism, the wholesale attack on civilians with the desire to inflict as much damage as possible. The men that committed this heinous crime have been linked to several terrorist groups including the Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Sudanese National Islamic Front.

July 18, 1994 - Eighty-five people were killed and more than 200 injured when a car bomb exploded at the Jewish Community Cultural Center in Buenos Aires, New York.

April 19, 1995 - At 9:00 AM, home-grown terrorist Timothy McVeigh parked a Ryder truck outside the Alfred P. Murreh government building loaded with explosives. At 9:02 AM the truck exploded taking the lives of 168 innocent people. His actions also wounded over five hundred and changed the lives of countless others.

November 12, 1995 - A car bomb in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills 7 people, 5 of the American military and civilian advisors for National Guard training. The “Tigers of the Gulf,” “Islamic Movement for Change,” and “Fighting Advocates for God” claim responsibility.

June 25, 1996 - On the evening of June 25th a couple of individuals parked a tanker truck in a parking lot adjacent to the Khobar Tower apartment buildings. The sentries on duty realized the threat of a truck bomb and began evacuating the building. Unfortunately, the bomb went off before the building could be completely evacuated. In this terrorist attack 19 servicemen lost their lives with hundreds of others wounded.

July 27, 1996 - A pipe bomb explodes during the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, killing one person and wounding 11.

1997 - Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer and Lafi Khalil, both illegal Palestinians, where arrested in a plot to blow up subways in New York City.

June 21, 1998 - Rocket-propelled grenades explode near a U.S. embassy in Beirut.

August 7, 1998 - A coordinated attack was made on two US embassies in the countries of Kenya and Tanzania. In the country of Tanzania, authorities believe that a bomb was planted in a refrigeration truck and then parked outside of the embassy. Unfortunately, these two embassies did not meet the newer and stricter security measures of being set back from roadways. The attack on the Tanzanian embassy resulted in 11 deaths and 86 injuries, though none of the victims were Americans. The embassy bombing in Kenya resulted in the deaths of 213 people with over 5,000 injuries. In the Kenyan bombing 12 of the people killed were Americans.

1999 - Ahmed Ressam, Abdelghani Meskini, and Abdel Hakim Tizegha, all illegal Algerians, were arrested in a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the beginning of the new year. This is the so-called Millennium Plot.

October 12, 2000 - A small group of suicide bombers used a skiff to pull alongside a US naval destroyer and detonated a bomb. The attack killed 17 sailors and wounded an additional 39 sailors. There are eight people being held in connection with the attack. Many believe Saudi Arabian terrorist Osama Bin Laden is connected to the attack.