A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On April 19, 1993, the 51-day siege at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, ended as the Davidians set fire to their compound following an FBI tear gas attack. Seventy-five people, including 25 children and sect leader David Koresh, were killed.
Exactly two years later, in 1995, Timothy McVeigh, seeking to strike at the government he blamed for the Branch Davidian deaths two years earlier, destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
McVeigh was convicted of federal murder charges and executed in 2001.
In both cases, those involved in the incidents felt government agencies were intruding in their personal lives.
And just like that, in the space of 730 days, Americans were reminded that terror can come in unlikely places and lead to harsh conclusions.
Some historians also note that the American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord — the start of an eight-year armed conflict between American colonists and the British Army — on April 19, 1975.
The Branch Davidian standoff
On Feb. 28, 1993, a gun battle erupted at a religious compound near Waco, Texas, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to arrest Branch Davidian leader David Koresh on weapons charges; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.
The siege boiled over on April 19, as the compound burned to the ground after FBI agents in an armored vehicle smashed the buildings and pumped in tear gas. The Justice Department said cult members set the fire.
Here are stories from Deseret News archives about the Waco incident:
“Lesson from Waco: Religion matters when dealing with the nonconventional”
“Waco documentary indicates agents fired at trapped cult members”
“Cult leader? ‘Sinful Messiah’? 25 years later, interest in David Koresh still strong”
“FBI’s lies, siege at Waco unjustified”
Murrah building bombing
On April 19, 1995, a date purposely chosen, American Timothy McVeigh detonated explosives planted in a truck outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He plotted the attack with two fellow Army veterans who shared his anti-government views, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier.
The Oklahoma City Bombing killed 168 people, including 19 children, and wounded hundreds more, in the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history to that date.
Before he was executed in 2001, McVeigh made it clear that he intended the bombing as retribution for the deaths at Waco and the Ruby Ridge standoff in northern Idaho in 1992, and had deliberately planned the bombing to take place on the second anniversary of the Waco disaster.
Here are stories from Deseret News archives related to the Oklahoma City bombing:
“We’ve taken notice, but will we learn?”
“FBI explanation of missing Oklahoma City bombing tapes not credible, judge says”
“Impact of ’95 Oklahoma City bombing still felt”
“Judge talks of surviving 1995 blast and 9/11″
“Nichols says bombing was FBI op”
