( CNN ) Twenty years ago , on April 19 , 1995 , Timothy McVeigh detonated a massive truck bomb in front of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City . The attack killed 168 men , women and children , injured hundreds more , and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history . The attack 's aftermath saw a storm of media coverage with themes such as `` attack on the heartland '' and America 's `` lost innocence . '' In fact , the bombing took the country by surprise . It was n't simply the scale of the tragedy that drew attention , but the fact that the bombing exposed something new : American citizens targeting their own government with a deadliness hitherto unseen . The public became aware of the true danger of the extreme right . Reports connected McVeigh and his accomplice Terry Nichols to anti-government ideology movements , such as the militia movement , as well as to white supremacist causes . Law enforcement also played catchup . The Federal Bureau of Investigation 's 1994 annual report on terrorism had given short shrift to the extreme right . Its coverage of domestic terrorism focused on the activities of Puerto Rican radicals and animal rights and environmental extremists . In contrast , the report spent only a paragraph describing the threat from right-wing extremists . It ignored the rapidly growing militia and sovereign citizen movements , and made no reference to events in Idaho and Texas . In late 1992 , at Ruby Ridge , Idaho , a standoff between U.S . Marshals and Randy Weaver 's family resulted in the death of a marshal , a young boy and the boy 's unarmed mother . And in 1993 , federal agents launched an ill-conceived raid on property near Waco , Texas , belonging to the Branch Davidians sect , leading to a bloody shootout and a 51-day standoff , which ended in the death of almost all the Davidians , including a number of children . These incidents infuriated the entire extreme right , which saw them as deliberate attempts by the government to kill American citizens . After Oklahoma City , everything changed . The FBI shifted its priorities , hiring new agents and reassigning staff to work on domestic terrorism cases . It significantly expanded the number of Joint Terrorism Task Forces and went to Congress with a lengthy `` want '' list . The effort actually paid off . Increased scrutiny of right-wing extremists resulted in a flurry of arrests for everything from terrorist plots to hate crimes . Though it had paid a high price to do so , it seemed that the United States had recognized the dangers that right-wing extremists posed . However , just six years after the Oklahoma City bombing , an event occurred that pushed to the background those lessons so dearly won . The September 11 , 2001 , terror attacks -- attacks of a scale and ferocity that dwarfed even that of the Oklahoma City bombing -- commanded the full attention of the nation . The government , law enforcement , the news media and the public all rushed to grapple with the issue of Islamic extremism . Unfortunately , rather than expanding national attention to encompass the dangers of both radical Islam and right-wing extremism , the 9/11 attacks simply shifted attention away from the extreme right . Certainly , the 9/11 attacks warranted great attention . They made starkly clear the threat that international radical Islamist groups posed to the United States . Moreover , the surge of right-wing extremism that marked the 1990s had seemingly ebbed . Thus it is no real surprise that concern over right-wing violence faded into the background . The significance of the Oklahoma City bombing , in terms of its service as a warning about right-wing violence , became greatly lessened . This is a lesson that Americans must now recall and recover . Radical Islam , whether abroad or homegrown , represents a serious threat to the safety and security of Americans . But right-wing extremism did not disappear after September 11 . Its history since the Oklahoma City bombing has consisted of a steady stream of plots , conspiracies , terrorist acts , and hate crimes . It , too , represents a serious threat . In fact , in recent years , violence from the extreme right has again surged—and at levels reminiscent of the dark days of the 1990s . From 1995 through 2000 , according to statistics from the Anti-Defamation League 's Center on Extremism , right-wing extremists were responsible for at least 47 different terrorist acts , conspiracies or plots . However , during the past six years , from 2009 through 2014 , right-wing extremists in the U.S. were involved in at least 42 actual or attempted terrorist acts . In other words , right-wing violence today is actually at or very close to levels during the days of the Oklahoma City bombing . These statistics illustrate that `` homegrown violent extremism '' is not limited to extremism motivated by radical Islam . The anger and hate that generated the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 is still around in 2015—and still dangerous . The 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing provides a new opportunity for us to ensure that its significance does not disappear from the public eye . What the tragedies of 1995 and 2001 together teach is that the United States faces threats from multiple sources of extremism , all of which must be taken seriously . Consequently , Americans must have the wisdom to respond effectively and intelligently to ideological violence stemming from all sources . That would be the most positive way to pay homage to the victims of April 19 , 1995 .
Twenty years ago , on April 19 , 1995 , Timothy McVeigh set off a massive bomb in Oklahoma City . He was killed by police officers and his accomplice Terry Nichols after they had planted the device at an abandoned building that contained fertilizer bombs.