On April 19, 42nd President Bill Clinton delivered a speech at a memorial service in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, recognizing the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995.
“So, my advice to America today is, that we were there for you when you needed us, America needs you, and America needs the ‘Oklahoma Standard,’ and if we all live by it, we’d be a lot better off,” Clinton said in his speech.
The ‘Oklahoma Standard” was seen in the time after the bombing as an initiative of promoting a caring, kind and service-driven environment.
Clinton, who was president at the time of the bombing, was largely lauded and praised for how he handled the aftermath of the attack, helping the city grapple with their grief and fear.
On April 19, 1995 at 9:02 a.m., a truck bomb was detonated directly outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, killing 168 people and injuring over 600 people.
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the nine-story property located in downtown Oklahoma City, housed many different government offices including the following: the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs vocational rehabilitation center, recruiting offices for the military and a children’s daycare center called “America’s Kids.”
More than a third of the building was destroyed in the explosion, and it was eventually demolished completely in the aftermath. The detonation of the bomb itself inflicted damage to over 300 buildings in the surrounding area and caused over $600 million worth of damage.
The attack was carried out by far-right anti-government extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. McVeigh, who was the mastermind behind the operation, was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in 2001. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison during his federal sentencing in 1998, and in 2004, he was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Now 70 years old, Nichols is still serving his life sentences in custody.
The Oklahoma City bombing remains the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in U.S. history.
More information on the event and the memorial and museum (The Oklahoma City National Memorial) dedicated to the bombing can be found here.
