San Francisco Coal Miners Massacre (1849) The Hounds, a white vigilante group in San Francisco, attacked a Chilean mining community, raping women, burning houses, and lynching two men.
Pottawatomie Creek Massacre (1856) Abolitionist
John Brown with like-minded settlers killed five pro-slavery settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas.
Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857) The
Mountain Meadows massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train, at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. The attacks began on September 7 and culminated on September 11, 1857, resulting in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by members of the Utah Territorial Militia from the Iron County district, a Mormon group, together with some Paiute Native Americans. Intending to leave no witnesses and thus prevent reprisals, the perpetrators killed all the adults and older children – about 120 men, women, and children in total. Seventeen children, all younger than seven, were spared.
Harper's Ferry Massacre (1859) Abolitionist John Brown leads a raid on Harper's Ferry arsenal to get weapons for arming slaves to resist slavery. Most of his men were killed, and he was tried for treason and hanged.
Lawrence Massacre (1863) On August 21, 1863, the
Confederate guerrilla group
Quantrill's Raiders led by
William Quantrill raided on the
Unionist town of
Lawrence, Kansas due to the town's long support of
abolition. They ransacked the entire town and massacred about 190 civilians in the process.
St. Albans Raid (1864) On October 19, 1864,
Confederate soldiers without uniform operating from Canada
raided the border town of
St. Albans, Vermont, robbing $208,000 from three banks, holding
hostages, killing a civilian, attempting to burn the entire town with
Greek fire, then escaping back to Canada. The raiders were then arrested by British authorities under an
extradition request from the U.S. government, but were later freed by a Canadian court on the grounds that they were considered combatants rather than criminals.
Lincoln assassination (1865) Less than a week after
Confederate general
Robert E. Lee had surrendered to Union forces, marking the Union's victory in the
American Civil War, a circle of Confederate sympathizers conspired to murder President
Abraham Lincoln and members of his Cabinet in the hope of creating chaos and overthrowing the federal government.
John Wilkes Booth successfully assassinated Lincoln.
The Colfax Massacre (1873) The
Colfax Massacre occurred in Colfax, Louisiana on Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873. Republicans had narrowly won the 1872 election to retain control of the state, but Democrats contested the results. Dozens of African-Americans were killed by white supremacist organizations such as the Knights of White Camellia and the
Ku Klux Klan, who tried to reinforce antebellum policies of white supremacy.
Haymarket bombing (1886) Two workers were killed by police in the course of a confrontation between striking workers and
strikebreakers in the streets of
Chicago. During a rally the next day, an unknown assailant threw dynamite at a line of police officers; the explosion and the mutual violence that followed killed eight police officers and at least four civilians. The attacker was most likely an
anarchist, although the trial that convicted the members of a local anarchist cell has since been criticized as unfair.
Milwaukee Police Department bombing (1917) The
Milwaukee Police Department bombing was a November 24, 1917, bomb attack that killed ten people including nine members of
local law enforcement. The perpetrators were never caught but are suspected to be an
anarchist terrorist cell operating in the United States in the early 20th century. The target was an evangelical church in
the Third Ward but killed only the police officers when the bomb was brought to the police station by a concerned member of the public.
Wall Street bombing (1920) The
Wall Street bombing was a terrorist incident on September 16, 1920, in the Financial District of New York City. A horse-drawn wagon filled with 100 pounds (45 kg) of dynamite was stationed across the street from the headquarters of the J.P. Morgan Bank. The explosion killed 38 and injured 400. Even though no one was found guilty, it is believed that the act was carried out by followers of
Luigi Galleani.
Tulsa Race Massacre (1921) On May 31 and June 1, 1921, a white mob started the Tulsa race massacre attacking residents and businesses of the African-American community known as Black Wall Street, in the Greenwood area in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in what is considered one of the worst incidents of racial violence in United States History. The attack, carried out on the ground and by air, destroyed more than 35 blocks of the district, did $30 million (2017 dollars) in damage, left 10,000 people homeless and up to 300 dead in a town considered the wealthiest black community in the nation.
16th Street Baptist Church bombing (1963) On Sunday, September 15, 1963, members of the
United Klans of America set a bomb consisting of a timing device and fifteen sticks of dynamite to explode at a historically black church in
Birmingham, Alabama, that was a local focus of the Civil Rights struggle. The explosion killed four girls between the ages of 11 and 14 and did much other local damage. Three perpetrators were eventually caught years later and sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles. There had been other bombings in Birmingham, then grimly known as "
Bombingham" for such attacks.
Unabomber attacks (1978–1995) From 1978 to 1995,
Harvard University graduate and former mathematics professor Theodore "Ted" Kaczynski – known by the codename "UNABOM" until his identification and arrest by the FBI – carried out a campaign of sending
letter bombs to academics and various individuals particularly associated with modern technology. In 1996, his manifesto was published in
The New York Times and
The Washington Post, under the threat of more attacks. The bomb campaign ended with his capture.
Attacks by the Jewish Defense League (1980–1985) In a 2004 congressional testimony,
John S. Pistole, executive assistant director for counterterrorism and counterintelligence for the FBI, described the JDL as "a known violent extremist Jewish Organization." FBI statistics show that, from 1980 through 1985, there were 18 terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed by Jews; 15 of those by members of the JDL. Mary Doran, an FBI agent, described the JDL in a 2004 Congressional testimony as "a proscribed terrorist group". Most recently, then-JDL chairman
Irv Rubin was jailed while awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy in planning bomb attacks against the
King Fahd Mosque in
Culver City, California, and on the office of Arab-American congressman
Darrell Issa. In its report,
Terrorism 2000/2001, the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization" and stated that the FBI was responsible for thwarting at least one of its terrorist acts.
Oklahoma City bombing (1995) The
Oklahoma City bombing was a
truck bomb attack by
Timothy McVeigh and
Terry Nichols which killed 168 people on April 19, 1995 – one of the deadliest domestic-based terrorist attack in the history of the United States. The target being a government building, it was an act of retribution for the FBI and ATF's involvement at
Ruby Ridge and in the
Waco siege. It inspired improvements to
United States federal building security.
Centennial Olympic Park bombing (1996) The
Centennial Olympic Park bombing was a
terrorist bombing on July 27, 1996, in
Atlanta, Georgia, during the
1996 Summer Olympics, the first of four committed by
Eric Robert Rudolph, former explosives expert for the United States Army. Two people died, and 111 were injured.
Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting (2012) On August 5, 2012, Wade Michael Page fatally shot six people (including himself) and wounded four others in a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in
Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Page was an American white supremacist and a
United States Army veteran from
Cudahy, Wisconsin, who was a member of the neo-Nazi skinhead
Hammerskin Nation. All of the dead were members of the
Sikh faith.
Boston Marathon bombing (2013) On April 15, 2013, two homemade bombs detonated 12 seconds and 210 yards apart at 2:49 p.m., near the finish line of the 117th annual Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others, including a dozen people who lost limbs. Kyrgyz or Chechen-American brothers Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev was apprehended and killed respectively, and claimed to have been motivated by radical Islamist beliefs.
Cartoon Drawing Contest shooting (2015) On May 3, 2015, two gunmen, Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi, wounded a security guard before police shot and killed them. The two men targeted an exhibit featuring cartoon images of Muhammad taking place in the Curtis Culwell Conference Center in Garland, Texas.
Charleston church shooting (2015) On June 17, 2015,
Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist, went into the
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in
Charleston, South Carolina, and shot and killed nine people including
South Carolina senator
Clementa C. Pinckney. Roof was known to be a white supremacist who admired the
Confederate States,
Rhodesia and
apartheid South Africa, and owned a website with a manifesto both called
The Last Rhodesian in which he outlined his views toward blacks, among other peoples.
San Bernardino shooting (2015) On December 2, 2015, 14 people were killed and 24 injured in a
mass shooting at the
Inland Regional Center in
San Bernardino, California, United States.
Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik targeted a
San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and holiday party of about 80 employees in a rented banquet room. Farook was an American-born citizen of
Pakistani descent, while his wife was a
Pakistani-born legal resident of the U.S. He had attended the event as an employee before the shooting. Both had become radicalized through jihadist material on the internet, and stockpiled supplies in their home.
Pulse nightclub shooting (2016) In the early hours of June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 were injured in a
mass shooting at the
Pulse nightclub in
Orlando, Florida. The perpetrator, 29-year-old
Omar Mateen, was a security guard and
person of interest to the FBI in 2013 and 2014. At the time, this event was the
deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history by a single gunman, later eclipsed by the
2017 Las Vegas shooting on October 1, 2017. Additionally, it was the deadliest confirmed terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the
9/11 attacks and the deadliest attack against LGBT people in U.S. history.
Congressional baseball shooting (2017) While practice for the annual
Congressional Baseball Game for Charity was going on,
James Thomas Hodgkinson opened fire on
Republican Congressmen and Congresswomen on the field such as
U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a
U.S. Capitol Police Officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist, resulting in 6 injuries (4 critical) and the perpetrator's death.
Charlottesville car attack (2017) During the
Charlottesville riots/Unite the Right rally on August 11–12, 2017 in
Charlottesville, Virginia, by neo-Nazis, neo-fascists, white nationalists,
alt-righters, Southern nationalists and Ku Klux Klansmen,
Vanguard America (VA) member
James Alex Fields drove his car into counter-protesters, killing 1 named Heather Heyer and injuring 28 others.
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (2018) On October 27, 2018, 11 people died and 6 more were injured at the
Tree of Life - Or L'Simcha Congregation in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by Robert Bowers, a racial extremist. The attack was motivated by
antisemitism and a belief in the
white genocide conspiracy theory.
Escondido mosque fire and Poway synagogue shooting (2019) On March 24, 2019, a mosque in
Escondido, California, was set on fire; no one was injured and the fire was contained without major damage. The following month, on April 27, 2019, an elderly Jewish woman was killed and three others (including a Rabbi) were injured at the
Chabad of Poway synagogue in
Poway, California. The accused shooter, John T. Earnest, blamed Jews for "white genocide" and other ills in an antisemitic and racist open letter on
8chan confessing to the mosque arson and citing inspiration from the
Christchurch mosque shooter Brenton Harrison Tarrant and Pittsburgh synagogue shooting perpetrator
Robert Bowers.
El Paso Walmart shooting (2019) On August 3, 2019, a domestic terrorist attack/mass shooting occurred at a
Walmart store in
El Paso, Texas, killing twenty-three people and injuring twenty-two others. The attack was carried out by
Patrick Crusius, who wrote a manifesto and later posted it on 4chan in which he cited a supposed "
Hispanic invasion of
Texas" and "simply trying to defend my country from ethnic and cultural replacement brought on by an invasion" as motivations and also praising the perpetrator of the
Christchurch mosque shootings.
Buffalo shooting (2022) New Orleans truck attack (2025) On January 1, 2025, Shamsud-Din Jabbar
drove a pickup truck into a crowd on
Bourbon Street in
New Orleans, Louisiana, then exited the truck and engaged in a shootout with police before being fatally shot. Fifteen people were killed, including the perpetrator. An
Islamic State (IS) flag was found in the truck. While Jabbar took violent inspiration from ISIS, investigators have not found evidence he had received any direct contact or direction from the terrorist group. Possible self-radicalization reflects a pattern seen in previous
jihadist attacks. ==See also==