Oklahoma City National MemorialOklahoma City National Memorial, Oklahoma.(more)Oklahoma City bombing, attack in , , U.S., on April 19, 1995, in which a massive homemade composed of more than two tonnes of and concealed in a rental exploded, heavily damaging the . A total of 168 people were killed, including 19 children, and more than 500 were injured. The building was later razed, and a park was built on the site. The bombing remained the deadliest until the attacks on the in and the outside , in 2001. (See .)Timothy McVeighConvicted defendant Timothy McVeigh being escorted from the Noble County Courthouse in Perry, Oklahoma, after being charged for his involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing.(more)Although at first suspicion wrongly focused on Middle Eastern terrorist groups, attention quickly centred on —who had been arrested shortly after the explosion for a traffic violation—and his friend . Both were former soldiers and were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement. Two days after the bombing and shortly before he was to be released for his traffic violation, McVeigh was identified and charged as a suspect, and Nichols later voluntarily surrendered to police. McVeigh was convicted on 11 counts of , , and using a and was executed in 2001—the first person executed for a federal crime in the since 1963. Nichols avoided the but was convicted of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary and sentenced to life in . Other associates were convicted of failing to inform authorities about their prior knowledge of the conspiracy, and some observers believed that still other participants were involved in the attack.Terry Nichols(more)Although McVeigh and Nichols were not directly connected with any major political group, they held views characteristic of the broad , which feared authoritarian plots by the U.S. federal government and corporate elites. At its most extreme, the Patriot movement denied the legitimacy of the federal government and law enforcement. One manifestation of the rightist upsurge was the formation of armed groups, which, according to some sources, claimed a national membership of about 30,000 by the mid-1990s. The militias justified their existence by claiming a right to armed self-defense against an allegedly oppressive government. In this context, the date of the Oklahoma City attack was doubly significant, falling on two notable anniversaries. April 19 marked both Patriots’ Day, the anniversary of the , and the date on which federal agents brought the to a culmination by raiding the compound of the heavily armed religious sect in , , in 1993. McVeigh claimed that the building in Oklahoma City was targeted to avenge the more than 70 deaths at Waco. Following the Oklahoma City attack, media and law enforcement officials began intense investigations of the militia movement and other armed extremist groups., The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history., Oklahoma City bombing, terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S., on April 19, 1995, in which a massive homemade bomb composed of more than two tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and fuel oil concealed in a rental truck exploded, heavily damaging the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building..