It was on this day on February 26, 1993, a truck bomb was detonated by Islamic terrorists below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

The explosion was intended to damage the the North Tower enough to send it crashing into the South Tower, bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do so, but it did kill six people and injured more than a thousand.

From Wikipedia:

Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. They parked on the underground B-2 level. Yousef ignited the 20-foot fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:17:37 pm, the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 psi.[9] The bomb opened a 30-m (98 ft) wide hole through four sublevels of concrete. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 ft/s (4.5 km/s). Initial news reports indicated a main transformer may have blown, before it became clear that a bomb had exploded in the basement.

The bomb instantly cut off the World Trade Center's main electrical power line, knocking out the emergency lighting system. The bomb caused smoke to rise up to the 93rd floor of both towers, including through the stairwells which were not pressurized.[10] With thick smoke filling the stairwells, evacuation was difficult for building occupants and led to many smoke inhalation injuries. Hundreds were trapped in elevators in the towers when the power was cut, including a group of 17 kindergartners, on their way down from the South Tower observation deck, who were trapped between the 35th and 36th floors for five hours.[11][12]

Also as a result of the loss of power most of New York City's radio and television stations lost their over-the-air broadcast signal for almost a week, with television stations only being able to broadcast via cable and satellite via a microwave hookup between the stations and three of the New York area's largest cable companies, CablevisionComcast, and Time Warner Cable. Telephone service for much of Lower Manhattan was also disrupted.

All together, six people were killed and 1,042 others injured, most during the evacuation that followed the blast.[13] A report from the US Fire Administration states that "Among the scores of people who fled to the roofs of the towers, 28 with medical problems were airlifted by New York City police helicopters (...)". It is known that 15 people received traumatic injury from the blast and 20 complained of cardiac problems. One firefighter was hospitalized, while 87 others, 35 police officers, and an EMS worker were also injured in dealing with the fires and other aftermath.

Saudi terrorists with the help of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed succeeded in bringing down the towers, attacking the Pentagon and a failed attempt on the White House on September 11, 2001.

Do you think the Obama Administration is going to soft on terrorism?

 

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