Timeline of Homeland Security Events and Milestones
August 26-31, 2023 Hurricane Idalia formed from a low-pressure area across Central America and grew along the Western part of the Caribbean Sea until it became a tropical storm and received its name. The hurricane developed into a Category 4 along the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall in Southern…
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August 8, 2023 Dry conditions and high winds from the unseasonably hot weather fueled the August 8, 2023 wildfires on the Hawaiian islands of Maui and Hawaii. This devastating event left extensive property damage, loss of life, and at least 1000 missing persons in the initial days of the fires.…
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May 11, 2023: On March 13, 2020, the U.S. federal government declared COVID-19 a national emergency. This declaration enabled several policy changes including mandated COVID-19 data collection, establishing various public assistance programs, and enacting Title 42. Public law 118-3, approved on April 10, 2023, terminated the national emergency declaration (GPO).…
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Date: January 21, 2023 At approximately 10:22 p.m. PST, police were dispatched to a mass shooting that occurred outside of Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, CA, a city east of Los Angeles. The shooting took place as the city’s predominantly Asian American community was celebrating the Lunar New…
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January 12, 2023- According to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, preliminary data shows that 517 tornadoes have occurred in the United States through April 2023. Tornadoes with ratings from EFU (Enhanced Fujita Scale Unknown) to EF-4 have affected 20 states, including the rare touchdown of an EF-1 tornado in a city…
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December 31, 2022-March 25, 2023 According to NOAA, atmospheric rivers (AR) are flowing columns “of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere responsible for producing significant levels of rain and snow, especially in the Western United States” that, when powerful, can result in extreme rainfall and flooding. California experienced atmospheric rivers…
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December 23-26, 2022: Dangerous winter weather conditions swept over the majority of the Central and Eastern U.S., bringing the coldest recorded Christmas in decades to major cities. By December 25, more than 55 million were under wind chill alerts. The storm was responsible for extensive vehicle pileups, and more than…
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November 19-20, 2022: Police officers were dispatched at 11:57 pm MST to Club Q located in Colorado Springs, CO following several reports of gunshots. By 12:02 am the suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich, formerly known as Nicholas F. Brink, had been detained. (CNN) Aldrich was found with a semi-automatic weapon, a…
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September 27, 2022: The National Hurricane Center (NHC) started tracking a tropical wave east of the Windward Islands on September 19, 2022. On September 24, 2022, President Biden issued an emergency declaration for Florida. The wave gained strength and turned into Tropical Storm Ian, eventually hitting Cuba on September…
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June 9, 2022: On July 1, 2021, the January 6 Select Committee was formed to investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol during a joint session of the 117th United States Congress to confirm the electoral college count and affirm the next President of the United States. On July 27,…
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May 24, 2022: At roughly 11:00 am CDT in Uvalde, Texas, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos shot his grandmother in their home before driving to Robb Elementary School, crashing a truck in a nearby ditch at 11:28 am. He entered the school through an unlocked side door, carrying with him an assault…
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May 14, 2022: At approximately 2:30 p.m. EDT in the Kingsly neighborhood of eastern Buffalo, New York, a gunman shot first outside in the parking lot and then opened fire in a Tops supermarket. Wearing body armor and a helmet, the man live-streamed his attack on the Twitch platform before…
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May 12, 2022: From American Hospital Association: “As U.S. COVID-19 deaths today surpassed 1 million, the AHA, American Medical Association, and American Nurses Association continued to urge everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible. Today we mark an incredibly grim and somber milestone as…
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September 12, 2022: As of September 12, 2022, nearly 50,000 wildfires have started and more than 6.5 million acres of land have been burned across the country this year, making 2022 the most active wildfire season in more than 10 years (NIFC). The fire season is continuing to be steady…
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December 13, 2021: From NBC News: “The United States passed another grim Covid-19 milestone Monday, as more than 800,000 Americans have now died from the virus that's plagued the country for nearly two years. There have been at least 800,156 confirmed deaths traced to the coronavirus, according to a rolling…
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October 1, 2021: From AP News: “The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 700,000 late Friday — a number greater than the population of Boston. The last 100,000 deaths occurred during a time when vaccines — which overwhelmingly prevent deaths, hospitalizations and serious illness — were available to any American…
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September 11, 2021 On September 11, 2001, members of al-Qaeda hijacked and flew passenger airplanes into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City; the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia; and into a field in Somerset, Pennsylvania, not reaching its destination target in Washington, DC, killing nearly 3,000…
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August 29, 2021: Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, at 11:55 a.m. CT. As a Category 4 with winds of 150 mph, the storm tied Hurricane Laura (2020) and the Last Island Hurricane (1856) as the strongest to ever hit Louisiana. Overall, it brought days of misery and…
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June 14, 2021: From Reuters: “The United States on Monday crossed the grim milestone of 600,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, as slowing vaccination rates threaten the Biden administration target of having 70% of U.S. adults receive at least one shot and 160 million fully inoculated by July…
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May 26, 2021: Early morning just after 6:30 am (PDT), authorities began receiving calls about shots being fired at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) facility in San Jose, California. "When law enforcement arrived on scene, multiple people had been shot in two separate buildings, the sheriff's office said,…
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May 20-December 23, 2021: Nationally, a total of 58,733 wildfires in the U.S. consumed 7,125,643 acres and destroyed 5, 972 structures. These numbers are similar to five and 10-year averages, however certain geographic areas including Northern California, Northwest and Eastern areas, and the Northern Rockies experienced abnormally high levels of…
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March 22, 2021: Shortly after 2:30 pm MDT, gunman Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa entered the parking lot at a King Soopers supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, and opened fire, killing four people before entering the store and continuing to shoot at employees and patrons, killing five more. Authorities began receiving calls…
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February 22, 2021: From TIME: “[T]he COVID-19 virus has claimed more than 500,000 lives in the United States, planting yet another grim milestone in a scourge that has wrecked misery in one of the most developed countries in the world. That equates to 1 in 658 Americans in just under…
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February 15, 2021: In mid-February 2021, three major winter storms struck—Feb. 10-11, Feb. 13-17, and Feb. 15-20—across the United States, Northern Mexico, and parts of Canada, causing blackouts for over 9.9 million people in the U.S. and Mexico, but notably impacting the state of Texas, where over 4.5 million households…
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February 2021: A historic cold wave brought several winter storms and an estimated $25.2 billion dollars in damages to various regions of the U.S. Extreme temperatures, alongside snow and ice, resulting in power outages, burst pipes, and even death across multiple states. Texas was most notably impacted with an estimated…
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February 4, 2022: From AP News: “Propelled in part by the wildly contagious omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000. The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis, San Francisco,…
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January 19, 2021: From NBC News: “More than 400,000 people have died of the coronavirus in the United States, according to an NBC News tally early Tuesday, a milestone that seemed unimaginable at the start of the pandemic a year ago. More than 2 million people have been recorded killed…
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January 6, 2021: What began as a demonstration against the recent presidential election results turned into a violent attack at the Capitol building, with hundreds of supporters of President Trump breaching security and occupying the federal building for hours. Weeks of unsupported claims of election fraud and attempts to overturn…
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December 25, 2020: Early on the morning of December 25, 2020, around 6:30 am, an explosion shook downtown Nashville, TN. A recreational vehicle that had been armed with the explosive was parked outside an AT&T transmission building when it began broadcasting a computerized female voice. The transmission repeatedly warned that…
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December 14, 2020: From AP News: The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 Monday just as the country began dispensing COVID-19 shots in a monumental campaign to conquer the outbreak. The number of dead rivals the population of St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is equivalent to repeating a tragedy on…
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December 11, 2020: On Friday, December 11, 2020, the United States Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for the nation's first COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. The authorization came just days before the United States topped 300,000 deaths due to the virus. ICU nurse Sandra Lindsay…
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September 22, 2020: From Modern Healthcare: It is completely unfathomable that we've reached this point," said Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins University public health researcher. The bleak milestone, by far the highest confirmed death toll from the virus in the world, was reported by Johns Hopkins, based on figures supplied…
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July 24, 2020-Present: Severe storms coupled with dry conditions and high winds ignited a number of wildfires across the Western United States in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, and Colorado. In the course of several months, over 8.2 million acres have been burned, over 10,000 structures destroyed, and…
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May 28, 2020: Statement from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention: "Today the number of people in the United States who have died from COVID-19 surpassed 100,000. Families, friends, coworkers, loved ones and community members are grieving for each person who has been lost to this disease. Reaching the…
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May 25, 2020-Present: During an arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was caught on video kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for seven minutes and 46 seconds. "The duration was initially given as eight minutes and 46 seconds until Minnesota prosecutors corrected the…
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May 16, 2020-November 18, 2020: The 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season was the most active season on record with 31 tropical/subtropical storms, all but one becoming a named storm, and 13 of which became hurricanes. This is the first time that the Greek names Eta, Theta, and Iota have been used…
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March 3, 2020: Storms began late on March 2, 2020 and into the early morning hours on March 3rd. Within that time, seven tornadoes hit Middle Tennessee, with the strongest tornado at an EF-4 tearing across central Putnam County. The storms claimed the lives of dozens of people and left…
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February 26, 2020: At the Molson Coors complex in Milwaukee, 51-year-old employee, Anthony Ferrill, opened fire on coworkers at around 2:00pm. According to authorities, Ferrill was armed with two handguns, one with a silencer (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). As of March 4, 2020 police have not provided a motive for the…
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January 20, 2020: The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the State of Washington reported the diagnosis of a patient with the first confirmed case of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) (CDC). A 35-year-old man visited an urgent care clinic in Snohomish County, WA with symptoms of a cough and…
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January 10, 2020-April 23, 2020: Early January saw the start of a destructive and deadly tornado season for the United States. Over 1,000 tornadoes resulted in >$4.4 billion in damages and at least 78 fatalities. (NOAA) Many of the big storms spawned numerous cyclones, and these tornado outbreaks can span…
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December 31, 2019-Ongoing: Cases of pneumonia with unknown causes were reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), with 44 total cases reported by January 3, 2020. The outbreak was tracked and linked to exposure at a fish market in Wuhan City, China and on January 7, 2020 a new type…
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December 28, 2019-Present: Since December 28, 2019, Puerto Rico has suffered an ongoing series of over 9,400 earthquakes ranging in magnitude from 1.5-6.4. Initial damage estimates in January 2020 were >$3.1 billion and Governor Wanda Vázquez Garced declared a state of emergency on January 7, 2020. (Disaster Philanthropy) Thousands of…
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December 18, 2019: Donald J. Trump was impeached for the first time on December 18, 2019, and the second time on January 13, 2021. He is one of three presidents to be impeached and the only president to be impeached twice. The first impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction…
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December 10, 2019: At a kosher grocery store in Jersey City, NJ, two assailants opened fire, killing three people inside the market and wounding two officers in a shootout that lasted over an hour. Prior to arriving at the store, the assailants shot and killed a Jersey City police detective…
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May 7, 2019-Present: According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state of California has recorded 6,660 wildfires that have scorched 252,685 acres in 2019 so far. Some of the more destructive fires include the Sandalwood fire in Riverside County that resulted in 1, 011 acres burned…
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Start date: December 21, 2018 End date: January 25, 2019 Presidential administration: Donald Trump According to Wikipedia, the December 2018-January 2019 shutdown, which was the longest in U.S history to this point, resulted from a disagreement between President Donald Trump and Democrats over the funding for Trump's proposed Mexico-U.S border…
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November 8, 2018: California's most deadly and destructive wildfire in the history of the state, the Camp Fire, began on Camp Creek Road in Butte County. Within the first day, the communities of Paradise and Concow were essentially decimated. Because the fire spread so rapidly, many residents were unable to…
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October 27, 2018: While morning services were being held at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA, a gunman opened fire on the congregation of 60-100 people in an anti-Semitic act of violence. It is the deadliest shooting on the Jewish community to take place in the United States in…
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October 22-29, 2018: Beginning on October 22, 2018, 15 packages containing improvised explosive devices were received at multiple locations in New York, Washington, D.C., Florida, Delaware, California, and Georgia. Packages were delivered to prominent critics of President Trump including: Billionaire investor George Soros; Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; Former…
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October 10, 2018 Hurricane Michael was the strongest in terms of maximum sustained wind speed to strike the contiguous United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The National Hurricane Center monitored the broad area of low pressure as early as October 2, 2018 in the Caribbean, and by October 7th, detected an organized convective pattern to classify…
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September 14, 2018: At 16:00 UTC on September 10, Florence again became a Category 4 hurricane, later reaching a new peak intensity with 1-minute winds of 140 mph. It lessened to a Category 1 by the time it made landfall on September 14, 2018, but a high-pressure ridge slowed Florence's forward motion for several…
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February 18, 2018 Beginning early in the year, 2018 faced a particularly active wildfire year. With nearly 50 wildfires that burned 1,000 acres or more (16 of those fires burning more than 10,000 acres) dry conditions, coupled with wind, brought an estimated 1 million+ acres burned in the state of…
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On February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 19 year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on staff and students. Prior to the incident, the FBI had received a tip learning of Cruz's intentions on the FBI's Public Access Line, but an error kept the information from…
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Start date: January 19, 2018 End date: January 22, 2018 Presidential administration: Donald Trump According to Dylan Matthews and Andrew Prokop of Vox, motivated by external activists, Democrats aimed to pressure both the Trump Administration and Congress into safeguarding participants of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival). This policy prevented…
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December 4, 2017: A quick-moving wildfire began north of Santa Paula, south of Thomas Aquinas College. Due to the unusually strong Santa Ana winds of over 60mph, the fire spread fast, reaching the city of Ventura, where over 500 residences were destroyed overnight. It is the largest wildfire in California…
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October 31, 2017: Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove down a crowded bicycle and pedestrian path near the World Trade Center in Manhatten, New York. He drove on the pathway for several blocks, striking numerous people. He was finally brought to a halt when his truck collided with a school bus. He…
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October 8, 2017: A fast-growing fire broke out near Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, CA. Pushed by strong wind, the fire spread about 12 miles in just over three hours. The Tubbs fire was one of more than a dozen wildfires that had broken out in October in Northern California. The…
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October 1, 2017: "A gunman opened fire on a crowd of 22,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured. Between 10:05 and 10:15 p.m. PDT, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock of Mesquite, Nevada, fired hundreds of rifle rounds from his suite on the 32nd floor of the…
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September 19, 2017: As category 4 hurricane, Maria "made landfall in southeast Puerto Rico after striking the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix. Maria's high winds caused widespread devastation to Puerto Rico's transportation, agriculture, communication and energy infrastructure. Extreme rainfall up to 37 inches caused widespread flooding and mudslides across…
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September 10, 2017: "Irma" made landfall as a category 4 hurricane at Cudjoe Key, Florida after devastating the U.S. Virgin Islands - St John and St Thomas - as a category 5 storm. "The Florida Keys were heavily impacted, as 25% of buildings were destroyed while 65% were significantly damaged.…
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September 2, 2017: Following a magnitude 5.3 earthquake east of Soda Springs, Idaho was a sustained and highly active sequence of aftershocks that were not typically present after earthquakes of this size. The earthquake was due to normal faulting found in the Intermountain Seismic Belt.—(USGS) Impact: No fatalities reported. Related…
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August 25, 2017: "Harvey" made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas causing widespread damage. "Harvey's devastation was most pronounced due to the large region of extreme rainfall producing historic flooding across Houston and surrounding areas. More than 30 inches of rainfall fell on 6.9 million people, while…
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On August 12 a planned Unite the Right rally was scheduled to take place in Charlottesville, VA. On August 11, before the rally, hundreds of White nationalists, White supremacists, Klansmen, and neo-Nazi demonstrators marched and violently engaged with counter-protesters at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. On August 12, the…
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September 17, 2016: Ahmad Rahami successfully conducted two bombings and attempted additional bombings in various locations in New York City and New Jersey on September 17, 2016, and September 18, 2016. "A pipe bomb exploded in a garbage can minutes before a Marine Corps charity race began in Seaside Park, NJ.…
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June 12, 2016: "Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, 29, armed with a rifle and a handgun, began shooting patrons inside Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Law enforcement officers entered the nightclub and engaged the shooter. The shooter then barricaded himself inside a bathroom with hostages for approximately three hours. Forty-nine people were killed; 53 were…
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June-December 2016: "Western and Southern states experienced an active wildfire season with over 5.0 million acres burned nationally. Most notable was the firestorm that impacted Gatlinburg, Tennessee with hurricane-force wind gusts in extremely dry conditions creating volatile wildfire behavior. These wildfires destroyed nearly 2,500 structures and caused 14 fatalities. The…
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July 9, 2015: The United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) "concluded with high confidence that sensitive information, including the Social Security Numbers (SSNs) of 21.5 million individuals, was stolen from the background investigation databases. This includes 19.7 million individuals that applied for a background investigation, and 1.8 million non-applicants,…
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June-November 2015: "Wildfires burned over 10.1 million acres across the U.S. in 2015, surpassing 2006 for the highest annual total of U.S. acreage burned since record-keeping began in 1960. The most costly wildfires occurred in California where over 2,500 structures were destroyed due to the Valley and Butte wildfires with…
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August 24, 2014: A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit in South Napa, California. It was the largest earthquake to hit the San Francisco Bay Area in 25 years and could be felt as far as 300 km away to the east of Reno, Nevada. Following the earthquake was more than 60…
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April 2, 2014: "Ivan Antonio Lopez-Lopez, 34, armed with a handgun, began shooting inside an administrative office on the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. The active-duty soldier then moved (sometimes on foot, other times in a vehicle) from one location to another, firing inside and outside buildings. Three soldiers were killed;…
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April 2014: The city of Flint, MI switched its water source from Lake Huron to Flint River. For months, state officials maintained the water was safe to drink, however, a series of independent studies found high levels of lead in the water. Flint residents grew ill, lost hair, developed rashes,…
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March 22, 2014: "A large landslide occurred in northwest Washington[...], leading to tragic loss of life and destruction of property. Landslide debris covered about 40 homes and other structures as well as nearly a mile of State Route 530. It also caused 43 fatalities in the community of Steelhead Haven…
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October 22, 2013: "Superstorm Sandy" formed off a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea. It would end up killing 233 people over the span of eight countries, with 159 deaths in the U.S. alone (See: Hurricane Sandy mortality in the Caribbean and continental North America ). "Sandy's impact on major population centers…
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Start date: September 30, 2013 End date: October 17, 2013 Presidential administration: Barrack Obama Impact: 800,000 federal workers furloughed (Wikipedia) 1.3 million workers required to work without any known payment dates (Wikipedia) Government cost: $2.1 billion (Wikipedia) Related Resource: Impacts of a Continuing Resolution and Sequestration on Acquisition…
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September 16, 2013: "A lone gunman, who had a security clearance, entered the Navy Yard’s Building 97 and began shooting randomly. Eventually, he worked his way to an overlook within the building and on to cubicle-filled office floors. The gunman entered the building at 8:15 a.m. and was declared dead…
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April 17, 2013: "A fire and explosion occurred at the West Fertilizer Company (WFC), a fertilizer blending, retail, and distribution facility in West, Texas. The violent detonation fatally injured 12 emergency responders and three members of the public. Local hospitals treated more than 260 injured victims, many of whom required…
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April 15, 2013: At the annual Boston Marathon, 282 people were injured and four were killed, including an MIT police officer, when two pressure-cooker bombs exploded near the crowded finish line. Related Resources: CHDS Alumni Respond: "Boston Strong" Faced Challenges of Marathon Bombings Preventing Another Boston Marathon Bombing: Reviewing the Lessons…
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December 14, 2012: In the space of several minutes, Adam Lanza, armed with two handguns and a rifle, killed 20 elementary school children and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooter then committed suicide as police arrived. Prior to the school shooting, Lanza killed his…
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September 11, 2012: The American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya was attacked by members of Ansar al-Sharia at 21:40. The group launched a mortar attack at a CIA annex the next morning at 04:00, approximately one mile away. Although the attacks were thought to be caused by a recently released…
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January-December 2012: The 2012 drought is the most extensive drought to affect the U.S. since the 1930s. Moderate to extreme drought conditions affected more than half the country for a majority of 2012. The following states were affected: CA, NV, ID, MT, WY, UT, CO, AZ, NM, TX, ND, SD,…
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August 23, 2011: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near Mineral, Virginia. Millions of people felt the effects of the quake along the east coast, with reports of minor damage as far away as Charleston, South Carolina, approximately 600 km away. It was the largest earthquake in the eastern U.S. since…
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May 22, 2011: An outbreak of an estimated 180 tornadoes struck the central and southern United States over several days in May 2011. On May 22nd, an EF-5 tornado devastated the city of Joplin, Mo., leaving an estimated 157 people dead. The Joplin tornado is the deadliest single tornado since…
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April 25-28, 2011: Over the course of four days, an outbreak of 362 confirmed tornadoes occurred over the central and southern states, surpassing the previous record for all of April by nearly 100, but also accounting for almost half of the confirmed tornadoes during the month. (On This Day: 2011 Tornado…
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September 9, 2010: A PG&E pipeline ruptured and exploded in the Crestmoor residential neighborhood of San Bruno, CA. Investigation into the incident found that PG&E had been in violation of regulations and laws regarding the type of piping used for the line. A 30-inch-diameter segment of the natural gas pipeline…
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April 20, 2010: The oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which was owned and operated by Transocean and drilling for BP, operating in the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded and sank. In 87 days following the explosion, approximately 210,000,000 gallons of oil were spilled around 68,000 square miles of the Gulf before finally…
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April 5, 2010: In a coal mine located in Montcoal, West Virginia a massive coal dust explosion started as a methane ignition. Massey Energy Co. was found to have had multiple basic safety violations which resulted in the explosion and prevented the assured safety of workers. 31 miners were inside…
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February 18, 2010: "Andrew Joseph Stack deliberately flew his small single engine aircraft into the Echelon I office building located at 9420 Research Blvd., Austin, Texas. Prior to that, he had set fire to his own residence located approximately two miles from the Echelon I building, drove 15 miles to…
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December 22, 2008: An ash pond dike broke, which released 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash. The spill covered over 300 acres of Watts Bar Reservoir. Just hours prior, the area had been inspected, and no issues had been reported. Testing on the air, water, and ash began immediately,…
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August 1, 2007: The eight-lane bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN collapsed during rush-hour traffic, sending 120 vehicles plummeting. After the official investigation, it was revealed that a flaw in the structural design of the 40-year old bridge was the cause of the collapse. People and vehicles fell…
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April 16, 2007: "Seung Hui Cho, 23, armed with two handguns, began shooting in a dormitory at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. Two-and-a-half hours later, he chained the doors shut in a classroom building and began shooting at the students and faculty inside. Thirty-two people were killed; 17…
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August 25-31, 2005: Hurricane Katrina created a path of destruction across southern Florida, and caused devastation into parts of southeast Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The storm then tracked northward into Tennessee and Kentucky and points northeast from there, where heavy rainfall was the main impact of the storm. Total losses as…
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October 2003: Dry weather and high winds contributed to a series of wildfires that broke out in Southern California. There were 14 fires that are part of the October Fire Siege: Roblar 2, Grand Prix/Padua, Pass, Piru, Verdale, Happy, Old, Simi, Cedar, Paradise, Mountain, Otay and Wellman. The first fire…
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November 25, 2002: "Even before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, government officials and security experts were concerned about the security of U.S. ports. In the fall of 2000, the Interagency Commission on Crime and Security in U.S. Seaports noted the vulnerability of U.S. seaports to terrorism. The report…
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October 2002: James Martin was shot and killed, in the first of what would become a series of sniper shootings in Montgomery County, Maryland. The shootings would then spread to Virginia before John Allen Muhammad, and Lee Boyd Malvo were apprehended on October 24th, 2002. Related Resources: Washington, DC, Area…
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November 19, 2001: President Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act into law requiring screening conducted by federal officials, 100 percent checked baggage screening, expansion of the Federal Air Marshal Service and reinforced cockpit doors. TSA is created to oversee security in all modes of transportation. — TSA Impact: Creation…
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October 26, 2001: Public Law 107-56: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT ACT) Act of 2001 is signed into law. "Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act (the Act) in response to the terrorists' attacks of September 11, 2001. The Act…
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September 18, 2001: "Soon after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, letters laced with anthrax began appearing in the U.S. mail. Five Americans were killed and 17 were sickened in what became the worst biological attacks in U.S. history. The ensuing investigation by the FBI and its partners — code-named 'Amerithrax'…
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September 11, 2001: 19 al Qaeda members hijacked four US passenger airliners. One would hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., another would crash into the Pennsylvania countryside after passengers tried to take control of the plane headed towards Washington, D.C., and two would crash into the Twin Towers in New…
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October 12, 2000: "Suicide terrorists exploded a small boat alongside the USS Cole—a Navy Destroyer—as it was refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden. The blast ripped a 40-foot-wide hole near the waterline of the Cole, killing 17 American sailors and injuring many more. [...] The extensive FBI investigation ultimately…
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January 1, 2000: As the world approached the year 2000, a number of theories revolving around the turn of the century began surfacing. There was widespread fear and panic that our technological infrastructures would become disrupted by a supposed Y2K bug that would leave the world in an apocalyptic state.…
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August 7, 1998: Bombs detonated in front of two American embassies; one in Nairobi, Kenya and the other in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks were linked to members of al-Qaeda, including Osama bin Laden, which resulted the the FBI placing him on its ten most-wanted fugitives list. "In the…
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April 3, 1996: [caption id="attachment_10836" align="alignright" width="247"] Forensic Sketch (Credit: Jeanne Boylan/FBI)[/caption] Starting in 1978 and stretching for nearly two decades, Theodore Kaczynski—also known as the Unabomber—sent primitive, untraceable, homemade explosives to a number of random targets that left the FBI puzzled. He often left false clues to throw off…
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April 19, 1995: A bomb ripped through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh, and ex-Army soldier and security guard, had manufactured homemade explosives using agricultural fertilizer, diesel fuel, and other chemicals, and set the bombs with a timed fuse. He was arrested just 90…
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July 2, 1993: "Severe, widespread flooding in central U.S. due to persistent heavy rains and thunderstorms. There was extensive damage to agriculture, infrastructure, homes and businesses in many areas across several states. [...] This is the most costly non-tropical, inland flood event to affect the United States on record."t — NOAA: Billion-Dollar Weather…
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February 28-April 19, 1993: The 51-day Waco Seige standoff ended when the the Branch Davidian compound was engulfed by fires set by the Davidians, after the FBI used tear gas in an attempt to force the occupants to leave. "On February 28, 1993, near Waco, Texas, four agents from the…
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February 26, 1993: A bomb exploded in a rented moving truck that was parked in the garage beneath the World Trade Center that resulted in a 100-foot crater that was several stories deep and several stories higher. Six Islamic Fundamentalists were later arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life for…
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August 26, 1992: Although it spent most of its life as a tropical cyclone, its high winds left extensive damage to the Bahamas, Louisiana, and Florida, making landfall in south Florida as a Category 5 hurricane, with the maximum sustained surface wind speed estimated at about 145 mph. Until Hurricane Irma, it…
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October 19-22, 1991: "The largest dollar fire loss in United States history occurred in the East Bay Hills, within the California cities of Oakland and Berkeley [...]. Twenty-five lives were lost and more than 3,000 structures were destroyed by a wildland-urban interface fire in one of the most heavily populated metropolitan areas…
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October 17, 1989: A magnitude 6.9 earthquake struck approximately 10 miles northeast of Santa Cruz, CA, near Loma Prieta peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains (approximately 60 south southeast of San Francisco). Due to the sports coverage of the 1989 World Series, it became the first major earthquake in the United States…
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March 24, 1989: Oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil. Due to the remote location of the spill--it was accessible only by boat or helicopter--cleanup efforts were challenging, and it put current preparedness plans to the…
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December 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 departed from London's Heathrow Airport, bound for New York City. However, just 40 minutes into the flight, the plane exploded 31,000 feet up in the skies above Lockerbie, Scotland. Evidence found at the scene of the crash led investigators to two Libyan intelligence…
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June-August 1988: The drought of 1988 was widespread throughout the agricultural regions of the United States and Canada and had significant impacts on agricultural production, forestry, natural ecosystems, and water availability. The potential serious effects of the developing drought initiated a number of federal government responses (The Drought of 1988…
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June 14, 1985: TWA Flight 847 from Cairo to San Diego with stops in Athens and Rome, was hijacked by Mohammed Ali Hamadei, along with an armed accomplice. Over the next 17 days crisscrossing the Mediterranean from Beirut to Algiers, the 153 passengers and crew members were subject to beatings…
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September 20, 1984: On September 20, 1984, just over a year after the 1983 US Embassy attack, after the United States had relocated embassy operations from West Beirut to Aukar, a Christian suburb of East Beirut, a suicide bomber sped towards the entrance with a van packed with 3,000 pounds of…
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September 1984: The Rajneesh cult succeeded with the first documented bioterror incident in the United States. "The cult planned to infect residents with Salmonella on election day to influence the results of county elections. To practice for the attack, they contaminated salad bars at 10 restaurants with S. Typhimurium on…
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April 18, 1983: A suicide bomber crashes a truck into the front of the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon before detonating approximately 2,000 pounds of explosives. A Multinational Force composed of U.S. and European military personnel, entered Lebanon to help the Lebanese government maintain stability during the third phase of the…
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June-September 1980: Beginning in June and stretching until mid-September, the 1980 US Heat Wave was a period of intense heat and drought that plagued the central and eastern United States. Many states suffered through record-breaking heat, with Memphis, TN experiencing a 15-day stretch of temperatures over 100°F. Crops were damaged…
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March 31, 1979: "President Carter’s 1979 Executive Order 12127 merged many of separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA was created to: Coordinate Federal emergency authorities, including the administration of disaster response and recovery programs; [and] Assume the role of the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration and…
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March 28, 1979: The Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2) experienced a partial meltdown and was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. Luckily, there were no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public from the small radioactive releases, but the event spurred significant…
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December 30, 1970: A blast tore through mine shafts 15 and 16 Finely Mine. Just a month earlier, the Bureau of Mine had declared the mine an imminent danger, but had not ceased its operations. After investigations and testimony from three miners it was concluded there had been dynamite and…
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September 1970: In the month of September 1970, four aircraft bound for New York City and one for London, were hijacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Three of the aircraft were forced to land at Dawson's Field, located in a remote desert near…
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March 27, 1964: A magnitude 9.2 earthquake struck in the Prince William Sound region of Alaska. It lasted for approximately 4.5 minutes, and is the most powerful earthquake recorded in U.S. history. It is the second largest earthquake ever recorded and triggered tsunamis with a run-up of more than 100…
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September 15, 1963: A dynamite bomb exploded in the back stairwell of the downtown Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church was well-known as a key civil rights meeting place, so the incident was easily classified as an act of racial hatred. With a lack of evidence, the…
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November 4, 1952: "The NSA was established [....] by order of President Harry Truman. This decision followed the Nation's important work in breaking German and Japanese codes during WWII, which contributed to Allied success against the German U-Boat threat in the North Atlantic and victory at the Battle of Midway…
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June 20, 1949: The Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 is signed. "The CIA was created under the National Security Act of 1947. [...] Two years later, President Truman signed the Central Intelligence Agency Act, which authorized CIA to secretly fund intelligence operations and conduct personnel actions outside of standard US…
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April 16, 1947: Docked in Texas City, TX, the S.S. Grandcamp, loaded with a cargo 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, suddenly and mysteriously caught fire. After failed attempts to extinguish the flames, the cargo exploded, launching the cargo 2,000-3,000 feet in the air and causing a 15-foot tidal wave. …
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December 7, 1941: Six Japanese carriers launched 181 planes carrying torpedo bombers, dive bombers, horizontal bombers and fighters. Only 30 minutes later 170 more aircraft launched their attack on the Harbor. The attack was intended to prevent the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese military actions, but spurred the…
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September 17, 1928: A category 4 hurricane struck the Palm Beach area of Florida bringing storm surges as high as 20 feet crashing into the barrier islands. The storm would rage over Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Lake Worth, Palm Beach, West Palm Beach, Pompano Beach, and Lake Okeechobee. With the…
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May 31-June 1, 1921: The Tulsa Race Massacre, also known as the Tusla Race Riots, began with an incident that took place on May 30, 1921, in which Dick Rowland, a young black teenager, entered an elevator at the Drexel office building. The elevator operator, a young white woman named…
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September 16, 1920: A man driving a cart pulled by horse, parked in front of the U.S. Assay Office across from the J. P. Morgan building in the heart of Wall Street, before leaving and disappearing into the crowd. Only minutes later, a bomb exploded, devastating the area. A number…
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1918-1919: In the spring of 1918, the first wave of the influenza epidemic struck in military camps in Kansas and throughout the U.S., but was generally mild. Those who contracted the flu usually recovered after several days of typical flu-like symptoms. However, when the second wave hit in the autumn…
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April 18, 1906: An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 struck San Francisco, CA. Violent shocks lasted approximately 40-60 seconds and was felt from southern Oregon to the south of Los Angeles and inland as far as Central Nevada. Fires that resulted from broken gas mains raged for three days,…
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September 8, 1900: A category 4 hurricane ripped through the port city of Galveston, Texas with winds over 135 miles per hour. Storm surges rose 15 feet and completely devastated the prosperous and, at the time, one of the biggest cities in Texas, with over 40,000 inhabitants. Galveston would go…
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October 8, 1871: A forest fire that was allegedly started by railroad workers who were clearing land for tracks, swept through northeast Wisconsin. Within an hour of the fire striking, the city of Peshtigo, WI was gone. A number of factors were attributed to the raging fire, including a prolonged…
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October 12, 1868: An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 struck the region of San Francisco Bay. It lasted for more than 40 seconds and is considered one of the most destructive earthquakes in California’s history, regardless of the sparse population of the time. Shaking could be felt as far…
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January 9, 1857: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck on the San Andreas Fault from near Parkfield to approximately 300 km away near Wrightwood. The quake could be felt from Marysville to San Diego, and east to Las Vegas, with strong shaking lasting from one to three minutes.—(USGS) Impact: 2 fatalities…
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December 15, 1811: The 1811-1812 New Madrid Sequence consisted of three large earthquakes: A Magnitude 7.5 earthquake that struck on December 15, 1811; a magnitude 7.3 that struck on January 23, 1812; and a magnitude 7.5 that struck on February 7, 1812. Following the earthquakes, hundreds of aftershocks were felt…
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