--- title: The Oklahoma City Bombing at 20: Behind the Crime description: The deadly act of domestic terrorism took place 20 years ago, on April 19, 1995 canonical: https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-19T10:00:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:25:07.198Z article:section: History og:title: The Oklahoma City Bombing at 20: Behind the Crime og:description: The deadly act of domestic terrorism took place 20 years ago, on April 19, 1995 og:url: https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0691209922d1c225/6987eb2135ba6f980ec0ade3/1101950501_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: May 1, 1995, cover of TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Oklahoma City Bombing at 20: Behind the Crime twitter:description: The deadly act of domestic terrorism took place 20 years ago, on April 19, 1995 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0691209922d1c225/6987eb2135ba6f980ec0ade3/1101950501_400.jpg?branch=production&width=828&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Meaning of the Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 19, 2015 10:00 AM UTC  Timothy McVeigh on the May 1, 1995, cover of TIME Timothy McVeigh on the May 1, 1995, cover of TIMECover Credit: RALF-FINN HESTOFT  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Apr 19, 2015 10:00 AM UTC When a truck bomb blasted through a federal office building in Oklahoma City on a Wednesday morning 20 years ago — April 19, 1995 — it was the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of the nation to that point. Though fingers pointed many directions in the immediate aftermath, it didn’t take long for investigators to find Timothy McVeigh. As TIME reported in a special issue devoted to the crime — with McVeigh’s face on the cover, alongside the words “The Face of Terror” — only a little more than an hour had passed since the bombing when he was pulled over for a traffic stop and arrested for driving without tags and insurance, and for carrying a concealed weapon. Two days later, the rogue driver was determined to be the same man who was suspected of masterminding the attack. McVeigh and his accomplices’ possible link to antigovernment organizations immediately drew additional scrutiny to the subject, and offered some insight into the twisted mind that planned such a crime—and why it happened when it did: --- > “” --- In the years since, Oklahoma City has tried to make that date stand for something very different: rather than an example of separatism, they’ve made April 19 a date to remember a community coming together to help one another, living by the idea they call the “[Oklahoma Standard](https://okstandard.org/).” **_Read more from TIME’s special 1995 issue about the bombing, here in the TIME Vault:_** [A Blow to the Heart](http://time.com/vault/issue/1995-05-01/spread/30/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/"},"headline":"The Meaning of the Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary","datePublished":"2015-04-19T10:00:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:25:07.198Z","description":"The deadly act of domestic terrorism took place 20 years ago, on April 19, 1995","url":"https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/","keywords":["Crime","Bombing"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0691209922d1c225/6987eb2135ba6f980ec0ade3/1101950501_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0691209922d1c225/6987eb2135ba6f980ec0ade3/1101950501_400.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"May 1, 1995, cover of TIME","caption":"May 1, 1995, cover of TIME","creditText":"Cover Credit: RALF-FINN HESTOFT","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3822868/oklahoma-city-bombing-20-years/","name":"The Meaning of the Oklahoma City Bombing Anniversary"}}]}] ```