Even more than two decades after the World Trade Center fell, that tragedy still dominates our collective imagination of terrorism. It cast a long shadow over countless earlier violent episodes, making it easy to forget that history is littered with dozens of deadly attacks that never made the headlines. In this roundup we dive into 10 history 8217’s most neglected terrorist incidents – events that claimed lives, shifted politics, and vanished from popular memory.
10 history 8217: A Glimpse Into Hidden Terror
10 The Haymarket Affair
On May 3, 1886, a crowd of laborers assembled outside the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago, demanding an eight‑hour workday – a cause that had been simmering since the 1860s. Police, tasked with protecting strike‑breakers, opened fire, killing one protester and wounding several others. The next day the protest swelled to over a thousand workers, and amid the chaos a mysterious bomb was hurled into the police ranks. Sources differ on how many of the eleven fatalities resulted directly from the blast versus friendly fire, but the tally settled at eleven dead, seven of whom were police officers, and roughly a hundred injured.
In the aftermath, Illinois authorities arrested eight prominent anarchists, accusing them of orchestrating the bombing despite flimsy evidence. One detainee took his own life in prison; four were hanged on November 11, 1887. Remarkably, in 1893 Governor John Altgeld granted pardons to the three remaining men, acknowledging that the trial had been a miscarriage of justice – jurors had already presumed guilt, the accused possessed solid alibis, and witnesses testified they had not planted the bomb. The Haymarket Affair thus stands as a stark reminder of how quickly labor unrest could be criminalized in the Gilded Age.
9 Los Angeles Times Bombing
By 1910, labor strife had intensified even in heavily unionized Los Angeles. The newspaper magnate Harrison Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, earned a reputation as a union‑busting villain – he even rode in a limousine equipped with a cannon to intimidate strikers. Seeking revenge, iron‑working brothers James and John McNamara planted sixteen sticks of dynamite in the Times’ basement on September 30, 1910. Unaware of the building’s gas lines and the flammability of the printing inks, the explosion ignited a ferocious fire that claimed 21 lives and injured dozens more. Otis escaped unharmed, hiring famed private detective William Burns to hunt the perpetrators.
The McNamara brothers remained at large until April 1911, when their supplier Ortie McManigal implicated them in a confession. Renowned attorney Clarence Darrow took up their defense, and despite Darrow’s vigorous investigation, the brothers eventually admitted guilt. John McNamara received a life sentence, while James was sentenced to fifteen years – a comparatively light punishment that nonetheless set back the momentum of the American labor movement.
8 Wall Street Bombing
September has proven ominous for New York City’s financial district. Exactly a decade after the Los Angeles Times blast, a derelict cart laden with explosives was left parked at 23 Wall Street, directly opposite the J.P. Morgan Building. At noon on September 16, 1920, the device detonated, hurling iron sash weights and shrapnel across the street, toppling cars and killing 38 people while wounding about 300. Among the injured was J.P. Morgan’s grandson, Junius Morgan.
Unlike the LA Times case, no organization claimed responsibility. Italian anarchist Pierto Angelo was suspected, yet an alibi cleared him, and he was deported anyway. Thousands were rounded up for questioning – factory workers, stable hands, anyone who might have handled the heavy iron weights – but the investigation stalled. The case was officially closed in 1940, still without a definitive perpetrator.
7 Bath School Disaster
In the quiet Michigan town of Bath, the Consolidated School was erected in 1922, financed by a property‑tax increase that infuriated local farmer Andrew Kehoe, who also served as school‑board treasurer. Facing foreclosure on his farm, Kehoe smuggled surplus World War I dynamite into the school’s basement. On May 18, 1927, at 8:45 a.m., a time‑triggered bomb detonated, killing 38 students and six adults. Kehoe then drove to the scene with a trunk of additional explosives, killed himself, and claimed five more lives. He had also murdered his wife, slaughtered several farm animals, and set his farmhouse ablaze. A chilling note left on his fence read, “Criminals are made, not born.”
Despite the sheer horror, the tragedy faded from the national spotlight within weeks. Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo transatlantic flight concluded just three days later, dominating headlines across the United States. Some historians argue that had Kehoe targeted a bank or another high‑profile institution, his actions might have been remembered alongside other infamous domestic attacks.
6 An Assassination in Marseille
King Alexander I of Yugoslavia, a celebrated hero of the Balkan Wars and World War I, became regent in 1918 and formally ascended the throne in 1922. His reign was marked by attempts to unify a fractious nation, but also by fierce opposition from Croatian separatists. On October 9, 1934, while on a diplomatic visit to Marseille, France, Alexander was assassinated by Vlado Chernozemski, a Croatian nationalist linked to the group that had killed his predecessors in 1903.
The assassination holds the distinction of being the first terrorist act captured on film – predating even the infamous Zapruder footage of President Kennedy’s murder by three decades. According to a Columbia University study, Adolf Hitler reportedly replayed the footage repeatedly, studying the French police’s delayed response as evidence of a nation’s weak character. The murder arguably set off a chain reaction that emboldened fascist leaders like Mussolini and Hitler to press further into the Balkans, sowing seeds that would later blossom into World War II.
5 Ford Motor Protests
The Great Depression sparked a surge in labor activism, and Henry Ford’s empire proved especially ruthless. Harry Bennett, Ford’s feared “right‑hand man,” was notorious for crushing union activity. On March 7, 1932, roughly 3,000 unemployed Ford workers embarked on the “Ford Hunger March” toward Dearborn, Michigan. Bennett’s men opened fire – even resorting to machine‑gun fire – turning the demonstration into what became known as the Ford Massacre. Four marchers, including two teenagers, were killed; dozens more suffered injuries, some while still confined to hospital beds.
Undeterred, workers continued their struggle. On May 26, 1937, United Auto Workers activists, aided by the Women’s Auxiliary, distributed leaflets at the Miller Road overpass in Dearborn. Bennett again descended on the scene, beating protesters, breaking a man’s back, and even assaulting journalists. However, photographer James Kilpatrick managed to hide unexposed film, later revealing the brutality in stark images that swung public opinion toward the workers. Within four years, Ford’s workforce secured official union recognition.
4 The Lustgarten Attack
While the Holocaust narrative often portrays Jews solely as victims, there were moments of armed resistance. On May 18, 1942, a primarily Jewish resistance cell called the Baum Gruppe, led by Herbert Baum, set fire to an art exhibition in Berlin’s Lustgarten that glorified the Soviet Union – a display dubbed “Soviet Paradise.” The arson, carried out by mostly youthful members, was largely ineffective; the exhibit reopened the following day.
The Nazi response was swift and brutal. Approximately 500 Jews were arrested, many of whom were summarily executed. The New York Times reported that 258 prisoners were shot. The Gestapo even attempted a propaganda spin, claiming that Baum had committed suicide in his cell rather than being executed. The episode starkly illustrates how one group’s terrorist act could be framed as a heroic act of resistance, while the oppressor painted the perpetrators as criminals.
3 The Machertos
Puerto Rico’s quest for independence has sparked a series of violent confrontations on the mainland United States. On March 1, 1954, members of a pro‑independence faction stormed the U.S. House of Representatives, wounding five congressmen. Between 1974 and 1981, the Armed Forces of National Liberation carried out roughly 100 bombings across the country, the deadliest being a January 1975 attack on Fraunces Tavern in Lower Manhattan that killed four and injured 53.
The late 1970s saw the Machertos, a radical Puerto Rican group, target U.S. military installations. On July 14, 1980, they destroyed four Federal Aviation Administration and Coast Guard navigation sites, disrupting Latin American air traffic. Their most audacious strike came on January 16, 1981, when they infiltrated the Muniz Air National Guard Base, demolishing eight fighter jets and disabling two more. No casualties occurred, but the estimated $45 million in damages underscored the group’s capacity for high‑impact sabotage, a legacy still cited by advocates of Puerto Rican statehood.
2 FLQ Attacks
In the early 1960s, Quebec’s separatist movement birthed the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a militant group determined to eradicate British influence from Canada. Though founded by Belgian revolutionary Georges Schoeters, the FLQ quickly amassed a roster of bombers, delivering explosives to government buildings, mailboxes, and later to businesses employing striking workers. One member, Pierre Paul Geoffroy, pleaded guilty to participation in 31 bombings. The Globe and Mail recorded that the first six years of the campaign resulted in five deaths and one serious injury.
The FLQ’s most infamous episode unfolded in 1970, when they escalated to kidnappings, snatching British diplomat James Cross and Quebec Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte. In response, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, suspending civil liberties in what became known as the October Crisis. While Cross survived, Laporte’s body was recovered in a trunk. The heavy-handed government crackdown, coupled with infiltration by intelligence agents, effectively dismantled the FLQ by 1976.
1 Inn Din
Southeast Asia’s humanitarian crises often slip under the global radar. In 2017, over 690,000 Rohingya fled Bangladesh for the relative safety of Myanmar, yet the world largely ignored their plight. The 2014 Bangladesh census even omitted Rohingya entirely, reflecting deep‑seated official hostility. When reports emerged of paramilitary forces perpetrating atrocities against the Rohingya, international attention finally sparked.
On September 1, 2018, ten Rohingya men from the coastal village of Inn Din were arrested, forced to watch as neighbors excavated a mass grave, and then executed the following morning. The same paramilitary unit proceeded to loot cattle, seize vehicles, and torch homes throughout the area. Authorities claimed the victims were members of a 200‑person terrorist cell that had attacked the town, a narrative vehemently denied by local civilians who insisted the men were merely seeking shelter on a beach. Reuters journalists investigating the massacre were themselves detained, underscoring the peril faced by those attempting to document the violence.
Dustin Koski highly recommends Jonathan “Bogleech” Wojcik’s novel Return of the Living, a speculative tale set centuries after Earth has been abandoned.