Chances are, if you lived in Oklahoma on April 19, 1995, you remember exactly where you were when you felt, heard, or learned about the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. Share the information with your middle and high school students so they can learn how Oklahomans came together to care for one another amid the devastation.
Articles
- April 2015 —20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing
- April 2015 — 20 years later: The people in the Oklahoma City bombing
- April 2015 — 6 kids pulled from the rubble share their stories
- April 2010 — A photo essay of the Oklahoma City bombing
- June 1997 — McVeigh guilty on 11 counts
- April 1995 — Nichols brothers charged in probe
- April 1995 — Oklahoma Baptist provide assistance after bombing
- April 1995 — Terror in Oklahoma: An Overview
- The FBI: Oklahoma City bombing
- Oklahoma City bombing chronology
- History.com: Oklahoma City bombing
- McVeigh chronology
Reports
The Oklahoma Department of Civil Emergency Management After Action Report
Videos
- Live coverage of 1995 Oklahoma City bombing (mentions the Waco seige of the Branch Davidian compound and the World Trade Center bombing, both in 1993)
- Engineering animation of the Oklahoma City bombing
- A Noble Lie: The Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995 documentary (2:00)
- Terror From Within: 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing documentary (1:30)
- Archival footage from OETA
- May 1995 Oklahoma City bombing special report (0:52)*
Interactive
- A website curating maps, timelines, transcripts and other information related to the Timothy McVeigh trial
- Oklahoma City bombing timeline
Field Trip
Click here to schedule a visit for your school to the Oklahoma City National Memorial.
Lesson Ideas
- Oklahoma City bombing lesson plans for high school
- We the people: Our civic responsibility
- Watch the A Noble Lie and Terror from Within documentaries above and evaluate the claims made in each
- Write informative essays detailing the events of April 19, 1995
- Ask students to interview members of their family who remember the bombing. Write their stories in narrative essay format.
- Create a presentation/video showing what the Murrah building was used for and how it looked before and after the bombing. This could be done in three phrases: Before the bombing, right after the bombing, the present day
- Ask students to retell the story of what happened on April 19, 1995 from the perspective of one of the service providers: Doctors, nurses, police officers, firemen, etc. (*show them the special report video first)
If you have any additional ideas or resources, please provide them in the comments below. Thank you!