Oklahoma City bombing

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On 19 April 1995, a huge truck bomb killed 168 people in a government building in Oklahoma City, US. There were 19 children among the dead and more than 500 people were injured. One of the perpetrators, Timothy McVeigh, was executed in 2001.

Dr David Tuggle was a paediatric surgeon who helped find survivors. He spoke to Golnoosh Golshani in 2015.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: Albert P. Murrah Federal Building after the bombing. Credit: Bob Daemmrich/AFP via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
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0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all
0:28.1	put together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:34.9	check out BBC Sounds.
0:45.3	Hello and welcome to the Witness History podcast from the BBC World Service. We're going back to the 19th of April, 1995, and a bomb attack outside a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City in the U.S.
0:55.0	Golnuch-Golshani made this program in 2015.
0:58.6	Listeners may find some of the recollections disturbing.
1:03.1	Get them back!
1:07.1	We've got a couple of buildings where all the floors are pancakes.
1:10.3	We have victims trapped. We're not sure exactly how many. We've got a couple of buildings where all the floors are pancakes. We have victims trapped.
1:11.6	We're not sure exactly how many.
1:13.6	We've got the word that there may be a daycare center down involved in that somewhere.
1:17.6	We're focusing on that, obviously.
1:19.6	It was like being in a movie set where things are just ripped the shreds and wires were hanging everywhere and ductwork was just scattered all over.
1:29.4	All the windows were blown out and debris was everywhere.
1:33.2	It was very difficult to believe that that was actually real, not a movie.
1:37.4	Dr. David Tuggle, a pediatric surgeon, was at the Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City,
1:43.4	which received seven children immediately after
1:46.0	the blast. Having heard reports of more casualties, he and a colleague headed down to the scene
	...

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