See also Apple Computer; Country music; Farm
Aid; Heavy metal; Live Aid; Mötley Crüe; Music; New
Wave music; Osbourne, Ozzy; Pop music; Talking
Heads; U2; Van Halen.
U.S. Senate bombing
The Event A leftist group calling itself the Armed
Resistance Unit sets off a bomb in the Senate
Wing of the U.S. Capitol
Date November 7, 1983
Place Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Senate bombing resulted in tightened security
measures in and around the U.S. Capitol. The Senate
Chamber was closed to the public, and a system of staff iden-
tification cards was instituted.
At 10:58p.m.on November 7, 1983, a small, power-
ful bomb composed of six or seven sticks of dynamite
exploded near the Senate Chamber of the U.S.
Capitol. The bomb had been placed underneath a
bench at the eastern end of a corridor outside the
chamber several hours earlier; it used a pocket watch
for its timing device. The explosion ripped the door
off the office of Senator Robert Byrd of West Vir-
ginia, tore a hole in a wall, and shattered several mir-
rors and paintings opposite the Republican cloak-
room. Officials estimated the cost of the damage at
around $250,000.
A group calling itself the Armed Resistance Unit
claimed responsibility for the bombing in a call to
the Capitol switchboard minutes before the explo-
sion. The group also sent a letter to National Public
Radio that claimed responsibility for the bombing.
Both claims stated that the bombing was in response
to the October 25, 1983, U.S. military invasion of
Grenada and the U.S. military intervention in Leba-
non that autumn. The Senate was originally sched-
uled to be in session until at least 11:00 that evening
but adjourned early, potentially preventing injuries
and even deaths.
Police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
officials publicly considered that the bombing was
tied to other similar attacks on a number of other
government installations, including the National
War College building in Washington, D.C.; the Staten
Island, New York, Federal Building; and several Navy
and Army Reserve centers in the Washington, D.C.,
area and around New York City. In May, 1988, fed-
eral agents arrested six U.S. citizens in connection
with the Capitol bombing and several other attacks
on U.S. government buildings. The defendants in-
cluded Linda Evans and Susan Whitehorn, two for-
mer members of the Weather Underground, and
Marilyn Buck, a member of the May 19 Communist
Organization. Buck had recently been convicted for
her participation in the 1981 robbery of a Brink’s
truck outside Nyack, New York, that resulted in the
deaths of three people. Buck, Whitehorn, and Evans
were sentenced to long prison terms for conspiracy
and malicious destruction of government property.
Charges against the other three defendants were
dropped.Impact In the wake of the bombing, security in and
around the U.S. Capitol building was tightened.
Areas once open to the public were closed off, a se-
ries of staff identification badges was instituted, sev-
eral entrances were closed, and metal detectors were
set up at all the remaining entrances.Further Reading
Berger, Dan.Outlaws of America: The Weather Under-
ground and the Politics of Solidarity. Oakland, Calif.:
AK Press, 2006.
Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism.
MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base. http://www
.tkb.org/Home.jsp
Ron JacobsSee also Beirut bombings; Foreign policy of the
United States; Grenada invasion; Terrorism.USA for Africa
Identification Popular music benefit project to
fund African famine relief
Date “We Are the World” recorded on January 28,
1985
Place A & M Studios, Hollywood, CaliforniaOn the heels of a widely publicized famine in East Africa, a
star-studded group of forty-five popular music artists re-
corded a song and produced an accompanying music video
to raise money to help victims of the famine. The project
earned millions of dollars and served as inspiration for
thousands of additional efforts across America in support
of the cause.The Eighties in America USA for Africa 1009