November 7, 1983: A bomb explodes on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington. There were no injuries.
The Senate adjourned at 7:02 PM. For the next 2 hours, a well-attended reception was held near the Senate Chamber. At 10:58, there was an explosion on the 2nd floor of the Capitol's north wing. The adjacent hallways were mostly unoccupied at the time.
A few minutes before the explosion, a tape-recorded message was telephoned to The Washington Post news desk and the Capitol switchboard, claiming to represent the Armed Resistance Unit, and warning that a bomb was about to be detonated near the Senate Chamber, in retaliation for recent U.S. military involvement in Lebanon and Grenada. The "Armed Resistance Unit" also plotted to murder former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The force of the explosive device, placed beneath a bench at the eastern end of the corridor outside the Chamber, blew off the door to the office of Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the Senate Minority Leader. Byrd was an active supporter of involvement in Grenada, and had recently made attempts to garner support for retaliating against recent attacks against U.S. Marines stationed in Lebanon.
The bomb blast also tore a hole in a wall partition, sending pulverized brick and plaster into the Republican cloakroom. The cloakroom's glass windows were shattered.[7] Major damage was done to arches, walls, and the glazed-tile floor near the blast.
A grandfather clock that had in been place by the Senate chamber since 1859 was destroyed, and 6 paintings were ripped, shredded or damaged, including a portrait of early 19th Century Senator and Secretary of State Daniel Webster. A conservator worked for months to restore the painting to a semblance of the original. While the explosion caused no structural damage to the Capitol Building, officials calculated damages of $1 million.
The group Resistance Conspiracy was a United States-based branch of the wider communist organization known as the May 19th Communist Order. This group existed from its first attack in 1976 until later attacks in 1985. Throughout the lifespan of the organization, 20 incidents of domestic terrorism were committed, including one murder. The organization is also known as the Armed Resistance Unit, the Red Guerilla Resistance, and the Revolutionary Fighting Group.
The group mailed a recorded communique to National Public Radio stating, "We purposely aimed our attack at the institutions of imperialist rule rather than at individual members of the ruling class and government. We did not choose to kill any of them this time. But their lives are not sacred."
After a 5-year investigation, federal agents arrested 6 members of the Armed Resistance conspiracy group on May 12, 1988, and charged them with bombing the Capitol, as well as Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.
The area outside the Senate Chamber, previously open to the public, was permanently closed after the 1983 bombing. Congressional officials also set up a system requiring staff ID cards for entry and installed metal detectors at building entrances. These metal detectors were in addition to those already in place at the Chamber Gallery doors following a prior Capitol bombing in 1971.
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November 7, 1983 was a Monday. Actor Adam DeVine, known for his roles in the Pitch Perfect films and his role as Andy Bailey on the TV show Modern Family, was born on this day. This was also the day that the NATO military exercise titled Able Archer 83 began, triggering a close call between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Despite the lucky fact that nothing ended up happening, I have a separate entry for this event.
The baseball season was over. There were no NBA or NHL games scheduled. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions beat the New York Giants, 15-9 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.
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