The Boston Marathon Bombing

On April 15, 2013, two homemade pressure cooker bombs packed with nails, BBs, and metal fragments were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people and wounding 264 others, many of whom lost limbs. The attack struck one of America's most beloved public sporting events and unfolded in front of thousands of spectators, law enforcement, and media. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil since September 11, 2001. The FBI released surveillance photographs of the suspects — two brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechen immigrants who had lived in the United States for years — on the evening of April 18. Within hours, the brothers killed an MIT campus police officer and carjacked a vehicle, setting off a massive manhunt across the Boston area. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a confrontation with police in Watertown, Massachusetts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found hiding in a dry-docked boat in a Watertown backyard on April 19 and taken into custody after being wounded. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was tried in 2015 and convicted on all 30 counts against him, 17 of which were punishable by death. He was sentenced to death. In 2020, the First Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the death sentence, citing problems with jury selection. In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence in an 6–3 decision. Tsarnaev remains on federal death row. The Boston Marathon bombing transformed American public event security and accelerated the deployment of surveillance cameras and security screening at large outdoor gatherings. The response of the city of Boston — summarized in the phrase "Boston Strong" — became a symbol of communal resilience. The Tsarnaevs were motivated by radical Islamist ideology, according to evidence presented at trial, though the question of what radicalized them and whether they had external direction was never fully resolved.