Sunday · September 27, 2026
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19971776 Club

Denver jury sentences McVeigh to death; 168 killed in Oklahoma City, two years past

Eleven days after convicting him on all 11 counts, the same jury recommends execution for the man who built the Murrah Building truck bomb.

Two years after a truck bomb killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, a jury assembled in Denver to decide whether the man who built it would live or die. On June 13, 1997 — eleven days after finding Timothy McVeigh guilty on all 11 federal counts — the same jury recommended the death penalty. Judge Richard Paul Matsch would formalize the sentence, sending McVeigh toward an execution that would not come for another four years…

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More from June 13
1967

Thurgood Marshall takes the oath; the Supreme Court has its first Black justice

The Senate confirmed Marshall 69–11 on August 30, brushing aside sustained Southern objections; he is sworn in today, October 2.
1966

Warren's court rules 5–4: police must tell suspects they may stay silent before questioning begins

Ernesto Miranda's kidnapping conviction falls; he had signed a "voluntary" confession without ever being told he could refuse to speak or call a lawyer.
1971

The Times begins printing the Pentagon Papers; four presidents, the documents show, misled the country on Vietnam

A 7,000-page classified Defense Department study reveals the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations each obscured the true scope of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.
17771776 Club
Lafayette crossed the Atlantic on his own money and against the French crown's orders, bringing his sword to a force short on officers and supplies.
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Read the full June 13 edition →Everything that happened on June 13 →
More from Modern America
2019

Trump steps across the DMZ line; no sitting president has stood on North Korean soil before today

Kim tells him "I never expected to meet you at this place," and the two go on to talk privately for 53 minutes inside Freedom House, South Korea's Moon kept out at Pyongyang's request.
2011

Atlantis clears the tower; the shuttle program's last mission is airborne

Ferguson, Hurley, Magnus and Walheim lift off from Complex 39A at 11:29 a.m., hauling 9,400 pounds of supplies to the space station.
2001

Atlantis lifts off with Quest airlock; station finally has its own door to open space

Astronauts Gernhardt and Reilly will bolt the 6.5-ton steel-and-aluminum chamber into place across three spacewalks, giving the station a hatch usable by both American and Russian suits.
1995

Discovery lifts off at last; woodpecker damage and a mid-count signal flag had held it back

Six hours after launch, the crew deploys TDRS-G, the last first-generation tracking satellite, raised toward geostationary orbit by the Inertial Upper Stage.
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