The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ... This article is about explosive devices. ... The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ... November 7 is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 54 days remaining. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

On the Monday of November 7, the Senate adjourned at 7:02 p.m. A crowded reception, held near the Senate Chamber, broke up two hours later. At 10:58 p.m. an explosion tore through the second floor of the Capitol’s north wing, the adjacent halls were virtually deserted.

Minutes before the blast, a caller claiming to represent the "Armed Resistance Unit" had warned the Capitol switchboard that a bomb had been placed near the Chamber in retaliation for recent U.S. military involvement in Grenada and Lebanon.

The force of the device, hidden under a bench at the eastern end of the corridor outside the Chamber, blew off the door to the office of Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd. The blast also punched a hole in a wall partition sending a shower of pulverized brick, plaster, and glass into the Republican cloakroom. Although the explosion caused no structural damage to the Capitol, it shattered mirrors, chandeliers, and furniture. Officials calculated damages of $250,000. Robert C. Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born November 20, 1917) is a West Virginia Democrat serving in the United States Senate. ...

A portrait of Daniel Webster, located across from the concealed bomb, received the explosion’s full force. The blast tore away Webster’s face and left it scattered across the Minton tiles in one-inch canvas shards. Senate curator James Ketchum rescued the fragments from debris-filled trash bins. Over the coming months, a conservator painstakingly restored the painting to a credible, if somewhat diminished, version of the original. Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782 – October 25, 1852) was a leading American statesman during the nations antebellum, or Pre-Civil War, era. ...

Following a five-year investigation, federal agents arrested six members of the Resistance Conspiracy in May 1988 and charged them with bombings of the Capitol, Ft. McNair, and the Washington Navy Yard. In 1990, a federal judge sentenced Marilyn Buck, Laura Whitehorn, and Linda Evans to lengthy prison terms for conspiracy and malicious destruction of government property. The court dropped charges against three co-defendants, already serving extended prison sentences for related crimes. (Whitehorn and Evans have since been released.) Fort Lesley J. McNair is an American military installation located at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers in Washington, District of Columbia, across the Washington Channel from East Potomac Park. ... The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Washington, D.C.. The yard currently is a ceremonial and administrative center for the navy, home to the Chief of Naval Operations and is headquarters for the Naval Historical Center, the Marine Corps... Marilyn Buck is a life-long anti-racist and anti-imperialist activist. ...

The 1983 bombing marked the beginning of tightened security measures throughout the Capitol. The area outside the Senate Chamber, previously open to the public, was permanently closed. Congressional officials instituted a system of staff identification cards and added metal detectors to building entrances to supplement those placed at Chamber gallery.

References

• Adapted from Senate Website, a product of the US government