Terrorism Incidents 1960 – 1969

1960

March

One hundred killed and two hundred injured when anti-Castro rebels blow up French freighter in Havana harbour, Cuba.

April 9

South African prime minister Henrik Verwoerd shot in face by anti-apartheid white farmer at a fair in Johannesburg, South Africa.

August 29

Jordanian prime minister and eleven others killed by bomb in the foreign ministry building, Amman, Jordan. Two of the bombers fled to safety and eleven others are sentenced to death for the attack.

1961

February 23

Cruise liner hijacked by Portuguese rebels, who take more than 550 passengers hostage. US and Brazilian warships intercept the ship and force the hijackers to surrender to the Brazilian authorities.

May 1

First ever United States aircraft hi-jacked and forced to fly to Communist Cuba. Puerto Rican born Abntulio Ramirez Ortiz forced the National Airlines Corvair 44O to fly to Havana at gun point and was then given asylum. He was jailed for twenty years when he returned to Maimi, United States, in 1975.

September 9

Organisation Armee Secrete (Secret Army Organisation/OAS) terrorists protesting about French moves to give Algeria independence attempt to blow up French President Charles De Gaulle in Aube, France, but road side bomb fails to explode.

December 16

African National Congress launch bombing campaign that damages government buildings throughout South Africa. This first ANC terror campaign lasts for eighteen months and involves some two hundred attacks.

1962

January

One women killed and thirteen people wounded when OAS terrorists bomb foreign ministry building at Quai d’Orasy, Paris, France.

August 22

OAS terrorists stage machine gun attack on car carrying French President Charles de Gaulle in a Paris suburb. The president escaped the attack unhurt and the former French soldiers who carried out the attack were all later arrested. Further unsuccessful assassination attempts were made by the OAS on 1 and 15 March 1963. Five more murder attempts on the president failed in 1964 and three attacks were made on him in 1965.

1965

February 21

Black power leader Malcolm X shot dead during a public meeting in Auboadan ballroom, in Harlem, New York City, United States.

May 25

Three Israeli civilians killed in Al Fatah Palestinian terrorist attack on Jewish settlement at Ramat Hakovash, Israel.

September 1

British speaker of Aden state council murdered by Arab nationalists as he drove to a tennis club, Aden City, South Arabia. This follows an assassination attempt against a British police superintendent in August. Two weeks later seven British children were injured when a grenade was thrown at the Aden airport terminal.

1966

August 4

An American and two Colombians killed by bomb planted by left wing rebels in the Binational Centre, Bogota, Colombia.

September 26

El Condor nationalists hijack Argentine aircraft from Buenos Aires to British occupied Falklands in a bid to bring attention to Argentina’s claim to the islands. They eventually surrendered their hostages and were returned to Argentina by the British authorities.

November 22

A DC-3 aircraft blown up in mid-air near Aden, South Arabia, killing all twenty eight people on board. Bomb was placed in baggage area of aircraft.

1967

March 23

Six government soldiers killed in Bolivia by Communist guerillas led by Cuban Che Guevara. Seven months later his group was tracked down by government troops and Guevara was killed.

June 30

Aircraft carrying Katangan rebel leader Moise Tshombe hijacked en route to Ibiza, Spain, and forced to land in Algeria in a bid to extradite him to his native Congo. The Algerians kept him under house arrest until he died two years later.

October 12

British European Airways Comet airliner destroyed by a bomb that detonated in the passenger cabin over Rhodes, Greece. All sixty six people on board died.

1968

February 21

A Delta Airlines DC8 was forced to fly to Havana, Cuba, in the first successful hijacking of a US commercial airliner since 1961. The hijacker was granted political asylum.

March 18

School bus hits land mine in Negev desert, Israel, killing two adults and injuring twenty eight children. The Israelis stage major retaliatory raid into Jordan to hunt down the Palestinian Al Fatah terrorists responsible.

April 4

Black civil rights activist Rev Martin Luther King shot dead in a hotel in Memphis, United States with long range sniper rifle fired by James Earl Ray. Large scale rioting erupts in many cities across America.

June 5

American presidential candidate Robert Kennedy murdered by Jordanian terrorist, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, in Los Angeles, United States. His killer was arrested and became the cause of further terrorist attacks, as Arab terrorist groups demanded his release.

July 22

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine carry out first ever aircraft hijacking, seizing an El Al Boeing 707 in Rome, Italy, and diverting it to Algeria. Thirty two Jewish passengers held hostages for five weeks.

August 28

John Gordon Meir, US ambassador to Guatemala is murdered by a rebel faction when they force his official car off the road in Guatemala City and machine gun the vehicle. He is the first ever American ambassador to be assassinated by terrorists.

September 4

Three bombs explode in central Tel Aviv, Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding seventy one civilians.

October 12

A US Army officer serving as an advisor to the Brazilian army is gunned down in his home, in San Paulo, Brazil by left wing guerillas, who falsely claim he is a Vietnam “war criminal”.

November 22

Mahaneh Yehuda market, Israel, bombed by Al Fatah Palestinian terrorists killing twelve civilians and injuring fifty two.

December 26

One Israeli killed in Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine machine gun attack on El Al aircraft at Athens airport, Greece. Two terrorists were captured but later released by the Greek government after a Greek aircraft was hijacked to Beirut. Three days after the Athens attack Israeli commandos raid Beirut airport, Lebanon and blow up thirteen Arab airliners worth $43 million.

1969

February 18

Palestinian terrorists attack El Al Boeing 707 on runway at Zurich airport, Switzerland, raking the fuselage with gunfire, killing the pilot and three passengers. An Israeli skymarshall/secuirty guard returned fire killing one of the terrorists and drove off the reminder.

February 21

Palestinian terrorists explode a bomb in a crowded supermarket in Jerusalem, Israel, killing two people and injuring twenty.

August 29

TWA hijacked by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorists after taking off from Rome, Italy, led by Leila Khalid, and forced to fly to Damascus, Syria. All the passengers and crew were released unharmed but the terrorists exploded a bomb in the cockpit of the aircraft.

September 4

American ambassador Charles Elbrick kidnapped in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by left wing terrorists and freed after 15 terrorists were released from jail.

October 22

Four civilians killed by Palestinian bombs in two apartments in Haifa, Israeli, and twenty others wounded.

December 12

Left wing anarchist terrorists kill sixteen and wound ninety when they blow up a bank in Milan, Italy. In July 1970, the same group de-rails a train near Rome, Italy, killing six and injuring one hundred.

Click below to view incidents by decade:

1940 -1949
1950 -1959
1960 -1969
1970 -1979
1980 -1989
1990 -1998
1999 – 2004

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