![]() ![]() There’s been one successful coup in the nation’s history, but that was a local insurrection in a North Carolina city, not the nation’s capital. Library of Congress/Corbis Historical/VCG/Getty Images The aftermath of the 1898 race riots in Wilmington, North Carolina, from the Library of Congress. On April 22, 1999, a federal judge ruled that the shooter suffered from mental disease and was incompetent to stand trial. Law enforcement agents described the assailant, who survived the attack, as an unstable individual who had also made threats against the Pentagon.ĭays after the shooting, the House and Senate approved a resolution for a memorial service for the officers in the Capitol Rotunda. Gibson was fatally wounded during the shootout, but gave other officers the chance to take down the gunman. Gibson told aides to seek cover while he and the gunman exchanged gunfire. in the process, the website says.Īs shots rang out, the gunman ran toward a door that led to the suites of then-Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas. Two Capitol police officers were fatally shot on July 24, 1998, according to a history of the House of Representatives website.Ī gunman with a history of mental illness stormed past a security checkpoint, killing Officer Jacob J. Douglas Graham/CQ-Roll Call Group/Getty Images Capitol Police officers John Gibson and Jacob J. Tourists leave the Capitol on a stretcher after the violence and chaos caused by the shootings that claimed the lives of U.S. More than two decades later, President Jimmy Carter granted them clemency. The nationalists received sentences ranging from 16 to 75 years in federal prison for the attack, the House website said. The violent act of protest was meant to draw attention to their demand for Puerto Rico’s independence, the website says. Three of the assailants were quickly detained and a fourth, who escaped the Capitol, was apprehended later that afternoon, according to the House’s website. Five congressmen were injured in the shooting, the website says. The foursome then opened fire and displayed the Puerto Rican flag. Three men and one woman – all members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party – traveled from New York City to Washington to take their seats in the visitor’s gallery above the chamber. The shooting took place on March 1, 1954, as representatives gathered on the House floor for an upcoming vote, according to the House’s history and archives website. Puerto Rican nationalists smuggled guns into the Capitol and opened fire in 1954, said Samuel Holliday, director of scholarship and operations with the US Capitol Historical Society. Puerto Rican nationalists (from left) Irving Flores Rodriguez, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Lolita Lebron and Andres Figueroa Cordero stand in a police lineup following their arrest after a shooting attack on Capitol Hill in 1954. “The exterior structure survived and many of the interior spaces remained intact,” the website says. Fortunately, the building was not destroyed, the website says. The Capitol was still under construction at the time, and most of the damage to parts of the wings was severe. “The White House, the navy yard and several American warships were also burned.” ![]() “The British torched major rooms in the Capitol, which then housed the Library of Congress, as well as the House, Senate and Supreme Court,” the website states. Most of the population of the city at the time fled, the website says, but “those who remained … were witness to a horrifying spectacle.” British troops met little to no resistance during the raid, according to the Capitol architect website. The attack was in retaliation for Americans’ burning of the Canadian capital, York, in April 1813. Courtesy AOC.govīritish troops attacked the Capitol on August 24, 1814, during the War of 1812, according to the Architect of the Capitol website. A view of the Capitol after the British burning on the 24th August 1814. ![]()
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