1983 United States Senate bombing

1983 United States Senate bombing
Part of the New Communist movement
Location	Washington, D.C.
Date	November 7, 1983 10:58 pm (UTC-5)
Target	United States Senate
Attack type	bombing
Deaths	0
Non-fatal injuries	0
Perpetrators	Resistance Conspiracy of the May 19th Communist Organization
Motive	United States military involvement in Grenada and Lebanon

Coordinates: 38°53′24″N 77°00′32″W / 38.89°N 77.009°W / 38.89; -77.009

The 1983 U.S. Senate bombing was a bomb explosion at the United States Senate on November 7, 1983. Six members of the "Resistance Conspiracy" were arrested in May 1988 and charged with the bombing, as well as related bombings of Fort McNair and the Washington Navy Yard.

On that day, 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, in which the U.S. had placed Marines.

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. The explosion caused no structural damage to the Capitol. The force shattered mirrors, chandeliers, and furniture. Officials calculated damages of $250,000 (Nearly $600,000 in 2014).

A portrait of Daniel Webster, 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. The Senate recovered 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.