Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
Part of the Opposition to US involvement in Vietnam
Firemen contain blaze caused and fed by gas lines broken in the explosion
Location	Sub-basement furnace room at 18 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10011
Date	March 6, 1970
Attack type	Premature explosion
Weapons	Dynamite, during bomb assembly
Deaths	Theodore Gold, age 22 Diana Oughton, 28 Terry Robbins, 22

Coordinates: 40°44′03″N 73°59′45″W / 40.734289°N 73.995889°W / 40.734289; -73.995889

The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion occurred on March 6, 1970, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was caused by the premature detonation of a bomb that was being assembled by members of the Weather Underground, an American radical left group. The bomb was under construction in the basement of 18 West 11th Street, when it accidentally exploded; the blast reduced the four-story townhouse to a burning, rubble-strewn ruin. The two persons preparing the bomb were killed instantly (Diana Oughton and Terry Robbins), as was a third "Weatherman" who happened to be walking into the townhouse (Ted Gold); two others were injured but were helped from the scene and later escaped (Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson).

Shortly before noon on Friday, March 6, 1970, people in the townhouse were assembling nail bombs packed with dynamite and roofing nails. Former members of the Weathermen later advanced differing claims as to the planned uses of the bombs. According to Mark Rudd, the plan was to set them off that evening at a dance for noncommissioned officers and their dates at the Fort Dix, New Jersey Army base, to "bring the [Vietnam] war home". Other reports say that some were destined for the Fort Dix dance and some were to destroy the main library at Columbia University.