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Today in History: Horse-drawn wagon bomb kills 38 at Wall Street

By Drooid · Sep 16, 2026, 10:36 AM UTC · How we work

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Summary

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At 12:01 p.m. on September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn wagon bomb detonated outside 23 Wall Street, the J.P. Morgan headquarters. The explosion killed 38 people—30 instantly and eight later—and wounded hundreds, with 143 suffering serious injuries, marking one of New York’s deadliest early-20th-century terrorist attacks.

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Story summary

At 12:01 p.m. on September 16, 1920, a horse-drawn wagon bomb detonated outside 23 Wall Street, the J.P. Morgan headquarters. The explosion killed 38 people—30 instantly and eight later—and wounded hundreds, with 143 suffering serious injuries, marking one of New York’s deadliest early-20th-century terrorist attacks.