Video: '1993 World Trade Center Bombing - Live News Coverage - Part 1'

(Friday, February 26, 1993, 12:17:37 p.m. EST; during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, part of terrorism in the United States) — A powerful van bomb set off by terrorists exploded today in the underground parking garage of the North Tower of New York City’s World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring 1,042 others – mostly with smoke inhalation or minor burns, but dozens with cuts, bruises, broken bones or serious burns.

Video: '1993 World Trade Center Bombing - Live News Coverage - Part 2'

The explosion shook the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan with the force of a small earthquake, collapsing walls and floors, igniting fires, and plunging the city’s largest building complex into a maelstrom of smoke, darkness, and fearful chaos.

Video: '1993 World Trade Center Bombing - Live News Coverage - Part 3'

The 1,336-pound urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device, however, failed to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people, as the terrorists had hoped (both structures were destroyed in the 9/11 attack eight years later).

About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings.

Video: 'Before 9/11: The World Trade Center Bombing | The FBI Files | Real Crime'

The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj. They received $660 from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef’s uncle.

Video: '1993 World Trade Center Bombing Documentary'

In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad, and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives.

In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the organizer behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the van carrying the bomb.