Wikipedia:Today's featured article/March 22, 2006

A plaque listing the victims of the bombings

The Bath School disaster was a series of bombings of a farm, school and car in Bath Township, Michigan, on May 18, 1927. The bombings killed 45 people and injured an additional 58; most of these were children in the second through sixth grades. The Bath School disaster is the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in United States history, claiming more than three times as many victims as the Columbine High School massacre. Bath Consolidated school board member Andrew Kehoe was upset by a property tax levy used to fund the school building. He blamed the additional tax for putting his farm into foreclosure. On the morning of May 18, Kehoe first killed his wife and then set his farm buildings on fire. As fire fighters arrived at the farm, an explosion rocked the school building. A detonator Kehoe planted in the school ignited dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol. While rescuers were gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped and detonated a bomb in his shrapnel-filled vehicle. With this, Kehoe killed himself and the school superintendent, as well as killing and injuring several more. (continued...)

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