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Tuesday, October 10, 2023

National Trust for Historic Preservation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Trust for Historic Preservation
FormationAct of Congress, October 26, 1949
Typenonprofit, member-supported
HeadquartersWashington, D.C., USA
Membership
approximately 300,000
President
Paul Edmondson
Main organ
Board of Trustees
Websitesavingplaces.org

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by congressional charter to support the preservation of America’s diverse historic buildings, neighborhoods, and heritage through its programs, resources, and advocacy.

Overview

The National Trust for Historic Preservation was headquartered in the Watergate complex, Washington, D.C.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation aims to empower local preservationists by providing leadership to save and revitalize America's historic places, and by working on both national policies as well as local preservation campaigns through its network of field offices and preservation partners, including the National Park Service, State Historic Preservation Offices, and local preservation groups.

The National Trust is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with field operations located throughout the country. The organization is governed by a board of trustees and led by president & CEO, Paul Edmondson. As of January 2020, the National Trust reports that it has around 300,000 members and supporters.

In addition to leading campaigns and advocacy, the National Trust provides a growing educational resource through the Preservation Leadership Forum, which offers articles, journals, case studies, and conferences and training. The National Trust issues the quarterly Preservation magazine as well as online stories.

The National Trust’s current work focuses on building sustainable communities through the adaptive reuse of historic spaces; preserving and empowering cultural diversity through protecting sites of cultural significance; advocating for greater stewardship of historic places on public land; and leading innovation in the management of historic properties.

History

The National Trust for Historic Preservation's former headquarters of 35 years, the Andrew Mellon Building, located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The National Trust moved its headquarters to the Watergate complex in 2013.

Toward the end of the 19th century, in response to increased immigration and the broad effort of rebuilding after the Civil War, the country was developing a renewed sense of national identity and history. The government began to enact legislation for the preservation of sites and objects deemed significant to the nation’s history. In 1872, an Act of Congress established the first National Park, Yellowstone. In 1906, the Antiquities Act enabled the President to declare landmarks or objects as a national monument. Then in 1935, during the Great Depression, Congress passed the Historic Sites Act, which outlined programs for research and inventory of historic sites.

Meanwhile, historic preservation initiatives existed on local and state levels. In 1931, Charleston, South Carolina created the first historic district for protection. However, efforts to save and maintain historic sites were still largely limited to private citizens or local groups.

In the late 1940s, leaders in American historic preservation saw the need for a national organization to support local preservation efforts. In 1946, David E. Finley Jr., George McAneny, Christopher Crittenden, and Ronald Lee met at the National Gallery of Art to discuss the formation of such a national organization. This meeting was followed by a larger gathering on April 15, 1947, attended by representatives from a number of art, architectural, and historical societies, which culminated in the creation of the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings. The meeting’s attendants became the first charter members of the council. The organization’s first headquarters was in the offices of Ford’s Theatre (Lincoln Museum) in downtown Washington, D.C.

The Council pursued the formation of a National Trust for Historic Preservation, somewhat modeled on the British National Trust, which would be tasked with the acquisition and maintenance of historic properties. The creation of the National Trust was proposed as a bill to Congress, H.R. 5170, introduced by Congressman J. Hardin Peterson of Florida and passed.

The private, nonprofit National Trust for Historic Preservation was formally established by charter through the Act of Congress when President Harry S. Truman signed the legislation on October 26, 1949. The charter provided that the Trust should acquire and preserve historic sites and objects of national significance and provide annual reports to Congress on its activities. Finley served as the National Trust's first chairman of the board, remaining in the position for 12 years. Archaeologist Richard Hubbard Howland became the nonprofit's first president in 1956.

Woodlawn Plantation & Pope-Leighey House, Alexandria, Virginia was the first site acquired for the National Trust portfolio.

The National Trust and the National Council existed side by side for several years until the need to merge resources compelled the executive committee to integrate the two entities. In 1952, the boards of both organizations approved a merger of the Council into the National Trust. The merger was effective the following year and was completed by 1956. The National Trust became a membership organization and assumed all other functions of the National Council.

In its early years, the National Trust’s founders envisioned an organization whose primary purpose would be the acquisition and administration of historic sites, while encouraging public participation in their preservation. In 1957, the National Trust officially acquired its first property, Woodlawn Plantation in northern Virginia. Since then, the National Trust portfolio of historic properties and contracted affiliates has expanded to include twenty-seven historic sites, ranging from the 18th-century Drayton Hall in South Carolina to the Modernist Glass House in Connecticut.

Over the next decade, the National Trust grew to become the leading national organization in historic preservation. They began working with citizens and city planning officials on legislative matters, including federal, state, and municipal ordinances for historic preservation. National Trust staff also traveled to parts of the country to advise local communities on preservation projects.

In 1966, Congress passed the National Historic Preservation Act, significant legislation for the preservation movement. The Act also provided federal funding in support of the National Trust’s work. The funding later ceased in 1996, at which point the National Trust became entirely privately funded.

Following the adoption of the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Trust broadened in its mission beyond administering historic sites. In 1969, the National Trust created the Preservation Services Fund to provide financial assistance to local preservation projects. In 1971, the National Trust opened its first field office in San Francisco. As the organization grew, the National Trust expanded its work, consisting of programs, educational resources, and advocacy. In 1980, the National Trust initiated the National Main Street Center, specializing in revitalizing historic business districts, which has since transitioned into a subsidiary.

The portfolio of National Trust sites has expanded to include Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.

In 2010, Stephanie Meeks became the organization’s president, replacing Richard Moe, who had led the organization for 17 years. She directed the National Trust’s work toward a more focused, cause-based approach, and conducted more robust outreach to local preservationists. As part of this new approach, the National Trust initiated the National Treasures portfolio; it specifically identifies threatened sites and creates strategies to preserve them.

In 2013, the National Trust headquarters moved from the Andrew Mellon Building on 1785 Massachusetts Avenue, NW in Washington D.C.’s Dupont Circle to the historic Watergate office complex. Meeks said in a statement about the move, "The selection of the Watergate demonstrates our ongoing commitment to recognizing and protecting important places from every era in American history, including the recent past." In 2022, the National Trust headquarters moved from the Watergate to a shared coworking space (located in a former Garfinckel's department store) in downtown D.C.

The National Trust’s programs include publication of the annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places, first issued in 1988, which highlights endangered sites across the country.

Meeks stepped down as president in December 2018. Former general counsel and chief legal officer Paul Edmondson is serving as president and CEO.

Programs

The Houston Astrodome is one of the National Trust's National Treasures.
The historic Rosenwald Schools are named a National Treasure.
The San Jose Church in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico was included in 2013's list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
Grant Wood's boyhood home, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, listed as one of the most endangered historic sites in Iowa.
The Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places List

Main article: America's Most Endangered Places

First published in 1988, the National Trust’s list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places is an annual list that highlights endangered historic sites across the United States. The list serves to raise national awareness of these sites. The sites are nominated by the public and eventually selected based on a range of factors, including its significance, whether there is a local group engaged in its preservation, the urgency of the threat, and potential solutions to that threat.

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

In 2017, the Trust launched an initiative called the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to identify underrepresented Black cultural sites in need of funding for restoration and preservation. The program has been directed by historian Brent Leggs.

Preservation Leadership Forum and resources

The National Trust for Historic Preservation organizes the Preservation Leadership Forum, a network of preservation professionals.

Historic Hotels of America

Main article: Historic Hotels of America
The Caribbean Motel in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey, listed in the National Register of Historic Places

The National Trust for Historic Preservation created Historic Hotels of America in 1989, with 32 charter members. Historic Hotels of America identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of place, and architectural integrity. As of June 5, 2015, the program includes over 260 members in 44 states, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

To be included in the program, hotels must be at least 50 years old; designated by the U.S. Secretary of the Interior as a National Historic Landmark or listed in or eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places; and recognized as having historic significance.

National Treasures

Initiated in 2011, the National Treasures program identified historically significant landmarks that face imminent threat. With the support of local preservationists, the National Trust led direct action to save these sites through fundraising, coalition building, and legal advocacy. The sites were selected based on criteria including: integrity, contribution to America’s diverse history, and preservation strategies that can be applied to other sites.

The portfolio of National Treasures included, for example:

Advocacy

The National Trust’s advocacy arm works to effect policy at the local, state, and federal level. Current advocacy priorities are:

Historic Tax Credit (HTC)

The Historic Tax Credit (HTC) is the federal tax credit program that incentivizes the rehabilitation of historic buildings. The HTC, which has rehabilitated more than 38,700 buildings and leveraged about $106 billion in private investment nationwide, is in danger of being eliminated in current budget-balancing discussions in Congress.

Federal transportation legislation

The federal Department of Transportation Act of 1966 included Section 4(f), which stipulates that planners must develop projects that protect or avoid historic resources. However, Section 4(f) is periodically challenged through the transportation reauthorization process, most recently during the consideration of MAP-21. Due to work by preservationists, Section 4(f) remains intact.

Public lands

The National Trust advocates for the preservation of historic and cultural resources on federal public lands, partnering with the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service. The National Trust supported the Green Mountain Lookout Heritage Protection Act, a bill that would prevent the United States Forest Service from removing a building from the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in Washington State unless the agency determines that the structure is unsafe for visitors. The National Trust stating that it was "pleased that Congress has acted to protect this historically significant and locally cherished landmark. With this vote, the House joins the Senate in affirming that the preservation of this historic resource is compatible with wilderness protection."

National Trust Historic Sites

Drayton Hall, Charleston, South Carolina
Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois

The National Trust portfolio of historic sites contains National Trust owned-and-operated sites (stewardship sites), sites owned but not operated by the National Trust (co-stewardships), and contracted affiliates.

Stewardships

Sites owned and operated by the National Trust:

Co-stewardships

Cliveden, an important site in the Battle of Germantown

Sites owned or leased by the National Trust and operated by an independent nonprofit organization:

Contracted affiliates

Acoma Pueblo Sky City, Acoma, New Mexico

Sites neither owned nor operated by the National Trust but are included by cooperative agreements:

Subsidiaries and affiliated companies

Subsidiaries

Affiliated Companies of the National Trust

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Flood myth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth
"The Deluge", frontispiece to Gustave Doré's illustrated edition of the Bible

A flood myth or a deluge myth is a myth in which a great flood, usually sent by a deity or deities, destroys civilization, often in an act of divine retribution. Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primaeval waters which appear in certain creation myths, as the flood waters are described as a measure for the cleansing of humanity, in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero, who "represents the human craving for life".

The flood-myth motif occurs in many cultures, including the manvantara-sandhya in Hinduism, Deucalion and Pyrrha in Greek mythology, the Genesis flood narrative, the Mesopotamian flood stories, and the Cheyenne flood story.

Mythologies

One example of a flood myth is the Epic of Gilgamesh. Many scholars believe that this account was copied from the Akkadian Atra-Hasis, which dates to the 18th century BCE. In the Gilgamesh flood myth, the highest god, Enlil, decides to destroy the world with a flood because humans have become too noisy. The god Ea, who had created humans out of clay and divine blood, secretly warns the hero Utnapishtim of the impending flood and gives him detailed instructions for building a boat so that life may survive. Both the Epic of Gilgamesh and Atra-Hasis are preceded by the similar Sumerian creation myth (c. 1600 BCE)—the oldest surviving example of such a flood-myth narrative, known from tablets found in the ruins of Nippur in the late 1890s and translated by assyriologist Arno Poebel.

George Smith, who discovered and translated the Epic of Gilgamesh

Academic Yi Samuel Chen analyzed various texts from the Early Dynastic III Period through to the Old Babylonian Period, and argues that the flood narrative was only added in texts written during the Old Babylonian Period. With regard to the Sumerian King List, observations by experts have always indicated that the portion of the Sumerian King List talking about before the flood differs stylistically from the King List Proper. Essentially Old Babylonian copies tend to represent a tradition of before the flood apart from the actual King List, whereas the Ur III copy of the King List and the duplicate from the Brockmon collection indicate that the King List Proper once existed independent of mention of the flood and the tradition of before the flood. Essentially, Chen gives evidence to prove that the section of before the flood and references to the flood in the Sumerian King List were all later additions added in during the Old Babylonian Period, as the Sumerian King List went through updates and edits. The flood as a watershed in early history of the world was probably a new historiographical concept emerging in the Mesopotamian literary traditions during the Old Babylonian Period, as evident by the fact that the flood motif did not show up in the Ur III copy and that earliest chronographical sources related to the flood show up in the Old Babylonian Period. Chen also concludes that the name of "Ziusudra" as a flood hero and the idea of the flood hinted at by that name in the Old Babylonian Version of "Instructions of Shuruppak" are only developments during that Old Babylonian Period, when also the didactic text was updated with information from the burgeoning Antediluvian Tradition.

In the Hebrew Genesis, the god Yahweh, who had created man out of the dust of the ground, decides to flood the earth because of the corrupted state of mankind. Yahweh then gives the protagonist, Noah, instructions to build an ark in order to preserve human and animal life. When the ark is completed, Noah, his family, and representatives of all the animals of the earth are called upon to enter the ark. When the destructive flood begins, all life outside of the ark perishes. After the waters recede, all those aboard the ark disembark and have Yahweh's promise that he will never judge the earth with a flood again. Yahweh causes a rainbow to form as the sign of this promise.

In Hindu mythology, texts such as the Satapatha Brahmana (c. 6th century BCE) and the Puranas contain the story of a great flood, "manvantara-sandhya", wherein the Matsya Avatar of the Vishnu warns the first man, Manu, of the impending flood, and also advises him to build a giant boat. In Zoroastrian Mazdaism, Ahriman tries to destroy the world with a drought, which Mithra ends by shooting an arrow into a rock, from which a flood springs; one man survives in an ark with his cattle. Norbert Oettinger argues that the story of Yima and the Vara was originally a flood myth, and the harsh winter was added in due to the dry nature of Eastern Iran, as flood myths did not have as much of an effect as harsh winters. He has argued that the mention of melted water flowing in Videvdad 2.24 is a remnant of the flood myth, and mentions that the Indian flood myths originally had their protagonist as Yama, but it was changed to Manu later.

In Plato's Timaeus, written c. 360 BCE, Timaeus describes a flood myth similar to the earlier versions. In it, the Bronze race of humans angers the high god Zeus with their constant warring. Zeus decides to punish humanity with a flood. The Titan Prometheus, who had created humans from clay, tells the secret plan to Deucalion, advising him to build an ark in order to be saved. After nine nights and days, the water starts receding and the ark lands on a mountain.

The Cheyenne, a North American Great Plains tribe, believe in a flood which altered the course of their history, perhaps occurring in the Missouri River Valley.

Historicity

Floods in the wake of the Last Glacial Period (c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago) are speculated to have inspired myths that survive to this day. Plato's allegory of Atlantis is set over 9,000 years before his time, leading some scholars to suggest that a Stone Age society which lived close to the Mediterranean Sea could have been wiped out by the rising sea level, an event which could have served as the basis for the story.

Archaeologist Bruce Masse stated that some of the narratives of a great flood discovered in many cultures around the world may be linked to an oceanic asteroid impact that occurred between Africa and Antarctica, around the time of a solar eclipse, that caused a tsunami. Among the 175 myths he analyzed were a Hindu myth speaking of an alignment of the five planets at the time, and a Chinese story linking the flood to the end of the reign of Empress Nu Wa. Fourteen flood myths refer to a full solar eclipse. According to Masse these indications point to the date May 10, 2807 BC. His hypothesis suggests that a meteor or comet crashed into the Indian Ocean around 3000–2800 BCE, which created the 30-kilometre (19 mi) undersea Burckle Crater and Fenambosy Chevron, and generated a giant tsunami that flooded coastal lands.

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia, like other early sites of riverine civilisation, was flood-prone; and for those experiencing valley-wide inundations, flooding could destroy the whole of their known world. According to the excavation report of the 1930s excavation at Shuruppak (modern Tell Fara, Iraq), the Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic layers at the site were separated by a 60-cm yellow layer of alluvial sand and clay, indicating a flood, like that created by river avulsion, a process common in the Tigris–Euphrates river system. Similar layers have been recorded at other sites as well, all dating to different periods, which would be consistent with the nature of river avulsions. Shuruppak in Mesopotamian legend was the city of Uta-napishtim, the king who built a boat to survive the coming flood. The alluvial layer dates from around 2900 BC.

Earth's sea level rose dramatically in the millennia after the Last Glacial Maximum

The geography of the Mesopotamian area changed considerably with the filling of the Persian Gulf after sea waters rose following the last glacial period. Global sea levels were about 120 m (390 ft) lower around 18,000 BP and rose until 8,000 BP when they reached current levels, which are now an average 40 m (130 ft) above the floor of the Gulf, which was a huge (800 km × 200 km, 500 mi × 120 mi) low-lying and fertile region in Mesopotamia, in which human habitation is thought to have been strong around the Gulf Oasis for 100,000 years. A sudden increase in settlements above the present-day water level is recorded at around 7,500 BP.

Mediterranean Basin

The historian Adrienne Mayor theorizes that global flood stories may have been inspired by ancient observations of seashells and fish fossils in inland and mountain areas. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans all documented the discovery of such remains in such locations; the Greeks hypothesized that Earth had been covered by water on several occasions, citing the seashells and fish fossils found on mountain tops as evidence of this idea.

Speculation regarding the Deucalion myth has postulated a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea, caused by the Thera eruption (with an approximate geological date of 1630–1600 BCE), as the myth's historical basis. Although the tsunami hit the South Aegean Sea and Crete, it did not affect cities in the mainland of Greece, such as Mycenae, Athens, and Thebes, which continued to prosper, indicating that it had a local rather than a region-wide effect.

Black Sea deluge hypothesis

The Black Sea deluge hypothesis offers a controversial account of long-term flooding; the hypothesis argues for a catastrophic irruption of water about 5600 BCE from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea basin. This has become the subject of considerable discussion. The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis offers another proposed natural explanation for flood myths; this idea is similarly controversial.

Comets

Painting from 1840 depicting a comet causing the Great Flood
The Eve of the Deluge, by John Martin, 1840. Depicts a comet causing the Great Flood.

The earliest known hypothesis about a comet that had a widespread effect on human populations can be attributed to Edmond Halley, who in 1694 suggested that a worldwide flood had been the result of a near-miss by a comet. The issue was taken up in more detail by William Whiston, a protégé of and popularizer of the theories of Isaac Newton, who argued in his book A New Theory of the Earth (1696) that a comet encounter was the probable cause of the Biblical Flood of Noah in 2342 BCE. Whiston also attributed the origins of the atmosphere and other significant changes in the Earth to the effects of comets.

In Pierre-Simon Laplace's book Exposition Du Systême Du Monde (The System of the World), first published in 1796, he stated:

[T]he greater part of men and animals drowned in a universal deluge, or destroyed by the violence of the shock given to the terrestrial globe; whole species destroyed; all the monuments of human industry reversed: such are the disasters which a shock of a comet would produce.

A similar hypothesis was popularized by Minnesota congressman and pseudoarchaeology writer Ignatius L. Donnelly in his book Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (1883), which followed his better-known book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882). In Ragnarok, Donnelly argued that an enormous comet struck the Earth around 6,000 BCE to 9,000 BCE, destroying an advanced civilization on the "lost continent" of Atlantis. Donnelly, following others before him, attributed the Biblical Flood to this event, which he hypothesized had also resulted in catastrophic fires and climate change. Shortly after the publication of Ragnarok, one commenter noted, "Whiston ascertained that the deluge of Noah came from a comet's tail; but Donnelly has outdone Whiston, for he has shown that our planet has suffered not only from a cometary flood, but from cometary fire, and a cometary rain of stones."

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Vehicle-ramming attack

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle-ramming_attack
The 2017 Stockholm truck attack killed five.
The 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack killed three.

A vehicle-ramming attack, also known as a vehicle as a weapon or VAW attack, is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, people, or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombings.

Deliberate vehicle-ramming into a crowd of people is a tactic used by terrorists, becoming a major terrorist tactic in the 2010s because it requires little skill to perpetrate, cars and trucks are widely available, and it has the potential to cause significant casualties. Deliberate vehicle-ramming has also been carried out in the course of other types of crimes, including road rage incidents. Deliberate vehicle-ramming incidents have also sometimes been ascribed to the driver's psychiatric disorder.

Vehicles have also been used by attackers to breach buildings with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.

Causes and motives

Ease

According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the tactic has gained popularity because "Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience." Vehicles are as easy to acquire as knives, but unlike knives, which may arouse suspicion if found in one's possession, vehicles are essential for daily life, and the capability of vehicles to cause casualties if used aggressively is underestimated.

Islamic terrorism

Counterterrorism researcher Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies told Slate that the tactic has been on the rise in Israel because, "the security barrier is fairly effective, which makes it hard to get bombs into the country." In 2010, Inspire, the online, English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged mujahideen to choose "pedestrian only" locations and make sure to gain speed before ramming their vehicles into the crowd in order to "achieve maximum carnage".

Vehicle attacks can be carried out by lone-wolf terrorists who are inspired by an ideology but who are not working within a specific political movement or group. Writing for The Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel suggests that the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack may be "the kind of terrorist the West could be seeing a lot more of in the future", a kind that he describes, following Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation, as "stray dogs", rather than lone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure to Islamist propaganda. A 2014 propaganda video by ISIL encouraged French sympathizers to use cars to run down civilians.

According to Clint Watts, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where he is a senior fellow and expert on terrorism, the older model where members of groups like al-Qaeda would "plan and train together before going to carry out an attack, became defunct around 2005", due to increased surveillance by Western security agencies. Watts says that Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al-Qaeda imam, as a key figure in this shift, addressing English-speakers in their language and urging them to "Do your own terrorism and stay in place."

Jamie Bartlett, who heads the Violence and Extremism Program at Demos, a British think tank, explains that "the internet in the last few years has both increased the possibilities and the likelihood of lone-wolf terrorism", supplying isolated individuals with ideological motivation and technique. For authorities in Western countries, the difficulty is that even in a case like that of the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack, where Canadian police had identified the attacker, taken away his passport, and were working with his family and community to steer him away from jihad, vehicle attacks can be hard to prevent because, "it's very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed. We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it's not a crime in Canada."

According to Stratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents. Experts see a saving grace in the ignorance and incompetence of most lone-wolf terrorists, who often manage to murder very few people.

Protest encounters

Vehicular ramming has sometimes been advocated to attack protesters who block public roadways in the United States. Two police officers were suspended and fired in January and June 2016, respectively, for tweeting such advice about Black Lives Matter rallies, which have sometimes been broken up by cars. North Dakota state legislator Keith Kempenich tried and failed to pass a law granting civil immunity to drivers who accidentally hit activists after his mother-in-law was stopped by Dakota Access Pipeline protesters, and Tennessee Senator Bill Ketron did likewise after a man hit an anti-Trump group. Similar legislation has been introduced in Florida and Texas. After the white supremacist Unite the Right rally, in which an anti-fascist counterprotester was killed and multiple were injured in a vehicle ramming attack.

Protective measures

Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, UK. These heavy blocks of concrete are designed to prevent a car bomb or other device being rammed into the building.
Concrete blocks in the city centre of Dresden during the 2016 German Unity Day Celebrations
Bollards installed on London Bridge to prevent attacks
Main article: Hostile vehicle mitigation

Protective measures against vehicle attacks are known as hostile vehicle mitigation. This involves reducing the risk posed by vehicle as a weapon attacks through a mixture of measures. Visibly this often includes physical barriers, but also includes other measures such as deterrence, staff training, traffic management, and incident response planning.

Security bollards are credited with minimizing damage and casualties in the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack, and with preventing ramming in the 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, leading the assailant to abandon his car and attack pedestrians waiting at a bus stop with a knife, after his effort to run them over was thwarted. However, Berlin's police chief, Klaus Kandt, argued that bollards would not have prevented the 2016 Berlin truck attack, and that the required security measures would be "varied, complex, and far from a panacea".

On 23 October 2014, the US National Institute of Building Sciences updated its Building Design Guideline on Crash- and Attack-Resistant Models of bollards, a guideline written to help professionals design bollards to protect facilities from vehicle operators, "who plan or carry out acts of property destruction, incite terrorism, or cause the deaths of civilian, industrial or military populations". The American Bar Association recommends bollards as effective protection against car-ramming attacks.

In January 2018, it was announced by the then mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, that the city planned to install 1,500 steel street barriers to prevent vehicle attacks. This came after the city's two vehicle-ramming attacks in 2017 killed nine people.

Münster has been planning to install security bollards in public areas in response to vehicle-ramming attacks in European cities, including the Berlin attack. While only selected locations can be protected this way, tight bends and restricted-width streets may also prevent a large vehicle getting speed before reaching a barrier.

Modern Internet-connected drive-by-wire cars can potentially be hacked remotely and used for such attacks. To demonstrate the severity of this type of attack, 2015 hackers remotely carjacked a Jeep from 10 miles away and drove it into a ditch. Measures for cybersecurity of automobiles to prevent such attacks are often criticized as being insufficient.

List of attacks

Terrorism

In chronological order:

Suspected terrorism

Other

  • 1953 Elias Antonio case, Syrian merchant who killed one person and wounded up to 29 others in Bento Ribeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil when ramming his car into a carnival block
  • 1964 Taipei attack (ramming people)
  • 1973 Olga Hepnarová case, Czechoslovakian woman using a truck to go on a rampage; 8 dead, 12 injured.
  • 1973 Plains attack (ramming people)
  • 1974 Eugen Grigore case, Romanian man drives cargo truck into Gypsy nomad encampment; 24 dead, around 50 injured
  • 1980 Wantagh attack (ramming people)
  • 1982 Beijing attack (ramming people). 5 dead, 19 injured.
  • 1982 Langfang attack (ramming and stabbing). 13 dead, 17 injured.
  • 1983 Changde massacre (ramming people). 21 dead, 29 injured.
  • 1983 Douglas Crabbe drove a 25-tonne Mack truck into the crowded bar of a motel at the base of Uluru on 18 August 1983. Five people were killed, and sixteen were seriously injured.
  • 1983 Beirut barracks bombings, Lebanon (building ramming and exploding)
  • 1984 Los Angeles attack (ramming people)
  • 1993 Jacarepaguá attack (ramming people)
  • 1994 - An off duty Federal Express pilot Auburn Calloway attacks the pilots of Federal Express Flight 705 and attempts to take over the plane so that he can crash into the airport. He is stopped by the pilots. 
  • 1995 New York City attack (ramming and stabbing).
  • 1995 Shawn Nelson case, a plumber using a stolen tank to go on a rampage
  • 1998 Putian 26-day spree ramming.
  • 1999 Emiko Taira (mother of Japanese pop singer Namie Amuro) and her husband Tatsunobu Taira were walking along a road near National Highway No. 58 in Ōgimi, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan when Tatsunobu's brother Kenji Taira backed his car into a telephone pole and ran over the couple on 17 March 1999. Emiko Taira was killed. Kenji Taira later committed suicide.
  • 1999 Shimonoseki Station massacre (ramming and stabbing)
  • 2001 The Hamptons rampage, socialite Lizzie Grubman rams into a crowd outside a club with SUV (16 injured).
  • 2001 Kampala attack (ramming people)
  • 2001 Dalian attack (ramming people). 1 dead, and 18 were injured.
  • 2001 Shenzhen attack (ramming and stabbing). 8 dead and 4−7 injured.
  • 2002 New York City attack (ramming people).
  • 2002 San Cristóbal Ecatepec attack (ramming people).
  • 2002 Murder of David Lynn Harris
  • 2003 Düsseldorf attack (ramming people)
  • 2003 A psychologically unstable person kills one and hurts eighteen in Stockholm's old town. A second death later occurs in a hospital.
  • 2004 Marvin Heemeyer case, a welder using an armored bulldozer to destroy buildings
  • 2005 Las Vegas attack (ramming people)
  • 2006 Dublin attack (ramming people)
  • 2006 Berlin attack (ramming people during soccer championship, found insane)
  • 2006 Shenzhen attack (ramming and stabbing)
  • 2006 San Francisco SUV rampage, 2006 case of a paranoid schizophrenic man from Afghanistan using an SUV to go on a rampage
  • 2007 Berrwiller attack (ramming people)
  • 2008 Akihabara massacre, mass murder using a truck and a dagger
  • 2009 attack on the Dutch royal family (ramming people, attempt to attack the Dutch royals including the reigning monarch; 8 killed)
  • 2010 Zhengzhou attack (ramming people). 6 dead, 20 injured.
  • 2010 Hebei tractor rampage, 2010 mass murder using a bucket loader
  • 2011 Changsha attack (ramming people). 5 dead, 5 injured.
  • 2012 Pune attack (ramming people)
  • 2012 Zhangjiajie attack (ramming people). 6 dead, 9 injured.
  • 2012 Cardiff Hit and Run Rampage Matthew Tvrdon, under a psychotic episode, got angry with a woman and began ramming her and numerous pedestrians with his van over eight miles for 30 minutes, killing Karina Menzies and injuring 12 others. He admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and is detained indefinitely under the Mental Health Act.
  • 2012 Fengning attack (ramming people)
  • 2013 Tumon
  • 2013 Venice, Los Angeles (one dead)
  • 2014 Venezuelan protests, several cases of vehicle ramming during opposition protests by government supporters.
  • 2014 Isla Vista killings; Vehicle ramming attack, Stabbings, Shootings. 7 Dead.
  • 2014 Sopot attack, Poland (ramming people)
  • 2014 Taipei attack against Presidential Office Building, Taiwan
  • 2014 Huaiwangtan attack (ramming and stabbing)
  • 2014 Balipo attack (ramming and stabbing)
  • 2014 Dijon attack, France (ramming people)
  • 2014 Nantes attack, France (ramming people)
  • 2014 Roppongi(Japan) Vehicle ramming attack(using a bicycle) and Violent Deeds. (Counter-Racist Action Collective(c.r.a.c) members attacking against Zaitokukai demonstration.)
  • 2015 Graz attack, mass murder using an SUV and a knife
  • 2015 Weifang attack (ramming people). 5 dead, 21 injured.
  • 2015 Shuozhou attack (ramming people)
  • 2016 Yichun attack (ramming people). 4 dead, 18 injured.
  • 2016 Kalamazoo bicycle crash, 5 dead
  • 2016 Scunthorpe road rage
  • 2017 Venezuelan protests, several cases of vehicle rammings during opposition protests by security forces or government supporters, including the killing of Paúl Moreno.
  • January 2017 Melbourne car attack in Melbourne, Australia in which six people were killed and 36 injured.
  • 2017 Balneário Camboriú road rage
  • 2017 Murder of Yadira Arroyo, EMT ran over and killed by mentally ill man in New York City
  • 2017 Times Square car attack
  • 2017 Heidelberg attack by mentally disturbed German student
  • 2017 Müllrose, Germany, drug addict kills two cops while fleeing in stolen car after stabbing his grandmother to death
  • 2017 Antwerp attack, failed car-ramming in Belgium
  • 2017 Guatemala City, a car rammed into a student protest: 13 injured, one dead.
  • 2017 Sandy, Utah attack, car-ramming and shooting in Sandy, Utah
  • 2017 Jingjiang car attack (ramming people). 4 dead, 9 injured.
  • 2017 Columbia attack (ramming people)
  • July 2017 Helsinki attack, Finland, ramming people
  • August 2017 Helsinki attack, Finland, failed ramming
  • 2017 Chomutov incident, the Czech Republic, in which a driver was shot dead by an armed citizen after driving into a group of people
  • 2017 Sept-Sorts car attack, France, ramming a pizzeria, killing a schoolgirl
  • 2017 Marseille van attack, France. A van rammed into two bus stops killing one woman and injuring another.
  • December 2017 car attack in Perth, Australia, with one dead, four injured, three seriously.
  • February 2018 car attack in Perth, Australia, with two injured, in suburban Mullaloo.
  • 2018 Münster vehicle ramming (ramming crowd at an outdoor café, killing four and injuring 23; perpetrator then took his own life)
  • 2018 Toronto van attack (ramming people; 11 killed and 15 injured)
  • 2018 Gravesend attack (ramming people)
  • 2018 Bessemer City, NC vehicle ramming
  • 2018 Yantai attack (ramming people).
  • 2018 Liuzhou attack (ramming and stabbing). 6 dead, 12 injured.
  • 2018 Moscow attack (ramming people).
  • 2018 Mishui vehicle attack (ramming people at a square, killing 15 people and injuring 43 others; perpetrator sentenced to death)
  • 2018 Ningbo attack (ramming and stabbing). 3 dead, 15 injured.
  • 2018 Brăila attack, Romania. Attacker was under effects of drugs.
  • 2018 Newport Wales Hit and Run 4 injured on 29 April when a teen driver smashed into a crowd outside a nightclub claiming to try to stop a brawl, then fled and set his car on fire. He was found guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, while two other teens pled guilty for their role in instigating the fight which preceded the attack.
  • 2018 Huludao vehicle ramming (ramming people). 6 dead, 17 injured.
  • 2019 Zaoyang car attack (ramming and stabbing). 6 dead, 8 injured.
  • 2019 Oberhausen, Bottrop and Essen car attack (ramming people). 8 injured.
  • August 2020 attack: Iraqi chases motor cyclists on Berlin's A100; trial for attempted murder to begin April 15.
  • 2020 July 6 Seattle: During a protest against police brutality and the murder of George Floyd 1 dead and 1 injured
  • 2020 Henstedt-Ulzburg ramming attack
  • 2020 Trier attack, Germany. Five people were killed and 30 were injured after a drunk man, who suffered from mental health problems, rammed civilians on a street.
  • 2021 Portland, Oregon ramming attack, one pedestrian killed and five others wounded. Driver arrested.
  • 2021 Novara ramming, Italy. Driver intentionally rammed workers protesting outside a market. One worker was killed, and two others were wounded.
  • 2021 Lakhimpur-Kheri Massacre in India. A Convoy of BJP ministers mowed down four protesting farmers. In retaliation, farmers killed four people from the convoy.

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