Fifty-five years ago, on Aug. 24, 1970, four men bombed UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall in protest of the ongoing Vietnam war. The blast resulted in the death of a physics researcher, multiple injuries, and millions of dollars in damage.
To commemorate the anniversary of the bombing, City Cast Madison host Bianca Martin spoke to UW oral historian Troy Reeves about the event and its lasting impact on the Madison community.
Here’s a timeline of events surrounding the infamous explosion.
Years of Discord
The UW-Madison campus experienced years of anti-war protests leading up to the Sterling Hall bombing, including the 1967 student protest against recruitment efforts from Dow Chemical Company, which produced napalm.
The protest turned violent and marked the first time police used tear gas to disperse participants. However, the police reaction didn’t slow the pace of anti-war demonstrations, which would continue through the end of the Vietnam war.
From 1968 to 1970, multiple university offices were firebombed, but the bombing at Sterling Hall took the violence to a new level.
The Bombing of Sterling Hall
At 3:42 a.m. on Aug. 24, 1970, a bomb rocked UW-Madison, damaging not only Sterling Hall, but the old Campus Hospital and several surrounding buildings. The explosion killed Robert Fassnacht, a postdoctoral researcher in physics, who was in Sterling Hall conducting research.
The bomb, planted by a group of four men who opposed the war, aimed to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center because of its links to the military. The group, known as the New Year’s Gang, detonated a van full of homemade explosives before fleeing the scene. Three of the men involved were caught and sentenced to prison, but one remains at large to this day.
Estimates put the damage of the bomb near $3 million at the time, which is closer to $25 million today. Countless amounts of physics and other research was lost as a result of the blast but due to the placement of the bomb, the Army Math Research Center was largely unscathed.
In the Aftermath
Despite the damage and decades of research lost, classes in the fall semester of 1970 were not delayed and, within a year, Sterling Hall and the other damaged buildings were mostly restored.
Fassnacht was memorialized by UW-Madison through the creation of a fellowship in his name and the dedication of a plaque on Sterling Hall.
Protests on campus continued until 1973, when the draft was ended and troops began to leave Vietnam.
