7/7

Five years ago, London suffered its own terrorist attacks.  Although it wasn't on the scale of 9/11 -- only 52 people were killed -- it was in many ways even more horrific, because it was carried out by four young men who were all UK citizens.  At 8:50am, during the morning rush hour, homemade bombs went off on three Underground trains.  Imagine the aftermath of a bomb going off in a small tunnel, five stories below ground, leaving thousands of people shocked, possibly deaf, and in absolute darkness.  It must have been absolutely terrifying.  I try not to think about it when I board the trains, but on 7/7 it's hard not to.  It seems to me everyone else is a little somber on that day, as well.

A fourth bomb, set off by an 18-year-old, destroyed a double-decker bus almost an hour later.  Ironically, because of the earlier bombs, the bus was not on its regular route, and the bomb detonated in front of the headquarters of the British Medical Assocition, which was holding an international conference that day.  Dr. Peter Holden was also there, who was one of the UK's "major incident commanders."  Although they didn't have much equipment -- office first aid kits, duct tape, and a few bags of intravenous fluid that a policeman was able to deliver -- they had more doctors on hand than any hospital, and many lives were saved. The BBC put together a 40 minute program on this:
   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p008np9q

Last year, a memorial was built in Hyde Park, London, consisting of 52 steel pillars standing together.  The replacement for the #30 bus was named "Spirit of London."