Transcript
Lindsey Graham (0:00)
There are more ways than ever to listen to History Daily ad free. Listen with Wondry plus in the Wondery app as a member of Noiser plus at noiser.com or in Apple Podcasts. Or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts@intohristory.com it's the morning of July 7, 2005, and the streets of London are busier than usual. An hour ago, an incident involving the London Underground forced the evacuation of the entire network. At this stage, no one's quite sure what's going on, but there are thousands of frustrated commuters still spilling into the city's crowded sidewalks and then onto buses. As the number 30, a bright red double decker bus, pulls up to Houston station, dozens get on and once the doors close, the bus driver, George pulls away from the station, steering back into traffic. As he focuses on driving the bus, George can't help but wonder what's caused this morning's chaos. In the distance, he can hear sirens and some people on the streets seem frightened. He's heard some chatter about explosions in the underground tunnels, perhaps caused by problems with the power grid, but no one really knows for sure. All anyone cares about now is getting places on time. So George tries to shut out the noise of his crowded bus and concentrate on driving his passengers to their destinations safely and efficiently. But only minutes into his journey, just as he drives past the headquarters of the British Medical Association, George's world is torn apart. An explosion on the upper level of number 30 blows the roof off the bus, sending twisted steel crashing into the street. George is thrown forward by the force of the blast, but he's held safe by his seatbelt. Many of his passengers, however, are not so fortunate. As he looks around, disoriented and in pain, the veteran driver sees blood everywhere. On people's faces, on the remains of his bus, on the walls of nearby buildings. As things slowly come into focus, George realizes people are screaming, calling for help and crying. Dozens of people run out of the building. To George's right, a collection of doctors attending a conference who now rush to offer life saving help to the passengers of bus number. In the wake of the attack, George and people around the world will dwell upon the same question. Who would blow up a London bus and why? As information trickles out, a full picture will eventually emerge. Because the explosion on the number 30 bus was not an anomaly. It was the fourth attack on London soil. That morning, three Islamist suicide bombers detonated homemade explosive devices in the underground during rush hour and the fourth terrorist selected George's bus as his target an hour. All told, the terrorists killed a total of 52 people and injured over 700. As years pass, the horrific attack will devolve from a galvanizing moment for the British people into a political debate. But while politicians use the tragedy for their own ideological purposes, others will try to twist the events of July 7 for profit. In the end, one of the UK's deadliest terrorist attacks will become just one domino in a dizzying sequence of events that will ultimately bring down one of the country's oldest media institutions. Institutions forcing press baron Rupert Murdoch's News International to announce the shuttering of its long running News of the World tabloid newspaper exactly six years later on July 7, 2011.