Can Clues About Boston Be Found in History? This Week in April

As law enforcement officials and everyday Americans attempt to make sense of the carnage that ensued in Boston this Monday, a myriad questions are raised:

Who perpetrated the terror attacks?

What was their specific motive?

Why was the marathon, specifically, targeted?

Was there any significance to the date of the attack?

Motive, of course, will likely take shape after the perpetrators have been sufficiently identified, and the venue may have been chosen simply because it is a large sporting event which thousands of people attend, and at which there are vulnerable points of entry for terrorist activity.

In terms of the date, however, possibilities abound. There has been a steady stream on the blogosphere hailing the month of April as a "marked" month in which a laundry list of life-altering events has taken place throughout history.

The obvious historical correlations include U.S. tax day, Israel Independence Day, and for people in Massachusetts and Maine, Patriot's Day.

Other significant events occurring this same week in April include the Columbine massacre, the Oklahoma City bombing, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, birth of Adolf Hitler, the Virginia Tech massacre, and Tienanmen Square riots. The WACO siege began in February but ended on April 19.

Without promoting any one theory or date's connection to the Boston bombings this past Monday, TheBlaze decided to take a brief look back at history in the photo collection below: