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Oklahoma City skyline

Oklahoma City

A white seal on blue – "OKC," the 1995 bombing, the rebirth of downtown.

The flag of Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City's flag features a blue field with the municipal seal in white at the center. The seal shows a covered wagon (symbol of the pioneers of the 1889 Land Run), a plow (agriculture), and an oil derrick (the oil industry).

Oklahoma City has a unique birth story: it was born in a single day. On April 22, 1889, at exactly noon, a gunshot signaled the opening of the "Unassigned Lands" in Indian Territory. Within hours, 10,000 settlers had pitched their tents on what would become Oklahoma City. It was the "Land Run."

Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 people, including 19 children. It was the deadliest terrorist act on American soil before September 11, 2001.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial, with its 168 empty bronze chairs, has become a place of pilgrimage. The city rebuilt itself around this trauma, transforming its dilapidated downtown into a modern district with the Bricktown Entertainment District.

Oklahoma City, the capital and largest city of Oklahoma. The economy depends on oil, natural gas, aviation (Tinker Air Force Base), and ranching. The simple blue flag with its pioneer wagon is a reminder that it all began with a mad dash for land.

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