History of the FBI (Text Version)
History of the FBI (Text Version)
The FBI was started in 1908. Since then, it has changed names three times and grown from under 40 employees to more than 35,000. See the historical timeline below to learn more about important dates in FBI History.
1908: At the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, an investigative branch of the Department of Justice was created. It was headed by Chief Examiner Stanley Finch.
1913: A. Bruce Bielaski succeeded Stanley Finch as Chief of the Bureau of Investigation.
June 1917: J. Edgar Hoover began working with the Department of Justice legal staff.
January 1920: Prohibition began. Gangsterism began its rise in the United States.
August 1921: William J. Burns was appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation; J. Edgar Hoover was named Assistant Director. By 1924, there were 650 employees, including 441 Special Agents.
May 1924: J. Edgar Hoover was named Acting Director of the Bureau of Investigation.
October 1925: Edwin C. Shanahan became the first FBI Agent killed in the line of duty.
March 1929: Al Capone was arrested by Bureau Agents.
November 1932: The FBI Laboratory was established.
June 1933: The Bureau of Investigation became the Division of Investigation. The Kansas City Massacre occurred.
July 1934: John Dillinger was killed by Federal Agents in Chicago.
July 1935: The Division of Investigation became the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
August 1940: The Disaster Squad was created when the FBI was called upon to identify its employees involved in an airplane crash in Virginia.
June 1942: Four German saboteurs landed from a U-Boat on Long Island. Four others landed in Florida. All eight were arrested by the FBI.
November 1944: Two Nazi spies—William C. Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel—landed from a German submarine in Maine. They were arrested by the FBI.
March 1950: The FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” Program began.
September 1953: Six-year-old Bobby Greenlease, Jr. was kidnapped and murdered.
June 1957: FBI arrested Colonel Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, a Soviet espionage agent. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was later exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers.
November 1963: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. President Johnson ordered the FBI to investigate.
June 1964: Three civil rights workers were murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi.
July 4, 1966: President Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
January 1967: The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) became operational.
June 1968: James Earl Ray was arrested in London. He was later convicted of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
May 1972: The new FBI Academy was opened on the United States Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia.
July 1973: Clarence M. Kelley was sworn in as FBI Director.
February 1978: William H. Webster was sworn in as FBI Director.
April 1978: The use of laser technology to detect latent fingerprints was initiated.
1983: The Hostage Rescue Team became operational.
1984: The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) was established at the FBI Academy. A Computer Analysis and Response Team (CART) was established to help field offices retrieve computer evidence.
November 1987: William S. Sessions was sworn in as FBI Director. By 1988, the FBI employed 9,663 Special Agents and 13,651 support personnel.
September 1993: Louis J. Freeh was sworn in as FBI Director.
April 1994: The Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) was created to more effectively deal with hostage-taking and barricade situations.
September 1995: Announcement of an undercover investigation, “Innocent Images,” which targeted child pornography over the Internet.
June 1997: Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City—one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism in American history.
May 1998: Eric Robert Rudolph was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list after being charged with the Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta and the bombing of a Birmingham abortion clinic.
August 1998: Bombs were detonated near United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people. Among the dead were 12 Americans and 38 Foreign Service Nationals. The FBI sent representatives to East Africa to assist in the search, rescue, and investigative efforts.
June 1999: Osama Bin Laden was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most wanted list for his alleged involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
September 1999: The FBI announced the ground breaking for its new Laboratory facility in Quantico, Virginia.
September 2001: Terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
October 2001: The FBI and other agencies responded to anthrax-laden letters.
December 2001: Director Mueller announced a reorganization of FBI Headquarters to meet evolving challenges.
October 2002: Two snipers killed 10 people—including an FBI employee—and terrorized the Washington, D.C., area for three weeks until being captured by the FBI and its partners.
September 2003: The multi-agency Terrorist Screening Center, administered by the FBI, was established.
September 2005: The FBI established a National Security Branch to combine the resources and capabilities of its counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and intelligence elements.
June 2007: After the FBI re-opened the cold case, Ku Klux Klan member James Ford Seale was convicted for the 1964 murders of two African-American men in Mississippi.
July 2008: The FBI celebrated its 100th anniversary.
March 2009: Financier Bernard Madoff pled guilty to fraud and money laundering after stealing billions of dollars from his clients.
June 2010: The FBI arrested 10 agents of the Russian Intelligence Service who had tried to disguise themselves as ordinary Americans to support Russian intelligence operations.
May 2011: Osama bin Laden—a Most Wanted terrorist and the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks—was killed in Pakistan by the U.S. military.
July 2011: The U.S. Senate voted unanimously to extend Director Mueller’s term by two years, making him the longest-serving FBI Director since Hoover.
September 2012: The U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, Libya was attacked, resulting in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The FBI began investigating, using social media to solicit information from people in the region.
April 2013: Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 200 others. The FBI joined the investigation.
September 2013: James B. Comey was sworn in as the Director of the FBI.