October 9, 2001

The 2001 anthrax attacks, or Amerithrax, took place in the wake of the 9/11 disaster. On October 9, the second wave of anthrax-laced letters bearing the Trenton, New Jersey stamp were sent to various news media offices, infecting and even killing some of the recipients. Obviously, this is a bad incident, especially during the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. After Amerithrax, the FBI launched "one of the largest and most complex [investigations] in the history of law enforcement" to attempt to destroy the anthrax strains and track down the culprit. The investigation uncovered mountains of evidence suggesting that a government biodefense scientist by the name of Bruce Edwards Ivins was the sender. He committed suicide in 2008, and the case was finally closed in 2010. The incident is definitely a negative one; the deaths from Amerithrax only accentuated those from 9/11.