From Wikipedia, here’s one of the less celebrated incidents in American history:
Date July 30, 1916
The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916, in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy American-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. This incident, which happened prior to American entry into World War I, is also notable for causing damage to the Statue of Liberty. …
Black Tom was a major munitions depot for the Northeastern United States. Until early 1915, American munitions companies could sell to any buyer. After the Blockade of Germany by the Royal Navy, however, only the Allied powers could purchase from them. As a result, Imperial Germany sent secret agents to the United States to obstruct the production and delivery of war munitions that were intended to be used by its enemies.
On the night of the attack, about 2,000,000 lb (910,000 kg) of small arms and artillery ammunition were stored at the depot in freight cars and on barges, including 100,000 lb (45,000 kg) of TNT on the Johnson Barge No. 17.[8] …
At 2:08 am, the first and largest of the explosions took place. Fragments from the explosion traveled long distances, some lodging in the Statue of Liberty and some in the clock tower of The Jersey Journal building in Journal Square, over a mile away, stopping the clock at 2:12 am. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale[10] and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows were broken as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were shattered. The stained glass windows in St. Patrick’s Church were destroyed.[11] The outer wall of Jersey City’s City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.[12]
Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million ($454,000,000 in 2017 dollars using the CPI conversion). The damage to the Statue of Liberty was estimated to be $100,000 ($2,273,000 in 2017 dollars using the CPI conversion), and included damage to the skirt and torch.
… Many years later, the explosion was traced to Michael Kristoff,[21] a Slovak immigrant. Kristoff had served in the US Army in World War I, but admitted to working for German agents (transporting suitcases) in 1915 and 1916 while the US was still neutral. According to Kristoff, two of the guards at Black Tom were German agents. It is likely that the bombing involved some of the techniques developed by German agents working for German ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff and German Naval Intelligence officer Franz von Rintelen, using the cigar bombs developed by Doctor Walter Scheele. Suspicion at the time fell solely on German saboteurs such as Kurt Jahnke and his assistant Lothar Witzke, who are still judged as legally responsible.[24][25] Later investigations in the aftermath of the Annie Larsen affair unearthed links between the Ghadar conspiracy and the Black Tom explosion.
That led to the curious Hindu-German Conspiracy Trial of 1917-1918 in San Francisco.
Additional investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence also found links to some members of the Irish “Clan na Gael” group, the Indian “Ghadar Party” and Communist elements.
… The issue was finally settled in 1953 on $95 million (interest included) with the Federal Republic of Germany. The final payment was made in 1979.
The Statue of Liberty’s torch has been closed to the public since the explosion due to structural damages. Access was not opened after the 1984–1986 restoration which included repairs to the arm and installation of a new gold-plated copper torch.
This era was probably history’s all time peak for conspiracy theories that were more or less true, such as Germany sending Lenin to Russia, Germany encouraging Mexico to invade Texas (but not California, because Germany was reserving that state for Japan), the Balfour Declaration, Lawrence of Arabia, Sykes-Picot, and so forth and so on.
Basically, around 1917, every government bureaucrat with an atlas was hatching some vast plot to redraw the map of the world.
