1966 UT Tower mass shooting (Charles Whitman)

On August 1, 1966, University of Texas student Charles Whitman carried out a mass shooting from the observation deck of the Main Building (the UT Tower) on the UT Austin campus. Earlier that morning he had killed his mother and his wife at their homes; later he was shot and killed by law enforcement officers on the tower observation deck. The attack killed multiple people and wounded many others and is often cited as one of the first modern mass shootings in U.S. history. The event prompted changes in police tactical response and led the university to restrict public access to the Tower observation deck for decades.