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Oklahoma City features one of the top livestock markets in the world. Oil, natural gas, and petroleum products are major industries of the economy (the city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds). The federal government employs very large workforces at Tinker Air Force Base and the United States Department of Transportation's Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center. (These two sites house several offices of the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Department's Center, respectively.) The city was founded during the Land Run of 1889, and grew to a population of over 10,000 within hours of its founding. The city was the scene of the April 19, 1995 bombing attack of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people lost their lives. It was the worst terror attack in the history of the United States before the attacks of September 11, 2001, and remains the worst act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Oklahoma City lies along one of the primary travel corridors into Texas and Mexico, and is just hours by car to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Located in the Frontier Country region of the state, the city's northeast section lies in an ecological region known as the Cross Timbers. Since the time weather records have been kept, Oklahoma City has been struck by nine strong tornadoes, eight (E)-F4's and one F5. On May 3, 1999 parts of southern Oklahoma City and nearby communities suffered one of the most powerful tornadoes on record, an F-5 on the Fujita Scale, with wind speeds topping 318 mi/h. This tornado was part of the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. |