On April 19, 1993, the Waco, TX compound of the apocalyptic cult the "Branch Davidians" was destroyed by fire, killing 76. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms had surrounded the compound 50 days prior to serve a warrant to search for illegal firearms. This sparked a firefight in which four Federal agents and six Davidians were killed.
Cult leader Vernon Howell (AKA "David Koresh") had taken control of the group - an offshoot of the Seventh-Day Adventists - in 1989, following a protracted schism with George Roden. Roden had first challenged Howell to a "resurrection contest", leading Koresh to denounce Roden to prosecutors for corpse abuse. Later, a firefight broke out between both parties, resulting in no deaths, seven acquittals, and a hung jury for Howell. Howell's final success in gaining control over the Davidians would only happen the year after the trial, when Roden was committed to a mental hospital in 1989 after murdering a Davidian with an axe.
Since 1989, Howell had been stockpiling weapons with his followers and extensive harem at the Davidian compound at Mount Carmel in preparation for Armageddon, which was to occur in 1995.
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It is probably also worth noting that Timothy McVeigh's 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City - while not apocalyptically motivated in itself - was timed to fall on the anniversary of the Waco disaster.
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