U.S. President Bill Clinton, right, takes the arm of boxing legend, Muhammad Ali at the opening ceremony of the centennial Olympic Games July 19, 1996.
President Clinton attended the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, accompanying former boxer and Olympic gold medalist Muhammad Ali, who lit the cauldron. On July 27, a pipe bomb exploded, killing one and injuring 100 people. But Clinton insisted that the Games must go on. “An act of vicious terror like this is clearly directed at the spirit of our own democracy,” he said during a White House news conference. “We cannot let terror win. That is not the American way.”