By: HISTORY.com Editors

1979

School shooting in San Diego

Published: November 13, 2009Last Updated: May 27, 2025

Brenda Spencer kills two men and wounds nine children as they enter the Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego. Spencer blazed away with rifle shots from her home directly across the street from the school. After 20 minutes of shooting, police surrounded Spencer’s home for six hours before she surrendered. Asked for some explanation for the attack, Spencer allegedly said, “I just don’t like Mondays. I did this because it’s a way to cheer up the day. Nobody likes Mondays.”

Spencer was only 16 years old at the time of her murderous attack. She was a problem child who was widely known as a drug abuser with a violent streak. She repeatedly broke the windows at the Cleveland school with her BB gun. Still, her father gave her a .22 semi-automatic rifle and ammunition as a Christmas gift at the end of 1978.

This seemed to inspire Spencer into more grandiose plans, and she started telling her classmates that she was going to do something “to get on TV.” When Monday morning rolled around, Burton Wragg, the principal of Cleveland Elementary, was opening the gates of the school when Spencer started firing her rifle from across the street. Wragg and custodian Michael Suchar were killed. “I just started shooting. That’s it. I just did it for the fun of it,” explained Spencer.

Spencer’s hatred for the first day of the school week was later memorialized by Bob Geldof, the leader of the rock group The Boomtown Rats, in the song, “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

Columbine Shooting

By: HISTORY.com Editors

Timeline

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1843

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1845

“The Raven” is published

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1861

Kansas enters the Union

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1915

German lieutenant Erwin Rommel leads daring mission in France

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1936

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1958

Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward marry

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1962

Peter, Paul and Mary sign their first recording contract

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1964

“Dr. Strangelove” premieres

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1979

Deng Xiaoping and Jimmy Carter sign accords

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2002

George W. Bush describes Iraq, Iran and North Korea as “axis of evil”

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