The Challenger Disaster
Launched on January 28th, 1986, the 10th mission of the space shuttle Challenger was very much in the public eye. The crew included...
The King’s Cross Fire
More than 150 firefighters and 30 fire engines were called to a blaze at London’s King’s Cross St Pancras tube station, a major interchange on the London Underground. The November 18, 1987 blaze was the worst fire in the history of the London Underground, and it all began ...
The East Ohio Gas Company Explosion
On October 24, 1944, in Cleveland’s East Side, a natural gas storage facility exploded, causing so much damage that the neighborhoods affected looked...
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster
On March 11, 2011, the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan struck off the coast of Honshu island. Measured at 9.0 on the Richter scale ...
The Flixborough Works of Nypro Explosion and Fire
"I felt the blast from a terrific explosion which had occurred somewhere behind me. The blast was such that it threw me full length across the road. Debris then began to fall all around me, and I was covered with oil which fell out of the sky," a worker ...
The Kansas City Hyatt Walkway Collapse
On the night of July 17, 1981, the newly built Kansas City Hyatt Regency hotel was hosting a dance contest in its atrium, presented by a local radio station. Partygoers thronged the floor of the atrium and the three catwalks above, which were located on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floor levels. Suddenly, there was a loud crack ...
The “Big Dig” Tunnel Collapse
Late at night on July 10th, 2006, a car was driving eastbound on Boston’s Interstate 90 connector tunnel, part of a large tunnel expressway system called ...
The Great Boston Molasses Flood
Around 12:30 pm on January 15th, 1919, a noise like machine-gun fire erupted near downtown Boston. The jarring sound was followed by a muffled roar, and then 2.3 million gallons were released suddenly from a ruptured tank. A 15-foot wave of molasses flowed, at 35 miles per hour ...
The Eschede Derailment
It had never happened before. In seven years of service, no one had ever been killed on an ICE train. The super-fast, state-of-the-art Inter City Express ...
The Bhopal Disaster
Just after midnight on December 3, 1984, chemical gas began leaking from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The gas was toxic and heavier than air, and it crept along the ground and easily infiltrated the shacks and huts of the crowded shantytown surrounding the plant.