Disasters Timeline

The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthqu...

The Navy's greatest navigational tragedy took place in September 1923 at an isolated California coastal headland locally known as Honda Point. Officially called Point Pedernales, Honda is...

On December the 1st, 1923, the Gleno dam, located in the Scalve valley (Lombardy), collapsed. The dam, a multiple arches structure, was partially sudden breached and the consequent flood ...

The Castle Gate mine disaster occurred on March 8, 1924, in a coal mine near the town of Castle Gate, Utah (now dismantled), located approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Salt Lake...

In 1927, it was reported that the storm crossed Illinois at the rate of 45 mph and that the width of the destructive path varied from a 1/4 to 1/2 mile. Today, it is estimated that this ...

The 1926 storm was described by the U.S. Weather Bureau in Miami as "probably the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the United States." It hit Fort Lauderdale, Dania, Hollywood, H...

On 13 September at Murulla, near Murrurundi, twenty-seven people were killed and thirty-seven injured in what the Bulletin described as 'the most complete and disastrous railway smash in ...

About 800 children were enjoying a Sunday matinée at the Laurier Palace Theater on St Catherine Street in Montreal. Panic struck when at 2 p.m. a man yelled, "FIRE!!" 500 of the movie vie...

The bold, black headlines echo down through the years, staring up from the fading, crumbling newspapers that carried the tale of death and destruction to their readers. The second worst ...

At 4.28am on Saturday, October 13, 1928, the Leeds to Bristol night mail crashed under the road bridge at Charfield Station, some 20 miles south of Gloucester. It had collided in fog with...

The Cleveland Clinic fire was a major structure fire at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio on May 15, 1929. It started in the basement of the hospital and it was caused by nitrocellulose...

The cinema (opened in 1901), known as 'The Glen' and 'The Royal Animated Pictures' once formed part of the Good Templar Halls (now occupied by Burton's shop). On the afternoon of 31 Decem...

On April 21, 1930, the Ohio Penitentiary experienced the worst disaster in its history. A terrible fire broke out in the early evening, eventually killing 322 inmates. Not only was the st...

Thirty members of the drill scow JOHN B. KING of St. Catharines were either instantly killed or blow to death by drowning when a lightning bolt struck the dynamite laden craft three and a...

R101 was a British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. After initial flights, and two enlargements to the lifting volume, it crashed on 5 October 1930 ...

Besides the unseasonably cold weather and heavy snowfall that blanketed the ground, November 5, 1930 began like any other for the 191 miners working at the Sunday Creek Coal Mine # 6. Nob...

The 7.9 earthquake struck at 10.46 on the morning of February 3, 1931, the first day of the school year, a beautiful summer’s day. It was felt as two distinct movements half a minute apar...

On 21 March 1931, the Southern Cloud departed at 8:10 AM from Sydney for Melbourne. Onboard were six passengers and two crewmembers, including pilot Travis "Shorty" Shortridge. Weather co...

Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599 was a Fokker F.10 Trimotor en route from Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, on March 31, 1931. It crashed ten miles south of Co...

On this day in 1931, the Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months. This was perhaps the wors...

A strong earthquake measuring 7.6 Richter scale hit Changma fort (39.7°N, 97.0°E) in Gansu Province at 10:04:27 am on December 25, 1932. The epicenter intensity was X and 70 thousand peop...

In a field near Eesen, Belgium, fortnight ago a peasant looked up from his spring radishes to see the Imperial Airways liner City of Liverpool suddenly burst into flames and crash like a ...

The 1933 Diexi earthquake occurred in Diexi, Mao County, Sichuan, Republic of China on August 25, 1933. This earthquake destroyed the town of Diexi and surrounding villages, and caused...

A Boeing 247 operated by United Airlines and registered as NC13304 was destroyed in midflight by a nitroglycerin bomb over Chesterton, Indiana, on October 10, 1933. The flight, carrying t...

The worst rail tragedy in France's peacetime history occurred on the night of 23 December 1933 near Lagny, about seventeen miles east of Paris. The Paris-Strasbourg flyer, speeding in a t...

The SS Morro Castle was a luxury cruise ship of the 1930s that was built for the Ward Line for runs between New York City and Havana, Cuba. The Morro Castle was named for the Morro Castle...

On Saturday, 22 September 1934, an explosion occurred at the Gresford colliery, near Wrexham. Rescue workers worked tirelessly to reach the men trapped underground, but the dangers posed ...

The town of Quetta saw most of the fatalities, and this earthquake has since been known as the Quetta Earthquake. The civil lines was completely destroyed and up to 15,000 people are thou...

On September 1, 1935, storm warnings were posted for all of south Florida, including the Keys. This was on Sunday, the day before Labor Day. Miamians wasted little time in beginning the t...

United Airlines Trip 4, a Boeing 247D, was a scheduled flight departing from Salt Lake City, Utah to Cheyenne, Wyoming on October 7, 1935. The aircraft last contacted Cheyenne at 2:16 or ...

The "Dust Bowl" years of 1930-36 brought some of the hottest summers on record to the United States, especially across the Plains, Upper Midwest and Great Lake States. For the Upper Missi...

Twenty persons were killed and more than 60 injured here late this afternoon when a North Shore elevated electric train crashed into a wooden train, 'Shopper's Special'. Officials said t...

On January 12, 1937, shortly after 11 a.m. in adverse weather, Western Air Express Flight 7 crashed into a ridge below Los Pinetos Peak near the California towns of Saugus and Newhall. Th...

For 19 days -- from Jan. 18 until Feb. 5 -- the swirling, muddy waters of the Ohio leapt riverbanks and blanketed one-sixth of a city paralyzed by too much rain and snow. The river reache...

On March 18 students prepared for the next day's Inter-scholastic meet in Henderson. At the gymnasium, the PTA met. At 3:05 P.M. Lemmie R. Butler, instructor of manual training, turned on...

"Oh, the humanity!" —Herbert Morrison, WLS radio broadcaster

A Junkers Ju 52 aircraft owned and operated by Belgian air operator Sabena crashed near Ostend, Belgium on November 16, 1937. The flight from Cologne, Germany, to London, United Kingdom, ...

On December 10, disaster struck the railway station at Castlecary, between Falkirk and Glasgow. Heavy snow that day had led to big delays, and by late afternoon showers of large, thick, s...

Northwest Airlines Flight 2, registration NC17388, was a Lockheed 14H Super Electra aircraft which crashed into the Bridger Mountains about 12 miles northeast of Bozeman, Montana, on Janu...

The 1938 flood event resulted in the deaths of 115 people. It destroyed 5,601 homes and damaged 1,500 homes making them uninhabitable. For many Angelenos, the storm evoked grim memories o...

In the days following the cyclone southern Rhode Islanders were in a state of grief-stricken shock. The first days after the storm were a somber time - the dead and injured were everywher...

The 1938 Kyeema crash occurred on the western face of Mount Corhanwarrabul, just south of Mount Dandenong, Victoria, Australia. On 25 October 1938, eighteen people were killed when the Ky...

In the late 1930s Islanders were becoming increasingly familiar with civilian air travel, but a terrible accident in 1938 served as a harsh reminder that the passenger aircraft of the day...

The 1939 Chillán earthquake was a major earthquake in south-central Chile. It is currently the single earthquake that has caused the most deaths in Chile. The earthquake occurred on 24 Ja...

On 12 May, following a yard overhaul, Squalus began a series of test dives off Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After successfully completing 18 dives, she went down again off the Isles of Shoa...

The Rhythm Club fire aka The Natchez Dance Hall Holocaust was a conflagration resulting in the death or serious injury of hundreds of people attendees who became trapped inside a one-stor...

Kaleva, registered OH-ALL, was a civilian Junkers Ju 52 passenger and transport plane, belonging to the Finnish carrier Aero O/Y. The aircraft was shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bo...

A fresh air raid began before 4 pm. She was bombed at 15:48 by Junkers 88 aircraft from II. Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 30. Three direct hits caused the ship to list first to starboard then to...

The DC-3 had hit the ground with such speed and force that many of the passengers had been cut in two by their safety belts. Jerome Lederer, director of the Civil Aeronautics Board’s safe...

The winter of 1940-1 brought fears of bombing raids from Germany. Stations that were hit included Bristol, Birmingham, Birkenhead and Plymouth but serious damage also occurred at the Sout...