Disasters timeline
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Norton Fitzwarren Rail Crash
The winter of 1940-1 brought fears of bombing raids from Germany. Stations that were hit included Bristol, Birmingham, Birkenhead and Plymouth but... Read more
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Armistice Day Blizzard
On November 11, 1940, one of the deadliest blizzards this region has ever seen struck. The Armistice Day Storm killed 49 people in Minnesota, 150... Read more
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Eastern Airlines Flight 31 Crashes, Killing 16
Eastern Airlines Flight 21, night of February 26, 1941. Sometimes called the “Rickenbacker Crash” due to the presence of Eastern Airlines President... Read more
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Blizzard of 1941
The most severe blizzard in modern history struck North Dakota and Minnesota. The blizzard hit on a Saturday night while many are traveling, and... Read more
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Smederevo Fortress Explosion
Smederevo, a fortress on the Danube downstream from Belgrade, was built between 1428 and 1430 during the reign of Despot Djuradj Brankovic, the... Read more
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Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 3 Crashes into a Cliff, Killing 22
Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) Flight 3 was a twin-engine Douglas DC-3-382 propliner, registration NC1946, operating as a scheduled... Read more
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Pryor Tornado
This war boom town today dug out of the ruins of an angry tornado that ripped down Main street, leaving $2,000,000 in property damage, 70 known... Read more
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Loss of HMS Curacoa
On 2 October 1942, she was escorting the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary carrying nearly 20,000 American troops of the 29th Infantry Division to join... Read more
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U.S. Army Corps B-34 Bomber Strikes American Airlines Flight 28
American Airlines Flight 28 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that crashed on October 23, 1942 in Chino Canyon, near Palm Springs,... Read more
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Fire at Cocoanut Grove Nightclub kills 492 people
"NOTHING SHORT OF APPALLING" -- SAYS SUN EDITOR WHO SAW FIRE. NO FLAMES AT START OF HOLOCAUST, BUT SMOKE WAS EXTREMELY DENSE -- NO CRIES OR... Read more
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Seacliff Asylum Fire
At about 9.45 pm on Tuesday 8 December, 1942, fire broke out in Ward 5. This ward was a two-storeyed wooden building which had been added onto the... Read more
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Knights of Columbus Hostel Fire
The most deadly structural fire in what is now Canada consumed the Knights of Columbus hostel in St John's, Nfld, on 12 December 1942. An arsonist... Read more
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Philippine Clipper Crashes into Mountainous Terrain, Killing 19
This is the story of the last flight of the “Philippine Clipper” which crashed on the California coast near Booneville after arriving from... Read more
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Sinking of AHS Centaur
The Centaur was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Queensland coast in 1943. With only 64 of the 332 people on board surviving, it was the... Read more
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British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777a is Attacked by Eight German Junker Ju 88's
BOAC Flight 777a, a scheduled British Overseas Airways Corporation civilian airline flight on 1 June 1943 from Portela Airport in Lisbon, Portugal... Read more
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Battleship Mutsu Explosion
On Tuesday 8 June 1943 the Mutsu was moored at the Battleship Division 2 flagship buoy No.2 in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage approximately 3 km... Read more
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American Airlines' Flagship Ohio Crashes, Killing 18
Flight 63 originated at and left Cleveland about 17:42.The flight was cleared to Memphis with intermediate stops scheduled at Columbus, Dayton,... Read more
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Frankford Junction Train Wreck
One hundred and fifty persons were reported killed and more than 90 injured in the wreck of the Congressional Limited, fastest train of the... Read more
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Gulf Hotel Fire
Forty-eight men perished when fire swept a small, ancient hotel here today. Forty-four of them never got out of the three-story Gulf Hotel at... Read more
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American Airlines' Flagship Missouri Crashes, Killing 11
Flight 63 originated at Cleveland at 17:56, 17 minutes later than the scheduled departure. Intermediate stops were made at Columbus, Dayton,... Read more
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American Airlines Flight 2 Crashes, Killing 24
The DC-3 struck the Mississippi River in an angle of descent of about 20 degrees with the right wing slightly low. PROBABLE CAUSE: "The Board is... Read more
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Balvano Train Disaster
Rescuers rushed to the tunnel in a locomotive. From inside came the sound of the stalled engines still puffing slowly; bodies were sprawled beside... Read more
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Bombay Docks Explosion
The Bombay Explosion (or Bombay Docks Explosion) occurred on 14 April 1944, in the Victoria Dock of Bombay (now Mumbai) when the SS Fort Stikine... Read more
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Voorbode Explosion
The Dutch steam trawler Voorbode was a fishing vessel, until it was confiscated by the Germans during World War II and used for military transport.... Read more
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West Loch Disaster
A second major tragedy at Pearl Harbor became the Navy's best-kept wartime secret when powerful explosions wracked the amphibious staging area at... Read more