Disasters timeline
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Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 277 Crashes on Fort Mountain
Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 277 was a C-54 Skymaster en route from Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador to Washington D.C. on June... Read more
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Hartford Circus Fire
The worst tragedy in the annals of circus history occurred during the afternoon show of the Ringling Brothers Circus on July 6, 1944, at Hartford,... Read more
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Port Chicago Disaster
The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion that occurred on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago,... Read more
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Freckleton Air Disaster
Tragedy struck at Freckleton, Lancashire, on August 23, 1944, when an American B-24 bomber on a test flight overshot the runway while trying to... Read more
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East Ohio Gas Company Explosion
On October 20, 1944, a natural gas storage tank at the East Ohio Gas Co. plant in Cleveland, Ohio, exploded. The plant was located north of St.... Read more
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USS Mount Hood Explosion
At 08:30, 10 November 1944, a party consisting of the communications officer, Lt. Lester H. Wallace, and 17 men left the ship and headed for shore.... Read more
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RAF Fauld Explosion
The depot at Fauld became the site of the largest explosion in the UK, when 3,670 tons of bombs stored underground exploded en masse. Two... Read more
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Typhoon Cobra Strikes US Pacific Fleet
Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey), was the United States Navy... Read more
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Sinking of the Cap Arcona
The Cap Arcona was a large German luxury ocean liner, formerly of the Hamburg-South America line. While heavily-laden with prisoners from Nazi... Read more
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USAAF B-24 Liberator Bomber Crashes into Fairy Loches
On the 13th June 1945 a USAAF B-24H Liberator with 9 crew and 6 US army passengers took off from Prestwick for home, having survived the War. The... Read more
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B-25 Bomber crashes into Empire State Building, killing 14 people
At 9:50 am on Saturday July 28, 1945, impossibility became a reality. A B-25 “Billy Mitchell” bomber belonging to the US Army Air Corps crashed... Read more
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Burnden Park Disaster
On 9th March 1946 Bolton Wanderers played Stoke City in a FA Cup tie. Over 80,000 people entered the Burnden Park ground before the club closed the... Read more
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Naperville Train Disaster
The Naperville train disaster occurred on April 26, 1946 at the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad station in Naperville, Illinois when the... Read more
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Transcontinental and Western Air's Star of Lisbon Crashes
TWA Flight 513, registration NC86513, Star of Lisbon, was a Lockheed Constellation operated by Transcontinental and Western Air on a training... Read more
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Winecoff Hotel Fire
The Winecoff is best known for a fire that occurred there on December 7, 1946, in which 119 people died. It remains the deadliest hotel fire in... Read more
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Glazier–Higgins–Woodward Tornadoes of 1947
The tornadoes began in Texas. Just after the White Deer tornado dissipated, the first tornado of this event formed five miles (8 km) northwest of... Read more
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Texas City Disaster
The Texas City disaster of April 16, 1947 was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history, and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions.... Read more
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British South American Airways' Star Dust Disappears
On August 2, 1947, Stardust's radio operator sent a final message in Morse code to the Chilean radio operator then on duty in Santiago. The full... Read more
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United Airlines Flight 608 Crash
The engines, scorched and twisted, were thrown 200 to 300 feet beyond the burned area, while a piece of the tail - 18 to 30 feet long - was the... Read more
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Goswick Rail Crash
The Goswick rail crash occurred on 26 October 1947 near the village of Goswick, Northumberland, England. The Flying Scotsman express from Edinburgh... Read more
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Ballantyne's Store Disaster
There have, however, been terrible examples of the loss of human life by fire. Chief among these was undoubtedly the holocaust in a Christchurch... Read more
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Plane Chartered by the U.S. Immigration Services Crashes
On January 28, 1948, a twin-engine DC-3C chartered by the U.S. Immigration Service from Airline Transport Carriers of Burbank, California crashed... Read more
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G-AHNP Star Tiger Disappears
G-AHNP Star Tiger was an Avro Tudor Mark IV passenger aircraft owned and operated by British South American Airways (BSAA) which disappeared... Read more
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Northwest Airlines Flight 4422 Crashes, Killing 30
Northwest flight 4422 was a non-scheduled charter flight en route from Shanghai-Lunghwa Airport to La Guardia Field. An intermediate stop was made... Read more
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Gatow Air Disaster of 1948
The aircraft was circling Gatow in preparation for landing when the DC-3 collided head on with the Russian Air Force Yakovlev 3 fighter, which was... Read more