Along famed ROUTE 66 just outside St. Louis, is one of Missouri’s newer state parks. But one with a very checkered past, as it’s the former location of the town of Times Beach and an infamous hazardous waste site.
Category Archives: Historical Disasters
The Donora Death Fog of 1948
In 1948, a little-remembered environmental disaster occurred in the U.S. that shocked the entire world. It may sound like something from a Steven King horror novel, but it’s the real thing.
The Deadly 1900 Galveston Hurricane
If you approached Galveston, Texas from the Gulf of Mexico in 1900, it looked like an American Venice.
The Forgotten Sultana Riverboat Disaster
More souls died on the Riverboat Sultana than the RMS Titanic!
5 Reasons the 1889 Johnstown Flood Should Never Have Happened
The Johnstown Pennsylvania Flood of 1889 was more a man-made Tsunami than flood by Mother Nature.
Was the Great Chicago Fire Started by a Cow?
It is true the infamous fire started in the barn of Catherine and Patrick O’Leary on Sunday night, October 8th, 1871.
The Lusitania Sank in Just 18 Minutes, Beating Titanic!
The ocean liner Lusitania was struck by a German torpedo in 1915 and sunk within sight of the Irish coast in just 18 Minutes! Compare that to the rather luxurious sinking of the Titanic three years earlier in 1912 that lasted 2 hours and 40 minutes. We have all seen the popular movie, so justContinue reading “The Lusitania Sank in Just 18 Minutes, Beating Titanic!”
The Windscale Nuclear Disaster – Britain’s Chernobyl
In 1957, in an English seaside town, a new type of disaster occurred when a fire broke out at the Windscale nuclear reactors. The fire, at the two-reactor facility in Cumbria (now Sellafield), was due to poor design and gross mismanagement, leading to deadly consequences. The incident became embroiled in Cold War-era secrecy and provedContinue reading “The Windscale Nuclear Disaster – Britain’s Chernobyl”
The MV Doña Paz – the Worst Maritime Disaster in History
While the Titanic and Lusitania may be the more famous shipwrecks, their death toll was but a third of the world’s deadliest, taking the lives of over 4,300 souls. Just five days before Christmas, the MV Doña Paz ferry collided with an oil tanker, burnt to the water line, and sank in the Philippine Sea. Continue reading “The MV Doña Paz – the Worst Maritime Disaster in History”
The Great Bengal Famine and the Boston Tea Party
The Indian Famine of 1770 is one of the greatest disasters in human history. Over ten million people, a third of the population of Bengal, died. A drought lasting 5 years, bad harvests, and cruel British rule all contributed. The British East India Company compounded the famine with heavy taxation, leading to millions of BengalisContinue reading “The Great Bengal Famine and the Boston Tea Party”