At around 10:15pm on the 9th of June, 1979, a fire broke out on the Ghost Train at Luna Park in Sydney, Australia. The fire would ultimately claim seven lives, wiping out almost an entire family in the process. It was a devastating blaze the cause of which remains, to this day, unknown. UPDATE: Since making this video, there have been some developments in the investigation. At least one police officer has now publically accused Abe Saffron of orchestrating the fire.
At just past 7:00am on the 26th of February, 2013, near Luxor in Egypt a hot air balloon carrying twenty passengers and one pilot caught fire. The blaze – later found to be the result of a gas leak in one of the balloon’s tanks – engulfed the basket. The balloon was coming in to land at the time, and wasn’t far from the ground. The pilot, severely burned by the flames, threw himself from the gondola. A single passenger followed him. They would be the only survivors of what ensued.
In the early hours of the 2nd February 1959, an expedition consisting of nine hikers and lead by 23-year-old Igor Dyatlov ended in disaster. The group had been camping overnight on a snowy hillside when something compelled them to flee from their tents and into lethal blizzard conditions, several of them in only a single layer of clothes. To this day, the exact reason for the flight which lead to their death is unknown.
On the 7th of August 2016, 10-year-old Caleb Schwab was enjoying a day out at the Schlitterbahn Vacation Village theme park in Kansas. While riding the fifty metre Verruckt water slide – one of the park’s biggest attractions – his raft became airborne and collided with safety netting, killing him instantly. It was assumed, at first, to be a freak accident… but a length investigation in the aftermath of his death would reveal the truth: the slide had always been unsafe, and should never have been allowed to operate in the first place.
On the 31st of May 2014 12-year-olds Anissa E Weisser and Morgan Geyser lured their friend Payton Leutner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times during a game of hide and seek, before leaving her for dead. Leutner would survive the attack, and the murderous pair would soon be arrested. The reason they gave for their violent assault was a sinister and unbelievable one: they did it for Slender Man.
At around 4:45pm on the 21st of June 2007 a component on the Superman Tower of Power drop tower ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom broke under stress, resulting in the accidental amputation of a 13-year-old girl’s feet. This bizarre accident unfolded in a matter of seconds, and is one of the most gruesome in the history of theme park ride accidents.
At about 3:30PM on the 2nd of June 1997 students from the senior year at Napa High School in California were visiting Waterworld USA in Concord. They decided to enact a traditional prank, by “clogging” a waterslide with as many students as possible. It was a lighthearted stunt that been carried out in previous years with no adverse consequences. This year, however, it would prove to be fatal.
At around 3:13pm on the 3rd of February 1998, near the Italian resort town of Cavalese, a low-flying Unites States Marine Corp plane on a training exercise struck the cable of an aerial tramway, severing it and causing a fully-loaded gondola to fall to the ground. The incident resulted in the deaths of all 20 occupants of the gondola, and came to be known by locals as “The Massacre at Cermis”.
On the evening of the 14th of June 1986 the Mindbender rollercoaster at the Fantasyland amusement park within the West Edmonton Mall in Canada suffered a severe malfunction. Several bolts came loose from a wheel assembly on one of the cars, causing it to leave the tracks and collide with a concrete pillar, ultimately resulting in the deaths of three of the riders, and severe injuries to one other.
On the 13th of September 1987, in the city of Goiânia in Brazil, two men entered the abandoned Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia hospital. Their intent was to steal valuable scrap metal and machine parts. They would be successful in this goal, but in so doing would cause one of the world’s worst radioactive contamination incidents.
At around 4:40pm on the 25th March 1911 a fire began at the premises of the Triangle Waist Company in New York City. Due to a number of factors, what started as a small flame beneath a fabric cutter’s bin would soon become one of the deadliest industrial disasters in history.
At around 1:51pm on the 2nd of June 2015 at the Alton Towers theme park in the UK, a combination of factors lead to a fully-loaded car on the Smiler rollercoaster crashing into an empty stationary car at speed. This incident was the worst rollercoaster crash in the history of the park, and resulted in serious, life-changing injuries for several of the passengers on board. It is down only to good fortune that nobody was killed.
On the evening of the 16th of November 1957 a farmer and handyman by the name of Edward Theodore Gein was arrested by police in the town of Plainfield, Wisconsin. He was suspected of having some connection to the disappearance of a local woman the day before. When officers were despatched to search the Gein farm, however, it wouldn’t be just one woman they discovered, but multiple human bodies, some of them disfigured in terrible ways. Gein, it emerged, was a prolific serial killer and body snatcher. His crimes have gone down in history as some of the most obscene ever committed.
On the 8th of July 2014, at Varna Airport in Bulgaria, German holidaymaker Lars Mittank ditched his suitcase, sprinted from the terminal, clambered over a fence, and disappeared into the woods. He would never be seen again, and his abrupt disappearance would remain a mystery for years to come.
On the 9th of November 1971 bank worker John List systematically murdered his wife, mother, and three children with a pair of handguns. He then proceeded to clean and tidy the family home, cut himself out of every photograph in the house with a pair of scissors, tune the radio to a religious station and walk away from his life forever. It would be decades before this murderer was found, and longer still before we achieved any kind of understanding as to why he committed such senseless and terrible crimes.
Something a little different today. Since it was so difficult to find online, I decided to upload a reading of John List's full confession letter. It's fascinating - especially when you know the details of his terrible crimes. What do you guys think? Is he being honest, or lying about his motives?
On the 16th of February 2009, at around 3:40pm an adult male chimpanzee named Travis, who had been kept as a beloved and pampered pet for many years, went berserk, mauling and severely injuring a 55-year-old woman. This prolonged assault continued until police arrived on scene and shot Travis dead. What triggered the violent attack will forever remain a mystery.
At around 11:07pm on the 20th February 2003 at the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, pyrotechnics used as part of a concert by the hard rock back Great White set fire to acoustic foam surrounding the stage. The flames spread with incredible speed. As patrons rushed to escape exits became jammed. All in all 100 people lost their lives, and hundreds more were injured and traumatised, all in the space of just a few short minutes.
On the 30th of October 1858 a batch of sweets which had accidentally been adulterated with arsenic were put on sale at a market stall. More than 200 people consumed them, with the vast majority becoming severely ill as a result. 21 people – including many children – died as a result of what turned out to be one of the first mass poisonings in British history.
On the 26th of October 2002, while participating in an elaborate treasure hunt known only as “The Game”, software engineer Bob Lord entered an abandoned mine shaft in the desert near Las Vegas. He was convinced that he was on the right track to retrieve the next clue in the 24-hour marathon hunt. He was wrong. In the pitch blackness Bob slipped and fell to the bottom of an unseen shaft, sustaining injuries that would change his life forever.
On the 11th of June 1955 at a motor racing event in Les Mans, France, a severe crash sent debris from a fast-moving car hurtling into a tightly-packed crowd of spectators. 84 people lost their lives, and more than 100 were seriously injured in what would go down in history as the most deadly motor racing crash of all time.
In the middle of July 1518, seemingly without reason, residents of the French town of Strasbourg began dancing compulsively in the streets, with many unable to stop even when restrained or physically exhausted. The dancers continued day and night, with many dancing until they collapsed and died. The mysterious dancing plague, which lasted in the heat of August, is said to have claimed as many as 400 lives.
At around 2pm on the 28th of June 2008 a 17-year-old boy on a trip to the Six Flags Over Georgia theme park made a fatal mistake. For reasons unknown he scaled two fences and entered a restricted ride area, and was subsequently decapitated by a passing train. The horrific incident made news nationwide, but it was not the first to occur on that same rollercoaster.
On the 24th March 2015, at around 10:41am, Germanwings flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps, resulting in the death of every single person on board. An investigation would reveal that the crash was caused deliberately – but not by sabotage or a terrorist attack. In the case of the Germanwings disaster the crash was caused by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz, who purposefully and calculatedly flew the plane into the side of a mountain.
At around 6:29pm on the 6th of March 1987 the MS Herald of Free Enterprise – an eight-deck car and passenger ferry – capsized just moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The incident resulted in the deaths of 193 passengers and crew. It was the most deadly sinking of a British ship in peacetime in more than 50 years.
At around 7:17am of the 30th of June 1908 near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia, Russia a gigantic explosion took place. The force of the blast flattened around 80 million trees, and cleared an area more than 2,100 square kilometres (800 square miles) in size. For many years after this devastating impact, the true cause of the blast remained entirely unknown.
At around 12:30pm on the 15th of January 1919, in the North End neighbourhood of Boston, Massachusetts, a huge storage tank filled with molasses burst. The sugary substance within flooded into nearby streets at great speed, destroying buildings, lifting cars and trucks on the crest of the wave, and smothering any unfortunate people in its path. In mere moments, the Boston Molasses Flood claimed 21 innocent lives.
At around 11:25am on the 28th of April 1995, a group of students from the Tai Poutini Polytechnic at Greymouth in New Zealand crowded onto a viewing platform high above Cave Creek in the Paparoa National Park on South Island. The viewing platform collapsed, sending the entire group tumbling into the chasm below. The vast majority did not survive the fall.
At around 1:50pm on the 27th of September 1986 more than a million helium-filled balloons were released from a public square in Cleveland, Ohio, as a fundraising publicity stunt. While the launch itself was successful, the wind blew the mass of balloons in an unexpected direction, resulting in utter chaos: millions of dollars of property damage, many injuries, and possible even two deaths were the result.
On the 27th of October 2009 folk singer Taylor Mitchell was in the middle of solo concert tour of the Maritime Provinces of Canada. During downtime between two concerts she decided to go walking on the Cape Breton Highlands National Park Skyline Trail. This walk in the woods, however, ended up costing Taylor Mitchell her life.
At around 9:00pm on the 28th of May 1977 a fire began at the Beverly Hills Supper Club, a sprawling entertainment venue and nightclub just outside Cincinnati. Despite plenty of warning that a fire had started, many of the 3,000 guests within the building that evening were unable to evacuate in time. The blaze ultimately claimed 165 lives, making it the third deadliest in US history.
At around 8:00pm on the 24th of November 2009 John Edward Jones – an avid amateur caver – entered the Nutty Putty caves just south of Salt Lake City in Utah. He was accompanied by a large group of family and friends – it was, after all, just before Thanksgiving. The trip was intended to be a brief adventure that they could share before the holiday. What it turned into was a living nightmare that would cost John Edward Jones his life.
At around 6:49am on the 22 May 1915, a fully-loaded troop train was passing close to Gretna Green in Scotland. The train was bound for Liverpool, where its passengers – mostly soldiers of the 7th battalion of the Royal Scots – would be loaded onto ships and sent onwards to Gallipoli, where they expected to encounter challenging conditions, and fierce fighting against Ottoman forces. Little did the men on board realise, however, that the vast majority of them would never make it beyond Gretna Green. The train on which they travelled was about to become part of one of the worst rail disasters of all time.
At 3:00pm on the 16th of June 1883 a children’s magic show began at Victoria Hall, a theatre in Sunderland, England. The venue was packed with children of all ages – as many as 1,500 boys and girls had paid a penny each to see the show. As the entertainers took to the stage and the magic began, none present in their seats knew that almost one in seven of the audience would not leave the theatre building alive.
On the 26th of May, 1978, a new attraction opened in the township of Vernon, New Jersey. For the next 20 years this unassuming US town would be the home to Action Park – a theme park and waterpark that would soon become notorious for its terrible safety record. Before the sale of the park to new owners in 1998, six guests would have died while riding its insanely unsafe attractions, and many hundreds of more would have sustained serious injuries.
At around 9:15am on the 27th of May, 1983, on a farm near Benton, Tennessee a powerful explosion took place. The blast was heard more than 32 kilometres (or 20 miles) away, and created a mushroom cloud the height of a six storey building. The site was all but levelled by the blast, and many workers present were instantly killed. But what could have caused a blast of such magnitude on a small, unassuming fishbait farm in rural Tennessee?
At around 7:30am on the 21st of October 1966 workers arriving at the site of a coal mine near the village of Aberfan in Wales discovered that one of several spoil heaps on site had shifted during the night. Supervisors called a halt to any work that day, and began to assess the damage. They were still doing so at 9:15am, when a huge amount of material broke away from the heap and flowed downhill in a giant wave, directly towards the village below.
On the 25th of October 2016 at the Dreamworld theme park in Australia, a river rapids ride malfunctioned. The failure of a water pump precipitated a deadly accident that claimed four lives in a matter of moments – an accident which, later investigation would reveal, could have been prevented.
In the early hours of the 24th of January 1961 a B-52 military aircraft was in the middle of a routine operation when it encountered severe technical difficulties, and began to break apart in mid-air. The captain ordered everyone on board to bail out, and they did so, leaving the disintegrating aircraft unmanned, shuddering violently as it plummeted towards farmland near Goldsboro, North Carolina. On board were two nuclear weapons, each one 250 times more powerful than the bomb which destroyed Hiroshima.
At around 12:05pm on the 11th of July 1978, a fully-loaded tanker truck left a state-owned refinery in a small town in the autonomous Catalonian region of Spain. It set off on a routine trip to Puertollano, an industrial city approximately six hours away by road. The truck never reached its destination. Before it was even half way to its destination it would become the cause of an accident which would claim more than 200 innocent lives.
At 7:00pm on the 17th of July, 1981, more than 1,000 people were gathered in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency Kansas City Hotel for a tea dance, when a structural failure occurred. Two skywalks which crossed the lobby collapsed, crashing down onto the revellers below. The incident would cause the greatest loss of life from a structural collapse in American history, only ever to be superseded – 20 years later – by the destruction of New York City’s World Trade Centre.
On the 15th of September, 1896, around 40,000 people gathered in the temporary town of Crush in Texas. The crowds were there to witness a unique spectacle – two trains would, for the sole purpose of entertaining the masses – be driven head first into one another at high speed. The staged train wreck would be a once in a lifetime sight for many in the crowd… and for a small number of onlookers, the very last thing they would ever see.
On the 10th of April 1991, the Moby Prince – an Italian passenger ferry – collided with another ship, resulting in an oil fire on the deck of the Moby Prince. The crew promptly radioed for help, and herded passengers to a fireproofed room within the ship. The Moby Prince was mere minutes from a Port Authority base, and the fire was spreading relatively slowly. It seemed all but certain that they would be rescued in plenty of time… and yet, as the minutes ticked by, help never came. The fire on board the Moby Prince would turn out to be one of the worst maritime disasters in Italian history… in part because of a few tiny human errors and one tragic miscommunication.
Something a little different this week. Once a year, around the holidays, I want to share the story of a disaster that *didn't* happen - a tragedy that, whether through luck, the bravery of those involved, or simple good planning, was averted. In this story, everyone survives... although it's definitely a close call.
On the 28th of November, 1942, a hanging decoration in one room of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts caught fire. The flames were, initially, quite trivial – some of the patrons who witnessed them were even amused by the efforts of waiting staff to extinguish them using glasses of water and seltzer bottles. They could not possibly have known, at that moment, that this tiny flame would within minutes grow into one of the deadliest nightclub fires in American history.
On the 9th of June 1991, at the Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, a normal summer evening took a surreal turn when two fatal freak accidents occurred almost simultaneously. The day would come to be known by fans of the park as “Black Sunday” – a day when three guests lost their lives in two completely separate – and, initially at least, completely inexplicable – incidents.
On the 29th of April, 1972, Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio, opened for business. The 364-acre amusement park included a $2 million dark ride, a record-breaking rollercoaster, and numerous other entertainments and attractions. It was a hit. Within just a few years the park saw visitor numbers in the millions, and was known not just across the state, but nationwide. Little spoken of, however, were several bizarre freak accidents that took place within the park in subsequent years, and which cost several staff and guests their lives.
On the morning of the 7th of November, 1940, travellers on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the state of Washington noticed something strange. The roadway suspended between the bridge’s concrete pillars was oscillating and twisting – gently at first, and then more and more dramatically. Soon enough almost the entire central span of the bridge was in motion, rippling wildly. At around 11am, whatever force was causing this movement proved too powerful, and the bridge collapsed into the water below. What exactly had happened was, at that stage, a mystery to almost everyone.
On the 11th of November, 2000, a fire began on board a train carrying passengers up to a ski resort in Kaprun, Austria. Automated safety systems brought the train to a halt in a tunnel midway to its destination – while almost at the same moment the flames destroyed the hydraulic system which controlled the doors. The 162 passengers on board were now trapped twice over – locked inside a burning train that was, itself, stalled inside a smoke-filled tunnel. Despite valiant efforts on the part of many on board, the vast majority of passengers would not survive.
On the 11th of May, 1984, a fire began inside the Haunted Castle attraction at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, New Jersey. The flames spread quickly, feeding off flammable building materials and decorations. There were around 30 guests inside the attraction when the flames took hold… almost a third of whom would not make it out alive.
On the 26th of February 1919, The Grand Canyon in Arizona officially became the 15th National Park of the United States of America. The canyon – actually a gorge of the Colorado River – and the many tributary canyons which surround are mostly comprised of extremely rugged and sheer terrain, although areas along the North and South Rim have been maintained and cultivated for the purposes of tourism. Dangers abound within the canyon itself… but even from well-maintained tourist areas on the rim, it is surprisingly common for people to fall to their death – often in ways that completely defy belief.
On the 6th of December 1917 two ships collided in the mouth of Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. The collision sparked a fire on board one of the vessels… a repurposed tramp steamer packed with a cargo of explosives bound for the European theatre of war. At exactly 35 seconds after 9:04am this cargo detonated, bringing about one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever to take place.
On the 5th of July, 2009, at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, two ride trains collided, resulting in the death of one staff member. This fatal crash, however, did not take place on a rollercoaster or other thrill ride, but instead on the resort’s monorail system, designed to transport guests around and between the parks.
On the 5th of September, 2020, at around 10:20am, an extended family group gathered on the edge of the El Dorado Ranch Park in Yucaipa, California. They were there for a gender reveal party – a celebration intended to reveal the gender of an as-yet-unborn child in a surprising and dramatic fashion. Unfortunately, the exact mechanism this family chose for their big reveal would soon result in a devastating and fatal wildfire, which would go on to ravage the area for months to come. It would be just the latest in a string of devastating incidents resulting from failed gender reveal parties.
On the 31st of August, 1888, in the heart of London’s Whitechapel, the serial killer who would come to be known as Jack The Ripper claimed his first victim, beginning a four-month reign of terror. Jack’s spree of grisly killings would prompt an unprecedented police investigation, a worldwide media frenzy, and a legacy of speculation that would last for centuries. Though the Ripper was never apprehended, he remains entrenched in the public consciousness to this day.
On the 3rd of December, 1979, English rock band The Who were scheduled to play a concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thousands of general admission ticketholders gathered outside the venue hours before the scheduled start of the concert… but were kept waiting outside by organisers while final arrangements were made for the night’s performance. When the go ahead was finally given to let the waiting crowd inside, only two doors were opened. Two doors for more than 8,000 people. By the time The Who actually did take to the stage that evening 11 of their fans would be dead.
On the night of the 28th of August, 1859, skies around the world lit up with spectacular displays of light. In some places the heavens glowed red, as though reflecting a massive wildfire. Elsewhere broad bands of white light were seen dancing across the night sky. For almost a week skies around the world glowed so brightly that it was possible to read a newspaper at midnight. Everywhere, people gathered and gazed upwards, terrified and awestruck in equal measure. The vast majority had no idea what they were witnessing, and could only assume that it was a portent of the end of the world.
Happy April Fool's Day, everyone. If you haven't seen the movie Jaws yet... well, I'd highly recommend it. Especially if you enjoy this video!
On the 25th of May, 1950, at around 6:30pm, a crowded tram was making its way through the streets of Chicago. As it approached a switch in the track, the driver missed the frantic signals of a worker on the street, and ploughed through the track switch at high speed. Immediately, the tram collided with a fully-loaded tanker truck hauling gasoline. Fuel spilled out and ignited in a giant fireball, beginning one of the most deadly public transit disasters in Chicago’s history.
On the 13th of November, 1965, the SS Yarmouth Castle – an American passenger steamship – was sailing from Miami to Nassau when a fire broke out on board. On another ship, this might have been a minor incident, but due to the condition of the Yarmouth Castle, and the actions of those on board, the fire spread until it endangered the entire ship. Six hours after the fire began, the vessel sank with the loss of 87 lives. It was the worst disaster in North American waters in 15 years, and it was, it emerged, entirely preventable.
On the 23rd of March, 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 was en route from Moscow to Hong Kong with 75 people on board. Before if could reach its destination, the aircraft appeared to malfunction, launching into a series of steep climbs and dives – the final one of which took the plane to an altitude so low that no recovery was possible. The Airbus A310 crashed into the ground, with the loss of every single person on board. A subsequent investigation would reveal that the crash was due entirely to a sequence of bad decisions, misunderstandings, and errors by the pilots of Flight 593.
On the 10th of October, 1957, a fire broke out at the Windscale nuclear facility on the west coast of England. The flames sent vast quantities of radioactive material billowing up into the atmosphere. It was, and remains, the United Kingdom’s most serious nuclear accident… but at the time no residents from the surrounding area were evacuated, and most of the details of the fire were swiftly hushed up. It would be years before the true extent of the damage caused by the Windscale fire was revealed.
On the 30th of December, 1903, a fire began on the stage at the newly-built Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Advertisements for the theatre had boasted that it was “absolutely fireproof”… but it was far from it. Indeed, the design of the theatre building lead to a death toll that outstripped that of any single building fire in all of American history, and lead to changes to the design of mass-occupancy buildings that are still in place today.
On the 15th of September, 2011, near Sao Paulo in Brazil one of the largest ever traffic accidents in history took place. In heavy fog, several vehicles collided, beginning a chain reaction that ultimately consumed around 300 cars and trucks. The incident left one person dead, and many more injured. While notable for its sheer scale, this pileup is just one of many such multi-vehicle collisions… many of which have, at their root, the same basic cause.
On the 2nd of August, 1973, three boys were playing on the miniature golf course outside the Summerland Leisure Centre on the Isle of Man. They ducked into an empty ticket booth so that they could share a cigarette. The oldest boy in the group was just 14. Their only worry at the time was being caught smoking... but they would soon have bigger concerns. A dropped match started a fire, which grew rapidly out of control. Panicking, the three boys fled. They would live to see another day, but dozens of people who were inside Summerland when the fire began would not.
On the 4th of February, 1912, at the Niagara Falls on the border between America and Canada, three innocent people were swept to their deaths in the raging waters. The three were tourists, who had been enjoying the then perfectly-ordinary practise of walking across the base of the falls on a bridge of ice that sometimes formed there in winter.
On the 6th of July, 1944, the circus came to Hartford, Connecticut. Excited residents crowded into the big top to watch a performance unrivalled in that day and age: trained lions and tigers, daredevil stunts, a menagerie of exotic creatures, and a series of acrobatic marvels. Around 7,000 people filed into the huge canvas enclosure to enjoy the show… but before the afternoon’s entertainment could draw to a close, one of the worst temporary building fires in US history would claim the lives of nearly 170 of the audience and performers.
On the 24th of September, 1972, the Golden West Sport Aviation Air Show was in full swing at Sacramento Executive Airport in Sacramento, California. Thousands of aviation enthusiasts had gathered to see aircraft – including military and experimental models – exhibited on the ground. The show came to an abrupt halt, however, when one aircraft leaving the show failed to take off at the end of the runway, and instead ploughed through a fence, across a road, and directly into a crowded ice cream parlour.
On the 23rd of June, 2012, in the city of Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada, a segment of the rooftop parking deck at the Algo Centre Mall collapsed, smashing down through two floors of the shopping center. The incident, which claimed the lives of two people and injured 22 more, lasted just a few short moments… but was the result of a slow, quiet, corrosive process that had been going on for decades.
On the 1st of March, 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the United States of America – an area of wilderness protected by the state for the preservation of wildlife, and for the enjoyment of all. They could hardly have picked a better place – Yellowstone was and (thanks to its protected status) remains a breathtakingly beautiful, alien landscape of unique geological features and thermal springs. These thermal springs in particular, like any wild and untamed thing, can be deadly – something which the park has wrestled with for its entire existence.
On the 9th of November, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald left Wisconsin and set off across Lake Superior laden with a cargo of iron ore pellets. It was a journey the cargo freighter had made many times before, but this particular sailing would be different. The Edmund Fitzgerald would never make it to its planned destination of Zug Island near Detroit, and neither would any of the 29 crewmembers on board.
On the 22nd of June, 1918, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus was on its way to its next scheduled performance in Hammond, Indiana. More than 300 labourers and circus performers were on board one of the circus’s two dedicated trains when it was forced to stop to deal with a mechanical issue. The vast majority of passengers were asleep, unaware entirely that another train was bearing down on them at full speed, and that in just a few minutes the Hagenback-Wallace Circus would suffer one of the worst tragedies it would ever endure.
On the 13th of May, 2000, residents in the Dutch city of Enschede noticed smoke in the sky. A small industrial complex in the northern part of the city was on fire. Fire engines made their way towards the blaze, while people watched from a safe distance, fully expecting to see it brought under control within a few hours. Instead, at around 3:30pm, a massive explosion shook the entire city, obliterating an entire neighbourhood in a matter of moments.
On the 7th of April, 1990, the MS Scandinavian Star – a passenger and vehicle ferry – was on its way from Oslo in Norway to Frederikshavn in Denmark, when a fire began on board. At the time, the ship carried 395 passengers and 97 crew. Approximately one third of the people on board would not live to see the morning… an extremely high death toll which, it was found, could be attributed in large part to the dilapidated and ill-maintained state of the ship.
On the 7th of December, 1941, at the height of World War II, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United State of America, which had until then been a neutral country. At 7:55am, the first of two waves of Japanese aircraft were launched from carriers off the shores of Hawaii. From a clear blue sky, they honed in on Pearl Harbour - a naval base on the island of O’ahu - and decimated it and the ships which were moored there. The attack, which was launched without warning, has gone down as a pivotal moment in the history of the world – an atrocity that caused America to finally enter, and ultimately help put an end to, the war.
On the 15th of May, 1929, hundreds of doctors, nurses and patients were going about their business inside the outpatient building of the Cleveland Clinic – a modern and in some ways revolutionary healthcare centre in Cleveland, Ohio. At around 11:30am the upper floors of the clinic were suddenly flooded with a thick, yellowish-brown gas. Those who inhaled it were dead within moments, never knowing or understanding exactly what had killed them.
On the 20th of April, 1902, after years of hard work, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolated a brand new element: radium. It was thought, at the time, that this new material might have all kinds of beneficial properties, and so radium was swiftly incorporated into a huge range of products: everything from makeup to ceramics to health tonics and jewellery. What wasn’t understood at that time was that radium was in fact quite deadly.
On the 19th of November, 1971, a group of high school students from Ainslie Park School in Edinburgh set off for a weekend adventure in the Cairngorms – a rugged mountain range to the north of the city. As bad weather settled in over the highlands, what started out as a weekend hike would soon turn into a life and death battle for survival from which six of the group would never return.
On the 21st of November, 2013, the roof of the Zolitūde Shopping Center in Riga, Latvia, collapsed without warning, trapping almost a hundred staff and customers within. The disaster – which was the worst to take place in Latvia in almost 60 years – would change the country forever, with consequences that reached all the way up to the highest ranks of government.
On the 27th of March, 1977, one of the worst disasters in aviation history took place at Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife. The collision of two fully-loaded Boeing 747 airplanes on a runway was an unprecedented and horrifying incident – an incident which, ultimately, was traced back to just a few momentary misunderstandings and communication failures.
On the 22nd of April, 1992 a series of huge explosions ripped through the Mexican city of Guadalajara, opening up a trench almost eight kilometres (or five miles) in length. The destruction was absolute – hundreds were killed, thousands injured, and vast tracts of the city damaged beyond recognition. As shocked survivors began digging through the rubble, the question remained: what could possibly have caused this kind of devastation on such an enormous scale?
On the 21st of November, 1980, a fire began on the first floor of the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Firefighters were quickly in attendance, and through a co-ordinated effort were able to contain and then extinguish the flames before they could spread to rooms where guests were sleeping. Only a relatively small part of the hotel actually burned… but a flaw in the design of the building meant that 85 guests – many of whom were staying on floors completely untouched by flame – lost their lives.
On the 24th of July, 1915, the SS Eastland – a passenger steamer – capsized in the Chicago River. Conditions at the time were perfectly calm, the water placid. There was no fire, no impact from another ship, no explosion. There was barely even any wind. In fact, the ship was still tied up to the dock. Help was on hand almost instantly. The water was relatively shallow, and the boat didn’t even fully sink. Yet despite all this, the Eastland disaster would turn into one of the deadliest in Chicago’s history.
On the 5th of December, 1952, an unusually heavy fog descended on London. It remained in place for five days, bringing the capital to a standstill… and yet it caused no panic. Fog was a common phenomenon within London and, dramatic as this fog was, it was thought of as just another example of typically British weather. It wouldn’t be until much later that the true cost of the Great Smog of 1952 was realised.
On the 5th of October, 1930, a passenger airship crashed to the ground and burst into flame, killing almost everyone on board. It wasn’t the Hindenburg. Instead, this was the R101 – an experimental British airship on its first overseas voyage. The conception, creation and testing of the R101 had been a fraught process… and its tragic end would be the death knell of the British airship industry.
On the 24th of December, 1913, in the town of Calumet in Michigan employees of a copper mining company were enjoying a Christmas party at a community hall. At some point in proceedings a loud cry was heard: “Fire!” The crowd rushed to escape down a single narrow staircase… but there simply wasn’t room for everyone to evacuate at once. In the panic and confusion which followed, many of those in attendance would lose their lives.
On the 13th of November 1986, BBC employees were rehearsing a stunt for an upcoming episode of The Late Late Breakfast Show...
On the 7th of November, 1916, the streets of Boston were crowded with people. The results of the 33rd United States presidential election were due to be announced...
On the 27th of May, 1962, a small team of workers were tasked with clearing up a landfill site just outside of Centralia, Pennsylvania...
On the 14th of May, 1988, a group from the Radcliff First Assembly of God Church spent the day at the Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio...
On the 27th of April, 1865, the Sultana – a wooden steamboat – was making its way north up the Mississippi River when, one after another, its boilers exploded...
On the 28th of November, 2008, crowds began to gather outside the Walmart at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York...
On the 25th of September, 1978, Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 was getting ready to land at San Diego International Airport...
On the 24th of December, 1953, a passenger express train was making its way across New Zealand from Wellington to Auckland...
On the 31st of August, 1994, police were called to a quiet suburb outside of Detroit, where a 17-year-old boy was suspected of stealing tyres...
On the 24th of July, 1976, a convention held by the American Legion at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia came to an end...
Once a year, around the holidays, I want to share the story of a disaster that *didn't* happen - a tragedy that, whether through luck, the bravery of those involved, or simple good planning, was averted. In this story, everyone survives... although it's definitely a close call.
On the 3rd of March, 1943, at the height of the Second World War, a fleet of German bombers took flight, heading directly for London...
On the 30th of October, 1938, an adaptation of HG Wells’s science fiction novel The War of the Worlds was broadcast on the CBS radio network...
On the 30th of July, 1945, the American Navy cruiser the USS Indianapolis was hit by two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine...
On the 6th of July, 2013, in the early hours of the morning, a freight train which had been parked for the night on the railway tracks near Nantes in Quebec started to move...
On the 8th of May, 1979, a taxi driver in Manchester, England, radioed his dispatcher to say that he could see smoke billowing from a Woolworths supermarket in the middle of the city...
On the 8th of July, 2011, a guest riding the Ride of Steel rollercoaster at Darien Lake amusement park in the state of New York was ejected from the ride as it crested a hill...
On or around the 17th of October, 79AD, Mount Vesuvius – a volcano in southern Italy – erupted. Ash, dust and poisonous gases were blasted high into the sky...
On the 25th of July, 2000, Air France Flight 4590 from Paris to New York took flight. The plane was a Concorde airliner...
On the 6th of September, 1992, a group of hunters on the Stampede Trail near Healy in Alaska came across an abandoned city transit bus...
On the 29th of October 1998 a fire began inside a community centre in Gothenburg, Sweden. That night the venue was supposedly hosting a birthday party for around 50 people…
On the 28th of January, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched into a clear blue sky from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida...
On the 18th of June, 1875, the city of Dublin in Ireland was hit by a devastating flood – a disaster which killed 13 people, injured twice that number, and destroyed dozens of buildings...
On the 1st of August, 2007, the I-35 West Mississippi River Bridge, one of the busiest bridges in Minneapolis, collapsed...
Happy April Fool's Day 2022, everyone. This movie terrified me when I was a kid - even back then I found the complete lack of health and safety precautions rather troubling!
On the 6th of December, 1969, 300,000 people gathered at the Altamont Raceway in California for a once-in-a-lifetime free concert...
On the 12th of March, 1928, the St Francis Dam in Los Angeles County, California, failed catastrophically...
On the 19th of August, 1989, a large group of partygoers boarded the pleasure cruiser the Marchioness, for a moonlit jaunt along the Thames...
The story of Juliana - one of the goodest dogs ever to make history with a well-placed pee...
On the 3rd of September, 1991, a fire began at the Imperial Food Products chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina...
On the 29th of June, 1995, the Sampoong Department Store in Seoul, South Korea, collapsed...
The story of the safety coffin - an invention designed to avoid one of the worst fates imaginable...
On the 25th of October, 1999, golfing icon and reigning US Open champion, Payne Stewart, boarded a private jet en route to his next big tournament in Texas...
Nicholas White accidentally took one of the longest cigarette breaks in recorded history. It nearly killed him...
On the 20th of December 1970, hundreds of people were attending a Christmas party at the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson, Arizona...
Having tea-making facilities on board a tank isn't just a luxury - for soldiers in warzones, it's a lifesaver...
On the 17th of July, 1955, the Disneyland amusement park in California opened for business. It was an almost instant success...
Houdini often demonstrated that he could withstand hard punches to the stomach... but this might be what ultimately killed him.
On the 28th of January, 1922, Washington DC found itself in the midst of a two-day snowstorm that was sweeping over the northeast United States...
On the 22nd of January, 1959, deep under the frozen Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, the roof of a tunnel in the River Slope Mine collapsed...
Brian Robson attempted to mail himself home to save on the cost of airfare. He very nearly died in the process.
On the 17th of September, 1949, a small fire began on board the passenger cruise ship the SS Noronic...
On 2nd of December, 1984, a cloud of toxic gas leaked from The Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India...
Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived the atomic bomb that fell on Hiroshima... but that wouldn't be the end of his ordeal.
On the 6th of July, 1988, a flurry of unusual calls came in to the South West Water Authority’s Communication Centre in England...
On the 24th of March, 1999, a transport truck caught fire while travelling from France to Italy through the Mont Blanc Tunnel.
On the 24th of May, 2001, around 700 people gathered at the prestigious Versailles Wedding Hall in Jerusalem to celebrate the marriage of Keren and Asaf Dror...
Lawn darts have gone down in history as one of the most lethal toys ever invented...
On the 16th of April, 1947, a small fire started on the cargo ship the SS Grandcamp, while it was docked at the port in Texas City...
The Pear of Anguish was commonly believed to be a Medieval implement of torture...
On the 28th of February, 1975, at Moorgate Tube Station in London the worst peacetime accident ever to happen on the London Underground took place...
Venetian Ceruse was a popular cosmetic in the 16th Century... despite a number of rather worrying side effects...
On the 27th of January, 1967, a disaster during a routine test launch at the Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex in Florida put America’s space program on hold...
Every year farmers in France and Belgium plough their fields... and turn up a harvest of deadly munitions...
On the 30th of July, 1997, a landslide above the small Australian ski resort of Thredbo in New South Wales sent a huge quantity of mud, rock and water hurtling towards the buildings below...
The anglerfish looks like something out of a nightmare... but it's a very real creature from the depths of the ocean...
On the 25th of March, 1911, a fire began at the premises of the Triangle Waist Company in New York City...
In the Iya Valley in Japan there exists a village where the human population is outnumbered by hundreds of scarecrows...
On the 12th of January, 2007, Californian radio station KDND held an on-air competition, the prize for which was a brand new Nintendo Wii...
Gustave is an unusually large Nile Crocodile which is rumoured to have killed up to 300 people...
On the 29th of May, 1914, two ocean liners collided in heavy fog in the St Lawrence estuary on the east coast of Canada...
Magnetix were the among the most popular toys of the year in 2005... but they had a deadly manufacturing defect.
On the 28th of August, 1988, 300,000 people gathered at the US Air Force Ramstein Air Base in Germany to watch an air show featuring a demonstration by the Italian Air Force...
On the 15th March, 1986, the Hotel New World in Singapore suffered a sudden and total collapse...
Protect and Survive was a pamphlet designed by the British Government to be distributed in the event of nuclear war...
On the 8th of October, 1952, hundreds of commuters crowded onto a local, London-bound train at Harrow and Wealdstone station...
In drought conditions, ancient hunger stones sometimes make an appearance in rivers across Europe...
On the 28th of November, 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 took off for a sightseeing tour of the Antarctic with 237 passengers and 20 crew on board...
Something quite strange happens when a murder of crows spots a dead one of their own...
On the 11th of September, 2002, a diving party in Poganica Bay, Croatia, placed a call to emergency services...
There's a dark secret lurking in the history of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland...
On the 31st of December, 1986, patrons gambling in the casino of the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico noticed a light haze of smoke in the air...
Months after the meltdown of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, scientists discovered something in a room below the reactor...
"On the 11th of May, 2004, a huge explosion shattered the quiet of a hot spring day in the Maryhill district of Glasgow, Scotland..."
The first roller coasters were terrifying wooden slides coated with layers of ice...
On the 25th of April, 2005, a seven-car commuter train passing through the Japanese city of Amagasaki catastrophically derailed...
Threads is a film that many critics agree is the most terrifying film ever made...
On the 10th of October, 1873, a blindfolded man was lead out to the gorges near Cornell University...
On the 9th of July, 1964, United Airlines Flight 823 took off from Philadelphia International Airport, bound for Huntsville International Airport in Alabama...
The AVCEN Jetpod was intended to revolutionise air travel... until it went catastrophically wrong...
"On the 18th of May, 1889, Thomas Midgley Junior was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania..."
"On the 1st of December, 1958, a fire broke out in the basement of the Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois..."
On this island in Mexico, thousands of dolls have been appearing for decades...
"On the 19th of July, 1989, United Airlines Flight 232 took to the skies on what was to be a routine trip from Denver’s Stapleton International Airport to Philadelphia International Airport, with a stop on the way at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago..."
The Mary Celeste was found adrift without her crew, and has remained a mystery ever since...
"On the 27th of December, 1836, heavy snowfall accumulated on the chalk cliffs above the town of Lewes, in the UK..."
The costumes in use at Disneyland didn't always look as good as they do today...
The Zacatón Sinkhole Disaster
"On the 10th of January, 1860, workers at the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, heard a deafening rumbling sound..."
"On the 30th of May, 1896, a lavish public banquet was laid on for the citizens of Moscow, Russia, to celebrate the coronation of their new Emperor, Nicholas the Second..."
"On the 11th of December, 2005, in the early hours of the morning, a booming explosion echoed across the English county of Hertfordshire..."
"On the 17th of November, 2012, 34-year-old José Salvador Alvarenga finished his breakfast and bid farewell to his fellow fishermen in the coastal town of Costa Azul..."
"On the 7th of December, 1946, at around 3:00am, the bell boy on duty at the Winecoff Hotel in downtown Atlanta received a room service order..."
Sir Adrian Paul Ghislain Carton de Wiart, a British Army officer, was known (with good reason) as "the unkillable soldier"...
"On the 5th of November, 1983, a diving bell was winched up out of the dark, choppy waters of the North Sea..."
"On the 10th of April, 1963, the USS Thresher – an American nuclear attack submarine – dove down beneath the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to carry out a routine depth test..."
Hundreds of inflatable tanks were vital in helping the Allies win the Second World War...
"On the 19th of August, 1839, a new technology was introduced to the world..."
"On the 3rd of March, 1944, a coal-powered freight train approached the entrance of the Armi tunnel, near the town of Balvano in Italy..."
Greek philosopher Chrysippus is commonly believed to have died in a very unusual way...
"On the 27th of April, 1978, workers arrived at a construction site near Willow Island in West Virginia..."
"On the 19th of September, 1902, thousands of people flocked to the Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alamaba, to listen to a speech by respected autor and orator Booker T Washington..."
"On the 11th of May, 1910, a sudden gust of air rushed through the Wellington Pit coal mine at Whitehaven in England..."