· An earthquake that measured 9.2 on the Richter scale hit Alaska on March 27, 1964. It was Good Friday. 131 people died.

· The Hindenburg crashed in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937. It was lifted by hydrogen gas. The Germans had tried to buy helium from the US, but was refused.

· The worst air disaster in the US, prior to September 11, 2001, took place in Chicago at O’ Hare International Airport on May 25, 1979. A wing mounted on the engine fell off a DC-10 owned by American Airlines on takeoff. 273 passengers and crew, plus two people on the ground, died.

· The cargo ship Edmund Fitzgerald sank to her watery grave on November 10, 1975. All twenty-nine mariners were lost. Most were from Canada’s Maritime Provinces. Gordon Lightfoot wrote a ballad about the disaster.

· On April 10, 1963, the Thresher, an attack submarine sank in the North Atlantic. 129 people on board died during the deep sea trial. Some of them were civilians.

· On January 15, 1919, two million gallons of molasses flooded the streets of Boston when a holding tank ruptured. The molasses killed 21 people.

· On December 15, 1967, the “Silver Bridge” between Ohio and West Virginia collapsed during rush hour. 46 people died.

· Over 6,000 people died on September 8, 1900 when a hurricane hit Galveston, Texas. The loss of life was blamed on weather forecasting equipment.

by Mary M. Alward