1861: American novelist and short-story writer Morgan Robertson is born. His 1898 novel, Futility, eerily foretells one of the 20th century’s great man-made disasters: the sinking of the Titanic
The similarities between Futility and subsequent actual events are startling, beginning with the names of the ships. Morgan Robertson called his liner Titan, which is just a [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Disasters’
Sept. 30, 1861: A Novelist With a Nose for Disaster
September 30th, 2009 |
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Sept. 29, 1898: Stalin’s Scientist Sees First Light
September 29th, 2009 |
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1898: Trofim Denisovich Lysenko is born in Karlovka, Ukraine. As dictator Joseph Stalin’s lapdog and top scientist, his influence will almost single-handedly retard the course of Soviet science, especially the fields of genetics and agronomy.
Early Soviet propagandists often relied on “miracles of science” to boost the status of their fledgling state. The young plant breeder [...]
Sept. 3, 1925: Shenandoah Crash a Harbinger of Grim Future
September 3rd, 2009 |
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1925: Caught in a squall over southeastern Ohio, the Navy dirigible USS Shenandoah breaks up and crashes into a field, killing 14 of the 43 men aboard. It is the first of three major accidents that eventually ends the Navy’s experiment with rigid airships.
The dirigible, a lighter-than-air craft with a skeletal framework, saw major [...]
Aug. 28, 1988: Ramstein Air Show Disaster Kills 70, Injures Hundreds
August 28th, 2009 |
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1988: Three Italian Aermacchi MB-339 fighter jets collide in midair at the Ramstein air base in Germany, killing 70 people and causing serious injuries to 346 others. It’s one of the worst air show disasters in history.
The accident occurred at the culmination of a complex maneuver by Frecce Tricolori, Italy’s military stunt-flight team. Known as [...]
Aug. 24, A.D. 79: Vesuvius Buries Pompeii
August 24th, 2009 |
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A.D. 79: Mount Vesuvius erupts on the Bay of Naples, raining down fire and death from the skies. Thousands die, including one of Rome’s greatest scientists.
The eruption buried the cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabiae. Though the eruption came without warning, it lasted more than a week and did not kill all at [...]
July 9, 1958: Surf’s Up, as 1,700-Foot Wave Scours Alaskan Bay
July 9th, 2009 |
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1958: The tallest wave ever recorded — splashing nearly 500 feet taller than the Empire State Building — explodes down Lituya Bay in the Gulf of Alaska.
Lituya Bay is a T-shaped fjord on the coast of the Alaskan Panhandle, west of Glacier Bay and about 120 miles west-northwest of Juneau. It measures 7 miles long [...]