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Distasters. 1. BURNING OF ROME. A.D. 64 Rome, Italy Fire broke out near Circus Maximus, an arena for chariot races. Everything was made of wood, so it burned quickly. It lasted 9 days and lots of “looting” occurred . 2. ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS . A.D . 79 Naples, Italy
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1. BURNING OF ROME • A.D. 64 • Rome, Italy • Fire broke out near Circus Maximus, an arena for chariot races. • Everything was made of wood, so it burned quickly. • It lasted 9 days and lots of “looting” occurred.
2. ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS • A.D. 79 • Naples, Italy • Mountain erupted sending ash, rock, and fire into the air - explain a “Ground Surge”. • The ash in the air was so thick that it appeared to be night in the afternoon. • It left us with an accurate account of what life was like.
3. BLACK DEATH • 1347 • All over Europe • AKA Bubonic Plague. • Disease carried by small squirrel-like animals called marmots. marmots carried fleas, fleas infected rats, rats got on boats, boats carried sailors, sailors came to ports and disease spread. • It lasted four years.
4. POTATO FAMINE • 1840’s. • Ireland. • Potatoes were the number one crop in Ireland. • The plant disease that infected crops came from America. • People fled the country or they went hungry, lost income and homes. • The potato crops were ruined overnight.
5. GREAT CHICAGO FIRE • October 1871 • Chicago, Illinois. • Fire began in a barn, many explanations - Mrs. O’Leary’s cow knocked over a lantern. • Most of the business district (downtown) of Chicago was destroyed. • 300 people died in the fire.
6. BLIZZARD OF 1888 • March 1888. • New York City. • Great White Hurricane. • Very suddenly a blizzard hit with 85 mile per hour winds and it dropped over 20 inches of snow in two days. • 400 people died - most froze to death • The Saturday that the blizzard started was 50 degrees and sunny and weathermen said it would remain nice through Tuesday.
7. THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD • May 1889. • Johnstown, Pennsylvania • There was heavy rain for two straight days into the largest man-made lake in the country. • It caused a dam to break sending twenty million tons of water toward Johnstown. • 2,200 bodies were recovered, another 1000 were never found. • There was no warning because rain had taken down the telegraph lines.
8. SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE • 1906 & 1989. • San Francisco, California. • City sits on a fault line - the San Andreas Fault ( Pacific and North American plates meet). • 1906 - 28,000 buildings fell, but most problems were caused by fires from damage to gas and power lines. • 1989 - During the fourth game of the World Series at Candlestick Park - canceled because of fear that the stadium would collapse.
9. THE HINDENBURG • May 6, 1937. • New Jersey. • Dirigible - A hot air balloon that can be steered. • Zeppelin - The metal frame that holds a bag of gas - hydrogen. • It exploded from an electrical storm - 33 died. • It was longer than three football fields.
10. EXPLOSION IN SIBERIA • June 1908 • Siberia - remote section. • Major explosion - equal to 30 tons of dynamite. • Knocked down trees for 25 square miles. • Cause is a mystery.
11. THE TITANIC • April 15, 1912. • Atlantic Ocean. • Ship took 3 years to build - passenger ship - unsinkable. • Maiden Voyage from Great Britain through North Atlantic, hit an iceberg. • 700 of 2,200 passengers survived.
12. DUST BOWL • Winter 1932 • Great Plains - USA • Drought - no rain • Hurricane strength winds created horrible dust storms. • Half a million people had to leave their homes - all crops lost.
13. BOMBER HITS EMPIRE STATE BUILDING • July 1945 • New York • It was a WWII B-25 Bomber. • There were low clouds and the pilot was advised to turn back. • He kept going and crashed into the 79th floor. • All on board the plane died (3) and 11 people in the building. • $1 million in damage.
14. KILLER FOG IN LONDON • December 1952 • Mass of warm air moved into London trapping moist air below. • No breezes • All airborne particles and soot remained in the air. • 4,000 died from breathing the polluted air & 4,000 more died from related causes. • Positive result - They passed the Clean Air Act in 1956.
15. ANDREA DORIA • July 25, 1956 • Going to NY from Italy. • Nickname "Grand Dame of the Sea” • A Swedish-American liner called the “Stockholm” hit it and 51 people were killed by the impact. • DID YOU KNOW: It is a mystery how the two ships collided - both having radar - Explanation - if ships are on a collision course - both are to steer to the left - sea rule - Andrea Doria went right.
16. THE APOLLO TRAGEDY • January 27, 1967 • Florida • To be the first manned mission Apollo space project. • Disaster before they left the ground. • Electrical fire in the Command Module. • All three astronauts were killed - Grissom, White, Chaffee • DID YOU KNOW: Fireman arrived within three minutes of the hatch being opened - too late (took too long to open the hatch from outside)
17. MOUNT ST. HELENS ERUPTION • May 11, 1980 • Washington (State) • Volcano erupted sending ash 12-15 miles into the air. • 62 people died • People who refused to leave their homes were buried under hundreds of pounds of ash. • DID YOU KNOW: Trace amount of volcanic ash were carried around the world.
18. KILLER BEES • First arrived in 1956 • South and Central America • 46 African Queen Bees were brought to Brazil for an experiment. • Attack in swarms for any small disturbance • Several hundred people have been killed since 1956. • DID YOU KNOW: Unless the cool climate has an effect on them, they are just about a hundred miles from Texas and could spread into the US.
19. CHALLENGER DISASTER • January 1986 • USA (Florida) • First space shuttle ever built that could be re-used. • 7 people died • On it’s tenth mission, one minute into the flight, it burst into flames and exploded. • DID YOU KNOW: They had the first ordinary person on that flight, a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.
20. XENIA TORNADO • April 3, 1974 • Ohio • 300 mile per hour winds. • 33 people died, 1600 injured. • 150 tornadoes touched down that same day all over the US. • DID YOU KNOW: It tore the side wall of a house off, but left all the furniture and picture intact.
21. CHERNOBYL • April 28, 1986 • Kiev, Russia • Explosion & fire at a nuclear power plant (no meltdown). • High levels of radiation were released. • Russian did not tell other countries that it had happened. • DID YOU KNOW: 300 people have died and as many as 30,000 may die as a result of their exposure to radiation.
21. BHOPAL INCIDENT • 1984 • Bhopal, India • Union Carbide owned a pesticide factory there. • It allowed poisonous gas to leak out of a storage tank. • 2,000 people died, others blinded or foaming at the mouth. 180,000 people were treated at hospitals. • DID YOU KNOW: Factory was closed but reopened a couple days later.
