| 12th March 1812 | Venezuela is wrecked by an earthquake
The country was in turmoil before the quake, but the royalist clergy proclaim the quake as divine vengence on the revolutionaries!
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| 9th October 1871 | The Great Chicago fire
A small barn fire that got out control and ended destroying the greater part of the city
For more information see :http://www.chicagohs.org/fire/
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| 14th July 1902 | St Marks Campanile Collapses
Although we think of Venice as a opulent place, the city went through many years of decay and awful poverty. During this time many of its buildings suffered great decay. It was a lack of restorative work on the Campanile that ultimately brought it crashing down to the ground after 500 years.
For more information see :http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/WAI/eng/basilica/campanile/interne/campanile_appr.bsm
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| 7th April 1906 | Mount Vesuvius erupts
We all know that Vesuvius destroy Pompeii but that was far from the last eruption. As the only volcano on the European mainland it is a highly active one and has had major eruptions in the 20th century. The most damaging being in 1906 when several towns were destroyed.
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| 18th April 1906 | San Francisco is destroyed by an earth quake
The 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires destroyed the city. At the time the suggestion was that it was the fires that did the major damage but recently it has been established that this was not the case and photographs of the Earthquake damage had been doctored to make it appear that much less was done that actually had.
For more information see :http://www.sfmuseum.org/1906/06.html
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| 15th April 1912 | SS Titanic sinks
The story of the Titanics maiden voyage is known by everyone, but one mystery that still remains is why didn't the young couple standing at the bow see the ice berg coming?
For more information see :http://www.titanic-titanic.com/
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| 1st September 1923 | Tokyo devestated by earthquake
Tokyo was virtually destroyed by this quake qhich claimed the lives of at least 100,000 people
For more information see :http://www.eas.slu.edu/Earthquake_Center/1923EQ/
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| 16th August 1952 | Flash flood ripes through Lynmouth
The worst flash flood that Britain had suffered in the 20th century leaving 34 people dead
For more information see :http://www.benfieldhrc.org/SiteRoot/activities/tech_paper1/pages/chapter2cont/flash_flood.htm
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| 6th September 1952 | Farnborough airshow disaster
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| 8th October 1952 | Three trains crash at Harrow
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| 31st January 1953 | 130 people killed when car ferry sinks in Irish Sea
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| 1st February 1953 | Hundreds killed across Britain and Holland in violent storm and floods
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| 11th June 1955 | Le Mans disaster. 77 killed when car spins off track
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| 6th February 1958 | Munich air disaster, 7 Manchester United team members killed
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| 7th October 1959 | Hundreds trapped by fire on the world longest pier at Southend on Sea
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| 29th February 1960 | Morrocan earthquake
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| 24th January 1966 | Air India 707 crashes in to Mont Blanc
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| 5th March 1966 | BOAC 707 crashes into Mount Fuji
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| 21st October 1966 | Aberfan slag heap disaster kills 144, 116 of them children
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| 18th March 1967 | Supertanker Torrey Canyon runs aground off the Scilly Isles
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| 29th March 1967 | Crippled oil tanker, Torrey Canyon, bombed by RAF
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| 5th November 1967 | Hither Green rail crash
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| 16th May 1968 | Ronan Point tower block collapses
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| 2nd January 1971 | Ibrox Stadium disaster
66 Glasgow Ranger fans are killed when crush barriers collapse at the end of a Celtic-Rangers Match
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| 18th June 1972 | Staines Air disaster kills 118 people
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| 2nd August 1973 | 30 killed in Summerland Leisure park fire in the Isle of Man
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| 25th December 1974 | Darwin wrecked by Cyclone Tracy
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| 28th February 1975 | Moorgate Tube Disaster
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| 28th July 1976 | 200,000 Killed in Chinese earthquake
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| 29th July 1976 | The worlds longest pier at Southend on Sea catches fire
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| 27th March 1977 | 2 Jumbo jets collide at Tenerife
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| 18th November 1978 | 914 people commit suicide in Guyana
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| 28th March 1979 | Nuclear accident at Three Mile Island
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| 27th March 1980 | Alexander Kielland accommodation rig collapses in North Sea
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| 19th May 1980 | Mount St Helens erupts
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| 11th October 1980 | Algerian double earthquake
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| 20th December 1981 | Mousehole lifeboat lost at see with crew
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| 26th April 1983 | Chernobyl nuclear disaster
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| 1st September 1983 | USSR shoot down Korean airliner
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| 3rd December 1984 | Union Carbide Bhopal chemical gas disaster
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| 11th May 1985 | Bradford stadium fire
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| 23rd June 1985 | Air India Jumbo crashes off Irish coast
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| 12th August 1985 | Over 500 killed when JAL Jumbo crashes into mountain
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| 13th November 1985 | Nevado del Ruiz erupts in Colombia killing 20,000
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| 21st August 1986 | Over 1000 people gassed in Cameroon lake disaster
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| 6th March 1987 | Townsend Toreson Spirit of Free Enterprise capsizes in Channel
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| 16th October 1987 | Southern England devestated by the Great Storm
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| 18th November 1987 | 27 people killed in Kings Cross tube station fire
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| 6th July 1988 | Piper Alpha North Sea oil rig explodes
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| 10th December 1988 | Armenian earthquake
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| 12th December 1988 | Clapham Junction rail disaster
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| 8th January 1989 | Kegworth Air Disaster
46 people are killed when a BMI Boeing 737 crashes shortly after take off from East Midland airport
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| 23rd January 1989 | Takij earth quake
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| 4th March 1989 | Purley rail crash
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| 24th March 1989 | Oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, runs aground in Alaska
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| 15th April 1989 | Hillsborough stadium disaster
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| 20th August 1989 | 30 people killed in Marchioness Cruise boat disaster
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| 17th October 1989 | San Francisco hit by earthquake
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| 25th January 1990 | Second Great Storm ravages Southern England
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| 20th November 1992 | Windor Castle fire
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| 17th January 1994 | Los Angeles hit by 6.6 earth quake
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| 28th September 1994 | Estonia car ferry sinks in the Baltic
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| 17th January 1995 | Kobe earth quake
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| 13th March 1996 | Dumblane school massacre
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| 19th September 1997 | Southall rail disaster
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| 4th February 1998 | Afganistan hit by earthquake
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| 25th January 1999 | Colombia earth quake
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| 29th October 1999 | India hit by Super-cyclone
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| 25th July 2000 | French Concorde crashes
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| 13th January 2001 | San Salvador devestated by earth quake
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| 28th February 2001 | Selby Rail Crash
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| 24th October 2001 | 10 die in St Gottard Road tunnel fire
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| 14th January 2002 | Britains Foot and Mouth epidemic ends
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| 25th December 2003 | British built probe Beagle 2 disappears on Mars
The Britsh Mars lander built on a shoestring that landed on the surgfce of mars with a silent thud.
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- Disasters