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San Francisco Earthquake
It was an 8.0 magnitude event. Many people were killed. Along with the tremendous amount of losses the survivors lost their homes and personal items with an loss estimated up to 6.5 billion dollars. -
Florida Keys Hurricane.
a massive and damaging tropical cyclone that swept across areas of the northern Caribbean Sea and the United States Gulf Coast in September 1919. Remaining an intense Atlantic hurricane throughout much of its existence, the storm's slow-movement and sheer size prolonged and enlarged the scope of the hurricane's effects, making it one of the deadliest hurricanes in United States history. -
Tri-State Tornado
Over the span of three-and-a-half destructive hours, the Tri-State Tornado became the deadliest twister to rip through the heartland. Along its path "which included Illinois, Indiana, Missouri" the tornado demolished more than 15,000 homes. Of the nearly 700 people killed, 613 were from Illinois. -
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. -
St. Francis Dam
The dam was designed and built between 1924 and 1926 by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, then named the Bureau of Water Works and Supply.At 11:57 p.m. on March 12, 1928, the dam catastrophically failed, and the resulting flood took the lives of an estimated 431 people -
Okeechobee Hurricane
When the evacuated residents of Lake Okeechobee learned that a hurricane hadn't arrived on schedule, many returned home thinking that they had been spared. The storm, however, slammed ashore later on the evening of September 16th with sustained 140 mph winds. Such intensity broke a small dike at the lake's south end, resulting in weeks of heavy flooding that claimed at least 2,500 lives. -
Stock market crashes
Banks that had invested poorly folded, taking businesses and family savings with them. The ripple effect brought on the Great Depression, sending millions to the unemployment rolls and devastating the nation’s economy for 12 years, where it could only be ended by the ramp up to World War II. -
Dust Bowl
A decade-long drought transformed the loose topsoil into dust, which windstorms swept up and blew eastward, darkening skies as far away as the Atlantic Coast. With most of the areas crops decimated, a third of the farmers turned to government aid, while around half a million Americans were left homeless. -
Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster
The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large-scale incident of occupational silicosis as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. This project is considered to be one of the worst industrial disasters in American history -
Labor Day Hurricane
The compact and intense hurricane caused extreme damage in the upper Florida Keys, as a storm surge of approximately 18 to 20 feet swept over the low-lying islands. The hurricane's strong winds and the surge destroyed nearly all the structures between Tavernier and Marathon. Portions of the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway were severely damaged or destroyed. The hurricane also caused additional damage in northwest Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. -
New London School explosion
occurred on March 18, 1937, when a natural gas leak caused an explosion, destroying the London School of New London, Texas,[1] a community in Rusk County previously known as "London". The disaster killed more than 295 students and teachers. -
Ohio River flood
The Ohio River flood of 1937 took place in late January and February 1937. With damage stretching from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, one million people were left homeless, with 385 dead and property losses reaching $500 million. -
Cali tentions
In the 1940s, tensions in California rose between Chicanos and Anglo sailors living there. Authorities viewed many young Chicanos, who favored baggy zoot suits, as criminals. Sailors went around beating them up. The tensions eventually erupted into a week of rioting in June of 1943, when some 200 sailors descended upon Los Angeles and severely beat several “pachucos,” at times stripping the suits from their bodies. The violence was met with indifference from police. -
Armistice blizzard
The Armistice Day Blizzard took place in the Midwest region of the United States on November 11 and November 12, 1940 -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese thought Hawaii precioitated the U.S. into WWII. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, its subsequent alliance with the Axis powers in 1940, and its occupation of French Indochina in July 1941 prompted the United States to respond that same month by freezing Japanese assets in the United States and declaring an embargo on petroleum shipments and other vital war materials to Japan -
Cocoanut Grove fire
The Cocoanut Grove Fire was a nightclub fire in the United States. The Cocoanut Grove was a premier nightclub during the post-Prohibition 1930s and 1940s in Boston, Massachusetts. On November 28, 1942, it was the scene of the deadliest nightclub fire in history, killing 492 people. -
Port Chicago Navel Explosion
The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion that occurred on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. -
Hartford Circus Fire
occurred on July 6, 1944, in Hartford, Connecticut, was one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. The fire occurred during an afternoon performance of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus that was attended by 6,000 to 8,000 people. 167 people died and more than 700 were injured. -
Port Chicago disaster
occurred on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions detonated while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring 390 others. Most of the dead and injured were enlisted African-American sailors. -
The Longoria Affairs Shook Texas Politics
Private Felix Longoria was killed in the Philippines as World War II came to an end. When his body was recovered and returned to his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas, the director of the funeral home forbad the family from using the chapel because he feared white residents would disapprove. -
Soviet Union Tests Atomic bomb
The Soviet Union tests an atomic bomb. For the next 50 years, Americans fear the Cold War will end in a nuclear holocaust. -
USS Constellation Catches on Fire
The valve assembly was knocked out of the tank by an 1,800-pound steel plate resting on a wooden pallet. The pallet was hit by a heavy steel trash bin that had been nudged by a fork-lift truck. The fuel gushed from the tank and ran through work holes in the steel flooring to decks below, on one of which it came in contact with 'hot work'- either a welding or cutting torch or steel that was hot from such work. -
Assassination of JFK
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. He was shot twice, and an hour after his death Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the crime. -
The Point Pleasant Disaster
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was full of rush-hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Two of the victims were never found. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure of a single eyebar in a suspension chain, due to a small defect 0.1 inch (2.5 mm) deep. Analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it had originally been designed for and had been poorly maintained. -
Assassination of Martin Luther King.
A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. He shot and killed King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March. -
Hurricane Camille
The storm formed on 14 August and rapidly deepened. It scraped the western edge of Cuba at Category 2 intensity. Camille rapidly deepened once again over the Gulf of Mexico and made landfall with a pressure of 900 mbar, estimated sustained winds of 175 mph and a peak official storm surge of 24 feet. The hurricane flattened nearly everything along the coast of the U.S. state of Mississippi. In total, Camille killed 259 people and caused $1.42 billion -
Rapid city flood
Average rainfall over area of 60 mi² measured at 10-15 inches (380 mm), over 6 hours in middle of night June 9–10, 1972. -
Flight 191
American Airlines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight operated by American Airlines from O'Hare International Airport in Chicago to Los Angeles International Airport. A McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 used for this flight on May 25, 1979, crashed moments after takeoff from Chicago. All 258 passengers and 13 crew on board were killed, along with two people on the ground. It is the deadliest aviation accident to have occurred in the United States. -
1980 heatwave
A high-pressure ridge pushed temperatures across the central and southern United States above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for most of the summer. Agricultural damage tallied an estimated $48 billion due to a massive drought, and 10,000 people died from heat and heat stress-related ailments. -
Mt. Saint Helen
On May 18, 1980, a major volcanic eruption occurred at Mount St. Helens, a volcano located in Skamania County, in the state of Washington, United States -
Heat wave of 1988
A year-long drought that had ravaged the agricultural economy was further exacerbated by the heat wave of 1988. Damage to the agricultural economy surpassed $61 billion, as total rainfall along the Great Plains region from April through June was even lower than during the Dust Bowl years. -
Hurricane Andrew.
Andrew was one of the most destructive hurricanes. Over 25,000 houses were destroyed and nearly 100,000 more were severely damaged. 65 people were killed and the damage total across the affected regions exceeded $26 billion. Andrew peaked as a powerful Category 5 on august 25th. -
Storm of the Century
was a large cyclonic storm that formed over the Gulf of Mexico on March 12, 1993. The storm eventually dissipated in the North Atlantic Ocean on March 15, 1993. -
Oklahoma City Bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City -
Red River Flood
The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Southern Manitoba. It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826. -
North American Ice Storm
was a massive combination of five smaller successive ice storms in January 1998 that struck a relatively narrow swath of land from eastern Ontario to southern Quebec -
Aldercrest-Banyon landslide
was a major slow-moving landslide in the east Kelso, Washington neighborhood of Aldercrest beginning in early 1998 through 1999. The disaster ended up being one of the worst urban landslides in United States history in terms of cost. The landslide is one of the most notable in Washington state, which has many landslides due to its mountainous terrain. -
Tropical storm Allie
Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. -
9/11
19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Over 3,000 people were killed, including more than 400 police officers and firefighters. -
American Airlines Flight 587
American Airlines Flight 587 was a regularly scheduled passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Santo Domingo's Las Américas International Airport in the Dominican Republic. On November 12, 2001, the Airbus A300-600 flying the route crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, a borough of New York City, shortly after takeoff. All 260 people on board the flight were killed, along with five people on the ground. -
Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. -
Hurricane Rita
Several counties were heavily impacted, with areas in and around Buffalo, New York, particularly the city's southern suburbs, receiving snowfall totals in the range of 5–7 feet (1.5–2.1 m), killing at least fourteen people; most of the deaths were caused by heart attacks from overexertion trying to remove the snow. -
Hurricane Katrina
The Atlantic storm that began as a category 1 hurricane as it blew across southern Florida wound up being the country's costliest tragedy. Katrina roared into the Louisiana coast with 125 mph sustained winds, causing a storm surge that broke levees that shielded New Orleans from surrounding, higher coastal waters, and leaving 80 percent of the city under water. Katrina killed at least 1,836 people and inflicted damages estimated at around $125 billion. -
October California wildfires
Large fires burnt out of control across southern California, fueled by unusually strong Santa Ana Winds; worst around San Diego; caused evacuation of over one million people. Most fires accidental; some suspected arson. -
Mississippi river flood
flooding of the Mississippi River valley in the central United States from late April to May 2011 on a scale not seen since the floods of 1927 and 1937. Thousands of square miles of agricultural and residential land were submerged by water that had surged over the banks of the Mississippi River system or that had been purposely diverted from large settlements through the blasting of levees and the opening of spillways. -
Joplin Tornado
The 2011 Joplin tornado was a catastrophic EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. -
Yarnell Hill fire
The Yarnell Hill Fire was a wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona, ignited by lightning on June 28, 2013. On June 30, it overran and killed 19 City of Prescott firefighters, members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. -
Hurricane Matthew
Hurricane Matthew was a powerful and devastating tropical cyclone which became the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Felix in 2007. -
Buffalo snowstorm
Several counties were heavily impacted, with areas in and around Buffalo, New York, particularly the city's southern suburbs, receiving snowfall totals in the range of 5–7 feet (1.5–2.1 m), killing at least fourteen people; most of the deaths were caused by heart attacks from overexertion trying to remove the snow.
