The Aberfan disaster was the catastrophic collapse of a coal-mining
spoil tip that caused the deaths of 116 children and 28 adults on 21
October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the
Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural
spring. Heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which
caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, engulfing the local
junior school and other buildings. There were seven spoil tips on the
slopes above Aberfan; the one that slipped onto the village was 111 feet
(34 m) high. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board
(NCB), and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on
the organisation and nine named employees. The organisation's chairman,
Lord Robens, was criticised for making misleading statements. Neither
the NCB nor any of its employees were prosecuted and the organisation
was not fined. Half of the village's surviving children suffered post-
traumatic stress disorder.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aberfan_disaster>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1854:
Florence Nightingale with a staff of 38 nurses and 15 nuns were
sent to Turkey to help treat wounded British soldiers fighting in the
Crimean War.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale>
1944:
World War II: The three-week-long Battle of Aachen concluded,
making the city the first on German soil to be captured by the Allies.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aachen>
1950:
Korean War: The Battle of Yongju began as British and
Australian troops of the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade engaged in
heavy fighting with North Korean forces.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yongju>
1978:
After reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft,
Frederick Valentich disappeared in unexplained circumstances while
piloting a Cessna 182L light aircraft over the Bass Strait to King
Island, Australia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
tattle:
1. (intransitive) To chatter; to gossip.
2. (intransitive, Canada, US, derogatory) Often said of children: to
report incriminating information about another person, or a person's
wrongdoing; to tell on somebody.
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To speak like a baby or young child; to
babble, to prattle; to speak haltingly, to stutter.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tattle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is of the nature of idea to be communicated: written, spoken,
done. The idea is like grass, It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on
crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.
--Ursula K. Le Guin
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin>