The Halifax Explosion was a maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia,
Canada, on the morning of 6 December 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French
cargo ship laden with high explosives bound for Bordeaux, France,
collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the Narrows, at the north-
west tip of Halifax Harbour. When a fire on board the French ship
ignited her cargo, around 2,000 people were killed by the blast, debris,
fires and collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were
injured. Nearly all structures within an 800-metre (half-mile) radius,
including the entire community of Richmond, were obliterated. A pressure
wave snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded
vessels, and scattered fragments of Mont-Blanc for kilometres. A tsunami
created by the blast wiped out the community of Mi'kmaq First Nations
people who had lived in the Tufts Cove area for generations. The blast
was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear
weapons, releasing the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT
(12,000 GJ). There are several memorials to the victims of the
explosion in the North End of Halifax.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_explosion>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1060:
Béla I the Champion was crowned King of Hungary.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_I_of_Hungary>
1917:
World War I: USS Jacob Jones became the first American
destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it was torpedoed by German
submarine SM U-53.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jacob_Jones_(DD-61)>
1941:
The British Secret Intelligence Service established a facility
known as "Camp X" in Ontario, Canada, to train covert agents in
clandestine operations.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_X>
1957:
The first U.S. attempt to launch a satellite failed with an
explosion on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_TV3>
1992:
The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, India, was destroyed by Hindu Kar
Sevaks, who believed that it was built on the birthplace of Rama.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_of_the_Babri_Masjid>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
demulcent:
(also figuratively) Soothing or softening.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demulcent>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The scene shall never fit the deed. Grotesquely wonders come to
pass. The fool shall mount an Arab steed And Jesus ride upon an ass.
--Joyce Kilmer
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joyce_Kilmer>