The London Beer Flood was an accident at Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery (pictured) on 17 October 1814. When one of the 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vats of fermenting porter burst, the pressure destroyed another vessel, and between 128,000 and 323,000 imperial gallons (580,000–1,470,000 l; 154,000–388,000 US gal) of beer were released. The resulting wave of porter destroyed the back wall of the brewery and swept into an area of slum-dwellings. Eight people were killed. The coroner's inquest returned a verdict that they had lost their lives "casually, accidentally and by misfortune". The brewery was nearly bankrupted by the event; it avoided collapse after a rebate from HM Excise on the lost beer. After the accident the brewing industry gradually stopped using large wooden vats, replacing them with lined concrete vessels. The brewery moved in 1921, and the Dominion Theatre is now where the brewery used to stand.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1886:

The London-based football club Arsenal, then known as Dial Square, played their first match on the Isle of Dogs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Arsenal_F.C._%281886%E2%80%931966%29

1920:

Irish War of Independence: Following an Irish Republican Army ambush of a British Auxiliary patrol in Cork, British forces burned and looted numerous buildings in the city (aftermath pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_of_Cork

2005:

Demonstrations in Cronulla, a suburb of Sydney, against recent violence towards locals turned into a series of race riots. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Cronulla_riots

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

for the taking: Available; able to be taken without difficulty. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/for_the_taking

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Practised in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes.   --George Mason https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Mason