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