List of disasters
This is a list of disasters, both natural and man-made.
Prehistoric disasters
Classical-Era disasters
- Thera volcanic eruption caused tsunamis in the Aegean sea, destroyed Minoan fleet, leaving Crete open to mainland invaders
- Vesuvius volcanic eruption, Italy, 79 AD buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stabiae.
- Alexandria earthquake which destroyed the Pharos of Alexandria
- Rhodes earthquake destroyed the Colossus of Rhodes
- (Sodom and Gomorrah which were destroyed in an undetermined Biblical disaster.)
- Climatic disaster if 535 AD, triggered by an Indonesian volcanic eruption,; grassland failures spurred migrations of Avars and others; plagues, collapse of Late Antiquity (David Keys theory, in Catastrophe: An Investigation into the Origins of the Modern World, 2000.
Modern-Era disasters
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake (November 1st, 1755)
- Mobile magazine explosion (May 25, 1865)
- Krakatoa, Indonesia, volcanic eruption, (August 26, 1883)
- Galveston Hurricane of 1900, Galveston, Texas (September 8, 1900)
- 1906 San Francisco earthquake, San Francisco, California (April 18, 1906)
- Halifax explosion, Halifax, Nova Scotia (December 6, 1917)
- The Boston Molasses Disaster, Boston, Massachusetts (January 15 1919)
- Tri-State Tornado, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana (March 18, 1925)
- The Bombay Explosion, Victoria Dock Bombay, India (April 14 1944)
- Hartford Circus Fire, Hartford, Connecticut (July 6, 1944)
- The Port Chicago Explosion (July 17 1944)
- Texas City Explosion, Texas City, Texas, (April 16, 1947)
- Great Smog of 1952, London, England
- 24 hours of Le Mans disaster, France, (June 11, 1955)
- Springhill Mining Disaster, Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada (October 23, 1958)
- Knox Mine Disaster, Port Griffith, United States (January 22, 1959)
- Escuminac Disaster, Escuminac, New Brunswick, Canada (June 20, 1959)
- The Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak, Midwest, United States (April 11, 1965)
- BLEVE explosion at a refinery in Feyzin, France (January 4, 1966)
- Aberfan disaster, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales (October 21, 1966)
- Ibrox disaster, Glasgow, Scotland (January 2, 1971)
- Summerland disaster, Isle of Man (August 2, 1973)
- The Super Outbreak, tornadoes in 13 U.S. states (April 3, 1974)
- The Flixborough disaster, North Lincolnshire (June 1 1974)
- Hyatt Hotel disaster, Kansas City, Missouri (July 17 1981)
- Bradford City Disaster, Bradford, England (May 11, 1985)
- Heysel Stadium disaster, Brussels, Belgium (May 29, 1985)
- Piper Alpha Disaster, North Sea, Scotland, (July 6 1988)
- Hillsborough disaster, Sheffield, England (April 15, 1989)
- Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption (June 15th, 1991)
- Westray Mine Disaster, Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada (May 9, 1992)
- Bijlmerramp disaster, Bijlmerramp, Netherlands (October 4 1992)
- Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, Chicago, Illinois
- Enschede fireworks disaster, Enschede, Netherlands (May 13, 2000)
- Kaprun disaster, Kaprun, Austria (November 11, 2000)
- European Heat Wave of 2003, Europe
- Bam Earthquake, Iran (December 26, 2003)
Dam disasters
- Great Sheffield flood, Sheffield, England (March 11, 1864)
- Johnstown flood, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, (May 31, 1889)
- St. Francis Dam Disaster, Los Angeles, California, (March 12, 1928)
- Vajont Dam Disaster, Longarone, Italy, (October 9, 1963)
Environmental disasters
- Love Canal, Niagara Falls, New York (1970s)
- Seveso disaster, Italy, 1976
- Bhopal Disaster, Bhopal, India (December 3, 1984)
- Exxon Valdez oil spill, Prince William Sound (March 24, 1989)
- Prestige oil spill, off the Spanish coast, (November 13, 2002)
Nuclear disasters
War disasters
An attack with much collateral damage may be considered a disaster, such as the attack on KdF Ship Wilhelm Gustloff, 1945, the worst or perhaps second worst maritime incident in history, in terms of loss of life in a single vessel (see also note at the end of the article RMS Titanic).
- The Blitz, (German massive bombing), caused the deaths of an estimated 42,000 civilians in major British cities.
- Dresden fire-bomb attacks, between 35,000 and 135,000 civillians killed in few days, by United Kingdom and United States massive bombing in Dresden, Germany (between February 13 and February 15, 1945).
- Tokyo fire-bomb attacks by USA, is estimated to have killed 83,000 civilians.
- Nagasaki and Hiroshima nuclear bombing by USA in Japan
- Vietnam agent orange herbicide sprayed on few millions vietnam civilians and US troops, by USA during the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1970.
Air disasters
This is a list of disasters involving objects in flight or near-flight. See also: List of space disasters, List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners, Incidents in Aviation
Rail disasters
See also: List of rail accidents
Ship and Ferry disasters
See also: List of shipwrecks
Road disasters
Fire disasters
Main article: List of historic fires
See also
