Disasters & Accidents in the 20th century

1,798 sourced entries, 1900 CE to 1999 CE, oldest first. Also see Disasters & Accidents across every century or everything else in the 20th century.

1900March 6 – A coal mine explosion in West Virginia, United States, kills 50 miners.source
1900April 26 – Two-thirds of Hull, Quebec, is destroyed in a fire.Canada source
1900May 1 – Scofield Mine disaster: An explosion of blasting powder in a coal mine in Scofield, Utah, kills 200 people.source
19009 May – The Sierra Nevada is wrecked off Portsea, Victoria; 23 lives are lost.Australia source
1900June 30 – Hoboken Docks fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey, spreads to German passenger ships SS Saale, SS Main and SS Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.source
1900June 30 – Hoboken Docks Fire: A wharf fire at the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey owned by the North German Lloyd Steamship line spreads to German passenger ships SS Saale, SS Main, and SS Bremen. The fire engulfs the adjacent piers and nearby ships, killing 326 people.United States source
19005 August — 18 people die in a boating tragedy on the Mōtū River.New Zealand source
1900August 12 – Train wreck at Castel Giubileo along the Florence-Rome railway with twenty victims and a hundred injured. A failure to report a broken-down train, caused a rear-end collision. The crashed train was transporting the foreign delegations who had just attended the funeral of King Umberto I and the subsequent coronation of Victor Emmanuel III.Italy source
190015 December – all three keepers of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse are drowned.Scotland source
1900December 16 – The German training frigate Gneisenau, with 450 naval cadets on board, sinks in a storm during exercises off of the Spanish coast at Málaga, drowning 136.source
190016 December – The German training frigate Gneisenau, with 450 naval cadets on board, sinks in a storm during exercises off of the Spanish coast at Malaga, drowning 136.Germany source
1900Fire in the General Staff BuildingRussia source
1901February 5 – In Evansville, Indiana, a fire burns through the business district, causing $175,000 of damage.United States source
1901February 22 – The Pacific Mail Steamship Company's SS City of Rio de Janeiro sinks entering San Francisco Bay, killing 128.source
1901May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 begins in Jacksonville, Florida.source
1901May 3 – The Great Fire of 1901 in Jacksonville, Florida, begins.United States source
19018 June – Customs depot in Antwerp burns outBelgium source
1901August 4 – Lieutenant-general Paul Methuen destroys the village of Schweizer-Reneke under the British scorched earth policy.South Africa source
1901August 10 – U.S. Steel recognition strike of 1901: Members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers begin a strike against United States Steel Corporation after failing to reach a settlement of their demands, and 14,000 employees walk off of the job.United States source
190112 August – 2/3 of the town of Farsund burns down.Norway source
1901October 24 – Michigan schoolteacher Annie Taylor goes down Niagara Falls in a barrel and survives.United States source
190122 December – Charles Aked, a Baptist minister in Liverpool, protests about the Second Boer War concentration camps. A crowd follows him home and breaks the windows of his house.United Kingdom source
1902January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17 people, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains and the banning of steam locomotives in New York City.source
1902January 8 – A train collision in the New York Central Railroad's Park Avenue Tunnel kills 17, injures 38, and leads to increased demand for electric trains.United States source
1902February 9 – Fire levels 26 city blocks of Jersey City, New Jersey.United States source
19025 April – The original Ibrox disaster: a stand at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow collapses during an England versus Scotland football match. 25 people die and 517 are injured.Scotland source
19025 April – the first Ibrox disaster: a stand at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow collapses during an England versus Scotland football match. 25 people die and 517 are injured.United Kingdom source
1902July 1 – Ray Knight stages the first Raymond Stampede in Raymond, Alberta. This was the first use of the word stampede in the name of a rodeo. The Raymond Stampede is now Canada's oldest rodeoCanada source
1902July 10 – The Rolling Mill Mine disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills 112 miners.source
1902July 14 – St Mark's Campanile in Venice collapses.source
1902July 14 – St Mark's Campanile, the bell tower of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, one of the most recognizable symbols of the city, collapses.Italy source
190231 July – A coal gas explosion kills 96 in the Mount Kembla mining disasterAustralia source
1902August 1 – 100 miners die in a pit explosion in Wollongong, Australia.source
1902October 21 – A five-month strike by the United Mine Workers in the United States ends.source
190228 October – The SS Ventnor sinks off the coast of Hokianga with the loss of 13 lives. The ship was carrying the remains of 499 Chinese men, most of whom had been involved in the Otago gold rush, back to China.New Zealand source
1903April 29 – The 30-million-m 3 Frank Slide rockslide kills 70–90 in Frank, Alberta.source
1903May 21 – The first contingent of Chinese labourers leave China to work on the Witwatersrand gold mines.South Africa source
1903The County of Pembroke, a British cargo ship, is shipwrecked near Port Elizabeth.South Africa source
1903July 1 – Ray Knight builds the Raymond Stampede rodeo arena and rodeo grandstands in Raymond, District of Alberta, North-West Territories, which are the first ever built in the world.Canada source
1903July 29 – United States Cartridge Company explosion: The explosion of two explosives storage magazines destroys 70 homes, killing 22 residents of Tewksbury, Massachusetts.source
1903August 10 – The Paris Métro train fire at Couronnes results in 84 deaths.source
190310 August – Paris Métro train fire kills 84 people mostly at Couronnes station.France source
1903September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 Fast Mail train at Stillhouse Trestle, near Danville, Virginia, kills 11 people and inspires a ballad.source
1903September 27 – The Wreck of the Old 97 engine at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which kills nine people, inspiring a ballad and song.United States source
1903November 28 – SS Petriana is wrecked on a reef outside Melbourne, Australia, causing one of the world's first major oil spills.source
190328 November – The oil tanker SS Petriana strikes a reef at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. Two days later, its cargo of 1,300 tonnes of crude oil is released, causing the first major oil spill in Australia.Australia source
1903December 30 – The Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago kills 600.source
1903The withdrawal of the last British Royal Navy guard ship to be permanently stationed at Kingstown, the cruiser HMS Melampus, took place.Ireland source
1903Closure of the life-boat station on Ynys Llanddwyn.Wales source
1904January 23 – The Ålesund fire destroys most buildings in the town of Ålesund, Norway, leaving about 10,000 people without shelter.source
1904February 7 – The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland, destroys over 1,500 buildings in 31 hours.source
1904February 26 – The Wisconsin State Capitol, in Madison, Wisconsin, is almost entirely destroyed by fire after a gas jet ignites the newly varnished ceiling.United States source
1904April 19 – The Great Fire of Toronto destroys much of the city's downtown, but there are no fatalities.source
1904April 19 – The Great Toronto Fire destroys much of that city's downtown, but kills no one.Canada source
1904May 15 – Russo-Japanese War: Russian minelayer Amur lays a minefield about 15 mi off Port Arthur, and sinks Japan's battleships Hatsuse, 15,000 tons with 496 crew, and Yashima. On the same day, the Japanese protected cruiser Yoshino sinks after being accidentally rammed by the armored cruiser Kasuga, killing over 270 crew, including Captain Sayegi and his second-in-command, Commander Hirowateri. Japan will keep the loss of Yashima secret for over a year.source
1904June 15 – A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1,021.source
190420 June – The P&O ship SS Australia is wrecked at the entrance to Port Phillip. There is no loss of life.Australia source
190422 June – The trans-Atlantic passenger liner SS Norge departs from Copenhagen, embarking on what will become her last voyage. On 28 June, she wrecks off the American coast, resulting in more than 630 casualties.Denmark source
1904June 22 – The first of 62,000 Chinese labourers arrive in South Africa to relieve the shortage of unskilled mine workers.South Africa source
1904June 28 – Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing approximately 627 people, many of whom are Russian-Polish and Scandinavian emigrants.source
190428 June – The Danish ocean liner SS Norge runs aground and sinks close to Rockall, killing 635, including 225 Norwegian emigrantsNorway source
190428 June – the Danish liner SS Norge is wrecked off Rockall with the loss of 635 lives.Scotland source
190428 June – The Danish liner SS Norge is wrecked on Helen's Reef off Rockall with the loss of 635 lives.United Kingdom source
1905January 15 – A series of three 41 m high tsunamis kill 61 people in Norway, after a rockslide sweeps down Mount Ramnefjell and crashes into Lake Lovatnet.source
19055 February – General strike in Belgian coal fields begins.Belgium source
190510 February – Belgian Labour Party provides striking miners with 12.5 francs each in strike pay.Belgium source
190516 February – Explosions caused by petrol fumes after refuelling on board the newly commissioned submarine HMS A5 killed six of the eleven crew at the Royal Navy's base in Haulbowline.Ireland source
1905March 14 – 23 of the 26 crew of the British barque Kyber die when the ship is wrecked off England's Land's End.source
1905March 20 – The Grover Shoe Factory disaster kills 58 employees in Brockton, Massachusetts, when a boiler explodes and the factory building collapses.source
1905March 20 – Grover Shoe Factory disaster: A boiler explosion, building collapse and fire in Brockton, Massachusetts kills 58.United States source
1905April 3 – A coal mine explosion at Zeigler, Illinois, kills 50 miners.source
1905April 5 – The body of John Paul Jones, "Father of the American Navy", is located in Paris almost 113 years after his death.source
1905June 18 – A coal mine explosion in Russia kills 500 employees at the Ivan Colliery at Kharsisk.source
1905June 21 – New York Central Railroad's 20th Century Limited train is derailed in an apparent act of sabotage, killing 21 people.source
1905June 25 – The Danish Navy training ship Georg Stage is accidentally sunk in port in Copenhagen after English steamship Ancona collides with it, killing 22 teenage recruits.source
1905July 11 – National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda valley of Wales: an underground explosion kills 120, with just one survivor.source
190511 July – National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda: an underground explosion kills 120, with just one survivor.United Kingdom source
190511 July – National Colliery disaster at Wattstown in the Rhondda: an underground explosion kills 120 men, with just one survivor.Wales source
1905August 22 – The sinking of the Japanese ferry Kinjo Maru kills 160 people after the British ship HMS Baralong collides with it in the Sea of Japan.source
19056 September – Last sighting of the clipper ship Loch Vennachar which sinks off Kangaroo Island, killing 32 people. Only one body was found.Australia source
1905September 11 – 19 die and 48 are seriously injured when the Ninth Avenue Elevated train derails in Manhattan.United States source
1905December 30 – A bomb kills Frank Steunenberg, ex-governor of Idaho; the case leads to a trial against leaders of the Western Federation of Miners.source
190621 January: The Brazilian battleship Aquidabã sinks, after its powder magazines explode near the Jacuacanga strait, in Angra dos Reis bay. A total of 212 people are killed, including three admirals and most of the ship's officers; 98 survive.Brazil source
1906January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.source
1906January 22 – The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.Canada source
19061 March - The steamship "Thor" sinks near Lyngholmen in Sveio Municipality, 39 people perish.Norway source
1906March 10 – Courrières mine disaster: An explosion in a coal mine in France kills 1,060.source
190610 March - Courrières mine disaster: Explosion in coal mine in Courrières kills 1099.France source
190619 July – 1906 Dundee fire: a major fire breaks out in a bonded warehouse.Scotland source
190629 July - Tour de France ends, won by René Pottier.France source
1906October 28 – A train falls off a drawbridge in New Jersey, drowning 53 people, and results in what is widely considered the first ever press release.source
1906November 18 – The steamboat Dix sinks en route from Seattle to Port Blakely claiming the lives of approximately 50 passengers and crew.source
190613 December – Workmen's Compensation Act entitles workers to compensation for industrial injuries or disease.United Kingdom source
1907February 11 – The French warship Jean Bart sinks off the coast of Morocco.source
190711 February – The French cruiser Jean Bart sinks off the coast of Morocco.France source
1907February 12 – The steamship Larchmont collides with the Harry Hamilton in Long Island Sound; 183 lives are lost.source
1907February 12 – The steamship Larchmont collides with the Harry Knowlton off Block Island, Rhode Island; 183 lives are lost.United States source
190717 February – The cargo ship SS Orianda sinks off Barry after colliding with the SS Heliopolis, with the loss of 14 crew.Wales source
1907February 21 – The English mail steamship Berlin is wrecked off the Hook of Holland; 142 lives are lost.source
1907February 24 – The Austrian Lloyd steamship Imperatrix, from Trieste to Bombay, is wrecked on Cape of Crete and sinks; 137 lives are lost.source
1907The 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt results in possibly as many as 11,000 deaths.source
1907The steamship Congo collides at the mouth of the Ems River with the German steamship Nerissa; 7 lives are lost.source
1907May 11 – Hinode Life Insurance, later Sumitomo Life Insurance was founded.Japan source
1907July 21 – The SS Columbia sinks after colliding with the lumber schooner San Pedro, off Shelter Cove, California, resulting in 88 deaths.source
1907August 24 – Part of the under-construction Quebec Bridge collapses in Quebec City killing 75 construction workers and injuring 11.Canada source
1907August 29 – The partially completed superstructure of the Quebec Bridge collapses entirely, claiming the lives of 76 workers.source
190715 October – Shrewsbury rail accident: A London & North Western Railway sleeping car train suffers derailment passing through Shrewsbury station at excessive speed; 18 lives are lost.United Kingdom source
1907December 6 – Monongah Mining disaster: A coal mine explosion kills 362 workers in Monongah, West Virginia.source
1907December 14 – The largest sailing ship ever built, the 7-masted U.S.-owned Thomas W. Lawson, is wrecked in the Isles of Scilly.source
1907December 19 – An explosion in a coal mine in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania kills 239.source
1907Oakdale Colliery is sunk in the Sirhowy Valley.Wales source
1908January 13 – A fire breaks out at the Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, killing 171 people.source
1908March 4 – The Collinwood school fire near Cleveland, Ohio kills 175.source
1908March 4 – The Collinwood School Fire, near Cleveland, Ohio, kills 174 people.United States source
190819 April – The Guildhall in Derry was largely destroyed by fire.Ireland source
1908April 20 – Sunshine rail disaster: A rear-end collision of two trains in Melbourne, Australia kills 44 people and injures more than 400.source
1908July 27–28 – The 1908 Hong Kong typhoon sinks the passenger steamer Ying King, causing 421 deaths.*July 29 - The White Star Line company begins the construction of the Titanicsource
1908August 2 – A fire in the Kootenay region kills 70.Canada source
190818 August – Maypole Colliery disaster: an underground explosion at Abram in the Lancashire Coalfield, kills 76 miners.United Kingdom source
1908September 17 – At Fort Myer, Virginia, Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash but recovers.source
1908September 17 – At Fort Myer, Virginia, U.S.A. Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in an airplane crash. The pilot, Orville Wright, is severely injured in the crash, but makes a recovery.United States source
190821 December – The Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7. c. 57) ("Eight Hours Act") limits the amount of time spent by coal miners underground.Wales source
1908Blackball, New Zealand coal miners strike for 11 weeks, an important step in the formation of the New Zealand Labour Party.New Zealand source
19081908 bombardment of the MajlisRussia source
1909January 24 – The White Star Line RMS Republic sinks the day after a collision with SS Florida off Nantucket. Almost all of the 1,500 passengers are rescued.source
190912 February: Inter-island steamer SS Penguin is wrecked at Cape Terawhiti in Cook Strait with the loss of 75 lives.New Zealand source
19096 March – Birkenhead dock disaster: a temporary cofferdam collapses during construction of Vittoria Dock, killing 14 navvies.United Kingdom source
1909July 26 – Blue Anchor Line passenger/cargo liner SS Waratah, on her second voyage from Australia to Britain, leaves Durban and is lost without trace with all 211 aboard.source
190929 October – A mining accident at Darren Colliery, New Tredegar, kills 26 men.Wales source
1909November 8 – Fire at Robert Morrison fibroid comb factory in New York City kills 9.United States source
19093 December – the SS Ellan Vannin sinks in Liverpool Bay resulting in the loss of all 15 passengers and 21 crew.United Kingdom source
1909Presidency-Towns Insolvency ActIndia source
1909The NGR begins to modify some of its Class C 4-10-2T Reid Tenwheeler locomotives to a 4-8-2T wheel arrangement to make them suitable for yard work without the risk of derailing as a result of the long ten-coupled wheelbase. In 1912 these will be designated Class H2 on the SAR.South Africa source
1909The first mines rescue station in south Wales is opened at Aberaman.Wales source
1910January 31 – A coal mine explosion at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in Primero, Colorado, kills 75 miners.source
1910February 1 – A coal mine explosion at the Browder Coal Company in Drakesboro, Kentucky kills 34 miners.source
1910February 2 – A coal mine explosion at the Palau mine at Las Esperanzas in the State of Coahuila in Mexico kills 68 miners.source
1910February 5 – A coal mine explosion at the Jefferson Clearfield Coal Company mine at Ernest, Pennsylvania, kills 11 miners (10 Hungarian) but another 110 are able to escape.source
1910February 9 – French liner General Chanzy sinks in the Mediterranean after striking rocks off Menorca, with only one survivor of the 157 on board.source
1910March 9 – The 17-month-long Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–11, which at its peak will involve 15,000 coal miners represented by the United Mine Workers across 65 mines, begins in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.United States source
1910March 27 – A fire during a barn-dance in Ököritófülpös, Hungary, kills 312 people after ballroom decorations catch alight.source
1910July 12 – Charles Rolls becomes the first British aviation fatality when his French-built Wright aeroplane suffers a broken rudder at an altitude of 80 ft and crashes during a contest at Bournemouth.source
191012 July - At the Bournemouth International Aviation Meeting, Charles Rolls becomes the first Briton to be killed in an air crash.Wales source
191011 September – English-born actor-aviator Robert Loraine made an aeroplane flight from Wales across the Irish Sea but landed some 200 feet (60 metres) short of the Irish coast in Dublin Bay.Ireland source
19101 November – Coal miners are balloted for strike action by the South Wales Miners' Federation following a lock-out, resulting in 12,000 men working for the Cambrian Combine beginning a 10-month strike.United Kingdom source
1910November 29 — The closing of Nanyang industrial exposition.China source
1910December 9 – a coal mine explosion at Bellevue, Alberta, kills 31Canada source
1910December 21 – Pretoria Pit disaster: a coal mine explosion at the Hulton Colliery Company of Westhoughton in Lancashire, England, kills 344 miners, with just one survivor.source
191021 December – The Pretoria Pit disaster: a massive underground explosion in a colliery belonging to the Hulton Colliery Company at Westhoughton in Lancashire, kills 344, with just one survivor, the second-worst mining accident in England and the third-worst in Britain.United Kingdom source
1910Toto et sa soeur en bombe à BruxellesBelgium source
1910Twelve lighter Class 10-C 4-6-2 Pacific type locomotives. In 1912, they will be designated Class 10C on the SAR.South Africa source
191110 January - The cargo ship SS São Luiz runs aground off the coast of Rio Grande do Norte.Brazil source
191120 February - Bologoye cinema fire, 64 dead, most of them (43) are childrenRussia source
191123 March – The steamer SS Yongala sinks in a cyclone off the coast of Townsville, Queensland killing 122 people.Australia source
1911March 25 – The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 people.source
1911March 25 – The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146.United States source
1911April 18 – SS Lusitania, a 5,557-ton Portuguese passenger liner en route from Mozambique to Lisbon, strikes Bellows Rock just off Cape Point and sinks.source
1911April 18 – Lusitania, a Portuguese 5,557 ton passenger liner, strikes Bellows Rock just off Cape Point en route from Mozambique to Lisbon and sinks. Only 8 out of the 774 people on board lose their lives.South Africa source
1911April 22 – A passenger train from Port Alfred to Grahamstown, South Africa derails on the Blaauwkrantz Bridge, and plunges into the ravine 200 ft below, killing 31 and seriously injuring 23.source
19119 May – a fire at the Empire Palace Theatre in Edinburgh kills eleven people, including illusionist Sigmund Neuberger ("The Great Lafayette") and also his lion and horse; he is buried in Piershill Cemetery with his dog Beauty.Scotland source
1911May 15 –Standard Oil is dissolved by the Supreme Court of the United States into 34 separate oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, and others due to violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Actsource
19114 September - Members of the South Wales Miners' Federation return to work after a ten-month strike against colliery owners in the Cambrian Combine which triggered the Tonypandy riots, having accepted the 2s 3d per ton payment rate negotiated prior to the strike by William Abraham.Wales source
191120 September – the new liner RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, collides with Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke off Southampton; there is no loss of life or serious injury.United Kingdom source
1911September 25 – French battleship Liberté explodes at anchor in Toulon, France, killing around 300 onboard and in the surrounding area.source
1911December 9 – Cross Mountain Mine disaster: A coal mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee kills 84 miners, despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.source
19126 January – First aircraft crash in Australia, between Mount Druitt and Rooty Hill.Australia source
19121 March – suffragettes smash shop windows in the West End of London, especially around Oxford Street.United Kingdom source
19121 March - A national coal miners' strike begins, led in Wales by Vernon Hartshorn and Noah Ablett, among others.Wales source
1912April 11 – RMS Titanic makes her last call, at Queenstown in Ireland.source
1912April 14–15 – Sinking of the RMS Titanic: RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg in the northern Atlantic Ocean and sinks with the loss of more than 1,500 lives.source
1912April 19 – The United States Senate initiates an official inquiry into the RMS Titanic disaster, hastily issuing subpoenas for White Star personnel before they can return to the United Kingdom.United States source
1912May – Waihi miners' strike commences.New Zealand source
191218 July – Suffragettes attempted an arson attack on the Theatre Royal, Dublin, during Asquith's visit.Ireland source
1912September 2 – The first Calgary Stampede is heldCanada source
191212 November – 'Black Tuesday', the peak of confrontation during the Waihi miners' strike. One trade unionist is killed.New Zealand source
191214–15 April – the sinking of the Titanic: White Star liner RMS Titanic strikes an iceberg and sinks on her maiden voyage from the United Kingdom to the United States.United Kingdom source
1913January 15 - The Ottoman battle cruiser Medjidie attacked and sank the Greek merchant ship Macedonia, which had been armed for use as a troop transport.source
1913March 7 – Alum Chine explosion: British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in the harbour of Baltimore, Maryland.source
1913March 7 – The British freighter Alum Chine, carrying 343 tons of dynamite, explodes in Baltimore harbor.United States source
191323 March – A fire broke out at the Taipei Post Office, and all the office buildings were burned down.Taiwan source
1913c. March 1 – British steamship Calvados disappears in the Sea of Marmara, with 200 on board.source
1913May 9–July 11 – A major industrial strike occurs in the Black Country of England, involving 25,000 workers, and threatening preparations for World War I in naval and steel industries. The workers demand 23 shillings minimum wage.source
191327 July – Tour de France ends, won by Philippe Thys of Belgium.France source
1913August 20 – After his airplane fails at an altitude of 900 ft, aviator Adolphe Pégoud becomes the first person to bail out from an airplane and land safely.source
191331 August: Sandford flies west from Avondale covering 3 mi at 45 mph, but crashes at New Lynn on the return to Avondale.New Zealand source
1913September 9 – Helgoland Island air disaster: The first fatalities aboard a German airship occur, when the Imperial German Navy Zeppelin dirigible LZ 14 is forced down into the North Sea off Heligoland during a thunderstorm, killing 16 of the 22 men on board.source
1913October 9 – Canadian-owned ocean liner SS Volturno, carrying passengers (mostly immigrants) and a chemical cargo from Rotterdam to New York City, catches fire in a North Atlantic gale; 136 die, but 521 are saved by ships summoned by SOS messages to the scene.source
1913October 14 – Senghenydd colliery disaster: An explosion at the Universal Colliery, Senghenydd in South Wales kills 439 miners, the worst mining accident in the United Kingdom.source
1913October 17 – Johannisthal air disaster occurs with an Imperial German Navy's L 2 airship's test flight resulted in the death of all 28 passengers and crew on boardGermany source
1913November 7–11 – The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 in North America claims 19 ships, and more than 250 lives.source
1913November 7 – November 8 – A storm on the Great Lakes sinks some thirty-four shipsCanada source
191320 December – serious fire at Portsmouth Dockyard destroys the semaphore tower.United Kingdom source
1913December 24 – Italian Hall disaster: seventy-three people – mostly striking mine workers and their families – are crushed to death in a stampede in Calumet, Michigan.source
1914January 11 – The Karluk, flagship of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, sinks after being crushed by ice.source
191421 January – The Jerusalem Church in Tigensgade in Copenhagen is destroyed in a fire.Denmark source
1914April 4–September 27 – Komagata Maru incident: The SS Komagata Maru sails from India to Canada. Canadian regulations, designed to exclude Asian immigrants, prevent the boat from docking in Vancouver, and it is forced to return to Calcutta with all its passengers.source
1914April 24 – James Franck and Gustav Hertz's experiment on electron collisions showing internal quantum levels of atoms is presented to the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft.Germany source
1914May 23 – The Komagata Maru, a Japanese steamship which sailed from Japan to British Columbia carrying 376 passengers, is turned back from Canada under authority of exclusion laws prohibiting Asian immigrants. Most of the passengers returned to India.Canada source
191423 May – 376 British subjects (340 Sikhs, 12 Hindus and 24 Muslims) of Indian origin arrived at Burrard Inlet, Vancouver on May 23, 1914, from the Indian sub-continent on the ship Komagata Maru (Guru Nanak Jahaz), seeking to enter Canada. Due to the racist immigration policy of the Dominion of Canada, 352 of the passengers were denied entry and forced to depart on July 23, 1914.India source
1914May 29 – Ocean liner RMS Empress of Ireland sinks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence following a collision; 1,012 lives are lost.source
1914August 9 – World War I: British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Birmingham rams and sinks German submarine U-15 off Fair Isle, the first U-boat lost in action.source
1914August 16 – Lake Nyasa is the scene of a brief naval battle, when Captain Edmund Rhoades, commander of the British steamship SS Gwendolen, hears that war has broken out, and he receives orders from the British high command to "sink, burn, or destroy" the German Empire's only ship on the lake, the Hermann von Wissmann, commanded by a Captain Berndt. Rhoades's crew finds the Hermann von Wissmann in a bay near "Sphinxhaven", in German East African territorial waters. Gwendolen disables the German vessel with a single cannon shot from a range of about 1,800 meters (2,000 yards). This very brief engagement is hailed by The Times in London as the British Empire's first naval victory of World War I.source
191425 August – Burning of Leuven University Library.Belgium source
1914September 5 – British Royal Navy scout cruiser HMS Pathfinder is sunk by German submarine U-21 in the Firth of Forth (Scotland), the first ship ever to be sunk by a locomotive torpedo fired from a submarine.source
1914September 6 – A seaplane launched by the seaplane-carrier Wakamiya. unsuccessfully attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth and the German gunboat Jaguar with bombsJapan source
191414 September – The Australian submarine HMAS AE1 lost with all 35 men while patrolling New Britain.Australia source
1914September 22 – Action of 22 September 1914: German submarine U-9 torpedoes three British Royal Navy armoured cruisers, HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue, with the death of more than 1,400 men, in the North Sea.source
1914The Kimberley mine or "Big Hole" is closed.South Africa source
1914October 27 – British super-dreadnought battleship HMS Audacious (23,400 tons) is sunk off Tory Island, north-west of Ireland, by a minefield laid by the armed German merchant-cruiser Berlin.source
1914October 28 – Battle of Penang, Malaya: German cruiser Emden sinks a Russian cruiser and French destroyer, before escaping.source
1914December 15 – Hōjō Coal Mine Disaster: A gas explosion at the Mitsubishi Hōjō mine in Kyūshū, Japan, kills 687 people (the worst coal mine disaster in Japanese history).source
1914December 16 – World War I: Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby: Imperial German Navy battlecruisers bombard British North Sea ports, resulting in 137 deaths, mostly civilians.source
1915January 1 – WWI: British Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, England, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat, with the loss of 547 crew.source
1915January 19 – WWI: German Zeppelins bomb the coastal towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in England for the first time, killing more than 20.source
1915January 22 – Guadalajara train disasterMexico source
191510 March – World War I: German submarine U-12 is hunted down by Royal Navy destroyers HMS Ariel, HMS Acheron and HMS Attack off the Firth of Forth and sunk with the loss of 19 of her crew, 10 being saved.Scotland source
1915March 11 – WWI: British armed merchantman HMS Bayano is sunk in the North Channel off the coast of Scotland by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-27. Around 200 crew are lost, a number of bodies being washed up on the Isle of Man, with only 26 saved.source
1915March 18 – British Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought sinks German submarine U-29 with all hands in the Pentland Firth off the coast of Scotland by ramming her, the only time this tactic is known to have been successfully used by a battleship.source
191530 April – Australian submarine AE2 sunk in Sea of Marmara.Australia source
19157 May – Sinking of the Lusitania: British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 about 11 mi off Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork, killing 1,198 civilians en route from New York to Liverpool, among them the Irish-born art dealer and benefactor Sir Hugh Lane and Irish composer and conductor Thomas O'Brien Butler.Ireland source
19157 May - When RMS Lusitania is sunk by a German torpedo, notable survivors include David Alfred Thomas, Viscount Rhondda and tenor Gwynn Parry Jones.Wales source
1915May 22 – Quintinshill rail disaster in Scotland: The collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the United Kingdom.source
191522 May – Quintinshill rail disaster near Gretna Green in Scotland: collision and fire kill 226, mostly troops, the largest number of fatalities in a rail accident in the U.K.United Kingdom source
1915Sinking of the RMS Lusitania: RMS Titanic's main rival, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania, is sunk by Imperial German Navy U-boat U-20 off the south-west coast of Ireland, killing 1,199 civilians en route from New York City to Liverpool. The best-known of the celebrities on board is American sportsman Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt.source
1915June 11 – Friar Leonard Melki and hundreds of other Christians are driven out of Mardin and massacred by Ottoman troops.source
1915July 7 – An overloaded International Railway (New York–Ontario) trolleycar with 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, resulting in 15 deaths.source
1915July 24 – Steamer SS Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.source
1915July 24 – The steamer Eastland capsizes in central Chicago, with the loss of 844 lives.United States source
191523 October – Sinking of SS Marquette with 32 New Zealand deaths; mainly nurses and medical staffNew Zealand source
1915October 28 – St. Johns School fire: Fire at St. John's School in Peabody, Massachusetts, United States, claims the lives of 21 girls between the ages of 7 and 17.source
19165 March - The liner Príncipe de Asturias runs aground in fog on the shoals out of Ponta do Boi, in the island of Sao Sebastião, while trying to approach the port of Santos. At least 445 people out of the 588 aboard are killed.Brazil source
1916March 24 – French ferry SS Sussex is torpedoed by SM UB-29 in the English Channel, with at least 50 killed (including the composer Enrique Granados), resulting on May 4 in the Sussex Pledge by Germany to the United States.source
19161 June – Miners' wages in the South Wales Coalfield are increased by 15%.Wales source
1916June 5 – WWI: HMS Hampshire sinks, having hit a mine off the Orkney Islands, Scotland, with Lord Kitchener aboard.source
19165 June – HMS Hampshire sinks off Orkney, probably having struck a German mine, with the loss of 650 lives – including Lord Kitchener and his staff – and only 13 survivors.Scotland source
19165 June – HMS Hampshire sinks having hit a mine off Orkney with Lord Kitchener aboard. 737 lives, including Kitchener, were lost.United Kingdom source
1916July 1–12 – Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916: At least one shark attacks 5 swimmers along 80 mi of New Jersey coastline, resulting in 4 deaths and the survival of one youth, who requires limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.source
1916July 1–12 – At least one shark mauls five swimmers along 80 mi of New Jersey coastline during the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916, resulting in four deaths and the survival of one youth who required limb amputation. This event is the inspiration for author Peter Benchley, over half a century later, to write Jaws.United States source
1916July 29 – Matheson Fire: In Ontario, Canada, a lightning strike ignites a forest fire that destroys the towns of Cochrane and Matheson, killing 233.source
1916July 29 – The Matheson Fire in the region northwest of North Bay, Ontario, begins. It eventually kills between 200 and 250 people and destroys six towns, including Matheson and CochraneCanada source
1916July 30 – German agents cause the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey, an act of sabotage destroying an ammunition depot and killing at least 7 people.source
1916September 2 – WWI: British pilot Leefe Robinson becomes the first to shoot down a German airship over Britain.source
1916September 11 – A mechanical failure causes the central span of the Quebec Bridge, a cantilever-type structure, to crash into the Saint Lawrence River for the second time, killing 13 workers.source
1916October 20 – Black Friday (1916): A violent and deadly storm hits Lake Erie in the United States.source
19161 November – a general coal strike began in eastern Australia.Australia source
1916December 31 – The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.source
191615–16 January: The Bergen fire of 1916.Norway source
1917January 13: Ciurea rail disaster. The worst rail accident in Romanian history and third worst in the history of the world, with most estimates falling between 800 and 1000 deaths.Romania source
1917January 25 – WWI: British armed merchantman SS Laurentic is sunk by mines off Lough Swilly (Ireland), with the loss of 354 of the 475 aboard.source
191729 January – Royal Navy steam-powered submarine HMS K13 sinks on trial in the Gare Loch with the loss of 32 men; 48 are rescued.Scotland source
1917March 8 – WWI: Norwegian tramp SS Storstad (the ship that rammed and sank RMS Empress of Ireland in 1914) is torpedoed and sunk by SM U-62 in the Atlantic with the loss of 3 crew members. — N.S.source
1917April 10 – Eddystone explosion: an explosion at an ammunition plant near Chester, Pennsylvania, kills 139, mostly female workers.source
1917May 21 – Over 300 acres (73 blocks) are destroyed in the Great Atlanta fire of 1917 in the United States.source
1917June 8 – Speculator Mine disaster: A fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator ore mine, outside Butte, Montana, kills at least 168 workers.source
1917June 8 – Speculator Mine disaster: a fire at the Granite Mountain and Speculator ore mine outside Butte, Montana kills 168 workers.United States source
1917August 2 – Squadron Commander E.H. Dunning lands his aircraft on the ship HMS Furious in Scapa Flow, Orkney. He is killed 5 days later during another landing on the ship.source
1917August 18 – The Great Thessaloniki Fire of 1917 in Greece destroys 32% of the city, leaving 70,000 individuals homeless.source
1917October 23 – A Brazilian ship is destroyed by a German U-boat, encouraging Brazil to enter World War I.source
19171 November - A mob damages German property in Petropolis, including the restaurant Brahma (completely destroyed), the Gesellschaft Germania, the German school, the company Arp, and the German Journal.Brazil source
1917November 24 – A bomb kills 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department, the most deaths in a single event in U.S. police history (until the September 11 attacks in 2001).source
1917November – Ten Class 16B 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger steam locomotives.South Africa source
1917December 6 – Halifax Explosion: Two freighters collide in Halifax Harbour at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and cause a huge explosion that kills at least 1,963 people, injures 9,000 and destroys part of the city (the biggest man-made explosion in recorded history until the Trinity nuclear test in 1945).source
1917December 6 – WWI: U.S. Navy destroyer USS Jacob Jones is torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean south west of the British Isles by German submarine SMU U-53, killing 66 crew in the first significant American naval loss of the war, the first ever U.S. destroyer loss to an enemy.source
1917December 6: Halifax Explosion kills 1,900 people and injures 9,000. The largest ever man-made explosion pre-Hiroshima atomic bomb.Canada source
191712 December – The Royal Australian Navy battlecruiser HMAS Australia is damaged in a collision with the British cruiser HMS Repulse.Australia source
191727 December – The steamship Adela is torpedoed by a German U-boat off the Skerries, Anglesey, resulting in the deaths of 24 crew.Wales source
191826 January – An Irish steamship, the Cork, is torpedoed by a U-boat off Point Lynas in Anglesey. Twelve crew are killed.Wales source
1918February 5 – The SS Tuscania is torpedoed off the Irish coast; it is the first ship carrying American troops to Europe to be torpedoed and sunk.source
1918March 1 – WWI: German submarine SMU U-19 sinks HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island, Northern Ireland.source
19181 March – Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 sank HMS Calgarian off Rathlin Island.Ireland source
19181 March – armed merchant cruiser HMS Calgarian is torpedoed and sunk off Rathlin Island, Ireland, by Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-19 with the loss of 49 lives.United Kingdom source
1918May 12 - The HMT Olympic rams into the SM U-103, sinking it. resulting in the deaths of 9 peoplesource
1918June 4 – RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent.source
1918June 22 – Hammond Circus Train Wreck: A locomotive engineer fell asleep and ran his troop train into the rear of a circus train near Hammond, Indiana. The circus train held 400 performers and roustabouts of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.United States source
1918July 12 – The Imperial Japanese Navy battleship Kawachi blows up off Tokuyama, Yamaguchi, western Honshu, Japan, killing at least 621.source
1918July 17 – WWI: RMS Carpathia (famed for rescuing survivors of the RMS Titanic) is torpedoed and sunk off the east coast of Ireland, by Imperial German Navy submarine U-55; 218 of the 223 on board are rescued.source
1918July 18 – The Cheka kill the Martyrs of Alapayevsk, six further members of the Romanov family and retainers, by throwing them down a mineshaft.source
1918September 26 – United States Coast Guard cutter Tampa is torpedoed and sunk in the Bristol Channel by German submarine SMU UB-91 with the loss of all 131 on board, the greatest loss of life for any US combat vessel in the war.source
1918October 12 – Cloquet Fire: The city of Cloquet, Minnesota, and nearby areas are destroyed in a fire, killing 453.source
1918October 22 - István Tisza dissolves the National Party of WorkHungary source
1918October 25 – The steamer Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die, in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.source
1918October 25 – The SS Princess Sophia sinks on Vanderbilt Reef near Juneau, Alaska; 353 people die in the greatest maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest.United States source
1918November 1 – Malbone Street Wreck: The worst rapid transit accident in world history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, in Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 dead.source
19185 November – Clydebuilt former Cunarder HMS Campania sinks in an accident in the Firth of Forth.Scotland source
1918November 9 – British battleship HMS Britannia is sunk by a German submarine off Trafalgar, with the loss of around fifty lives (the last major naval engagement of WWI).source
1918December 5 – Estonian War of Independence: The British light cruiser HMS Cassandra strikes a mine and sinks near Saaremaa in the Baltic Sea, killing 11 sailors.source
191819–20 March: Raetihi forest fire kills 3 and destroys over 150 homes.New Zealand source
19191 January – HMY Iolaire is wrecked on rocks off Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis: 205 die, mostly servicemen returning home.Scotland source
1919January 15 – The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.United States source
1919February 20 – Communists attack MSZDP newspaper Népszava's building, 8 fatalitiesHungary source
1919March 15 – Election rally of János Vass is crashed by József Migray's bandHungary source
191915 July – Naval sloops HMS Gentian and HMS Myrtle sunk by mines in the Gulf of Finland while assisting Estonia against the Bolsheviks, with nine crew lost.United Kingdom source
1919July 21 – Wingfoot Air Express crash: The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago. Two passengers, one aircrewman and ten people on the ground are killed; however, two people parachute to the ground safely.source
1919August 1 – Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic collapses.source
19191 November – Vigerslev train crash takes place in the Valby district of Copenhagen.Denmark source
191920 December – Six seamen drown while returning to their ship by boat at Milford Haven.Wales source
1919December 21 – The United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman, to Russia on the USAT Buford.source
1919Seumas O'Kelly's novella The Golden Barque and The Weaver's Grave were published posthumously.Ireland source
19209 January – The cargo steamer Treveal is wrecked in the English Channel; 35 people lose their lives.United Kingdom source
1920May 18 – Minister of the Interior Mihály Dömötör bans freemasonry by decreeHungary source
1920July 13 – In reaction the 'Split incident', Italian Fascist Blackshirts, led by Francesco Giunta, destroy the Trieste National Hall (Narodni dom), the center of the Slovene theatre in Trieste (another former Austro-Hungarian city under Italian military occupation).Italy source
192013 July – London County Council bans aliens from almost all council jobs.United Kingdom source
192027 July - Tour de France ends, won by Philippe Thys of Belgium.France source
1920August–September – Armed metal workers in Milan and Turin occupied their factories in response to a lockout by the employers. Factory occupations swept the "industrial triangle" of north-western Italy. Some 400,000 metal-workers and 100,000 others took part. On September 3, 185 metal-working factories in Turin had been occupied.Italy source
192020 September – "Sack of Balbriggan" in County Dublin: Black and Tans destroyed more than fifty properties in the town.Ireland source
19203 December - Five crew members from the Rhoscolyn lifeboat are lost off Llanddwyn, Anglesey.Wales source
1921January 2 – The Spanish liner Santa Isabel breaks in two and sinks off Villa Garcia, Mexico, with the loss of 244 of the 300 people on board.source
1921January 20 – British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 57 on board are lost.source
192126 January - The Abermule train collision claims 17 lives, including that of the chairman of the rail company, Lord Herbert Vane-Tempest.Wales source
1921February 28 – A fascist squad devastates the Camera del lavoro in Triest. Shortly afterwards the Milanese branch of the socialist newspaper Avanti! is burned down.Italy source
19213 March – Shipwreck of SS Hong MohChina source
1921March 31 – The British government formally returns the coal mines from wartime control to their private owners, who demand wage cuts; in response, the Miners' Federation of Great Britain calls on its partner trade unions in the Triple Alliance to join it in strike action, leading in turn to the government declaring a state of emergency for the first time under the Emergency Powers Act 1920. On April 1, a lockout of striking coal miners begins.source
1921June 28 – The coal strike in the United Kingdom ends with the Miners' Federation of Great Britain obliged to accept pay cuts.source
1921July 9 – Bloody Sunday (1921) occurs in Belfast, Northern Ireland with 20 killings, at least 100 wounded and 200 homes destroyed.source
1921August 24 – R38-class airship ZR-2 explodes on her fourth test flight near Kingston upon Hull, England, killing 44 of the 49 Anglo-American crew on board.source
1921September 5 – Popular comedian Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle attends a party at the St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco, during which actress Virginia Rappe is fatally injured; although he is eventually acquitted of rape and manslaughter, the scandal derails his career.United States source
192123 September - Entente demands Hungary evacuate Zone B and CHungary source
19218 October – SS Rowan sinks off the Rhins of Galloway after a double collision with the loss of at least 18 lives.Scotland source
19218 October – The steamer SS Rowan sinks off the coast of Scotland. Twenty-two people lose their lives.United Kingdom source
1921Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret servicesRussia source
1922January 28 – Snowfall from the Knickerbocker storm, the biggest-ever recorded snowstorm in Washington, D.C., causes the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre to collapse, killing 98.United States source
1922April 7 – 1922 Picardie mid-air collision: The first midair collision between airliners occurs, between a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18 and a Grands Express Aériens Farman Goliath over Poix-de-Picardie, Amiens, France.source
19227 April – 1922 Picardie mid-air collision: World's first midair collision, between a Daimler Airway de Havilland DH.18 and a Compagnie des Grands Express Aériens Farman Goliath over Poix-de-Picardie, Amiens.France source
192220 May – P&O liner SS Egypt sinks in the English Channel off Ushant after a collision with 44 passengers, 294 crew and £1 million in bullion and coin on board; 86 die.United Kingdom source
19221 August – Two trains carrying pilgrims from Moulins to Lourdes collide at Miélan killing at least 33.France source
19225 September – An underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills 39 people.United Kingdom source
1922September 13–15 – The Great Fire of Smyrna destroys most of İzmir. Responsibility is disputed.source
192210 December – anti-Treaty IRA men set fire to the home of Seán McGarry. His seven-year-old son, Emmet, is badly burned and dies.Ireland source
192223 December - Cargo ship Maid of Delos sinks in St George's Channel off Skomer with all 26 crew killed.Wales source
1922Date unknown – Dissolution of the Allmänna Barnhuset.Sweden source
192313 January – Beechpark, the residence of President W. T. Cosgrave in Ballyboden, Dublin, was set on fire.Ireland source
1923January 13 – Passenger seaplane Columbus ditches in the Straits of Florida between Key West and Havana, resulting in four fatalities, becoming the first fatal passenger flight incident in U.S. history.United States source
1923January 18 – Elon College's campus in North Carolina is destroyed by a fire.United States source
1923July 10 – Large hailstones kill 23 people in Rostov, Soviet Union.source
192322 August – Fires at the Waterford offices of the Waterford News and Sinn Féin.Ireland source
1923September 2 – Martial law declared in Tokyo districtsJapan source
1923September 8 – Honda Point disaster: Nine United States Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.source
1923September 8 – Honda Point Disaster: Seven U.S. Navy destroyers run aground off the California coast.United States source
1923Coal production at Llay Main Colliery in the North Wales Coalfield begins.Wales source
1924January - Bombay textile mill strike by communists began.India source
19244 March – Leif Erichsen, sailor and Olympic silver medallist (born 1888)Norway source
1924March 8 – The Castle Gate mine disaster kills 172 coal miners in Utah.United States source
192412 April – HMAS Australia is scuttled off Sydney Heads.Australia source
1924July 3 – The Chateau Lake Louise burns downCanada source
1924December 24 – 1924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: An airliner crashes soon after takeoff from London's Croydon Airport killing all eight people aboard. This leads to the first public inquiry into a civil aviation accident ever held in the United Kingdom.source
1924December 24 – Babbs Switch fire: A flash fire at a Christmas celebration in a one-room schoolhouse in Babbs, Oklahoma, United States, kills 36 people, mostly small children.source
192424 December – 1924 Imperial Airways de Havilland DH.34 crash: Imperial Airways biplane G-EBBX crashes at Purley shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport, killing all eight people on board, the new line's first fatal accident, leading to the first UK public inquiry into a civil aviation accident.United Kingdom source
1924December 27 – A dynamite explosion during logistic handling work in Temiya Station, Otaru, Hokkaido, resulting to death toll was 94 persons, according to Japanese government official confirmed report.Japan source
1924"Turn Out of the Cardiff Fire Brigade"Wales source
1925March 31 – The Bauhaus closes in Weimar and moves to a building in Dessau designed by Walter Gropius.source
1925May 8 – African-American Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the sinking steamboat M.E. Norman on the Mississippi River.source
1925May 8 – African American Tom Lee rescues 32 people from the M.E. Norman, a steamboat sinking in the Mississippi.United States source
1925June 26 – A strike of miners in Drumheller, Alberta ends in violent confrontations.Canada source
19257 July – the original Kelvin Hall in Glasgow is destroyed by fire.Scotland source
192519 July – Tour de France ends, won by Ottavio Bottecchia of Italy.France source
1925The manor house of Groot Constantia is gutted by a fire.South Africa source
1925September 3 – The U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah breaks up in a squall line near Caldwell, Ohio, killing 14 crewmen.source
1925September 3 – The U.S. Navy dirigible Shenandoah breaks up in a squall line over Ohio en route to Scottfield, St. Louis; 14 crewmen are killed.United States source
1925October 4 – S2, a Finnish Sokol class torpedo boat, is sunk during a fierce storm near the coast of Pori in the Gulf of Bothnia, taking with her the whole crew of 53.source
192512 November – Submarine HMS M1 sinks in the English Channel after collision with a civilian surface vessel with the loss of all 69 hands.United Kingdom source
1926March 6 – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) is destroyed by fire.source
19266 March – The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is destroyed by fire.United Kingdom source
1926April 30 – A state of emergency is proclaimed in the United Kingdom under the Emergency Powers Act 1920 on account of the "threat of cessation of work in Coal Mines".source
1926April – Hindu-Muslim strike in Calcutta.India source
19261 May – A lockout of coal miners leads to the declaration of the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. Police and miners clash eighteen times in the course of industrial disputes in the South Wales coalfield.Wales source
1926May 10 – Planes piloted by Major Harold Geiger and Horace Meek Hickam, students at the United States Air Corps Tactical School, collide in mid-air at Langley Field, Virginia.source
1926July 3 – A Caudron C.61 aircraft, operated by Compagnie Internationale de Navigation Aérienne, crashes in Czechoslovakia.source
1926July 12 – A lightning strike destroys an ammunition depot in Dover, New Jersey.United States source
19262 August – The French S.S. Lotus collided with the Turkish S.S. Bozkurt.Turkey source
1926September 21 – French war ace René Fonck and three others attempt to fly the Atlantic, in pursuit of the Orteig Prize. Before the newsreel cameras at Roosevelt Field New York, the modified Sikorsky S-35 crashes on take-off and bursts into flames. Fonck survives, but two of his men are killed.source
1926October 8 – 124 coal miners die due to a methane explosion in the Durban Navigation Colliery disasterSouth Africa source
1926October 12 – British miners agree to end their strike.source
1926November 24 – The village of Rocquebillier, in the French Riviera, is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.source
192624 November – The village of Rocquebillier on the Riviera is almost destroyed in a massive hailstorm.France source
1926December 2 – British prime minister Stanley Baldwin ends the state of emergency that had been declared due to the miners' strike.source
19263 December – Nine miners die in an explosion in the Dobson coal mine near BrunnerNew Zealand source
1927January 9 – The Laurier Palace Theatre fire at a movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, kills 78 children.source
1927January - The British cargo ship Swiftsure collides with another vessel in the Bristol Channel and is beached at Cardiff.Wales source
19271 March – an underground gas and coal dust explosion at Marine Colliery, Cwm, Monmouthshire, kills 52.United Kingdom source
1927May 17 – U.S. Army aviation pioneer Major Harold Geiger dies in the crash of his Airco DH.4 airplane, at Olmsted Field, Pennsylvania.source
1927August 24 – Mihonoseki Incident: The light cruiser Jintsuu and the Momi-class destroyer Warabi, both ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy, collided at the mouth of Miho Bay. There were 92 naval personnel who were killed when the Warabi sunk, and 28 were killed aboard the Jintsuu. Captain Keiji Mizushiro (1883–1927) was questioned, but committed suicide before the beginning of the trial.Japan source
192726 September – David MacBrayne's paddle steamer Grenadier (1885) catches fire and sinks at her overnight mooring in Oban with the loss of three crew.Scotland source
1927October 4 – Worthington mine disaster occurs.Canada source
19273 November – The Sydney ferry Greycliffe is cut in half by the liner RMS Tahiti, killing 40 persons.Australia source
1927November 14 – Pittsburgh gasometer explosion: Three Equitable Gas storage tanks in the North Side of Pittsburgh explode, killing 26 people and causing damage estimated between $4.0 million and $5.0 million.source
1927December 17 – United States Navy submarine USS S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by United States Coast Guard cutter John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard despite several unsuccessful attempts to raise the submarine.source
1927December 17 – The U.S. submarine S-4 is accidentally rammed and sunk by the United States Coast Guard destroyer John Paulding off Provincetown, Massachusetts, killing everyone aboard after several unsuccessful attempts to raise the sub.United States source
192726 December – Marine accident The ship Sevinç sankTurkey source
192812 February – An underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, kills thirteen miners undertaking clearance after an earlier fatal accident.United Kingdom source
192812 April – A bomb, directed against Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, kills 18 people at the Milan Trade Fair.Italy source
1928April 13 – The West Plains, Missouri Dance Hall explosion occurs.source
1928May 23 – The Italian consulate in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is bombed. The explosion kills 22 people and injures 43.Argentina source
1928May 24 – The airship Italia crashes at the North Pole; one of the occupants is Italian general Umberto Nobile. A rescue expedition leaves for the Pole on May 30. Roald Amundsen will be among those who lose their lives in the search for survivors.source
1928July 6 – The world's largest hailstone falls in Potter, Nebraska.United States source
192814 July: The schooner Isabella de Fraine capsizes on the bar at the entrance to Hokianga harbour, with the loss of all eight crew.New Zealand source
1928August 25 – Canada's first major air disaster occurred when bad weather caused a BC Airways Ford Trimotor plane to crash in Puget Sound, WashingtonCanada source
192825 October – a passenger express runs into the rear of a derailed freight train near Dinwoodie railway station with 4 deaths.Scotland source
1928November 12 – Liner SS Vestris develops a severe starboard list, is abandoned and sinks approximately 200 miles off Hampton Roads, Virginia; estimated deaths range from 110 to 127.source
1928December 3 – In Rio de Janeiro, a seaplane sent to greet Alberto Santos-Dumont crashes, killing all on board. The pilot had tried to avoid another plane which came too close.source
19283 December - Disaster of the Dornier J 'Santos Dumont'.Brazil source
192921 January – Great fire in IstanbulTurkey source
1929March 22 – The Canadian schooner and rum-runner I'm Alone is sunk by the US Coast Guard's USCGC Dexter.Canada source
192917 April – Rail disaster when Paris to Brussels Express runs into a goods train near Halle in thick mist.Belgium source
1929May 15 – Cleveland Clinic Fire of 1929United States source
19299 July - After a collision with another vessel, HMS L12, the Royal Navy submarine H47 sinks off the Pembrokeshire coast, killing 21 crewmen.Wales source
1929August 29 – The SS San Juan collides with the oil tanker S.C.T. Dodd off the California coast, causing the San Juan to sink in 3 minutes, killing 77 people.source
1929September 6 – 1929 Jask Imperial Airways de Havilland Hercules crash.Iran source
1929September 7 – The steamship SS Kuru sank in Lake Näsijärvi near Tampere, Finland, leading to 138 people drowning.source
1929November 15 – Atlantic, a film drama about the sinking of the RMS Titanic, is released in the U.K. The simultaneously shot German-language version is the first sound film feature to be released in Germany.source
192916 December – Rothbury Riot in which police shoot at locked out miners, killing Norman Brown.Australia source
192931 December – Glen Cinema Disaster in Paisley: 69 children die trying to escape smoke.Scotland source
193022 January – SS Monte Cervantes struck a rock off Ushuia, Chile and sank with the loss of her captain.Germany source
193018 April – 118 people die in the Costești wooden church fire.Romania source
1930April 21 – A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, United States kills 320 people.source
1930April 21 – A fire in the Ohio Penitentiary near Columbus kills 320 people.United States source
1930June 26 – John B. King ExplosionCanada source
1930October 5 – British airship R101, the world's largest flying craft, crashes in France en route to India, on its first overseas flight, resulting in the loss of 48 lives, with six survivors. Those killed include Britain's Air Minister, Christopher Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson.source
19305 October – British airship R101 crashes in France en route to India on its maiden overseas voyage killing 48 of the 54 on board.United Kingdom source
193017 November – SCF dissolved itselfTurkey source
193021 November: A flying boat airliner I-RONY, operating on a passenger flight for Società Anonima Navigazione Aerea (SANA), disappears over the Mediterranean Sea during a flight from Barcelona, Spain, to Marseille, France; all six people on board are lost.Italy source
1930Production begins at Cefn Coed Colliery, the world's deepest anthracite mine.Wales source
193129 January – for the fourth time in nine years, there is a fatal underground explosion at Haig Pit, Whitehaven, in the Cumberland Coalfield, killing 27 people.United Kingdom source
19318 February – A Desoutter aircraft of Dominion Airline crashed near Wairoa, killing all three people aboard. This is the first fatality on a scheduled air service in New Zealand.New Zealand source
193118 February – The Royal Australian Navy light cruiser HMAS Pioneer is scuttled off Sydney Heads.Australia source
193121 March – The Australian National Airways aircraft Southern Cloud, carrying 8 persons, disappears on a flight between Sydney and Melbourne. The wreckage is not located until 1958.Australia source
193114 April - A meteorite falls to earth on farmland in Pontllynfi, near Caernarfon.Wales source
1931June 5 – 1931 Empress of Canada stabbings: A man killed 2 and wounded 29 others with a knife aboard the Canadian Pacific Steamships liner RMS Empress of Canada as the ship sailed off Japan.Japan source
19319 June – submarine HMS Poseidon sinks after collision with a Chinese freighter off Weihai, China. Twenty lives are lost but a few submariners become the first to surface using the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus.United Kingdom source
1931June 14 – Saint-Philibert disaster: The overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from the Île de Noirmoutier, sinks at the mouth of the River Loire in France; over 450 drown.source
193114 June – Overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from Île de Noirmoutier, sinks at the mouth of the river Loire and over 450 drown.France source
1932January 26 – British submarine aircraft carrier HMS M2 sinks with the loss of all 60 onboard on exercise in Lyme Bay in the English Channel.source
193226 January — British submarine HMS M2 sinks off the Dorset coast with all sixty hands.United Kingdom source
1932July 7 – French submarine Prométhée sinks with the loss of 62 of 69 onboard on trial out of Cherbourg in the English Channel.source
19327 July - French submarine Prométhée sinks off Cherbourg - 66 dead.France source
193210 October — a mine cage accident at Bickershaw Colliery in the Lancashire Coalfield drowns 19.United Kingdom source
193216 November – a colliery explosion at Cardowan kills 11 miners.Scotland source
1932November 16 – New York City's Palace Theatre fully converts to a cinema, which is considered the final death knell of vaudeville as a popular entertainment in the United States.United States source
1932December 16 – Shirokiya Department Store fireJapan source
1932December 24 – 1932 Moweaqua Coal Mine disastersource
1932December 24 – Moweaqua Coal Mine disaster: a methane gas explosion claims 54 lives in Illinois.United States source
1932A seven-month miners strike occurs in Alberta's coal mines in Crowsnest PassCanada source
1933February 25 – Arminda de Jesus is burned for witchcraft in Soalhães, Portugal.source
1933February 27 – Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag building, is set on fire under controversial circumstances. The following day, the Reichstag Fire Decree is passed in response to the Reichstag fire, nullifying many German civil liberties.source
193327 February – The Reichstag, Germany's parliament building in Berlin, is set on fire under controversial circumstances.Germany source
193328 March – 1933 Imperial Airways Dixmude crash: The Imperial Airways Armstrong Whitworth Argosy biplane airliner City of Liverpool catches fire in the air over Belgium and crashes, killing the crew of three and all twelve passengers, the deadliest accident in the history of British civil aviation to this date. The fire onboard may have been started deliberately.United Kingdom source
1933April 4 – American airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey, killing 73 of its 76 crewmen. It is the worst aviation accident in history up to this date (and until 1950).source
1933April 4 – The U.S. airship Akron crashes off the coast of New Jersey, leaving 73 dead.United States source
1933April 5 – The International Court of Justice in The Hague decides that Greenland belongs to Denmark, and condemns Norwegian landings on eastern Greenland. Norway submits to the decision.source
1933April 7 – Raymond Paley becomes the first known skiing fatality in the Canadian Rockies on Fossil Mountain.Canada source
19332 May - all Trade Unions closed down, their headquarters and records were seized, and their leaders attacked and imprisoned.Germany source
193327 May – Lose 1–7 vs Northern Districts at NewcastleNew Zealand source
1933June 22 – Nazi Germany outlaws the Social-Democratic Party (SPD).source
1933August 14 – Loggers cause a forest fire in the Coast Range of Oregon, later known as the first forest fire of the Tillamook Burn. It is extinguished on September 5, after destroying 240,000 acres.source
19335 September - Tupolev ANT-7 crash near Podolsk, which led to a complete reorganization of air traffic in the Soviet Union.Soviet Union source
1933October 10 – 1933 United Airlines Boeing 247 mid-air explosion: A bomb destroys a United Airlines Boeing 247 on a transcontinental flight in mid-air near Chesterton, Indiana, killing all 7 on board, in the first proven case of sabotage in civil aviation, although no suspect is ever identified.source
1933December 12 – Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins hits Ace Bailey of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Bailey lands head first, and severe head trauma ends his career. The Ace Bailey Benefit Game, a forerunner of the NHL All-Star Game, is played on February 14, 1934.Canada source
1933December 23 – Lagny-Pomponne rail accident: A train collision near Lagny-sur-Marne in France kills 204.source
19343 March – the third Theatre Royal, Dublin, closes.Ireland source
1934March 20 – The Great Hakodate Fire kills at least 2,166 people in southern Hokkaido, Japan.source
1934March 21 – 1934 Hakodate fire, Japanese government official report, 2166 persons were perished.Japan source
1934May 15 – Nantucket Lightship LV-117 sinks after colliding with RMS Olympic.United States source
1934September 8 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner SS Morro Castle kills 134 people.source
1934September 8 – Off the New Jersey coast, a fire aboard the passenger liner Morro Castle kills 134 people.United States source
1934September 22 – A gas explosion at Gresford Colliery in Wrexham, north-east Wales, kills 266 miners and rescuers.source
19343 October – Qantas de Havilland DH.50 Atalanta, registration VH-UHE, crashes near Winton, Queensland, killing the pilot and 2 passengers.Australia source
1934October 4–19: Asturian miners' strike of 1934Spain source
193415 November – Qantas de Havilland DH86 crashes after departing from Longreach Airport during its delivery flight.Australia source
1934December 28 – An American Airlines aircraft crashes in the Adirondack Mountains.United States source
193528 July – Tour de France ends, won by Romain Maes of BelgiumFrance source
193512 September – an underground explosion at North Gawber (Lidgett) colliery, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, kills nineteen.United Kingdom source
1935October – At Nine Mile Point Colliery in Cwmfelinfach 164 miners take part in a "stay-down" strike action lasting 177 hours over the use of non-union labour.Wales source
1935Six Class 16E 4-6-2 Pacific type passenger steam locomotives.South Africa source
1935Penallta Colliery takes the European record for amount of coal wound in a 24-hour period.Wales source
1936April 12 – The Moose River Gold Mines collapse in Nova ScotiaCanada source
1936May 25 – The Remington Rand strike of 1936–37 begins, spawning the notorious Mohawk Valley formula, a corporate plan for strikebreaking.source
19362 August – Tour de France ends, won by Sylvère Maes of Belgium.France source
19366 August – An underground explosion at Wharncliffe Woodmoor Colliery in South Yorkshire kills 58.United Kingdom source
193630 August – Train derails near Paraparaumu due to a landslide in heavy rain.New Zealand source
193619 November - Dowlais Ironworks ceases steel production at its original Dowlais works. On a visit to the depressed areas of the South Wales Valleys King Edward VIII comments that "These works brought all these people here. Something should be done to get them at work again." The remark is much misquoted.Wales source
1936November 20 – A levee failure and continued massive rain at the Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine, Kazuno, northeastern Akita, Japan, results in at least 375 deaths.source
1936November 20 – Mitsubishi Osarizawa mine and Nakazawa dam collapse by heavy rain, total 362 persons fatalities in Akita Prefecture, according to Japanese government official confirmed report.Japan source
1936November 30 – A spectacular fire destroys The Crystal Palace in London, originally built for the 1851 Great Exhibition.source
193630 November – The Crystal Palace in south London is destroyed in a fire.United Kingdom source
19369 December – A KLM (Netherlands airline) Douglas DC-2 airliner crashes in Purley shortly after takeoff from Croydon Airport, killing 14 (including Juan de la Cierva and Admiral Arvid Lindman) with just two survivors.United Kingdom source
1937January 31 – February 2: The 25th Congress of the Polish Socialist Party takes place in Radom. Four people die in a rail crash near Mikołów,Poland source
193715 February – An explosion kills 13 men at the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi, Victoria.Australia source
1937February 19 – Airliner VH-UHH (Stinson) goes down over Lamington National Park, bound for Sydney, killing 5 people.source
1937April 20 – A fire in an elementary school in Kilingi-Nõmme, Estonia, kills 17 students and injures 50.source
1937May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew on board, 13 passengers and 22 crew die, as well as one member of the ground crew.source
19376 May — Hindenburg disaster: In the United States, the German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirteen passengers, 22 crew and one member of the ground crew were killed.Germany source
1937May 6 – Hindenburg disaster: The German airship Hindenburg bursts into flame when mooring to a mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey.United States source
1937July 9 – 1937 Fox vault fire: The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyedsource
193725 July – Tour de France ends, won by Roger Lapébie.France source
1937November 11 – The Kogushi Sulfur Mine collapse, in western Gunma, Japan, kills at least 245 people.source
1937November – A strike over safety concerns at the Ocean Coal Company's collieries originates at Risca.Wales source
1937December 12 – USS Panay incident: Japanese bombers sink the American gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze in China; the United States accepts the Japanese statement that this was unintentional.source
1937December 20 – According to former Japan Education Ministry official confirmed report, a caught fire in South Tonda Primary School, Wakayama Prefecture, kills 81 persons, mostly school children.Japan source
193730 December – Einar Johan Rasmussen, ships engineer and ship owner.Norway source
193813 February – Nineteen people die when Sydney ferry the Rodney, carrying 150 passengers, capsizes in Sydney Harbour while farewelling US Navy cruiser USS Louisville.Australia source
1938March 3 – The Santa Ana River in California, United States, spills over its banks during a rainy winter, killing 58 people in Orange County, and causing trouble as far inland as Palm Springs.source
1938March 3 – The Santa Ana River in California spills over its banks during a rainy winter, killing 58 people in Orange County and causing trouble as far inland as Palm Springs.United States source
193827 April – Rolf Olsen, sprint canoer.Norway source
193820 May – Atatürk's last national tour (to Mersin), he stressed on the Hatay questionTurkey source
1938June 11 – Fire destroys 214 buildings in Ludza, Latvia.source
1938July 5 – A heavy torrential rain with debris flow hit around Mount Rokko area, Hyogo Prefecture, official death number toll was 715 persons, according to Japanese government confirmed report.Japan source
1938July 28 – Pan Am flying boat Hawaii Clipper disappears with 6 passengers and 9 crew members, en route from Guam to Manila.source
193831 July – Tour de France ends, won by Gino Bartali of Italy.France source
1938November 9 – Holocaust – Kristallnacht: In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi activists and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair sees 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested). One of several significant events on 9 November in German history.source
19389 November — Holocaust – Kristallnacht: In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi activists and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair sees 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).Germany source
1938Mining comes to an end at Dolaucothi Gold Mines.Wales source
193913 January – The bushfires of Black Friday kill 70 people in Victoria.Australia source
19399 February – Paul-Henri Spaak's coalition government falls apartBelgium source
1939March 1 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explosion on the outskirts of Osaka kills 94.source
1939March 7 - Nationalist transport ship SS Castillo de Olite sunk by Republican shore batteries while entering the port of Cartagena.Spain source
193920 March: William Snodgrass, a New Zealand politician, disappeared from the interisland ferry Arahura while travelling overnight from Wellington to Nelson.New Zealand source
19391 June - The submarine HMS Thetis sinks during trials in Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey. At least 98 men are lost.Wales source
1939June 4 – The St. Louis, a ship carrying 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida; only a few passengers have been allowed to enter Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during The Holocaust.source
1939June 4 – The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of the passengers later die in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.United States source
1939July 6 – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.source
1939September 3 – Ocean liner SS Athenia becomes the first British civilian casualty of the war, when she is torpedoed and sunk by GS U-30 in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed.source
19393 September – British liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by GS U-30 in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 117 are killed (98 passengers and 19 crew members).Germany source
19393 September – Clyde-built liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by GS U-30 in the vicinity of Rockall. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed; the first survivors are brought in to Greenock. On 7 September, survivors are visited by John F. Kennedy, son of the US Ambassador and future 35th President of the United States.Scotland source
1939October 14 – GS U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow (Scotland), with the loss of 833 crew.source
1939December 4 – German submarine U-36 is torpedoed and sunk by British submarine HMS Salmon off Stavanger, the first enemy submarine lost to a British one during the war.source
1939December 12 – WWII: HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland, with the loss of 124 men.source
1939December 26 – Miners strike in Borinage, Belgium.source
1940January 9 – WWII: British submarine HMS Starfish is sunk in the Heligoland Bight.source
194010 January – Mechelen incident: German military plane crashes near Maasmechelen.Belgium source
1940January 15 – A large fire destroys much of Shizuoka city center.Japan source
1940January 29 – Three gasoline-powered trains carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.source
194016 February – Altmark Incident: The British destroyer HMS Cossack intercepts the German transport Altmark in Norwegian waters, recovering 299 British prisoners of war.Norway source
1940April 4 – Neville Chamberlain, UK Prime Minister, in what proves to be a tragic misjudgment, declares in a major public speech that Hitler has "missed the bus".source
1940April 13 – WWII: Second naval Battle of Narvik – The British Royal Navy sinks all 8 defending German destroyers in the Ofotfjord.source
1940April 23 – The Rhythm Club fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi, United States, kills 198 people.source
1940June 1 – WWII: Rear Admiral Sir W. Frederic Wake-Walker's flagship, the destroyer Keith, is sunk by Stukas at Dunkirk.source
1940June 7 – King Haakon VII of Norway and his government are evacuated from Tromsø to London, on HMS Devonshire.source
1940June 17 – RMS Lancastria, serving as a troopship, is bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 aircraft, while evacuating British troops and nationals from Saint-Nazaire in France, with the loss of at least 4,000 lives, the largest single UK loss in any World War II event, immediate news of which is suppressed in the British press. Destroyer HMS Beagle rescues around 600.source
194017 June – A Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 88 bomber sinks the British ship RMS Lancastria, which was evacuating troops from near Saint-Nazaire, France, killing some 5,800 men. (Wartime censorship prevents the story from becoming public.)Germany source
1940June 25 – HMCS Fraser sinks in a collision in the Gironde estuary in France. 45 sailors die.Canada source
1940July 2 – WWII: British-owned SS Arandora Star, carrying civilian internees and POWs of Italian and German origin from Liverpool to Canada, is torpedoed and sunk by GS U-47 off northwest Ireland, with the loss of around 865 lives.source
1940July 19 – Battle of Cape Spada: HMAS Sydney and five destroyers sink the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni.2source
194013 August – An RAAF Lockheed Hudson crashes near Canberra, killing three members of Cabinet and the Chief of the General Staff.Australia source
1940August 31 – WWII: Texel Disaster: Two British Royal Navy destroyers are sunk by running into a minefield off the coast of the occupied Netherlands with the loss of around 400 men, 300 of them dead.source
1940September 12 – The Hercules Munitions Plant in Succasunna-Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.source
1940September 17–18 – WWII: SS City of Benares is torpedoed by GS U-48 in the Atlantic, with the loss of 248 of the 406 on board, including child evacuees bound for Canada. This results in cancellation of the British Children's Overseas Reception Board's plan to relocate children overseas.source
1940September 20–22 – WWII: Convoy HX 72, a North Atlantic convoy of 43 ships, is attacked by a German U-boat group (wolfpack), eleven ships of 73 tons are sunk, seven during the second night of the attack by the U-100 under the command of Joachim Schepke.source
1940September 30 (night to October 1) – Arsonists from the Hitler Youth destroy the Great Synagogue of Strasbourg.source
1940October 18–19 – WWII: Thirty-two ships are sunk from Convoy SC 7 and Convoy HX 79 by the most effective "wolfpack" of the war, including Otto Kretschmer, Günther Prien and Joachim Schepke.source
1940October 26–28 – WWII: RMS Empress of Britain, serving as a troopship under the British flag, is bombed, torpedoed and sunk off the Donegal coast, with the loss of 45 lives. At 42,348 GRT, she is the war's largest merchant ship loss.source
1940November 8 – WWII: MS City of Rayville is sunk by a naval mine off Cape Otway, Australia (the first United States Merchant Marine loss of the war).source
1940November 25 – Patria disaster: As British authorities attempt to deport Jewish refugees (originating from German-occupied Europe) from Mandatory Palestine to Mauritius, aboard the requisitioned emigrant liner SS Patria at Haifa, the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah sinks the ship with a bomb, killing around 250 refugees and crew.source
1940December 6 – British submarine HMS Regulus is sunk near Taranto.source
194012 December – The MV Salvador carrying some 327 Bulgarian Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine, is wrecked in a violent storm in the Sea of Marmora, near Istanbul; 204 passengers including 66 children are drowned.Mandatory Palestine source
1940December 14 – British destroyers HMS Hereward and HMS Hyperion sink an Italian submarine off Bardia.source
1940December 25 – The German cruiser Admiral Hipper attacks a British shipping convoy (WS 5A) en route to Sierra Leone 700 miles (1,100 km) west of Cape Finisterre in Spain. Admiral Hipper sinks one ship but has to withdraw with engine trouble.source
1940December 29 – WWII: "Second Great Fire of London" – The Luftwaffe carries out a massive incendiary bombing raid, starting 1,500 fires. Many famous buildings, including the Guildhall and Trinity House, are either damaged or destroyed.source
1940Ansul Fire School is founded in Marinette, Wisconsin.source
1940German surface raiders operated in New Zealand waters in 1940 and 1941, sinking four ships.New Zealand source
1941January 11 – WWII: The British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Southampton is bombed, catches fire and has to be sunk off Malta, with the loss of 81 crew.source
1941February 15-16 - a fire in the city of Santander (Cantabria) in 1941, which destroyed most of the medieval town.Spain source
1941February 25 – British submarine HMS Upright attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz off Tunisia.source
1941February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives.source
1941April 10 – U.S. destroyer USS Niblack, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter, drops depth charges on a German U-boat (the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany).source
194114 May: The minesweeper HMNZS Puriri was sunk by a mine while sweeping in the Hauraki Gulf, and sank with the death of five of her crew.New Zealand source
1941May 21 – German submarine U-69 sinks the U.S.-flagged SS Robin Moor off the west African coast, having allowed the passengers and crew to disembark.source
194121 May – A theatre strike starts in Oslo, spreading to Bergen and Trondheim from the next day, and lasts for five weeks.Norway source
1941May 24 – In the Mediterranean, British submarine HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks Italian ocean liner SS Conte Rosso, in use as a troopship.source
1941May 24 – In the North Atlantic, German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen, from a total of 1,418 aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.source
194124 May — In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.Germany source
1941May 27 – WWII: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300. It is eventually found in 1989.source
1941June 5 – Smederevo Fortress explosion: A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring over 4,500.source
1941June 14 – June deportation: Soviet officials deport about 65,000 people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Siberia.source
1941June 16 – WWII: British Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink the Vichy French destroyer Chevalier Paul off Syria.source
1941June 16 – All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed, and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.source
194123 June: Refah tragedy, a Turkish ship was torpedoed by an anonymous battle ship, causing 168 deaths.Turkey source
194130 June – HMAS Waterhen sinks off Libya – the first Australian naval vessel lost in the war.Australia source
1941July 5 – British troopship SS Anselm is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-96 in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of around 250 out of about 1,310 on board.source
1941July 23 – WWII: Italian aircraft damage the British destroyer HMS Fearless which has to be sunk in the Mediterranean.source
1941July 24 – Workers began an illegal strike at the Alcan aluminum complex at Arvida, Quebec, when 700 workers walk off the job. Some 4,500 workers occupy the factory the next day. Minister of Munitions and Supply C.D. Howe says that enemy sabotage was responsible for the work stoppage, and soldiers are sent to secure the facility. Work resumes on July 29 as workers and management negotiate, assisted by federal conciliators. A subsequent royal commission rejects the sabotage theory and finds that the strike was the result of worker dissatisfaction with wages and working conditions, as well as a heat wave that occurred immediately before the strike.Canada source
1941August 7 – WWII: British submarine HMS Severn sinks an Italian Marconi-class submarine.source
1941September 16 – An express train collision with standing local passenger train in Aboshi Station, Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture. Total 85 persons were fatalities, 71 persons were wounded, according to Railway Ministry of Japan official confirmed report.Japan source
1941October 11–12 – Fire destroys a Firestone Tire and Rubber Company plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, consuming 15,850 tons of rubber, and causing a setback to the United States military effort.source
1941October 31 – WWII: Destroyer USS Reuben James, on convoy escort, is accidentally torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.source
1941November 14 – WWII: British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks under tow off Gibraltar, after being torpedoed the previous day by German submarine U-81.source
1941November 19 – WWII: Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran – Both commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sink following a battle off the coast of Western Australia. There are no survivors from the 645 Australian sailors aboard Sydney.source
1941November 22 – WWII: British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire sinks commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis in the South Atlantic, ending the longest warship cruise of the war (622 days without in-port replenishment or repair).source
1941December 10 – British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.source
1941December 24 – Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI is the first Allied ship to sink a Japanese warship, sinking the destroyer Sagiri near Sarawak; K XVI is herself torpedoed the following day by Japanese submarine I-66.source
1942January 16 – American film actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among all 22 killed aboard TWA Flight 3 when the Douglas DC-3 plane crashes into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas while she is returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds.source
1942February 1 – WWII: Marshalls–Gilberts raids: Admiral William Halsey Jr sends airstrikes from the carrier USS Enterprise against Kwajalein, Taroa, Wotje in the Marshall Islands. At the same time, cruisers and destroyers bombard Taroa and Wotje. The strikes inflict light to moderate damage on the three islands' naval garrisons, sink three warships and damage several others, including the light cruiser Katori and damage 15 Japanese aircraft. Further south, the carrier USS Yorktown attacks Jaluit, Mili and Makin in the Gilbert Islands. They inflict moderate damage to the Japanese naval installations and destroy three aircraft.source
1942February 11–13 – WWII: Operation Cerberus: A Kriegsmarine (German navy) squadron comprising the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escort, dash from Brest through the English Channel to German ports; the British fail to sink any of them.source
1942February 19 – Bombing of Darwin: The Japanese 1st Air Fleet under Admiral Chūichi Nagumo bombs Darwin, Australia. This force comprises the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū and a powerful force of escorting surface ships. During the attack, 188 planes led by Mitsuo Fuchida destroy 11 vessels and wreck a lot of the harbor infrastructure, killing some 240 people.source
1942February 23 – WWII: Japanese submarine I-17 fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.source
1942February 24 – Struma disaster: MV Struma, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-administered Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by Soviet submarine Shch-213 in the Black Sea, killing about 791 men, women and children, with only 1 survivor.source
194224 February – MV Struma, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by the Soviet submarine Shch-213, killing at least 768 civilians, and possibly as many as 791, of whom 785 were Jews.Mandatory Palestine source
1942February 27 – The USS Langley, first aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, is attacked by 9 Japanese bombers while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40 fighters to Java. Langley is so badly damaged that she has to be scuttled to avoid falling into Japanese hands.source
1942April 9 – The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's east coast.source
1942April 26 – A gas and coal dust explosion at Benxihu Colliery in Manchukuo kills as many as 1,549 workers, the world's all-time worst mining disaster.source
1942April 26 - a gas and coal dust explosion in the Benxihu Colliery killed 1,549 miners.China source
1942May 21 – WWII: Sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by GS U-160 off Key West.source
1942May 30–31 – WWII: Bombing of Cologne – British RAF Bomber Command's "Operation Millennium", its first "1,000 bomber raid", with associated fires make 13,000 families homeless and kills around 475 people, mostly civilians; 3,330 non-residential buildings are destroyed.source
19429 June — World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.Germany source
1942July 13 – WWII: U-boats sink three merchant ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.source
194214 July – Atılay tragedy. Submarine Atılay sank because of a naval mine in the Strait of Çanakkale (Dardanelles)Turkey source
1942July 23 – The Holocaust: The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp begin operation, killing 6,500 Jews newly arrived from the Warsaw Ghetto.source
1942July 26 - The Brazilian ship Tamandaré is sunk by the German submarine U-66 (1940) off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.Brazil source
1942Twenty-four ships are sunk by German bombers and submarines after Convoy PQ 17 to the Soviet Union is scattered in the Arctic Ocean to evade the German battleship Tirpitz.source
1942August 16 – U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City (the crew is missing).source
1942September 27 – WWII: Both the commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Stier and American Liberty ship SS Stephen Hopkins sink, following a gun battle in the South Atlantic. Hilfskreuzer Stier is the only commerce raider to be sunk by a defensively equipped merchant ship.source
1942October 21 – A Royal New Zealand Air Force torpedo bomber sinks the German MS Palatia, with a loss of 946 lives.source
1942October 23 – Award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among 12 people killed in a mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.source
1942October 30 – British sailors board GS U-559 as it sinks in the Mediterranean and retrieve its Enigma machine and codebooks.source
1942November 1 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 107 is heavily attacked by U-boats, sinking 15 ships.source
1942November 13 – Guadalcanal campaign: Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.source
1942November 28 – Cocoanut Grove fire: A fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, kills 491.source
194229 November – Blue Star Line cargo liner MV Dunedin Star runs aground on the Skeleton Coast of South West Africa.South Africa source
1942A U-boat sinks the SS Benlomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift, until he is rescued on April 3, 1943.source
19421 December – The Soviet cruiser Soviet cruiser Voroshilov and destroyer Soviet destroyer Soobrazitelny shell Snake Island, damaging the radio station, barracks and lighthouse on the island, but fail to inflict significant losses.Romania source
194218 December - the Quinta Normal Fire Department is founded in the Commune of Quinta Normal in Santiago.Chile source
1942December 28 – North Atlantic Convoy ON 154 is heavily attacked by U-boats, sinking 13 ships.source
1943January 21 – WWII: Pan Am Flight 1104 – Pan American Airways Martin M-130 flying boat crashes about 7 smi southwest of Ukiah, California. All 10 passengers and 9 crew aboard are killed, including Admiral Robert H. English (at this time COMSUBPAC ).source
1943February 6 – WWII: Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Louisburg is bombed and sunk off Oran, Algeria by Italian aircraft.source
1943February 7 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 118 is attacked by U-boats, who sink 8 ships.source
1943February 21 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy ON 166 is attacked by U-boats, which sink eleven ships.source
1943February 22 – WWII: Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Weyburn sinks east of Gibraltar, after being mined.source
1943March 2 – WWII: Battle of the Bismarck Sea – United States and Australian forces sink Japanese convoy ships, then strafe survivors in the water.source
1943March 9–10 – WWII: North Atlantic convoy SC 121 is attacked by U-boats sinking seven ships.source
194310 March – Decree confiscating church bells to be melted down for metal.Belgium source
1943March 14 – WWII: British submarine HMS Thunderbolt is sunk off Sicily by an Italian corvette, the second time this vessel has been lost with all hands.source
1943March 15 – Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci sinks Canadian Pacific liner RMS Empress of Canada off Sierra Leone. Nearly half of the 392 fatalities are Italian prisoners of war.source
1943March 25 – the ship Bungsberg was sunk.Estonia source
1943March 27 – WWII: British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.source
1943April 3 – Shipwrecked steward Poon Lim, BEM, is rescued by Brazilian fishermen after being adrift for 133 days.source
1943April 27 – The U.S. Federal Writers' Project ceases operation.source
1943May 6 – WWII: Six U-boats are sunk, after sinking 12 ships from Convoy ONS 5, in the last major North Atlantic U-boat "wolfpack" attack of the war.source
1943June 1 – BOAC Flight 777, a scheduled passenger flight, is shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German Junkers Ju 88s; all 17 persons aboard perish, including actor Leslie Howard.source
194320 June – Several U.S. Marines drown during landing exercises at Paekākāriki.New Zealand source
1943A laboral strike in Jujuy causes four deathsArgentina source
1943July 4 – 1943 Gibraltar B-24 crash: The aircraft carrying General Władysław Sikorski, Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile, crashes, killing him and 15 others, leading to a lasting controversy over the circumstances.source
194331 July - The Brazilian passenger ship and freighter Bage, largest commercial ship in Brazil's fleet, is torpedoed and sunk off the coast of the Sergipe state. The Bage, carrying 129 passengers and 102 crew, was en route from Belém to Rio de Janeiro when it was struck by a German U-boat. Seventy-eight people (41 passengers and 37 crew) are lost.Brazil source
1943August 2 – WWII: John F. Kennedy's PT boat PT-109 is run down by Japanese destroyer Amagiri.source
1943September 7 – Gulf Hotel fire: A fire at the Gulf Hotel in Houston, Texas kills 55.source
194310 September – Fire in the Grand Bazaar (Kapalıçarşı) 202 shops were destroyedTurkey source
1943October 17 – The last commerce raider, German auxiliary cruiser Michel, is sunk off Japan by United States submarine Tarpon.source
1943October 19 – WWII: Allied aircraft sink the German-controlled cargo ship MS Sinfra in the Mediterranean, killing over 2,000 people, mostly Italian military internees.source
1943October 21 – HMCS Chedabucto sinks near Rimouski after an accidental collision with another ship.Canada source
1943October 24 – WWII: British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Eclipse is sunk by a mine in the Aegean Sea, with the loss of 119 of the ship's company and 134 troops.source
1943November 16 – A Japanese submarine sinks the surfaced U.S. submarine USS Corvina, near Chuuk Lagoon (Truk).source
1943November 23 – The Deutsches Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße, in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg, is destroyed in an air raid (it is reopened in 1961, as the Deutsche Oper Berlin).source
1943November 26 – WWII: British troopship HMT Rohna is sunk off the north African coast by a Luftwaffe Henschel Hs 293 radio controlled glide bomb, killing 1,015.source
1943December 2 – WWII: Bari chemical warfare disaster: A surprise Luftwaffe air raid on Bari, Italy sinks 28 Allied ships in the harbor, including the American Liberty ship SS John Harvey, releasing its secret cargo of mustard gas bombs, inflating the number of casualties.source
19432 December – A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks an American ship with a mustard gas stockpile, causing numerous fatalities; the exact death toll is unresolved, as the bombing raid itself causes hundreds of deaths as well.Germany source
1944January 15 – The Soviet Union ceases production of the Mosin–Nagant 1891/30 sniper rifle.source
194418 January – Marine accident in Bandırma. 24 deathsTurkey source
1944January 27 – Light cruiser HMS Spartan is sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 guided missile from a German aircraft off Anzio, western Italy, with the loss of 46 men.source
1944February 8 – 2,765 drown when American submarine USS Snook torpedoes Japanese troop transport Lima Maru.source
194415 February – Bushfires in the Western District, Gippsland and Yallourn regions of Victoria kill 51 people.Australia source
1944February 18 – WWII: British light cruiser HMS Penelope is torpedoed and sunk by U-410 in the Mediterranean; 418 of her crew, including the captain, go down with the ship.source
1944February 20 – Norwegian heavy water sabotage: The Norwegian resistance sinks train ferry SF Hydro which is carrying a shipment of heavy water from the Vemork plant to Germany along Tinnsjå in Telemark.source
19442 March – Balvano train disasterItaly source
1944March 9 – WWII: Soviet Army planes attack Tallinn, Estonia, killing 757 and leaving 25,000 homeless.source
194422 March – World War II: a Royal Air Force Halifax Bomber crashed soon after take-off from Hurn Airport.England source
194411 April – Heavy allied bombing of industrial targets and transport infrastructure in Belgian cities.Belgium source
1944April 14 – Bombay Explosion: Freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of ammunition, cotton bales and gold, explodes in harbour at Bombay (India), sinking surrounding ships and killing around 1,300 people.source
194414 April – Bombay Explosion (1944)India source
1944May 31 – WWII: American destroyer escort USS England sinks the sixth Japanese submarine in two weeks. This anti-submarine warfare performance remains unmatched through the 20th century.source
1944The steamer Tanais, also known as Danae (Δανάη), carrying 600 Cretans (including around 300 Greek Jews) on the first leg of the journey to Auschwitz, is sunk, with no known survivors, off Santorini.source
1944July 6 – Hartford Circus Fire: More than 100 children die in one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States.United States source
1944July 17 – Port Chicago disaster: The SS E. A. Bryan, loaded with ammunition, explodes at the Port Chicago, California, Naval Magazine, killing 320 sailors and civilian personnel.source
19446 August — Holocaust: Łódź, the last remaining Jewish ghetto in Poland, is liquidated and 60,000 Jews are sent to Auschwitz.Germany source
1944August 12 – In the Kara Sea, German submarine U-365 torpedoes the passenger-cargo ship Marina Raskova; 618 people die.source
1944August 18 – WWII: American submarine USS Rasher sinks Teia Maru, Eishin Maru, Teiyu Maruqq and aircraft carrier Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō from Japanese convoy HI71, in one of the most effective American "wolfpack" attacks of the war.source
1944August 22 – Tsushima Maru, an unmarked Japanese passenger/cargo ship, is sunk by torpedoes launched by the submarine USS Bowfin off Akuseki-jima, killing 1,484 civilians, including 767 schoolchildren.source
1944September 7 – Shin'yō Maru incident: Japanese cargo ship SS Shinyō Maru is torpedoed and sunk in the Sulu Sea by American submarine USS Paddle while carrying 750 American prisoners of war; 688 perish.source
1944September 11 – The Laksevåg floating dry dock at Bergen (Norway) is sunk by British X-class submarine X-24.source
1944September 18 – British submarine HMS Tradewind torpedoes Japanese "hell ship" Jun'yō Maru; 5,620 drown.source
1944September 22 – WWII: The Red Army captures Tallinn, Estonia. Prime Minister in Duties of the President of Estonia Jüri Uluots and 80,000 Estonian civilians manage to escape to Sweden and Germany. The evacuees include almost the entire population of Estonian Swedes. Soviet bombing raids on the evacuating ships sink several, with thousands on board.source
1944October 10 – WWII: 10/10 Air Raid: Allied forces inflict significant losses upon Imperial Japanese Navy ships moored in Naha Harbor, destroying much of the city of Naha, Okinawa as well.source
1944October 25 – WWII: USS Tang is sunk in the Formosa Strait by one of her own torpedoes. Medal of Honor-winning submarine ace Richard O'Kane becomes a prisoner of war.source
1944November 12 – WWII: Operation Catechism – German battleship Tirpitz is sunk by British Royal Air Force Lancaster bombers near Tromsø in Norway. Estimated casualties range from 950 to 1,204.source
1944November 14 – WWII: American submarine USS Queenfish torpedoes Japanese aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru in the East China Sea; 2,246 drown.source
1944November 29 – WWII: American submarine USS Archerfish sinks Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano, the largest carrier built to this date, and will remain through the twentieth century the largest ship sunk by a submarine.source
1944December 15 – A USAAF utility aircraft carrying bandleader Major Glenn Miller disappears in heavy fog over the English Channel, while flying to Paris.source
1944December 24 – WWII: Fifty German V-1 flying bombs, air-launched from Heinkel He 111 bombers flying over the North Sea, target Manchester in England, killing 42 and injuring more than 100 in the Oldham area.source
1944December 24 – World War II: HMCS Clayoquot sunk off Halifax by German submarine U-806Canada source
1945January 21–22 (night) – At the Grünhagen railroad station, located in East Prussia at this date, two trains, heading for Elbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached by Soviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.source
1945February 10 – WWII: German troopship SS General von Steuben is sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13; 3,608 drown.source
1945February 16 – The Bombing of Wesel begins, destroying 97% of the town over three days.source
1945March 9–10 – WWII: Bombing of Tokyo: USAAF B-29 bombers attack Tokyo, Japan with incendiary bombs, killing 100,000 citizens in the firebombing. It is the single most destructive conventional air attack of the war.source
1945March 16 – The Bombing of Würzburg, as part of the Allied strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany, destroys 89% of the city and causes 4,000 deaths.source
1945March 19 – Off the coast of Japan, bombers hit the aircraft carrier USS Franklin, killing about 800 of her crewmen and crippling the ship.source
1945March 19 – Adolf Hitler issues the "Nero Decree" ordering that all industries, military installations, machine shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany be destroyed ahead of Allied advances, but Albert Speer, placed in charge of the implementation, deliberately disobeys it.source
1945April 16 – MV Goya is sunk by Soviet submarine L-3 in the Baltic Sea while evacuating German troops and civilians as part of Operation Hannibal; 7,000–8,000 drown.source
1945May 1 – Mass suicide in Demmin: An estimated 700–2,500 suicides take place, after 80% of the town has been destroyed by the Soviets during the past three days.source
1945May 3 – The prison ships Cap Arcona (5,000 dead), Thielbek (2,750 dead) and Deutschland (all survive) are sunk by the British Royal Air Force in Lübeck Bay.source
1945May 4 – German auxiliary cruiser Orion is sunk on her way to Copenhagen carrying refugees, with a loss of over 3,800 lives.source
194519 June – 1945 El Teniente mining accident;355 workers die from carbon monoxide emissions. It is considered the largest accident in a metallurgical mine in the world.Chile source
194523 June – the last serviceable Breda Ba.28 aircraft (Italian) crash-lands in Kabul and is written off as a complete loss, leaving the Afghan aircraft with 12 serviceable Hawker Hind aircraft (British), 6 Romeo aircraft (Italian) and one Stearman aircraft (American) by 31 October.Afghanistan source
1945July 4 – Brazilian cruiser Bahia is sunk by an accidentally induced explosion, killing more than 300 and stranding the survivors in shark-infested waters.source
1945July 16 – A train collision near Munich, Germany kills 102 war prisoners.source
194516 July – A train collision near Munich kills 102 war prisoners.Germany source
1945July 27 – WWII: Bombing of Aomori – Two USAAF B-29s drop a total of 60,000 leaflets on the Japanese city of Aomori, warning civilians of an air raid and urging them to leave immediately.source
1945July 28 – Bombing of Aomori – The Japanese city of Aomori is firebombed by 63 USAAF B-29 heavy bombers, killing 1,767 civilians and destroying 18,045 homes.source
1945July 28 – 1945 Empire State Building B-25 crash: A North American B-25 Mitchell crashes into the Empire State Building in New York City, killing 14 people.source
1945July 30 – WWII: Heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis is hit and sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-58 in the Philippine Sea. Some 900 survivors jump into the sea and are adrift for up to four days. Nearly 600 die before help arrives. Captain Charles B. McVay III of the cruiser is later court-martialed and convicted; in 2000, he is posthumously exonerated.source
1945August 6 – WWII: Atomic bombing of Hiroshima – United States Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay drops a uranium-235 atomic bomb, codenamed "Little Boy", on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at 8:15 a.m. local time, resulting in between 90,000 and 146,000 deaths.source
194518 August – Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the Indian Freedom movement leaders, presumed dead in a plane crash in TaiwanIndia source
1945September 11 – The Kyongui line officially ceases operation due to the division of Korea.North Korea source
1945October 12 — Peip'ing C-46 crash near Beiping.China source
1945November 6 – According to Japan Coast Guard official confirmed report, a passenger ship Toyo-maru No 10, capsized off Hakata Island, Seto Inland Sea, Ehime Prefecture, 397 persons were perished.Japan source
1945December 5 – Flight 19 of United States Navy Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bombers disappears on a training exercise from Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale.source
1946January 21 – The Bluenose sinks off Haiti.Canada source
1946One Hawker Hind aircraft crash-lands on the Jalalabad airfield, and is damaged beyond repair.Afghanistan source
1946February 20 – An explosion kills more than 400 coal miners in Bergkamen, West Germany.source
194620 February: The worst explosion in German history kills more than 300 coal miners in Bergkamen.Germany source
194610 March – An Australian National Airways DC-3 aircraft crashes near Hobart, killing 25 people.Australia source
194616 March – American Liberty ship Byron Darnton runs aground off Sanda Island; all 54 aboard are rescued.Scotland source
1946April 5 – A British Fleet Air Arm Vickers Wellington crashes into a residential area in Rabat, Malta during a training exercise, killing all 4 crew members and 16 civilians on the ground.source
1946May 21 – Manhattan Project physicist Louis Slotin accidentally triggers a fission reaction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the United States and, although saving his coworkers, gives himself a lethal dose of ionizing radiation, making him the second victim of a criticality accident in history (the incident is initially treated as classified information).source
194610 November – Municipal elections were held in Rome, Turin, Genoa, Florence, Naples and Palermo. The Christian Democrats suffered significant defeats, with some observers forecasting a cabinet crisis.Italy source
1946December 7 – The Winecoff Hotel fire in Atlanta, United States, kills 119.source
1946December 7 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119.United States source
194626 December – A serious collapse at Bryn Eglwys slate mine near Abergynolwyn causes its closure.Wales source
1947January 19 – Ferry SS Heimara sinks in the South Euboean Gulf of Greece killing 392.source
194719 January –The TSMV MS Wanganella, completing her first trans-tasman crossing since World War II, runs aground on Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour. All 400 passengers are safely evacuated. The ship is refloated on 6 February but is out of service for a further 22 months.New Zealand source
1947January 26 – A KLM Douglas DC-3 aircraft crashes soon after taking off from Kastrup Airport, Copenhagen, killing all 22 people on board, including Prince Gustaf Adolf, second in line to the Swedish throne, and American opera singer Grace Moore.source
1947February 8 – The Karlslust dance hall fire in Berlin, Germany, kills over 80 people.source
1947February 20 – An explosion at the O'Connor Electro-Plating Company in Los Angeles leaves 17 dead, 100 buildings damaged, and a 22 ft crater in the ground.source
1947February 25 – Hachikō Line derailment: The worst-ever train accident in Japan kills 184 people.source
1947February 25: Hachikō Line derailmentJapan source
1947March 28 – A World War II Japanese booby trap explodes on Corregidor Island, killing 28 people.source
1947April 16 – Texas City disaster: The ammonium nitrate cargo of French-registered Liberty ship SS Grandcamp explodes in Texas City, Texas in one of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history, killing at least 581, including all but one member of the city fire department, injuring at least 5,000 and destroying 20 city blocks. Of the dead, remains of 113 are never found, and 62 are unidentifiable.source
19475 May – A train derails in the Camp Mountain rail accident in Queensland, killing 16 people.Australia source
1947May 29 – A United States Army Air Forces Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes on approach to Naval Air Station Atsugi, Japan, killing all 41 on board in the worst aviation accident in Japanese history up to this time.source
1947May 29 – An Air Iceland Douglas C-47 on a domestic flight in Iceland crashes into a mountainside killing all 25 people on board.source
1947May 30 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 605: A Douglas C-54 Skymaster crashes near Bainbridge, Maryland, killing all 53 aboard (49 passengers, 4 crew), in America's worst commercial aviation disaster to this date.source
1947July 17 – Indian passenger ship SS Ramdas is capsized by a cyclone at Mumbai, India, with 625 people killed.source
1947August 2 – 1947 BSAA Avro Lancastrian Star Dust accident: A British South American Airways Avro Lancastrian airliner crashes into a mountain during a flight from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile (the wreckage will not be found until 1998).source
194728 August – Kvitbjørn disaster: A flying boat of type Short Sandringham named "Kvitbjørn" crashes into a mountain near Lødingen in Norway; all 35 on board (28 passengers and 7 crew) perish.Norway source
1947August 30 – A fire at a movie theater in Rueil, a suburb of Paris, France, kills 83 people.source
1947September 1 - Two Canadian National Railways (CNR) passenger trains collide head-on at Dugald, Manitoba, resulting in 31 people dead and 85 people injured. The disaster is exacerbated by the CNR's use of wooden passenger coaches, as strict rationing of steel during the Second World War impeded the shift to steel coaches.Canada source
194721 September – Mine incident in Kozlu, Zonguldak, 21 deathsTurkey source
1947November 18 – Ballantyne's fire: A fire in Ballantynes department store in Christchurch, New Zealand, kills 41 people.source
194727 December: A Douglas C-48C (VT-AUG) of Air India crashed into Korangi Creek en route from Karachi to Bombay, killing all 23 onboard (4 crew and 19 passengers). The crash was found to have been the result of poor visibility during night hours and the instrument lights not working, with serious fault assigned to the captain. The crash was Pakistan's first deadly airliner crash.Pakistan source
1947The Karlslust dance hall fire (also known as Loebel's Restaurant fire) occurred on 8 February 1947.Germany source
1948January 7 – Mantell UFO incident: Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of an unidentified flying object.source
1948January 27 – According to Japan Coast Guard official confirmed report, a passenger ship Joou Maru toward from Osaka to Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture route, capsized by touch on landmine off north of Shōdo Island, Seto Inland Sea, 154 persons were official rescue confirmed, 199 passenger and crew were perished.Japan source
1948January 29 – A DC-3 aircraft crash at Los Gatos Creek, near Coalinga, California, kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a protest song ("Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)") by Woody Guthrie.source
1948January 29 – Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, California kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a song by Woody Guthrie.United States source
194819 February – An Avro Lincoln bomber crashes at RAAF Base Amberley in Queensland, killing 16 Royal Australian Air Force personnel.Australia source
1948April 5 - The 1948 Gatow air disaster was a mid-air collision in the airspace above Berlin, Germany that occurred on 5 April 1948.Germany source
1948April 15 – Pan American World Airways flight 1-10 crashes on approach to Shannon Airport in Ireland, killing all but one of the thirty-one passengers and crew.source
1948May 16 – New York City Fire Department Rescue 5 is founded for Staten Island.source
1948May 30 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks, obliterating Vanport, Oregon, within minutes; 15 people die and tens of thousands are left homeless.source
1948June 10 – The Syrian Army destroys the Jewish settlement Mishmar HaYarden in the Upper Galilee.Israel source
1948June 17 – United Airlines Flight 624, a Douglas DC-6, crashes near Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, killing 43 and injuring 84 people on board.source
19481 July – 1948 Keerbergen Fiat G.212 crashBelgium source
1948July 16 – Three armed men hijack the Cathay Pacific passenger plane Miss Macao and shoot the pilot; the plane crashes, killing 26 of 27 people on board.source
1948July 28 – Around 200 die in an explosion at a chemical plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany.source
1948October 30 – Gozo luzzu disaster: A luzzu fishing boat overloaded with passengers capsizes and sinks in the Gozo Channel off Qala, Gozo, Malta, killing 23 of the 27 people on board.source
1948December 4 – Chinese liner SS Kiangya sinks after an explosion occurs at the stern, which is thought to have been caused by a Japanese mine from World War 2, killing up to 3920 people.source
1948December – Kachau Village in Selangor was torched by the British to smoke out Communist guerillas.Malaya source
1948Coal Mines Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions ActIndia source
1949January 26 – A fire breaks out at Hōryū-ji temple in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, destroying several murals.Japan source
1949March 2 – The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II (under Captain James Gallagher) lands in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, after completing the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight (it was refueled in flight 4 times).source
194910 March – A Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar crashes near Coolangatta, Queensland, killing all 21 on board.Australia source
1949May 4 – Superga air disaster: A Fiat G.212 airliner of Avio Linee Italiane, carrying the entire Torino F.C. football team, crashes into the back wall of the Basilica of Superga, killing all 31 on board.source
19499 July: Fire in Çorum passenger ship leaves 61 dead.Turkey source
1949July 12 – 1949 Bombay KLM Constellation crashsource
194912 July - 1949 Bombay KLM Constellation crashIndia source
1949July 15 – In an explosion at Prüm in Germany, the town is badly damaged and 12 people die. The explosion crater is one of the largest ever recorded.source
1949August 14 – The Salvatore Giuliano Gang explodes mines under a police barracks, outside Palermo, Sicily.source
1949September 14 - The Noronic, the largest Canadian passenger ship on the Great Lakes, is destroyed by a fire while docked in Toronto, killing 118Canada source
1949September 17 – Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour, with the loss of over 118 lives.source
1949October 27 – 1949 Air France Lockheed Constellation crash: An Air France flight from Paris to New York crashes in the Azores on São Miguel Island, killing all aboard. Among the victims are violinist Ginette Neveu, and French boxer Marcel Cerdan.source
194928 October – 1949 Air France Lockheed Constellation crashPortugal source
1949November 20 – Hurum air disaster: an Aero Holland Douglas DC-3 crashes near Hurum, Norway, killing 34 of the 35 on board, including 26 Jewish children from Tunisia on their way to Norway, as an intermediary stop before immigrating to Israel.Norway source
1949December - another DC-3 of Mexicana de Aviación also had an accident; killing all 17 people on board.Mexico source
1950January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: Aeroflot Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 aboard are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur.source
1950January 5 — 1950 Sverdlovsk air disasterSoviet Union source
1950January 12 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with Swedish oil tanker Divina in the Thames Estuary and sinks; 64 die.source
1950February 6 – In West Virginia, 372,000 coal miners strike (they remain out until March 3).source
19508 February – Petrol rationing ends, nearly ten years after it was introduced during World War II.Australia source
1950March 12 – A plane carrying returning rugby fans from Ireland to Wales crashes near Llandow, with the loss of 80 lives.source
195012 March – Llandow air disaster: 83 people die when a plane carrying Welsh rugby fans home from Belfast crashes in South Wales.Northern Ireland source
195016 April – An apartment building in Jaffa collapses, killing ten and injuring dozens more.Israel source
1950July 7: Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto is burned to the ground by a 22-year-old novice monk.Japan source
195028 July: A Constellation plane crashes into Morro do Chapéu, near Porto Alegre airport, killing 50 people.Brazil source
1950August 5 – 1950 Fairfield-Suisun Boeing B-29 crash: A bomb-laden Boeing B-29 Superfortress crashes into a residential area in California, United States, killing 17 people and injuring 68.source
1950August 22 – August 30 - Rail workers strike shuts down much of the Canadian economyCanada source
1950September 7 – The Knockshinnoch Disaster in Scotland kills 13 coal miners; 116 are rescued.source
19503 November - Air India Flight 245 crashed near Mont Blanc, France.India source
1950November 13 – A Curtiss Reid Flying Services plane crashes while en route to Paris from Rome, killing all 52 on board.source
1950November 24 – A phenomenal winter storm ravages the northeastern United States, brings 30–50 inches of snow and temperatures below zero, and kills 323 people.source
195122 January – 11 people die when a rail bus and a train collide in Kinstaby, Sweden.Sweden source
1951February 6 – Woodbridge train wreck: A Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500, in one of the worst rail disasters in American history.source
195117 April – The submarine HMS Affray sinks, killing all 75 crew members.United Kingdom source
1951April 24 – Sakuragichō train fire: in Yokohama, Japan, a fire on a train kills more than 100.source
1951June 15–July 1 – In New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, thousands of acres of forests are destroyed in fires.source
1951July 11 – According to Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report, a torrential heavy massive rain, affective Heiwa Lake collapsed in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, killing 117 persons.Japan source
195112 July: A Linhas Aéreas Paulistas plane collides with a tree located 3 kilometers from the runway at the Aracaju airport, killing 32 passengers and crew.Brazil source
1951July 15 – According to National Police Agency of Japan official confirmed report, an extra bus plunge into Tenryu River, Urakawa Town, (now Tenryu-ku, Hamamatsu), Shizuoka Prefecture, official death toll is 28 persons.Japan source
195115 October – A De Havilland Dove aircraft crashes near Kalgoorlie killing all 7 on board.Australia source
1951November 22 – Paramount Pictures releases George Pal science fiction film When Worlds Collide.United States source
1951December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, United States, resulting in 4 deaths and 200 buildings destroyed.source
1951December 13 – A water storage tank collapses in Tucumcari, New Mexico, resulting in 4 deaths and 200 buildings destroyed.United States source
1951December 20 – A chartered Curtiss C-46 Commando crash-lands in Cobourg, Ontario Canada; all on board survive.source
1952January 10 - A Douglas C-47 Dakota operated by Aer Lingus crashes in Wales while flying from Northolt Royal Air Force Station to Dublin. All twenty-three occupants are killed.source
1952January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.source
19524 March: A crowded steam-powered passenger train derails while crossing a bridge over the Pavuna River near Anchieta station, sending two old wooden carriages broadside onto the adjacent line. A modern high-speed electric freight train travelling in the opposite direction ploughs into the wooden carriages, telescoping them upwards. 119 people are killed and more than 200 are injured, resulting in an outcry prompting a major new investment in Brazilian railways.Brazil source
1952April 4 – West Ice accidents: During a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland, 78 seal hunters on 5 Norwegian seal hunting vessels vanish without a trace.source
1952April 11 – Pan Am Flight 526A, Douglas DC-4 Clipper Endeavor, suffers failure of two engines and ditches in rough seas 11.3 miles (18 km) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico in the Atlantic Ocean, sinking in minutes; 52 of the 69 people on board die. After this accident the implementation of pre-flight safety demonstrations is recommended. The aircraft's wreckage will be discovered in 2026.source
1952April 17 – According to Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report, a massive fire in Tottori City, resulting to 160 hectares (395 acres), total 7,240 houses and building damage, kills two persons.Japan source
1952April 26 – United States Navy aircraft carrier Wasp collides with destroyer Hobson while on exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 175 men.source
1952June 1 – The Roman Catholic Church bans the books of André Gide.source
1952June 13 – "Catalina affair": Soviet MiG-15 fighter planes shoot down a Swedish military Douglas C-47 Skytrain, carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations over the Baltic Sea, killing all 8 crew; three days later they shoot down a Catalina flying boat, searching for possible survivors.source
1952June 13 — Catalina affair: Two Swedish aircraft are shot down by Soviet fighter jets over the Baltic.Soviet Union source
1952August 31 – An accident causing 13 deaths results in closure of the Grenzlandring as an auto race circuit in Wegberg, Germany.source
19526 September – Incendios del 6 de septiembre de 1952 en BogotáColombia source
1952October 8 – Three trains collide in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail crash near London, England, killing 112 people and injuring 340 people, making it the worst rail disaster in the UK since the 1915 Quintinshill rail disaster.source
1952December 20 – The crash of a United States Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, WA kills 86 servicemen.source
1952December 20 – The crash of a U.S. Air Force C-124 Globemaster at Moses Lake, Washington kills 86 servicemen.United States source
1952List of Mexican films of 1952.Mexico source
1952Around April 4 five Norwegian seal hunting vessels went down in a storm in the West Ice. The West Ice accidents claimed 78 lives in total.Norway source
1952Strathpeffer spa baths complex demolished.Scotland source
19524–9 December – Great Smog blankets London, causing transport chaos and, it is believed, around 4,000 deaths.United Kingdom source
19539 January – According to South Korea's Coast Guard official confirmed report, a passenger ferry Changgyeong-ho capsized off the coast of Busan, and 229 persons perished.South Korea source
195331 January – The car ferry MV Princess Victoria sailing from Stranraer, Scotland to Larne, Northern Ireland, sinks in the Irish Sea killing 133 people on board. The dead include Northern Ireland Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Major Maynard Sinclair and Sir Walter Smiles, the Ulster Unionist MP for North Down.Northern Ireland source
1953March 1 – Joseph Stalin suffers a stroke, after an all-night dinner with Soviet Union interior minister Lavrentiy Beria and future premiers Georgy Malenkov, Nikolai Bulganin, and Nikita Khrushchev. The stroke paralyzes the right side of his body and renders him unconscious until his death on March 5.source
1953March 3 – CF-CUN, a de Havilland DH-106 Comet 1A of CPAL named Empress of Hawaii, crashed during takeoff from Karachi's Mauripur RAF Station during its delivery flight at 03:35 at 30 m (98 feet) elevation, killing all 11 occupants. The plane was headed to Singapore's Seletar Airport to be flown to Sydney for an inaugural flight to Honolulu on April 28. The crash was found to have been caused by the pilot, who had little experience with the Comet, taking off at night without obeying prescribed takeoff technique.Pakistan source
19534 April – TCG Dumlupınar submarine collided with a Swedish freighter and sank (81 deaths)Turkey source
1953April 16 – The Habar Corporation's building in Chicago, United States, catches fire, killing 35 employees.source
19532 May – BOAC Flight 783, a Comet jetliner flying from Singapore to London, crashed near Calcutta, India after encountering bad weather, killing all forty-three passengers onboard.Singapore source
1953June 18 – Tachikawa air disaster: A United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashes just after takeoff from Tachikawa Airfield near Tokyo, Japan, killing all 129 people on board in the worst air crash in history up to this time, and the first with a confirmed death toll exceeding 100.source
1953June 18 – Tachikawa air disaster - 129 die after a United States Air Force Douglas C-124 Globemaster II crashes shortly after taking off from Tachikawa Airfield.Japan source
19537 July - 1953 Menzengraben mining accidentGermany source
1953July 17 – The greatest recorded loss of United States midshipmen in a single event results from an aircraft crash near NAS Whiting Field.source
195324 October – Firedamp explosion in the Many pit in Seraing, owned by Ougrée-Marihaye, kills 26 (12 Belgians and 14 Italian immigrant workers)Belgium source
1954March 29 – A C-47 transport with French nurse Geneviève de Galard on board is wrecked on the runway at Dien Bien Phu.source
1954April 8 – A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Harvard collides with a Trans-Canada Air Lines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.source
195422 May – A Douglas DC-3 crashes near Paraparaumu Airport after its wing hits a house. Three people died.New Zealand source
1954May 26 – A fire on board the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Bennington, off Narragansett Bay, Massachusetts, kills 103 sailors.source
195429-30 August – Minister of Education Léo Collard sacks 110 school teachers with teaching qualifications from Catholic institutionsBelgium source
1954September 2 – A timber train carrying more than 100 passengers derailed and multiple wagons fall off a bridge near Fabrica, Negros Occidental. At least 82 people were killed.Philippines source
19543 September – 50,000 workers in Chile strike, leading the government to threaten measures against the strikers.Chile source
1954September 26 – Japanese ferry Tōya Maru sinks during a typhoon in the Tsugaru Strait. More than 1,100 people are killed, 7 other ships are wrecked, and at least nine others seriously damaged.source
1954October 8 - A sightseeing boat Uchigo Maru capsized due to overcrowding in Lake Sagami, Kanagawa Prefecture, 22 junior high school students perished, according to Japanese government confirmed report.Japan source
1954November 12 – The main immigration port-of-entry in New York Harbor at Ellis Island closes permanently.source
195426 November – Fire in the historical Grand Bazaar in IstanbulTurkey source
1954November 30 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, a four-kilogram piece of the Hodges Meteorite crashes through the roof of a house and badly bruises a napping woman, in the first documented case of an object from outer space hitting a person.source
1954On 31 October, the first Vickers Viscount aircraft delivered to Australia crashed at Mangalore Airport while on a training flight only days after its arrival in Australia, killing 3 of the 7 people on board.Australia source
1954List of Mexican films of 1954.Mexico source
1955January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England.source
195524 January – Mine accident in ZonguldakTurkey source
1955February 16 – Nearly 100 die in a fire at a home for the elderly in Yokohama, Japan.source
1955February 22 – In Chicago's Democratic primary, Mayor Martin H. Kennelly loses to the head of the Cook County Democratic Party, Richard J. Daley, 364,839 to 264,077.source
195522 March – A fire destroys much of the original rococo interior of Florence Court.Northern Ireland source
1955April 16–17 - Abe coal mine debris collapse, due to heavy torrential rain hit in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, resulting in the death of 73 people, according to a confirmed JFDMA report.Japan source
195511 June – 1955 Le Mans disaster. Driver Pierre Levegh and 82 spectators killed in a crash during the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans race.France source
1955June 13 – Mir mine, the first diamond mine in the Soviet Union, is discovered.source
1955June 16 - Bombing of Plaza de Mayo: failed attempt by Argentine Naval Aviation to overthrow President PeronArgentina source
195517 July – San Bernardo train crashChile source
1955July 27 – El Al Flight 402 from Vienna (Austria) to Tel Aviv, via Istanbul, is shot down over Bulgaria. All 58 passengers and crewmen aboard the Lockheed Constellation are killed.source
195527 July – After straying into Bulgarian airspace, El Al Flight 402 was shot down by two MiG-15 fighter jets, resulting in the deaths of all 58 on board.Israel source
195511 August – A Rhodesian soldier named Shaweleka Fungabelo killed six people and wounded at least twelve people on a mail train travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore before committing suicide.Malaya source
1955October 29 – Soviet battleship Novorossiysk explodes at moorings in Sevastopol Bay, killing 608 (the Soviet Union's worst naval disaster to date).source
1955November 1 – A time bomb explodes in the cargo hold of United Airlines Flight 629, a Douglas DC-6B, over Longmont, Colorado, killing all 39 passengers and 5 crew members on board.source
195521 November – C-47D Skytrain aircraft crash in AkrafjallIceland source
195614 February – 1956 Santiago rail crashChile source
195618 February: Żurrieq Scottish Airlines crashMalta source
1956June 30 – 1956 Grand Canyon mid-air collision: A TWA Lockheed Constellation and United Airlines Douglas DC-7 collide in mid-air over the Grand Canyon in Arizona, killing all 128 people aboard both aircraft, in the deadliest civil aviation disaster to date; the accident leads to sweeping changes in the regulation of cross-country flight and air traffic control over the United States.source
1956July 25 – The Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the Swedish ship SS Stockholm in heavy fog 72 km south of Nantucket island, killing 51.source
1956July 26: SS Andrea Doria's sinking; 55 dead.Italy source
1956August 7 – Seven ammunition trucks loaded with 1,053 boxes of dynamite explode in Cali, Colombia. Death estimates range from 1,300 to 10,000, in a city that at this time has 120,000 inhabitants.source
1956August 8 – 262 miners (chiefly Italian nationals) die in a fire at the Bois du Cazier coal mine, in Marcinelle, Belgium.source
19568 August – Mining accident of Marcinelle claims 262 lives, including 136 Italian foreign workersBelgium source
1956October 15 – The British Royal Air Force retires its last Avro Lancaster bomber.source
1956October 15 – According to Japan Transport Ministry official confirmed report, two trains crush in Rokken rail accident in Mie Prefecture, official death toll was 42 persons, with 94 persons were hurt.Japan source
195621 November – Soviet submarine M-200 is rammed and sunk by a Soviet destroyer, killing the submarine's crew.Soviet Union source
1956December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes into Slesse Mountain near Chilliwack, British Columbia. All 62 people aboard, including five Canadian Football League players, are killed.source
1956December 9 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 (9), a Canadair Northstar, crashes on Slesse Mountain near Chilliwack during heavy weather. The plane carried five members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers and fans on their way home from an all-star game in Vancouver. Bodies were not found until the following late summer due to severe terrain and high altitude and unknown location of the crash. This was one of the worst civilian air disasters in the world at the time.Canada source
1956List of Bollywood films of 1956India source
1957February 17 – A fire at a home for the elderly in Warrenton, Missouri, United States, kills 72 people.source
1957March 22 – A United States Air Force Boeing C-97 disappears somewhere over the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Japan. All 67 people and the aircraft remain missing to this day.source
1957April 7: A Varig aircraft crashes near Bagé airport, in Rio Grande do Sul, after suffering a fire on board. All 40 occupants on board lose their lives.Brazil source
195716 April – Armed Palestinian Arab militants, who infiltrated into Israel from the village of Faqqua, killed two guards, Yechezkel Beit Elgar (Idgadri) and Yamin (Binyamin) David-Hai at Kibbutz Mesilot. The militants also planted a landmine in a nearby field, which exploded when a tractor drove over it. The tractor driver was injured lightly.Israel source
1957April 17- A Vickers Valletta C.1 (VW832) of the RAF crashes in Queria after the plane's left wing detached in turbulence 5 minutes after takeoff from Aqaba for Habbaniya, killing all 26 occupants. The crash is currently Jordan's deadliest.Jordan source
1957July 28 – Heavy rains and mudslides at Isahaya, western Kyūshū, Japan, kill 992.source
1957September 21 – The sailing ship Pamir sinks off the Azores in a hurricane.source
195726 September – Soviet submarine M-256 sinks after one of its diesel engines explodes.Soviet Union source
1957September 29 – The Kyshtym disaster occurs at the Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in Russia.source
1957October 12 – Foreign Minister Lester B. Pearson wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Suez CrisisCanada source
1957October 20 – Two trains collide at Yarımburgaz in Turkey; 95 die.source
195720 October – Yarımburgaz train disaster, the worst train accident with 95 dead and 150 wounded peopleTurkey source
1957October 27 – According to Fire and Disaster Management Agency has official report, An apartment house caught fire by arsonist relative insurance fraud in Akishima, Tokyo, kills eight persons, injures six persons, Japan National Police Agency official report, a suspicion was arrested on March 8, 1958.Japan source
1957November 15 – 1957 Aquila Airways Solent crash: A flying boat crash on the Isle of Wight leaves 45 dead.source
1957December 4 – The Lewisham rail crash in London, UK, leaves 92 people dead.source
1957December 5 – All 326,000 Dutch nationals are expelled from Indonesia.source
195722 December – Two buses collide near San Antonio, killing 21.Chile source
1958February 5 – 1958 Tybee Island mid-air collision: A U.S. B-47 bomber jettisons a hydrogen bomb into Wassaw Sound off Tybee Island, Georgia; it is never recovered.source
1958February 6 – Seven Manchester United footballers are among the 21 people killed in the Munich air disaster in West Germany, on the return flight from a European Cup game in Yugoslavia. 23 people survive; manager Matt Busby and players Johnny Berry and Duncan Edwards are in a serious condition. Berry will never play again and Edwards dies a fortnight later, as does the co-pilot.source
1958February 28 – Prestonsburg bus disaster: One of the worst school bus accidents in U.S. history occurs in Kentucky when a school bus hits a truck and falls into a river, resulting in 27 deaths, 26 of them schoolchildren. Twenty-two others are rescued.source
1958March 1 – Turkish passenger ship SS Üsküdar capsizes and sinks in a sudden gale while crossing the Gulf of İzmit, Turkey; many of the 272 who die are teenage students.source
19581 March – Commuter boat Üsküdar sinks. Most of the passengers were students.Turkey source
1958March 8 – The USS Wisconsin is decommissioned, leaving the United States Navy without an active battleship for the first time since 1896 (she is recommissioned October 22, 1988).source
1958March 11 – 1958 Mars Bluff B-47 nuclear weapon loss incident: A U.S. B-47 bomber accidentally drops an atom bomb on Mars Bluff, South Carolina. Without a fissile warhead, its conventional explosives destroy a house and injure six people.source
1958March 19 – The Monarch Underwear Company fire occurs in New York, United States, killing 24 people.source
1958April 21 – United Airlines Flight 736 is involved in a mid-air collision with a U.S. Air Force F-100F jet fighter over what becomes Enterprise, Nevada; all 49 persons in both aircraft are killed.source
195829 April - Food poisoning caused by leakage of Folidol during transportation kills 74 in a Lok Sahayak Sena camp at Sasthamkotta, Kerala.India source
1958May 8: A collision between two electric trains occurs in Rio de Janeiro, leaving more than 300 dead.Brazil source
195818 May – A Douglas DC-7 on a Sabena flight to Léopoldville crashes in Casablanca, with 65 fatalities and 4 survivors.Belgium source
1958June 20 – The iron barque Omega of Callao, Peru (built in Liverpool, 1887), the world's last full-rigged ship trading under sail alone, sinks on passage carrying guano from the Pachacamac Islands for Huacho.source
1958August 2 – An All Nippon Airways Douglas DC-3 plunges in the sea close to the Izu Islands, killing all 33 occupants of the aircraft.Japan source
1958October 23 – The third Springhill Mining Disaster occurs killing 74.Canada source
195826 October – 30-year-old Thomas Reginald Sonter, a New Zealand carpenter employed on the Snowy Mountains Scheme discovers the wreckage of the Australian National Airways Avro 10 aircraft, VH-UMF Southern Cloud near Cabramurra on the western side of the Snowy Mountains, 60 miles from Cooma, New South Wales. The aircraft had been missing since it crashed in 1931.Australia source
1958November 18 – En route to Rogers City, Michigan, United States, the Lake freighter SS Carl D. Bradley breaks up and sinks in a storm on Lake Michigan; 33 of the 35 crewmen on board perish.source
1958December 16 – A fire breaks out in the Vida Department Store in Bogotá, Colombia and kills 84 persons.source
1958December 24 – 1958 BOAC Bristol Britannia crash: A BOAC Bristol Britannia (312 G-AOVD) crashes near Winkton, England, during a test flight, killing nine people. Three crew members survive.source
1958See List of Argentine films of 1958Argentina source
1959January 9 – The Vega de Tera disaster in Spain, a flood caused by a dam collapse, nearly destroys the town of Ribadelago and kills 144 residents.source
1959January 30 – Danish passenger/cargo ship MS Hans Hedtoft, returning to Copenhagen after its maiden voyage to Greenland, strikes an iceberg and sinks off the Greenland coast with the loss of all 95 on board.source
195930 January – M/S Hans Hedtoft sinks on the way back to Denmark. 95 lives are lost.Denmark source
1959February 2 – Nine ski hikers mysteriously perish in the northern Ural Mountains in the Dyatlov Pass incident and are all found dead a few weeks later.source
1959February 3 – A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper with pilot Roger Peterson goes down in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie".source
1959February 3 – American Airlines Flight 320, a Lockheed L-188 Electra from Chicago crashes into the East River on approach to New York City's LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.source
1959February 3 – A chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper crashes in foggy conditions near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four occupants on board, including pilot Roger Peterson. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died", popularized in Don McLean's 1971 song "American Pie". Future country star Waylon Jennings was scheduled to be on the plane, but gave up his seat to The Big Bopper.United States source
195916 February – Mass protests against the closing of coal mines in the Borinage regionBelgium source
195917 February – Turkish Airlines aircraft SEC crashed in London. Prime minister Adnan Menderes survivedTurkey source
1959February 20 – The Canadian Government cancels the Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow interceptor aircraft project.source
1959March 1 – The USS Tuscaloosa, USS New Orleans, USS Tennessee and USS West Virginia are stricken from the United States Naval Vessel Register.source
1959June 20: The Escuminac Disaster results in 35 fishermen drowned or missing and 22 fishing boats sunk.Canada source
1959August 7 – The Roseburg Blast in Oregon, caused when a truck carrying explosives catches fire, kills 14 and causes $12 million worth of damage.source
195924 November – The coastal trader MV Holmglen sinks near Timaru with the loss of 15 lives.New Zealand source
1959December 8 – The life-boat Mona, based at Broughty Ferry in Scotland, capsizes during a rescue attempt with the loss of 8 lives.source
1959December 13 – Two apartment houses in a suburb of Dortmund were levelled by an explosion at 3:12 a.m.. Of 34 people in the Aplerbeck buildings, 26 were killed.Germany source
1959Club San Sebastián de León dissolves.Mexico source
1960January 21 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes and burns upon landing at Montego Bay, Jamaica killing 37, the worst air disaster in Jamaica's history and the first for Avianca.source
1960January 21 – Coalbrook mining disaster: A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.source
1960January 21 – 435 miners die in the Coalbrook mining disaster, the worst mine disaster in South Africa.South Africa source
1960February 26 – Alitalia Flight 618: A Douglas DC 7 en route to New York crashes into a cemetery at Shannon, Ireland, shortly after takeoff, killing 34 of the 52 persons on board.source
19602 March – According to South Korea Fire Service official confirmed report, a fire and explosion in Kukje Rubber and Manufacturing plant in Busan, 68 persons were fatalities.South Korea source
1960March 17 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crashes near Tell City, Indiana, killing all 63 on board.source
196013 April – MV Arlanza becomes the last passenger liner launched by Harland & Wolff in Belfast (for Royal Mail Line).Northern Ireland source
1960May 9 — According to Chinese government official confirmed report, a Datong Laobaidong Coal mine gas explosion in Shanxi Province, 220 workers were rescued, 684 workers were perished.China source
196010 June – A TAA Fokker Friendship, Abel Tasman, crashes at Mackay, Queensland, killing 29 persons. To date (2020), this remains the worst loss of life in a peacetime air crash in Australia.Australia source
1960July 1 – Cold War: A Soviet Air Force MiG-19 fighter plane flying north of Murmansk, Russia, over the Barents Sea, shoots down a six-man RB-47 Stratojet reconnaissance plane of the U.S. Air Force. Four of the U.S. Air Force officers are killed, and the two survivors are held prisoner in the Soviet Union.source
1960July 24 – According to Japan National Police Agency official confirmed report, a charter bus collision with regular route bus, charter bus plunge into cliff in mountain road, Mount Hiei, Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, 28 person were perish, 16 person were hurt.Japan source
1960October 24 – Nedelin catastrophe: A large rocket explodes on the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, killing at least 92 people of the Soviet space program.source
1960November 14 – Stéblová train disaster: A head-on collision between two trains in Pardubice, Czechoslovakia, kills 118 people.source
1960December 1 – Striking coal miners at the Miike Coal Mine in Japan return to work, ending the unprecedented 312-day-long Miike Struggle.source
1960December 16 – New York mid-air collision: A United Air Lines DC-8 collides in mid-air with a TWA Lockheed Constellation over Staten Island in New York City. All 128 passengers and crewmembers on the two airliners, and six people on the ground, are killed.source
196017 December – Arne Sejersted, sailor and Olympic gold medallist (b.1877).Norway source
1960December 19 – Fire sweeps through the USS Constellation, to become the U.S. Navy's largest aircraft carrier, while she is under construction at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; killing 50 workers and injuring 150.source
1960Plunket Shield was won by Canterbury (1959-1960 season)New Zealand source
1961January 3 – Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash.source
196111 January – The Pisces, a yacht carrying Moroccan Jews to Israel, capsized off the coast of Algeciras, Spain, drowning the 40 passengers and all but 3 of the crew. The ship's captain survived.Israel source
196120 January to early March – Disastrous bushfires affect Western Australia, completely destroying a number of towns.Australia source
1961January 24 – 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A B-52 Stratofortress, carrying two nuclear bombs, crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina.source
1961January 27 – Soviet submarine S-80 sinks in the Barents Sea, killing all 68 crew.source
1961February 15 – Sabena Flight 548 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.source
1961March 13 – A second B-52 crashes near Yuba City, California, after cabin pressure is lost and the fuel runs out. Two nuclear weapons are found unexploded.source
19613 April – LAN Chile Flight 210 crashes in the Andes The plane carrying the Club de Deportes Green Cross soccer team crashes in the Nevado de Longaví, Maule Region, killing all 24 people on board.Chile source
1961April 24 – Swedish warship Vasa, sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is recovered from Stockholm Harbor.source
1961May 1 – National Airlines Flight 337, internal to Florida, is forced by an armed hijacker to fly to Cuba, the first of a spate of such aircraft hijackings.source
196119 May - Eleven Bengali Language Movement workers of Barak Valley including Kamala Bhattacharya killed in Assam Rifles firings at Silchar.India source
196125 May – The Bukit Ho Swee Fire kills 4 people and destroys 2,200 attap houses.Singapore source
1961June to July – After a long period of torrential rain, cliff collapses and debris flows hit the Tenryū River area, Nagano Prefecture, according to Fire and Disaster Management Agency of Japan, official confirmed report, total 357 fatalities and 1,320 were injured nationwide.Japan source
1961July 7 – A coal mine in Czechoslovakia has one of its sections closed off in order to extinguish a fire and prevent an explosion, causing the suffocation of 108 miners still present.source
1961July 12 – A Czechoslovak Ilyushin Il-18 crashes while attempting to land at Casablanca, Morocco, killing all 72 on board.source
1961August 29 – A French military aircraft clips a cable of the aerial tramway connecting Pointe Helbronner and the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people, but the remaining 63 cable car passengers are rescued and the pilot lands his plane safely.source
1961September 10 – During the F1 Italian Grand Prix on the circuit of Monza, German Wolfgang von Trips, driving a Ferrari, crashes into a stand, killing 14 spectators and himself.source
1961September 18 – 1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash: Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld is one of 16 to die in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.source
1961November 1: A Panair do Brasil plane crashes near Recife airport, leaving 45 dead and 43 injured.Brazil source
19615 November - 1961 Elbarusovo school fire killed 110 students and teachers.Soviet Union source
1961November 8 – Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 crashes while attempting to land at Richmond, Virginia, United States, killing 77 people on board.source
1961December 17 – A circus tent fire in Niterói, Brazil kills 323.source
1962January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the worst Dutch rail disaster.source
1962February 7 – Luisenthal Mine Disaster: A coal mine explosion in Saarland, West Germany, kills 299.source
1962March 1 – American Airlines Flight 1 (a Boeing 707) crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport, after a rudder malfunction causes an uncontrolled roll, resulting in the loss of control of the aircraft, with the loss of all 95 on board.source
1962March 16 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation chartered by the United States Military Air Transport Service, and carrying mainly United States Army personnel bound for South Vietnam, vanishes over the western Pacific Ocean, with the loss of all 107 on board (no wreckage or bodies are ever found).source
1962April 26 – The U.S. Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.source
1962May 3 – Mikawashima train crash: 160 die in a triple-train disaster near Tokyo.source
1962June 22 – Air France Flight 117 (a Boeing 707 jet) crashes into terrain during bad weather in Guadeloupe in the West Indies, killing all 113 on board, the airline's second fatal accident in just 3 weeks, and the third fatal 707 crash of the year.source
196222 June – An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes into terrain during bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies, killing all 113 on board.France source
1962June 30 — Aeroflot Flight 902 crashes 28 kilometers east of Krasnoyarsk airport, killing all 84 on board.Soviet Union source
196215 August – The Red Sales aerobatic team, flying Vampire jets, crashes in practice, killing six people.Australia source
1962September 23 – Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditched into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 occupants out of 76 on board. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.source
1962October 12 – Jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus presents a disastrous concert at Town Hall in New York City. It will gain a reputation as the worst moment of his career.United States source
196221 October – Hurtigruten passenger ship MS Sanct Svithun running between Bergen and Kirkenes goes in the northbound Hurtigruten, sank during a stormy night after running aground off her normal course, resulting in the deaths of 41 while 48 survived the event.Norway source
1962November 5 – A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund kills 21 people; the Norwegian government is forced to resign in the aftermath of this accident, in August 1963.source
1962November 9 - An All Nippon Airways Vickers Viscount plane crashes in Aichi Prefecture while en route to Nagoya Airport, killing all 4 occupants of the aircraft.Japan source
1962November 23 – United Air Lines Flight 297 crashes in Columbia, Maryland due to a bird strike, killing all 17 on board.source
19626 December – last permanent residents leave the Island of Stroma.Scotland source
196216 December - Trolleybus services in Singapore cease operations.Singapore source
19631 February – Two airplanes collided over Ankara. 87 deathsTurkey source
1963February 12 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 aboard.source
1963February 26 - According to Japan Coast Guard official confirmed report, a passenger ship Tokiwa Maru sank by collision with logistic ship Richmond Maru off Kobe Port, Hyogo Prefecture, total 47 passengers and crew were fatalities.Japan source
1963April 10 – The U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher sinks 220 smi east of Cape Cod; all 129 aboard (112 crewmen plus yard personnel) die.source
1963April 12 – The Soviet nuclear powered submarine K-33 collides with the Finnish merchant vessel M/S Finnclipper in the Danish Straits. Although severely damaged, both vessels make it to port.source
1963May 4 – The Le Monde Theater fire in Dioirbel, Senegal, kills 64 people.source
1963May 28 - Cais do Sodré disaster - the roof of the Cais do Sodré train station in Lisbon collapsed. The accident caused 49 deaths and 63 people were injured.Portugal source
1963July 2 – Cameroon closes its airports and harbours to both Portugal and South Africa.South Africa source
19633 July – New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 crashes into the Kaimai Ranges, killing all 23 aboard.New Zealand source
1963August 1: An explosion kills 8 people, including 5 children, in the town of Hanmer near Sudbury, OntarioCanada source
1963August 14 – A huge and devastating forest fire hits the region around Paraná State, Brazil. According to government documents, two million hectares (4.94 million acres) are lost to burning and 110 persons perished.source
1963September 15 – The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, kills four children and injures 22.United States source
19632 October – Second Short SC.1 VTOL research aircraft (XG905), flying from Belfast Harbour Airport, crashes due to a control malfunction, killing the pilot, J. R. Green.Northern Ireland source
1963October 31 – 1963 Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum gas explosion: 81 die in a gas explosion during a Holiday on Ice show at the Indiana State Fairgrounds Coliseum in Indianapolis, United States.source
1963November 7 – 11 German miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days in what becomes known as the "Wunder von Lengede" ("miracle of Lengede").source
1963November 8 – Finnair aircraft OH-LCA crashes before landing at Mariehamn Airport on Åland.source
1963November 9 – Tsurumi rail accident: A triple train disaster in Yokohama kills 161.source
1963November 23 – The Golden Age Nursing Home fire kills 63 elderly people near Fitchville, Ohio, United States.source
1963November 29 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8 crashes into a wooded hillside after taking-off from Dorval International Airport near Montreal, killing all 118 on board, the worst air disaster for many years in Canada's history.source
1963December 8 – A lightning strike causes the crash of Pan Am Flight 214 near Elkton, Maryland, United States, killing 81 people.source
1963December 10 – Chuck Yeager narrowly escapes death while testing an NF-104A rocket-augmented aerospace trainer when his aircraft goes out of control at 108,700 feet (nearly 21 miles up) and crashes. He parachutes to safety at 8,500 feet after vainly battling to gain control of the powerless, rapidly falling craft. In this incident he becomes the first pilot to make an emergency ejection in the full pressure suit needed for high altitude flights.source
1963December 22 – The cruise ship TSMS Lakonia burns 180 mi north of Madeira, with the loss of 128 lives.source
1963British nuclear tests at Maralinga ceasedAustralia source
1964February 10 – Melbourne–Voyager collision: 82 Australian sailors die when a Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier and a destroyer collide off New South Wales, Australia.source
196419 February - the andacollo tragedy occurs, in which 7 miners were buried alive in the flor de té copper mine. later they would be rescued with the help of relatives and miners in the area.Chile source
196429 April – A Nord 2501D Noratlas (4X-FAD/044) of the IAF crashes into a mountain near Mitzpe Ramon, killing all 9 occupants. The crash is currently Israel's deadliest.Israel source
1964May 2 – Vietnam War: Attack on USNS Card – An explosion caused by Viet Cong commandos causes carrier USNS Card to sink in the port of Saigon.source
1964May 7 – Pacific Air Lines Flight 773 crashes near San Ramon, California, killing all 44 aboard; the FBI later reports that a cockpit recorder tape indicates that the pilot and co-pilot had been shot by a suicidal passenger.source
1964May 20 - Philippine Airlines Flight 26/25 crashed en route to Zamboanga Airport, Zamboanga killing all 11 people.Philippines source
1964May – The last electric tramway system of New Zealand closes.New Zealand source
1964July 14: According to Japan Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report, a Katsushima Warehouse caught fire and explode in Shinagawa, Tokyo, total 19 person were human fatalities and 117 persons were wounded.Japan source
1964August 2 – Vietnam War: United States destroyer Maddox is attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks one gunboat, while the other two leave the battle.source
1964August 2–4 – Vietnam War – Gulf of Tonkin incident: United States destroyers USS Maddox and USS C. Turner Joy are attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Air support from the carrier USS Ticonderoga sinks one gunboat, while the other two leave the battle.United States source
196420 September - One of three single-engine planes en route from Halifax to Europe ditches in the sea off Iceland. The pilot is rescued by helicopter. Another is lost entirely and the third lands safely in Reykjavik.Iceland source
1964October 16 – China explodes an atomic bomb in Sinkiang.China source
1964Kalamaja Cemetery was destroyed by Soviet authorities.Estonia source
19656 February – LAN Chile Flight 107 crashes in the Andes.Chile source
196511 February – Mt Isa Mines suspends all operations.Australia source
1965February 14 - An All Nippon Airways Douglas DC-3 aircraft crashes into Mount Nakanoone in Shizuoka Prefecture, killing both occupants of the plane.Japan source
1965February 20 – Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon, after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts.source
196510 March – Indonesian saboteurs carry out the MacDonald House bombing, killing 3 people.Singapore source
1965May 28 – A mining accident in Dhanbad, India, kills 268.source
196529 May – 1965 Dhanbad coal mine disaster – A mining accident in Dhanbad, India kills 274.India source
1965June 1 – A coal mine explosion in Fukuoka, Japan, kills 237.source
1965June 7 – Kakanj mine disaster: A mining accident in Kakanj, Bosnia and Herzegovina, results in 128 deaths.source
1965June 25 – A U.S. Air Force Boeing C-135 Stratolifter bound for Okinawa crashes just after takeoff at MCAS El Toro in Orange County, California, killing all 85 on board.source
1965August 9 – An explosion at an Arkansas missile plant kills 53.source
1965August 9 – Indonesian president Sukarno collapses in public.source
196511 August - The Hendek bus accident occurred, causing 25 deaths.Turkey source
1965September 8 – The Pakistan Navy destroys the Indian port of Dwarka. Operation Dwarka (Pakistan celebrates Victory Day annually).source
1965November 1 – A trolleybus plunges into the Nile at Cairo, Egypt, killing 74 passengers.source
19657 November – A Fatah cell that infiltrated from Jordan blew up a house in Moshav Givat Yeshayahu, south of Beit Shemesh. The house was destroyed, but the inhabitants were unhurt.Israel source
1965November 11 – United Airlines Flight 227 crashes short of the runway and catches fire at Salt Lake City International Airport, killing 43 out of 91 passengers and crew.source
1965November 13 – The SS Yarmouth Castle burns and sinks 60 mi off Nassau, Bahamas, with the loss of 90 lives.source
1965Victor Horta's Maison du Peuple in Brussels demolished.Belgium source
1966January 17 – 1966 Palomares B-52 crash: A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea. Carl Brashear, the first African-American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of the latter, which results in the amputation of his leg.source
1966January 17 – 1966 Palomares B-52 crash: A USAF B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton hydrogen bombs near the town of Palomares, and one into the sea. Carl Brashear, the first African American United States Navy diver, is involved in an accident during the recovery of the latter which results in the amputation of his leg.United States source
1966January 24 – Air India Flight 101 crashes into Mont Blanc, killing all 117 people on board, including Homi J. Bhabha, chairman of the Indian Atomic Energy Commission.source
196624 January - Air India Flight 101 crashed into Mont Blanc killing the 117 passengers including Homi J. Bhabha who was in the flight. There was a similar aviation accident in the same spot in 1950.India source
196631 January – Clashes between gendarmes and demonstrators from the closing Zwartberg mine leave two colliers dead.Belgium source
1966February 7 – The Great Fire of Iloilo, Philippines, breaks out in a lumber yard and burns for almost half a day, destroying nearly three-quarters of the City Proper area and causing 50 million pesos in total property damage.source
1966March 4 – Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402 crashes during a night landing in poor visibility at Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing 64 of 72 people on board.source
1966March 5 – BOAC Flight 911 crashes in severe clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji soon after taking off from Tokyo International Airport in Japan, killing all 124 people on board.source
1966March 5 - BOAC Flight 911 crashes while encountering severe Clear-air turbulence over Mount Fuji shortly after taking off from Tokyo International Airport, killing all 124 on board.Japan source
1966March 8 – Nelson's Pillar in O'Connell Street, Dublin, is clandestinely blown up by former Irish Republican Army volunteers marking this year's 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising.source
1966March – The DKW automobile ceases production in Germany.source
1966June 8 – A North American XB-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber prototype is destroyed in a mid-air collision with an F-104 Starfighter chase plane during a photo shoot. NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker and USAF test pilot Carl Cross are both killed.source
19664 July – An Air New Zealand Douglas DC-8 on a training flight crashes on takeoff from Auckland Airport, killing two of the five crew members.New Zealand source
196610 July – The Easybeats leave for London. Their departure is delayed when they were among the 100 passengers forced to disembark their plane at Kingsford Smith Airport when an anonymous caller claimed a bomb was on the aircraft.Australia source
1966July 31 – Loss of MV Darlwyne: a pleasure cruiser disappears off the Cornwall coast of England with the loss of all 31 aboard.source
1966August 6 – Braniff International Airways Flight 250 crashes in Falls City, Nebraska, United States, killing all 42 of those on board.source
1966August 11 – A Lisunov Li-2 airliner, operated by Tarom crashed in the Lotriora Valley in Romania, near the city of Sibiu, killing all 24 people on board.Romania source
1966September 1 – 98 British tourists die when Britannia Airways Flight 105 crashes in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia.source
196616 September – Ole Petter Pollen, yacht racer.Norway source
1966October 1 – West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashes with 18 fatal injuries and no survivors 5.5 mi south of Wemme, Oregon, the first loss of a DC-9.source
1966October 26 – A fire aboard the US aircraft carrier USS Oriskany in the Gulf of Tonkin kills 44 crewmen.source
1966November 11 – A mine kills three Israeli paratroopers on the West Bank border.source
1966November 24 – TABSO Flight 101, from Sofia, Bulgaria, crashes near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, killing all 82 people on board.source
1966November 29 – The SS Daniel J. Morrell sinks in a storm on Lake Huron, killing 28 of 29 crewmen.source
1966December 8 – The Typaldos Line's ferry SS Heraklion sinks in rough seas in the Aegean Sea near Crete, leaving 217 dead.source
1967January 6 – Two pilgrimage buses fall into a ravine in Indang, Cavite, killing more than 84 passengers.Philippines source
196719 January – A gas explosion in the Strongman coal mine near Greymouth kills 19 miners.New Zealand source
1967February 7 – Serious bushfires in southern Tasmania claim 62 lives and destroy 2,642.7 square kilometres (653,025.4 acres) of land.source
196713 February – Nocturnal explosion at the law courts on Burg Square damages the stained glass windows of the Basilica of the Holy Blood.Belgium source
1967March 18 – Torrey Canyon oil spill: The supertanker SS Torrey Canyon runs aground between Land's End and the Scilly Isles off the coast of Britain, causing the biggest oil spill in history up to that point.source
1967March 29 – Torrey Canyon oil spill: British Fleet Air Arm and Royal Air Force aircraft bomb and sink the grounded supertanker SS Torrey Canyon.source
1967April 20 – A Globe Air Bristol Britannia turboprop crashes at Nicosia, Cyprus, killing 126 people.source
196720 April – A Bristol Britannia of the Swiss airline Globe Air flew into the ground 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) south of Nicosia Airport, killing all 126 passengers and crew on board.Cyprus source
1967April 24 – Soyuz 1: Vladimir Komarov becomes the first Soviet cosmonaut to die, when the parachute of his space capsule fails during re-entry.source
1967May 22 – The Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels, Belgium, burns down. It is the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.source
1967May 23 – Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, blockading Israel's southern port of Eilat, and Israel's entire Red Sea coastline.source
196723 May – President Nasser closes the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping, blockading Israel's southern port of Eilat, and Israel's entire Red Sea coastline.Israel source
1967June 4 – Stockport air disaster: British Midland flight G-ALHG crashes in Hopes Carr, Stockport, killing 72 passengers and crew.source
1967July 6 – Langenweddingen level crossing disaster: A level crossing collision between a train loaded with children and a tanker-truck near Magdeburg, East Germany, kills 94 people, mostly children.source
1967July 19 – A race riot breaks out in the North Side of Minneapolis on Plymouth Street during the Minneapolis Aquatennial Parade; businesses are vandalized and fires break out in the area, although the disturbance is quelled within hours. However, the next day a shooting sets off another incident in the same area that leads to 18 fires, 36 arrests, 3 shootings, 2 dozen people injured, and damages totaling 4.2 million. Two more such incidents occur during the following two weeks.source
1967July 29 – An explosion and fire aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin leaves 134 dead.source
1967September 5–22 miners die after two trucks carrying detonating material exploded in a sector of the Chuquicamata mine.Chile source
1967October 21 – An Egyptian surface-to-surface missile sinks the Israeli destroyer Eilat, killing 47 Israeli sailors. Israel retaliates by shelling Egyptian refineries along the Suez Canal.source
1967December 1 – The RMS Queen Mary is retired. Her place is taken by the Queen Elizabeth 2.source
196717 December – Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf at Cheviot Beach, near Portsea, Victoria.Australia source
1967December 31 – Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel attempts to jump 141 feet over the Caesars Palace Fountains on the Las Vegas Strip in the United States. Knievel crashes on landing and the accident is caught on film.source
1967Thor Alex Kappfjell, offshore worker and BASE jumper (died 1999).Norway source
1968January 21 – 1968 Thule Air Base B-52 crash: A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress crashes in Greenland, discharging 4 nuclear bombs.source
196822 January – a fire in Viña del Mar destroyed 600 hectares of vegetation and more than 200 houses in the upper sector of the city.Chile source
1968January 25 – Israeli submarine INS Dakar sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 69.source
1968January 28 – French submarine Minerve sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, killing 52.source
196830 January – The Ellenborough Market is destroyed in a fire, causing S$253,000 in damages and affecting about 1000 hawkers and stall-holders. The market is demolished a few years later.Singapore source
1968March 2 – Baggeridge Colliery closes marking the end of over 300 years of coal mining in the Black Country of England.source
1968March 3 – Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707, crashes in Guadeloupe while approaching an airport. As a result, 63 people die.source
1968March 8 – The Soviet ballistic missile submarine K-129 sinks with all 98 crew members, about 90 nautical miles (104 miles or 167 km) southwest of Hawaii.source
1968March 24 – Aer Lingus Flight 712 crashes en route from Cork to London near Tuskar Rock, Wexford, killing 61 passengers and crew.source
1968April 6 – Richmond, Indiana explosion: A double explosion in downtown Richmond caused by a methane leak kills 41 and injures 150.source
196819 April - The first communal riots of Kanara region occurred in Mangalore leaving 28 injured and widespread arson.India source
1968April 20 – South African Airways Flight 228 a Boeing 707 crashed shortly after take-off killing 123 people on board.source
1968April 20 – A South African Airways Boeing 707 crashes after take-off from Windhoek, killing 122 of the 129 on board.South Africa source
1968May 3 – Braniff Flight 352 crashes near Dawson, Texas, United States, killing all 85 people on board.source
1968May 16 – Ronan Point, a 23 floor tower block in Canning Town, east London, partially collapses after a gas explosion, killing 5.source
1968May 22 – The U.S. nuclear-powered submarine Scorpion sinks with 99 men aboard, 400 miles southwest of the Azores.source
1968June 23 – Puerta 12 tragedy: A football stampede in Buenos Aires leaves 74 dead and 150 injured.source
1968August 11 – The last steam passenger train service runs in Britain. A selection of British Rail steam locomotives make the 120-mile journey from Liverpool to Carlisle and return – the journey is known as the Fifteen Guinea Special.source
1968August 18: 1968 Hida river bus accident, two charter buses occur debris flow, following push into Hida River, Gifu Prefecture, due after heavy torrential rain. According to local official confirmed report, 104 people lost to lives with one of worst road accident in Northeast Asia.Japan source
1968September 7 – The crash of Air France Flight 1611 kills 95 people, including French Army General René Cogny, as the Caravelle jetliner plunges into the Mediterranean Sea following a fire while making its approach to Nice following its departure from the island of Corsica.source
1968November 20 – The Farmington Mine disaster in Farmington, West Virginia, kills seventy-eight men.source
1968November 22 – Japan Air Lines Flight 2, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco International Airport ditches in San Francisco Bay due to pilot error; all 107 on board survive without injury.source
1968November 24 – 4 men hijack Pan Am Flight 281 from JFK International Airport, New York to Havana, Cuba.source
196811 December – William Craig, NI Minister of Home Affairs, is dismissed from the Northern Ireland cabinet.Northern Ireland source
196826 December – El Al Flight 253 attack: Two PFLP militants attack an attacked an El Al plane about to depart at the Athens International Airport, firing a submachine gun and throwing grenades at the plane as it sat on the runway warming up prior to take off. An Israeli mechanic was killed in the attack and two others were injured.Israel source
196831 December – MacRobertson Miller Airlines Flight 1750 crashes south of Port Hedland, Western Australia, killing all 26 people on board.Australia source
1969January 5 – Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to London's Gatwick Airport, killing 50 of the 62 people on board and two of the home's occupants.source
1969January 14 – An explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 28 and injures 314.source
1969January 28 – 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill: A blowout on Union Oil's Platform A spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California; on February 5 the oil spill closes Santa Barbara's harbor. The incident inspires Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970.source
1969February 8 – The Allende meteorite explodes over Mexico.source
196918 February – El Al Flight 432 attack: Four members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, machine-gun El Al's flight 432, a Boeing 707 preparing for takeoff at the Kloten Airport near Zürich. Several crew members are wounded in the attack and damage is caused to the plane. The co-pilot, who was severally wounded, dies from his wounds a month later.Israel source
196924 February – Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 104 crash landed in Tainan.Taiwan source
1969March 17 – The Longhope life-boat is lost after answering a mayday call during severe storms in the Pentland Firth between Orkney and the northern tip of Scotland; the entire crew of 8 die.source
1969March 31 – The Barroterán coal mine disaster kills 153 coal miners in Mexico.source
1969April 3- According to JFDMA official confirmed report, a gas explosion hit Moshiri coal mine in Akabira, Hokkaido, official resulting death toll is 19 persons, with 24 persons hurt. This mine officially shut down on April 30.Japan source
1969April 15 – The EC-121 shootdown incident: North Korea shoots down a US reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing all 31 on board.source
196928 April - Crash of LAN Chile Flight 160. A Boeing 727 from Buenos Aires crashed in a field near Colina. There were no deaths or injuries.Chile source
1969June 3 – While operating at sea on SEATO maneuvers, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne accidentally rams and slices into the American destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea, killing 74 American seamen.source
19693 June – Melbourne-Evans collision – The Royal Australian Navy aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collides with the United States Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in the South China Sea. Frank E. Evans is cut in half and sinks, killing 74 crew.Australia source
1969August 21 – Australian Denis Michael Rohan sets fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.source
1969September 9 – Allegheny Airlines Flight 853, a DC-9 airliner, collides in flight with a small Piper PA-28 airplane, and crashes near Fairland, Indiana, killing all 83 people in both aircraft.source
1969September 12 – A Philippine Airlines plane hits a tree and crashes on a hill in Antipolo, Rizal, killing 45 of 47 people on board. It is then the country's second worst air accident.Philippines source
1969September 22–25 – An Islamic conference in Rabat, Morocco, following the al-Aqsa Mosque fire (August 21), condemns the Israeli claim of ownership of Jerusalem.source
1969November 14 – The SS United States, the last active United States Lines passenger ship, is withdrawn from service.source
1969November 15 – Cold War: The Soviet submarine K-19 collides with the American submarine USS Gato in the Barents Sea.source
1969December 3 – Air France Flight 212, a Boeing 707 registered as F-BHSZ, crashed shortly after takeoff from Venezuela killing all 62 occupants on board. The cause of the accident is not yet known since the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) did not publish an investigation report. It will not be released until 2029, sixty years after the accident.source
1969December 12 – The Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan, Italy, kills 17 people and injures 88.source
196918 December – The battleship TCG Yavuz sold for scrapping.Turkey source
1969Allende meteorite falls in Allende, Chihuahua.Mexico source
1970February 1 – The Benavídez rail disaster near Buenos Aires, Argentina (a rear-end collision) kills 236.source
197021 February – A plane crashes 15 minutes after leaving Zurich Airport on route to Israel after a bomb planted by PLO members explodes, killing all 47 people on board.Switzerland source
1970March 31 – Japan Airlines Flight 351, carrying 131 passengers and 7 crew from Tokyo to Fukuoka, is hijacked by Japanese Red Army members. All passengers and crew are eventually freed.source
1970April 8 – A huge gas explosion at a subway construction site in Osaka, Japan, kills 79 and injures over 400.source
1970June 12 – Philippine fishing boat "Baby Princess" capsized in a violent storm 300 miles southwest of Manila, 22 persons were rescued, 22 others were devoured by sharks.Philippines source
19706 August – A Pakistan International Airlines F27 enters a steep dive and crashes about three minutes after a night takeoff from Rawalpindi in poor weather. All four crew members and 26 passengers are killed.Pakistan source
1970October 2 – The Wichita State University football team's "Gold" plane crashes in Colorado, killing most of the players. They were on their way (along with administrators and fans) to a game with Utah State University.source
1970October 14 – 1970 Onyang-dong level crossing accident, according to MLIT of ROK official announced, 42 persons fatalities in Chungcheongnam-do.South Korea source
1970October 15 – The domestic Soviet Aeroflot Flight 244 is hijacked and diverted to Turkey.Soviet Union source
1970October 25 – The wreck of the Confederate submarine Hunley is found off Charleston, South Carolina, by 22-year-old pioneer underwater archaeologist, Dr. E. Lee Spence. Hunley is the first submarine in history to sink a ship in warfare.source
1970November 1 – The Club Cinq-Sept fire in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont, France, kills 146.source
19702 December – One of Cargolux's two CL-44's crashes in East Pakistan while conducting a humanitarian airlift, killing four crew members and four villagers.Luxembourg source
197020 December – Fire broke out at Royal Selangor Club.Malaysia source
1970December 30 – Hurricane Creek mine disaster, near Hyden, Kentucky, USAsource
197030 December – The Neot HaKikar disaster (אסון נאות הכיכר): the worst natural disaster since the founding of the State of Israel. A rock detaches from a cliff due to heavy rains and crushes an IDF military base dining room. 20 Israelis are killed in the disaster (19 soldiers and a civilian) and ten soldiers were injured (three of them severely).Israel source
1971March 8 – The Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI breaks into the Media, Pennsylvania offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and removes all of its files.source
1971March 18 – A landslide in Chungar, Peru crashes into Yanawayin Lake, killing 200.source
1971April 15 – A Philippine Air Force plane crashes into a rice field near an air base in Pampanga, killing all 40 people on board.Philippines source
197121 May – Constitutional Court closes down National Order Party for anti-secular propaganda.Turkey source
1971May 23 – Aviogenex Flight 130 crashes at Rijeka Airport, Yugoslavia, killing 78 people, mostly British tourists.source
197127 May – Dahlerau train disasterGermany source
1971June 6 – A midair collision between Hughes Airwest Flight 706 Douglas DC-9 jetliner and a U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom jet fighter near Duarte, California claims 50 lives.source
1971June 27 – Concert promoter Bill Graham closes the legendary Fillmore East, which first opened on 2nd Avenue in New York City on March 8, 1968.source
1971July 30 - An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 collides with a Japanese fighter jet, resulting in a loss of 162 lives.Japan source
1971September 4 – A Boeing 727 (Alaska Airlines Flight 1866) crashes into the side of a mountain near Juneau, Alaska, killing all 111 people on board.source
1971September 19 – Trams in Ballarat (Victoria, Australia) cease to run.source
1971October 21 – The Clarkston explosion in Scotland, caused by a gas leak, kills 22 people.source
1971November 9 – A Royal Air Force C-130 crashes into the Ligurian Sea near Leghorn, Italy, killing all 51 people on board.source
1971November 14 - Fidel Castro visits the Chuquicamata copper mine.Chile source
1971November 22 – In Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, the Cairngorm Plateau disaster, five children and one of their leaders are found dead from exposure in the Scottish mountains.source
1971December 3–4 – The Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi (former USS Diablo) sinks mysteriously near the Indian coast while laying mines.source
197110 December – Liberation of Laksham. Two Bangladeshi ships sunk mistakenly by Indian air attack.Bangladesh source
1971December 24 – Juliane Koepcke survives a fall of 10,000 feet following disintegration of LANSA Flight 508.source
1971December 25 – Daeyeonggak Hotel fire: A fire at a 22-story hotel in Seoul, South Korea, kills 158 people.source
1971December 25 – Daeyeonggak Hotel fire, according to official confirmed report, 164 fatalities in Jung-gu, Seoul.South Korea source
1971Crude oil production peaks in the continental United States at approximately 4.5 million barrels per day.source
1971List of Mexican films of 1971.Mexico source
1972January 9 – The RMS Queen Elizabeth catches fire and sinks in Hong Kong's Victoria harbor while undergoing conversion to a floating university.source
1972January 26 – Yugoslavian air stewardess Vesna Vulović is the only survivor when her plane crashes in Czechoslovakia. She survives after falling 10,160 m in the tail section of the aircraft.source
1972February 22 – Lufthansa Flight 649 is hijacked and taken to Aden. Passengers are released the following day after a ransom of 5 million US dollars is agreed.source
197224 February: A fire at the Pirani Building (now the Andraus Building), leaves 16 dead and 330 injured in São Paulo, making it one of the biggest tragedies in the city's history.Brazil source
1972March 14 - Sterling Airways Flight 267, which was bringing Danish vacationers home from a holiday in Sri Lanka, crashed on its approach to the Dubai airport. All 112 people on board were killed.United Arab Emirates source
1972May 2 – Fire at the Sunshine Mine, a silver mine in Idaho, kills 91.source
1972May 5 – An Alitalia DC-8 crashes west of Palermo, Sicily; 115 die.source
19728 May – Sabena Flight 571 hijacking: Four PLO terrorists hijack an airplane of Sabena Flight 572 carrying 99 passengers and ten crew members en route from Brussels to Tel Aviv. In a mission titled "Operation Isotope", 16 members of Sayeret Matkal pose as refueling and technical personnel and storm the plane, killing the terrorists and releasing the passengers.Israel source
1972May 13 – A fire in a nightclub atop the Sennichi department store in Osaka, Japan, kills 115.source
1972May 13 - A fire at the Sennichi Department Store in Osaka kills 118, injures 78.Japan source
1972May 21 – In St. Peter's Basilica (Vatican City), Laszlo Toth attacks Michelangelo's Pietà statue with a geologist's hammer, shouting that he is Jesus Christ.source
1972June 14 – Japan Airlines Flight 471 crashes outside New Delhi airport, killing 82 of 87 occupants.source
1972June 18 – Staines air disaster: 118 die when a British European Airways Trident 1 jet airliner crashes two minutes after takeoff from London Heathrow Airport.source
1972July 1 – The Canadian ketch Vega, flying the Greenpeace III banner, collides with the French naval minesweeper La Paimpolaise while in international waters to protest French nuclear weapon tests in the South Pacific.source
1972July 21 – A collision between two trains near Seville, Spain, kills 76 people.source
1972August 12 – Oil tankers Oswego-Guardian and Texanita collide near Stilbaai, South Africa.source
1972August 14 – An East German Ilyushin airliner crashes near East Berlin; all 156 on board perish.source
1972September 24 – An F-86 fighter aircraft leaving an air show at Sacramento Executive Airport fails to become airborne and crashes into a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, killing 12 children and 11 adults.source
1972October 6 – A train crash in Saltillo, Mexico, kills 208 people.source
1972October 13 – Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571: A Fairchild FH-227D passenger aircraft transporting a rugby union team crashes at about 14,000 ft in the Andes mountain range, near the Argentina/Chile border. Sixteen of the survivors are found alive December 20 but they have had to resort to cannibalism to survive.source
1972December 2 – According to Seoul Fire Department official confirmed report, a massibie caught fire in Seoul Citizen Hall (now Sejong Center), Jongno-gu, Seoul, 51 persons were human fatalities, 76 persons were wounded.South Korea source
1972December 8 – United Airlines Flight 553 crashes short of a runway in Chicago, killing 43 of 61 passengers and two people on the ground. A day later, over $10,000 cash is found in the purse of Watergate conspirator Howard Hunt's wife, who was on board.source
1972December 22 – Survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 are rescued.Chile source
1972December 29 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashes into the Everglades in Florida, killing 101 of 176 on board. It is the first hull loss of a wide-body aircraft.source
1972List of Mexican films of 1972.Mexico source
1972On 13 October 1972 Derry City withdraws from senior football in the Irish League due to security problems in the Brandywell Stadium area.Northern Ireland source
1973February 21 – Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 (Boeing 727) is shot down by Israeli fighter aircraft over the Sinai Desert, after the passenger plane is suspected of being an enemy military plane. There are 108 fatalities, and only five people on board survive (one crew member and four passengers).source
1973March 21 – The Lofthouse Colliery disaster occurs in Great Britain. Seven miners are trapped underground; none survive.source
197310 April – A plane on route from Bristol, England to Basel crashes into a hillside while approaching the airport killing 108 out of the 145 people on board.Switzerland source
1973The Nigerian ship Napier runs aground on Guamblín Island, spilling around 30,000 tons of Oil into the sea.Chile source
1973July 31 – A Delta Air Lines DC-9 aircraft flying as Delta Air Lines Flight 723 lands short of Logan Airport runway at Boston, United States, in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet (50 m) to the right of the runway centerline and about 3000 feet (914 m) short. All 6 crew members and 83 passengers are killed; one of the passengers died several months after the accident.source
1973August 2 – A flash fire kills 51 at the Summerland amusement centre at Douglas, Isle of Man.source
197313 August – Aviaco Flight 118 crashes while attempting to land at Alvedro Airport.Spain source
19733 September – A ferry capsizes in Kaohsiung, killing 25 women.Taiwan source
197318 October – 42 people, mostly Indians, were crushed to death when a 200-foot-long limestone slab fell off a cliff, collapsed and crashed onto a village at Gunung Cheroh, Ipoh, Perak.Malaysia source
1973November 3 – Pan Am flight 160, a Boeing 707-321C, crashes at Logan International Airport, Boston, killing three people.source
197325 November - KLM Flight 861 is hijacked on an Amsterdam to Tokyo flight. All 247 passengers on board survive.Netherlands source
197317 December – Five Palestinian terrorists shoot at passengers waiting in an El Al Israel Airlines lounge at a Rome airport, killing two civilians. Then they hurled incendiary grenades at a Pan-Am Boeing 707 awaiting to take off, killing 29 passengers.Israel source
1973List of Mexican films of 1973.Mexico source
197423 January – Fire at boarding school in Heusden kills 23 teenagers.Belgium source
1974February 1 – Fire breaks out in the Joelma Building in São Paulo, Brazil; 177 die, 293 are injured, 11 die later of their injuries.source
19741 February: A fire at the Joelma Building in São Paulo kills 177 people and injures 293; 11 die later of their injuries.Brazil source
1974February 17 – Zamalek disaster: A soccer stampede occurs in Cairo, killing 49.source
1974March 3 – Turkish Airlines Flight 981, travelling from Paris to London, crashes in the woods near Paris, killing all 346 aboard. This was the deadliest aircraft accident in history up to this time, and remains the deadliest single aircraft accident with no survivors.source
19743 March – Turkish Airlines Flight 981 crashes near Paris with 346 fatalities.Turkey source
197430 March – Major incendiary bomb attack on Bangor town centre.Northern Ireland source
1974July 19 – Railcar explosion in Decatur, Illinois. A tanker car collides with a Norfolk & Western boxcar. Seven people are killed, 349 are injured and $18 million in property damage.source
1974August 4 – A bomb explodes in a train between Italy and West Germany, killing twelve and wounding 48.source
1974August 9 – VLCC Metula oil spillChile source
1974August 30 – An express train bound for Germany from Belgrade derails in Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), killing more than 150 passengers.source
1974August 30 – The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries building in Tokyo is bombed by radical far-left terrorists, killing 8 and wounding more than 376.source
1974September 8 – TWA Flight 841 crashes into the Ionian Sea 18 minutes after takeoff from Athens on an Israel–New York flight after a bomb explodes in the cargo hold, and kills 88 people.source
19748 September – TWA jet with 88 passengers traveling from Tel Aviv to Athens crashed into the Ionian Sea after PFLP militants detonated a bomb hidden in the baggage compartment, killing all the 79 passengers and 9 crew members on board.Israel source
1974November 20 – Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes in Nairobi, Kenya, due to a mechanical failure, killing 59 of its 157 occupants.source
1974December 18 – According to Japanese government official confirmed report, A petroleum tank broken in Mizushima refinery, Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, in affective 80,000 litter crude oil spill and contamination tide was widely Seto Inland Sea area, these place recoveries spend for more two years.Japan source
197422 December – Avensa Flight 358 crashes, killing all 75 people on boardVenezuela source
19752 January – Major fire at the Fischer casting company in Alpnach-Dorf (Obwalden). Damage amounts to 15 million francsSwitzerland source
1975January 22 – In the country's worst fire on record by then, 51 persons are either burned, suffocated, or leaped to their death when a fire sweeps through a factory in a commercial building in Marikina, Rizal. At least 79 others are seriously injured.Philippines source
197530 January – Turkish Airlines Flight 345 crashes in Marmara Sea due to airport infrastructure problems.Turkey source
197518 February – Communist terrorists sabotaged the railway track which derailed the goods train at Rimba Mas near Padang Besar, Perlis.Malaysia source
1975February 28 – A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.source
1975April 4 – Vietnam War: The first military Operation Babylift flight, C5A 80218, crashes 27 minutes after takeoff, killing 138 on board; 176 survive the crash.source
1975April 18 – The Khmer Rouge begins a forcible mass evacuation of the city and starts the Cambodian genocide.source
1975May 27 – The Dibbles Bridge coach crash near Grassington, North Yorkshire, England, results in 32 deaths (the highest toll in a United Kingdom road accident).source
1975August 6 – According to Japanese government official confirmed report, a heavy massive rain, following debris flow hit in Mount Iwaki in Nakatsugaru District (present day of Hirosaki), Aomori Prefecture, kill 21 persons with injure 31 persons.Japan source
1975August: Fire on the Lüneburg HeathGermany source
1975October 14 – A British Royal Air Force Avro Vulcan bomber explodes and crashes over Żabbar, Malta after an aborted landing, killing five crew members and one person on the ground.source
1975November 7 – A vapor cloud explosion at a petroleum cracking facility in Geleen, Netherlands, leaves 14 dead and 109 injured, with fires lasting for five days.source
1975November 10 – The 729 ft-long freighter SS Edmund Fitzgerald sinks during a storm 27 km from the entrance to Whitefish Bay on Lake Superior, killing all 29 crew members on board (an event immortalized in song by Gordon Lightfoot).source
197525 November – Israeli Air Force C-130H 203/4X-FBO, c/n 4533, crashes into mount Jebel Halal, 55 kilometers south-southeast of El Arish, in the Israeli-administered Sinai Peninsula. Pilots were Shaul Bustan and Uri Manor.Israel source
1975December 29 – A bomb explosion at LaGuardia Airport in New York City kills 11 people.source
1976January 16 – A locomotive crashes into the rear of a commuter train in Glenbrook, Australia, killing one person onboard and injuring ten others in the 1976 Glenbrook rail accident.source
1976March 9 – A cable car disaster occurs when a supporting cable breaks in Cavalese, Italy, resulting in 43 deaths.source
1976March 9–11 – Two coal mine explosions claim 26 lives at the Blue Diamond Coal Co. Scotia Mine, in Letcher County, Kentucky.source
19769 March – 1976 Cavalese cable car crash: 42 deaths, 1 injured.Italy source
19768 April – The 20-storey Campbell Shopping Complex, Kuala Lumpur's very first high-rise shopping complex was completely destroyed in a fire. It was Malaysia's first towering inferno and the worst fire disaster involving a high-rise building to date.Malaysia source
1976April 13 – The Lapua Cartridge Factory explosion in Lapua, Finland kills 40.source
1976April 29 – Sino-Soviet split: A concealed bomb explodes at the gates of the Soviet embassy in China, killing four Chinese. The targets were embassy employees, returning from lunch, but on this day they had returned to the embassy earlier.source
1976May 4 – A train crash in Schiedam, the Netherlands, kills 24 people.source
19769 May – Imperial Iranian Air Force Flight 48 crashes on its approach to Madrid.Spain source
1976May 11 – An accident involving a tanker truck carrying anhydrous ammonia takes place in Houston, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 7 people.source
1976May 21 – The Yuba City bus disaster, the second-worst bus crash in U.S. history, leaves 28 students and one teacher killed.source
197630 May - An explosion caused by the release of gasoline tears through a block of houses in Pfaffenthal, killing 3 and injuring at least 20.Luxembourg source
1976June 2 – A car bomb fatally injures Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles.source
1976June 5 – The Teton Dam collapses in southeast Idaho in the US, killing 11 people.source
1976June 6 – The Double Six Crash, a plane crash in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, kills everyone on board, including Sabahan Chief Minister Tun Fuad Stephens.source
197627 June – Air France Flight 139, originating in Tel Aviv and carrying 248 passengers and a crew of 12 takes off from Athens, Greece, headed for Paris, France. The flight is hijacked by Palestinian Arab assailants with German Revolutionäre Zellen supporters and flown to Entebbe Airport (now known as Entebbe International Airport) in Uganda. Shortly after landing, all non-Jewish passengers were released. The hijacking of this flight leads to the IDF hostage-rescue mission "Operation Entebbe" carried out in the Entebbe Airport seven days later (see details above).Israel source
1976July 10 – Seveso disaster: An explosion at a chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, causes extensive pollution to a large area in the neighborhood of Milan, with many evacuations and a large number of people affected by the toxic cloud.source
1976August 29 – A boat capsized in Davao River, leaving 19 persons missing and presumed dead.Philippines source
1976September 3 – A Lockheed C-130 Hercules of the Venezuelan Air Force crashed near Lajes Field, Azores Islands, Portugal, killing all 68 occupants on board.source
19763 September - A Lockheed C-130H Hercules crashed at the Azores Islands killing all 68 passengers and crew onboard.Portugal source
1976September 3 - A Venezuelan Air Force C-130 Hercules aircraft crashes near the runway of Lajes Airbase on Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal. The aircraft was transporting all members of the UCV University Choir, including Vinicio Adames. There were no survivors in the tragic accident.Venezuela source
1976September 10 – Zagreb mid-air collision: A British Airways Trident and a Yugoslav DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia (modern-day Zagreb, Croatia), killing all 176 aboard.source
1976September 16 – Shavarsh Karapetyan saves 20 people from a trolleybus that had fallen into a Yerevan reservoir.source
197619 September – Turkish Airlines Flight 452 crashes near IspartaTurkey source
1976October 20 – The Mississippi River ferry MV George Prince is struck by a ship while crossing from Destrehan, Louisiana to Luling, Louisiana, killing 78 passengers and crew.source
1977January 4 – Poisoned cola is placed in a telephone booth near Shinagawa Station, killing two.Japan source
1977January 19 – An Ejército del Aire CASA C-207C Azor (registration T.7-15) plane crashes into the side of a mountain near Chiva, on approach to Valencia Airport in Spain, killing all 11 people on board.source
197718 February – Kalakuta Republic, a communal compound founded by political activist Fela Kuti is destroyed by armed soldiers.Nigeria source
1977March 27 – Tenerife disaster: A collision between KLM and Pan Am Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands, kills 583 people. This becomes the deadliest accident in aviation history.source
1977March 30 - Unknown persons set fire to the studios of the radio station La Voz de la Costa in Osorno, belonging to the Catholic Church.Chile source
1977April 4 – Southern Airways Flight 242 crashes on a highway in New Hope, Georgia, United States, killing 72 people.source
1977May 14 – An IAS Cargo Boeing 707 airplane crash in Lusaka, Zambia, kills all six on board.source
1977May 27 – The 1977 Aeroflot Ilyushin 62 airplane crash in Cuba kills 69 people.source
1977July 13 – New York City is affected by a complete electricity blackout lasting through the following day that results in citywide looting and other criminal activity, including arson.source
1977July 27 — The Politburo orders Boris Yeltsin, First Secretary of Sverdlovsk Oblast, to demolish the Ipatiev House, where Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were shot in 1918.Soviet Union source
197728 September: A Japan Airlines Flight 472 en route from Mumbai to Tokyo was hijacked by 5 Japanese Red Army terrorists shortly after takeoff, and forced the plane to land at then Zia International Airport. The terrorists' demand of $6 million and release of 6 JRA terrorists from Japanese prison was met by the Japanese Prime Minister. Bangladesh Air Force was deployed to control the situation in the ground and to facilitate negotiationsBangladesh source
1977October 13 – German Autumn: Four Palestinians hijack Lufthansa Flight 181 to Somalia and demand the release of 11 Red Army Faction members.source
1977October 21 – A U.S. Marine Corps helicopter crashed during a military exercise in Mindoro, killing 24 servicemen.Philippines source
1977November 19 – TAP Portugal Flight 425 crashes at Madeira Airport, Funchal, Portugal, killing 131 and leaving 33 survivors.source
1977December 4 – Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia, killing all 100 passengers and crew on board.source
19774 December – Malaysian Airline System Flight 653 was hijacked and crashed in Tanjung Kupang, Johor, killing all 100 people on board.Malaysia source
1977December 13 – a chartered Douglas DC-3 aircraft carrying the University of Evansville basketball team to Nashville, Tennessee, crashes in rain and dense fog about 90 seconds after takeoff from Evansville Regional Airport; 29 people die in the crash, including 14 members of the team and head coach Bob Watson.source
1977December 18 – SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730, an international charter service from Zurich to Funchal Airport (Madeira), hits the sea during a landing attempt. Many of the 36 who die drown, trapped inside the sinking aircraft. Twenty-one people survive with the help of rescuers and by swimming to the shore.source
1977December 22 – A grain elevator explodes in Westwego, Louisiana, United States, killing 36 people.source
19772 december 1977 – a Tupolev Tu-154 runs out of fuel near Benghazi. A total of 59 passengers are killed in the crash.Libya source
1978January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213.source
1978February 11 – Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737-200, crashes in Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 44 of the 50 people on board.source
1978February 13 – Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing: A bomb explodes outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing a policeman and two civilians, and injuring several other people.source
1978March 17 – An oil tanker, Amoco Cadiz, runs aground on the coast of Brittany.source
1978April 7 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter decides to postpone production of the neutron bomb, a weapon that kills people with radiation, but leaves buildings relatively intact.source
1978April 20 – A Soviet air defense plane shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902; the plane makes an emergency landing on a frozen lake.source
1978April 20 – Korean Air Lines Flight 902 is shot down by Soviet Interceptor fighter jets near Murmansk after entering Soviet airspace during a flight en route from Paris to Seoul via Anchorage.South Korea source
197820 April – The Soviet Air Force shoots down Korean Air Lines Flight 902, a civilian airliner that flew into Soviet airspace.Soviet Union source
1978June 2 – Japan Air Lines 115 had its tail struck on the runway on the airport it landed in. The same aircraft would be involved in a 2nd accident 7 years latersource
1978July 8: A fire destroys the art collection at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.Brazil source
1978July 11 – At least 217 tourists die in an explosion of a tanker-truck at a campsite in Costa Daurada, Spain.source
197811 July – Los Alfaques disaster: a truck carrying highly flammable propylene explodes near Los Alfaques seaside campsite killing at least 217 people.Spain source
19789 August – Olympic Airways Flight 411Greece source
1978September 14 – A Philippine Air Force plane, carrying members of President Ferdinand E. Marcos' security staff and journalists, crash in Manila while trying to land in a thunderstorm. At least 32 persons are killed.Philippines source
197812 October – The Spyros disaster occurred at Jurong Shipyard, resulting in 76 fatalities.Singapore source
1978October 21 – Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 Skylane over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.source
1978November 26 – Two British commercial divers, Michael Ward and Tony Prangley, die of hypothermia and drowning in the East Shetland Basin after their diving bell plunges to the seabed at a depth of over 100 m.source
1978December 16 – Train 87 from Nanjing to Xining collides with train 368 from Xi'an to Xuzhou near Yangzhuang railway station in China, killing 106, injuring 218.source
1978General Motors shuts down operations at its factory in Bascharage.Luxembourg source
197926 January – Near Chuadanga, a train derails and overturns, killing at least 70 and injuring at least 300.Bangladesh source
1979February 15 – A suspected gas explosion in a Warsaw bank kills 49 people.source
1979February 27 – The Soviet oil tanker Antonio Gramsci suffers a minor shipwreck in shallow waters shortly after leaving shore in Ventspils, resulting in a 5,000 ton oil spill, the largest that has ever occurred on the Baltic Sea.source
1979March 14 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing 31 people on the ground and injuring 200.source
1979March 14 – In China, a Hawker Siddeley Trident crashes into a factory near Beijing, killing at least 260.China source
1979March 18 – Ten miners die in a methane gas explosion at Golborne Colliery near Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.source
1979March 28 – America's most serious nuclear power plant accident occurs, at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.source
1979April 2 – Sverdlovsk anthrax leak: A Soviet biowarfare laboratory at Sverdlovsk accidentally releases airborne anthrax spores, killing 66 plus an unknown amount of livestock. It is a violation of the Biological Weapons Convention of 1972.source
1979May 8 – Ten shoppers die in a fire at the Woolworths department store in Manchester city centre in the UK.source
1979May 9 – The Unabomber bomb injures Northwestern University graduate student John Harris.source
19799 May - Monsanto Company closes its production facility at Echternach after 13 years of operation, with the loss of 750 jobs.Luxembourg source
1979May 25 – American Airlines Flight 191: In Chicago, a DC-10 crashes during takeoff at O'Hare International Airport, killing all 271 on board and 2 people on the ground in the deadliest aviation accident in U.S. history.source
1979June 3 – Ixtoc I oil spill: A blowout at the Ixtoc I oil well in the southern Gulf of Mexico causes at least 600,000 tons (176,400,000 gallons) of oil to be spilled into the waters, the worst oil spill to date. Some estimate the spill to be 428 million gallons, making it the largest unintentional oil spill until it is surpassed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.source
1979July 12 – A fire at a hotel in Zaragoza, Spain, leaves 72 dead, the worst hotel fire in Europe in decades.source
1979July 12 – A Disco Demolition Night publicity stunt goes awry at Comiskey Park, forcing the Chicago White Sox to forfeit their game against the Detroit Tigers.source
1979August 8 – Two American commercial divers, Richard Walker and Victor Guiel, die of hypothermia after their diving bell becomes stranded at a depth of over 160 m in the East Shetland Basin. The legal repercussions of the accident will lead to important safety changes in the diving industry.source
1979August 14 – A freak storm during the Fastnet Race results in the deaths of 15 sailors.source
1979October 23 - Coihuín tragedy: intense rains cause the collapse of a hill in the coastal town of Coihuín, in the commune of Puerto Montt, crushing ten people, all algae collectors.Chile source
1979October 31 – Western Airlines Flight 2605 crashes upon landing at Mexico City International Airport, killing 72 occupants plus one on the ground; 16 people on board survive.source
1979October 31: Western Airlines Flight 2605Mexico source
1979November 10 – 1979 Mississauga train derailment: A 106-car Canadian Pacific freight train carrying explosive and poisonous chemicals from Windsor, Ontario, Canada derails in Mississauga, just west of Toronto, causing a massive explosion and the largest peacetime evacuation in Canadian history and one of the largest in North American history.source
1979November 28 – Air New Zealand Flight 901: an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes into Mount Erebus in Antarctica on a sightseeing trip, killing all 257 people on board.source
19792 December - The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli is burned during protests.Libya source
1979December 20 – A bus plunges into a river in Isabela, killing at least 50 persons.Philippines source
1979A bomb explodes at the Sasol Oil Refineries and cause massive structural damage.South Africa source
1979Worldwide per capita oil production reaches a historic peak.source
198012 January – The annual Hahnenkamm downhill ski race is won by Canada's Ken Read, the event's first non-European winner.Austria source
1980March 7 – An attack on a logging convoy north of Zamboanga City kills at least 13 lumberjacks and security men, and injures 14 others.Philippines source
1980March 14 – LOT Polish Airlines Flight 007 crashes during an emergency landing near Warsaw, Poland, killing a 14-man American boxing team and 73 others.source
1980March 19–20 – The MV Mi Amigo, the ship housing pirate radio station Radio Caroline, sinks off the English coast (the station returns aboard a new ship in 1983).source
1980March 26 – A mine lift cage at the Vaal Reefs gold mine in South Africa falls 1.9 km, killing 23 workers.source
1980March 27 – The Norwegian oil platform Alexander L. Kielland collapses in the North Sea, killing 123 of its crew of 212.source
1980April 12: A Transbrasil Boeing 727 crashes in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, killing 54 people.Brazil source
1980April 24–25 – Operation Eagle Claw, a commando mission in Iran to rescue American embassy hostages, is aborted after mechanical problems ground the rescue helicopters. Eight United States troops are killed in a mid-air collision during the failed operation.source
1980April 25 – Dan-Air Flight 1008 crashes in Tenerife, killing all 146 occupants; at the time it was the worst air disaster involving a British-registered aircraft in terms of loss of life.source
1980May 9 – In Florida, United States, the Liberian freighter Summit Venture hits the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay. A 1,400 foot section of the bridge collapses and 35 people (most of them on a bus) are killed.source
1980May 28 – A fiery bus crash near the small village of Webb, Saskatchewan, Canada, claims 22 lives.source
1980June 4 – Patrick Makau, Umkhonto weSizwe member, and his child die in a bomb attack in Manzini, Swaziland.South Africa source
1980June 23–September 6 – The 1980 United States heat wave claims 1,700 lives.source
1980June 27 – Itavia Flight 870 crashes into the sea near Ustica island, Italy, killing all 81 people on board. The cause of the accident remains unclear.source
198027 June – Ustica Massacre: Itavia Flight 870 crashes into the Tyrrhenian Sea mid-flight from Bologna to Palermo, killing all 81 people on board.Italy source
198025: Winsum train disaster: Two trains collide between the villages Winsum and Sauwerd, resulting in 9 casualties.Netherlands source
1980August 14 - A rock fall hit mountaineers in Mount Fuji, Yamanashi Prefecture, according to official results report, 12 fatalities, with 29 injured.Japan source
1980September 26 – The Mariel boatlift in Cuba officially ends.source
1980October 5 – The Elisabeth blast furnace is demolished at Bilston Steelworks, marking the end of iron and steel production in the Black Country region of the U.K.source
1980November 21 – A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip kills 85 people.source
1980List of Mexican films of 1980.Mexico source
198117 January – Cargo ship Deniz Sönmez sinks near Crete, resulting in 32 fatalities.Turkey source
1981January 20 – On Jimmy Carter's last day as 39th President of the United States, he had hoped that the 52 American hostages in Iran would be allowed to leave before his term expired at noon. At 6:18 am Washington time, the escrow papers were completed to transfer $7,970,000,000 in Iranian assets from U.S. banks to the Bank of England. At 8:04 am EST, the Algerian intermediaries notified both the U.S. and Iran that the transfer was complete. The Boeing 727 carrying the hostages, Air Algérie Flight 133, was boarded at 8:20 pm Tehran time (11:50 am EST), but did not depart until 35 minutes later, after Ronald Reagan was sworn into office as the 40th U.S. President.Iran source
1981January 27 – The Indonesian passenger ship Tampomas II catches fire and capsizes in the Java Sea, killing 580 people.source
1981February 8 – In Greece, 20 fans of Olympiacos F.C. and 1 fan of AEK Athens die, while 54 are injured, after a stampede at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus, possibly because Gate 7 does not open immediately after the end of the game.source
1981February 14 – Stardust fire: A fire at the Stardust nightclub in Artane, Dublin, Ireland, in the early hours kills 48 young people and injures 214. In 2024 these will be declared as unlawful killings.source
1981February 26 – A U.S. Air Force C-130 plane crashes into the South China Sea, near Subic Bay Naval Base, killing 23 of 24 American, Philippine, Australian, and New Zealand military personnel aboard.Philippines source
1981March 31 - At 2:40 pm in Bangkok, Indonesian commandos successfully rescued all hostages on board the hijacked Garuda Indonesia Flight 206, after getting permission from Thai authorities.Thailand source
1981May 22: FC Utrecht play their final match at Galgenwaard Stadium. Supporters taking keepsakes would dismantle a substantial part of the structure.Netherlands source
1981May 31 – Burning of Jaffna library, one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm of the century.source
198131 May–1 June – Burning of Jaffna Public Library: A mob of Sinhalese civilians riot and set fire to the Jaffna Public Library in an arson attack. It was one of the most violent examples of ethnic biblioclasm in the 20th century.Sri Lanka source
1981June 6 – Bihar train disaster: Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the Bagmati River in Bihar, India, killing between 500 and 800.source
1981June 10 – Alfredo Rampi, a 6-year-old boy, falls into an artesian well in Vermicino, near Rome. After nearly three days of failed rescue attempts followed with bated breath from all over Italy, Alfredo dies inside the well, at a depth of 60 m.source
1981July 17 – Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri, collapse into a crowded atrium lobby, killing 114.source
198131 July – A Belgian fighter jet collides with the 285 m Dudelange Radio Tower, destroying the tower and killing a couple in a nearby house.Luxembourg source
198122 August – The crash of Far Eastern Air Transport Flight 103 over Taipei.Taiwan source
1981September 4 – An explosion at a mine in Záluží, Czechoslovakia, kills 65 people.source
1981September 15 – Our Lady of Akita in Japan cries for the last time, on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.source
1981September 20 – The overcrowded ferry boat Sobral Santos II capsizes in the Amazon River, Óbidos, Brazil, killing at least 300 people.source
1981September 22 – A Northrop F-5 crashes during a military exercise, in Babaeski, Turkey, killing 1 crew and 65 soldiers on ground.source
1981October 16 – Gas explosions at a coal mine at Hokutan, Yūbari, Hokkaidō, Japan, kill 93 people.source
1981October 27 – Soviet submarine S-363 runs aground outside the Karlskrona, Sweden, military base, leading to a minor international incident.source
1981December 1 – An Inex-Adria Aviopromet McDonnell Douglas MD-80 strikes a mountain peak and crashes while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.source
1981December 8 – The No. 21 Mine explosion in Whitwell, Tennessee, kills 13.source
1981December 15 – 1981 Iraqi embassy bombing in Beirut: An Islamic Dawa Party car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Lebanon, killing 61 people in one of the earliest significant post-World War II suicide attacks.source
1981December 20 – The Penlee lifeboat disaster: While attempting to rescue those on board the Union Star off the coast of South-West Cornwall (England), the lifeboat Solomon Browne is lost with all crew. Sixteen people in all are killed.source
1982January 6 - According to Japan Coast Guard official confirmed report, a fishing boat, Akebono Maru No.28 sank with high waves caused by stormy weather in Bering Sea, 32 crew were perished.Japan source
198210 January – The former Defence Minister, Tan Sri Ghazalie Shafie survived a plane crash.Malaysia source
1982January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C., United States, then falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 people.source
1982January 14 – An Ethiopian Air Force Antonov An-26 with an unknown registration crashed near Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing all 73 occupants on board.source
1982January 18 – 1982 Thunderbirds Indian Springs Diamond Crash: Four Northrop T-38 aircraft of the United States Air Force crash at Indian Springs Air Force Auxiliary Field, Nevada, killing all 4 pilots.source
1982February 3 – Syrian president Hafez al-Assad orders the army to purge the city of Harran of the Muslim Brotherhood.source
1982February 5 – London-based Laker Airways collapses, leaving 6,000 stranded passengers and debts of £270 million.source
1982February 9 – Japan Airlines Flight 350 crashes in Tokyo Bay due to thrust reversal on approach to Tokyo International Airport, killing 24 among the 174 people on board.source
1982February 15 – The oil platform Ocean Ranger sinks during a storm off the coast of Newfoundland, killing all 84 rig workers aboard.source
1982May 2 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, killing 323 sailors. Operation Algeciras, an attempt to destroy a Royal Navy warship in Gibraltar, fails.source
1982May 21 – Falklands War: HMS Ardent is sunk by Argentine aircraft, killing 22 sailors.source
1982May 25 – British ships HMS Coventry and SS Atlantic Conveyor are sunk during the Falklands War; Coventry by two A-4C Skyhawks and Atlantic Conveyor by two Exocets.source
1982June 8 – VASP Flight 168, a Boeing 727 passenger jet, crashes into a forest hillside in Fortaleza in Brazil, killing 137.source
1982June 8: A Boeing 727 plane, flying VASP 168, crashes in the Serra da Aratanha, near Pacatuba, Ceará, killing all 137 occupants. This would become the biggest air accident in the history of Brazilian aviation until 2006.Brazil source
1982July 2 – Qidong (meteorite) fell to earthChina source
1982July 9 – Pan Am Flight 759 (Boeing 727) crashes in Kenner, Louisiana, killing all 146 on board and 8 on the ground.source
1982July 23 – Twilight Zone accident: During filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie, actor Vic Morrow and 2 child actors die in a helicopter stunt accident in California.source
1982July 31 – Beaune coach crash: In Beaune, France, 53 persons, 46 of them children, die in a highway accident (France's worst).source
198229 September – An Aeroflot flight crashes whilst landing at Luxembourg-Findel, killing six.Luxembourg source
1982October 11 – The Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England that sank in 1545, is raised from the Solent.source
1982October 12 – The Saudi Arabian cargo ship Elhawi Star, transporting 3,631 tonnes of ceramic tiles and 781 tonnes of lumber to Chioggia, sank while being towed away from the Port of Rijeka by the tugboats Beli Kamik and Aries because of the unevenly distributed cargo.source
19827 December - 4 are fatalities were reported after colliding between a Bus and Train in Habiganj.Bangladesh source
19829 December - Aeronor Flight 304 tragedy. A Fairchild plane crashes to the ground near La Florida Airport, in La Serena. All 46 occupants of the aircraft died.Chile source
1982See List of Spanish films of 1982Spain source
198316 January – Turkish Airlines Flight 158, catches fire, resulting in 45 deaths.Turkey source
198329 January – A disaster occurred on the Singapore Cable Car. As a result, 2 cable cars plunged, causing 7 fatalities.Singapore source
1983February 6 – Fifteen workers die in a mine explosion in Danao, Cebu caused by a cigarette.Philippines source
1983February 16 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people, in one of Australia's worst bushfire disasters.source
1983April 18 – The 1983 United States embassy bombing in Beirut kills 63 people.source
1983April 22 – A reactor shutdown due to failure of fuel rods occurs at Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia.source
1983May 27 – Benton fireworks disaster. An explosion at an unlicensed and illegal fireworks operation near Benton, Tennessee, kills eleven and injures one. The blast is heard within a radius of 20 mi.source
1983June 11 – The Italian cargo ship Michelle ran aground just northwest of Dugi Otok.source
1983July 1 – A North Korean Ilyushin Il-62M jet, en route to Conakry Airport in Guinea, crashes into the Fouta Djall Mountains of Guinea, killing all 23 people on board.source
1983July 1 – A technical failure causes the release of iodine-131 from the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant, Germany.source
19831 July – Chosonminhang Ilyushin Il-62 crashNorth Korea source
1983July 16 – Sikorsky S-61 disaster: A helicopter crashes off the Isles of Scilly, causing 20 fatalities.source
1983July 23 – Heavy rain and mudslides in western Shimane Prefecture, Japan, kill 117.source
1983September 1 – Cold War: Korean Air Lines Flight 007 is shot down by Soviet Union Air Force Su-15 Flagon pilot Major Gennadi Osipovich near Moneron Island when the commercial aircraft enters Soviet airspace. All 269 on board are killed, including U.S. Congressman Larry McDonald.source
19831 September – A Malaysian named Siow Woon Kwang was among the victims in Korean Air Lines Flight 007 that was shot down by a Soviet interceptor jet and crashed near Moneron Island, Soviet Union, killing all 269 passengers.Malaysia source
19831 September – Korean Air Flight 007 was shot down by a Soviet SU-15 Interceptor.South Korea source
19831 September – 23 Taiwanese citizens were among the victims in Korean Air Lines Flight 007 that was shot down by a Soviet interceptor jet and crashed near Moneron Island, Soviet Union, killing all 269 passengers and crew.Taiwan source
1983September 6 – The Soviet Union admits to shooting down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, stating that the pilots did not know it was a civilian aircraft when it violated Soviet airspace.source
1983September 23 – Gulf Air Flight 771 crashes in the United Arab Emirates after a bomb explodes in the baggage compartment, killing 117.source
1983September 23 1983 - A bomb explodes on Gulf Air Flight 771, killing all 112 people on board.United Arab Emirates source
1983November 19 – An attempted hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 6833 in Soviet Georgia results in several dead and wounded.source
1983November 27 – Colombian Avianca Flight 011 crashes near Barajas Airport in Madrid, Spain, killing 181 of the 192 on board.source
1983December 7 – Two Spanish passenger planes collide on the foggy runway at a Madrid airport, killing 93 people.source
1983December 17 – The Alcalá 20 nightclub fire in Madrid, Spain, injuring 47 and killing 83 people.source
1983December 17 – Harrods bombings: a Provisional IRA car bomb kills 6 people and injures 90 outside Harrods department store in London.source
1983December 31 – Two bombs explode in France: one on a Paris train kills three and injures 19; the other at Marseille station kills two and injures 34.source
198416 January – The National Theatre is closed after being declared structurally unsafe. The Theatre is eventually demolished.Singapore source
198428 January – A bomb explodes in Hotel Lanka Oberoi in Colombo. One employee is killed.Sri Lanka source
198429 February – Shaheed Tajul Islam, a shifting worker at the Adamjee Jute Mills who served as the leader of the leader of the Adamjee Majdur (worker) Trade Union, was fatally injured by the armed cadres loyal to the autocratic regime of Hussain Muhammad Ershad.Bangladesh source
1984March 12 – The National Union of Mineworkers strikes as tens of thousands of miners in the United Kingdom stop working in protest over colliery closures, starting the United Kingdom miners' strike that lasts a year.source
1984May 13 – Severomorsk Disaster: an explosion at the Soviets' Severomorsk Naval Base destroys two-thirds of all the missiles stockpiled for the Soviets' Northern Fleet. The blast also destroys workshops needed to maintain the missiles as well as hundreds of technicians. Western military experts called it the worst naval disaster the Soviet Navy has suffered since WWII.source
1984May 23 – A methane gas explosion at Abbeystead water treatment works in Lancashire, UK, kills 16 people.source
1984August 4 – Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets reaches a record submergence depth of 1,020 meters.source
1984August 11 – Barefoot South African runner Zola Budd and Mary Decker of the U.S. collide in the Olympic 3000 meters final, neither finishing as medallists.source
1984August 16 – Two Limpet mines destroy two floors of the South African Police HQ, Soweto East in Roodepoort, injuring the District Commander, four policemen and two civilians.South Africa source
1984October 11 – Aeroflot Flight 3352 crashes at Omsk Airport into maintenance vehicles on the runway, killing 174 people on board and 4 on the ground.source
1984October 19 – Wapiti Aviation Flight 402 crashes into terrain 40 km southeast of High Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Six are killed including leader of the Alberta NDP, Grant Notley, while the four survivors are later rescued the next day.source
1984October 23 – A fire destroys Pines Hotel, a hillside hotel in Baguio; killing 17–22 people, nine of them members of the American Legion tour group which has been commemorating the 1944 return of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to the country.Philippines source
1984November 15 – According to Fire and Disaster Management Agency official confirmed report, a Mishima complex building caught fire in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture in Shikoku Island, eight persons were human fatalities.Japan source
1984November 19 – A series of explosions at the Pemex Petroleum Storage Facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec, in Mexico City, ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people.source
1984November 19: San Juanico disasterMexico source
1984December 3 – Bhopal disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, kills more than 8,000 people outright and injures over half a million (with more later dying from their injuries the death toll reaches 23,000+) in the worst industrial disaster in history.source
1984December 4 – Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane and kill 4 passengers.source
198423 December – Train 904 bombing: 16 killed, 266 wounded by the Sicilian Mafia.Italy source
1984December 28 – A Soviet cruise missile plunges into Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland, known as the Lake Inari missile incident. Finnish authorities announce the fact in public on January 3, 1985.source
1985February 13 – An arson attack on the Regent of Manila, a resort hotel in Pasay, occurs, burning it for four days and killing at least 27 people including more than ten foreigners. Between October 1984 and this month, 65, mostly foreign tourists, die in eight hotel fires in Baguio and Metro Manila; the incident being the sixth.Philippines source
1985February 19 – Iberia Airlines Flight 610 crashes, killing all 148 on board.source
1985May 2 – An explosion rocks the building housing the gold mining companies of Anglo American and Anglovaal in Johannesburg and causes R170,000 in structural damage. Both companies are engaged in mass dismissals of mine workers.South Africa source
1985May 11 – Bradford City stadium fire: A fire engulfs a wooden stand at the Valley Parade stadium in Bradford, England, during an Association football match, killing 56 people.source
198529 May – Heysel Stadium disasterBelgium source
1985June 14 – TWA Flight 847, carrying 153 passengers from Athens to Rome, is hijacked by a Hezbollah fringe group. One passenger, U.S. Navy Petty Officer Robert Stethem, is killed. Greek police arrest a 65-year-old Lebanese suspect on September 21, 2019.source
1985June 23 – Air India Flight 182, a Boeing 747, is blown up by a terrorist bomb 31,000 feet (9,500 m) above the Atlantic Ocean, south of Ireland, on a Montreal–London–Delhi flight, killing all 329 aboard.source
1985July 10 – The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior is bombed and sunk in Auckland Harbour by French DGSE agents.source
1985July 10 – Aeroflot Flight 5143 crashes near Uchquduq, Uzbek SSR, Soviet Union, killing all 200 people on board.source
1985July 19 – The Val di Stava dam collapses in Italy, killing 268 people, destroying 63 buildings, and demolishing eight bridges.source
198519 July – Val di Stava dam collapse kills 268 peopleItaly source
198524 July – A Colombian Air Force cargo plane that was acting as a commercial passenger plane during a pilot's strike crashes near Leticia during a rainstorm, killing the estimated 80 people who were on board.Colombia source
1985August 2 – Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashes near Dallas, Texas, United States, killing 137 people.source
1985August 12 – Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashes in Japan, killing 520 people, including Japanese singer Kyu Sakamoto; it is the worst single-aircraft disaster in aviation history. There were only 4 survivors.source
1985August 12 – Japan Air Lines Flight 123 crashes into Mount Takamagahara. All fifteen crew members and five hundred-five passengers died.Japan source
1985August 25 – Bar Harbor Airlines Flight 1808 crashes in the United States, killing all 8 on board, including thirteen-year-old American celebrity schoolgirl Samantha Smith.source
1985September 6 – Midwest Express Airlines Flight 105, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes just after takeoff from Milwaukee, killing all 31 on board.source
198511 September – Moimenta-Alcafache train crashPortugal source
1985October 16 – The Finnish dry cargo ship MS Hanna-Marjut, on its way from Mariehamn to Naantali, sinks in hard sea on the open water of Kihti between the Kökar and Sottunga islands of Åland, leading to the drowning of four people.source
1985November 23 - EgyptAir Flight 648 was hijacked by the Palestinian terrorist organization Abu Nidal from Ellinikon International Airport in Athens. The subsequent raid on the aircraft by Egyptian troops killed 56 of the 86 passengers, two of the three hijackers, and two of the six crew, making the hijacking of Flight 648 one of the deadliest such incidents in history.Greece source
1985November 25 – 1985 Aeroflot Antonov An-12 shoot-down: A Soviet Aeroflot Antonov An-12 cargo airplane, en route from Cuito Cuanavale to Luanda, is shot down by South African Special Forces and crashes approximately 43 km east of Menongue, the provincial center of the Cuando Cubango Province, Angola, killing 8 crew members and 13 passengers on board.source
1985December 12 – Arrow Air Flight 1285R, a Douglas DC-8, crashes after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256 people – 248 of whom were U.S. servicemen returning to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, after overseeing a peacekeeping force in the Sinai Peninsula.source
1985December 27 – Rome and Vienna airport attacks: Abu Nidal terrorists open fire in the airports of Rome and Vienna, leaving 18 dead and 120 injured.source
1986January 28 – Space Shuttle Challenger disaster – STS-51-L: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates 73 seconds after launch from the United States, killing the crew of seven astronauts, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.source
1986February 16 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov sinks in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.source
198617 February – Queronque rail accidentChile source
1986March 9 – United States Navy divers find the largely intact but heavily damaged crew compartment of the Space Shuttle Challenger; the bodies of all seven astronauts are still inside.source
198615 March – Hotel New World collapses, killing 33 people and leaving 17 injured.Singapore source
1986March 27 – Russell Street Bombing: A car bomb explodes at Russell Street Police Headquarters in Russell Street, Melbourne, killing a woman constable, the first Australian policewoman to be killed in the line of duty.source
1986March 31 – Mexicana Flight 940 crashes near Maravatío, Mexico, killing 167.source
1986April 2 – A bomb explodes on a Trans World Airlines flight from Rome to Athens, killing 4 people.source
1986April 14 – Hailstones weighing 1 kg fall on Gopalganj District, Bangladesh, killing 92.source
1986April 15 – Operation El Dorado Canyon: At least 15 people die after United States planes bomb targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and the Benghazi region.source
1986April 26 – Chernobyl disaster: A mishandled safety test at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union "killed at least 4,056 people and damaged almost $7 billion of property". Radioactive fallout from the accident is concentrated near Belarus, Ukraine and Russia and at least 350,000 people are forcibly resettled away from these areas. After the accident, "traces of radioactive deposits unique to Chernobyl were in nearly every country in the northern hemisphere".source
1986May 23 – President Barre suffers life-threatening injuries in an automobile collision near Mogadishu, when the car that was transporting him smashed into the back of a bus during a heavy rainstorm. He was treated in a hospital in Saudi Arabia for head injuries, broken ribs and shock over a period of a month.Somalia source
1986May 25 – The Bangladeshi double-decked ferry Shamia capsizes in the Meghna River, southern Barisal, Bangladesh, killing more than 500 by some estimates.source
198625 May – 1986 Bangladesh maritime disaster, double-decked ferry Shamia capsizes in the Meghna River, southern Barisal, Bangladesh, killing at least 600.Bangladesh source
198628 May: The Mantilla-class patrol vessel PNA Prefecto Derbes of the Prefectura Naval Argentina, set fire and sink the Taiwanese-flagged trawler Chian-der 3 at a location 24 nautical miles (44 km; 28 mi) outside the United Kingdom's Total Exclusion Zone, which covers a circle of 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) from the centre of the Falklands Islands. Two Taiwanese fishermen are killed, while four others are injured.Argentina source
1986June 9 – The Rogers Commission releases its report on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.source
1986June 14 – Fantasyland's Mindbender derails and kills three people.source
1986August 31 – The Soviet passenger liner SS Admiral Nakhimov collides with the bulk carrier Pyotr Vasev in the Black Sea and sinks almost immediately, killing 398.source
1986August 31 – Aeroméxico Flight 498, a Douglas DC-9, collides with a Piper PA-28 over Cerritos, California, killing 82 (67 on both aircraft and 15 on the ground).source
198631 August – Sinking of SS Admiral Nakhimov in the Black Sea, 423 deaths.Soviet Union source
1986September 5 – Pan Am Flight 73, with 358 people on board, is hijacked at Karachi International Airport by four Abu Nidal terrorists.source
1986September 7 – City 2 Television (formerly BBC 2) is dissolved by Aquino.Philippines source
198626 September – The closing of Sankuaicuo Station in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City.Taiwan source
1986October 19 – Mozambican President Samora Machel's plane crashes in South Africa, killing him and 33 and others.source
1986October 22 – In New York City, WNBC Radio's traffic helicopter crashes into the Hudson River, killing traffic reporter Jane Dornacker. The last words heard on-the-air are Dornacker's screams of terror, "Hit the water! Hit the water! Hit the water!"source
1986December 4 – The MV Amazon Venture oil tanker begins leaking oil while at the port of Savannah in the United States, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 500,000 gal.source
1986December 31 – Dupont Plaza Hotel arson: A hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.source
1987January 4 – 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route from Washington, D.C. to Boston collides with Conrail engines at Chase, Maryland, United States, killing 16 people.source
198711 January – 2,500 bus passengers temporarily stranded in Kızıldağ Pass due to heavy snowfall.Turkey source
1987January 17 – The Jumalan teatteri ("The theatre of God") theatre students' group cause a huge scandal at the Oulu City Theatre in Oulu, Finland by throwing excrement, eggs and yoghurt on the audience during their two-minute performance.source
1987February 6 – The Soviet oil tanker Antonio Gramsci suffers a minor shipwreck in Finnish waters en route to the Neste oil refinery in Porvoo, resulting in an oil spill of approximately 570–650 tons.source
1987February 20 – A second Unabomber bomb explodes at a Salt Lake City computer store parking lot in the United States, injuring the owner's son.source
1987March 6 – Zeebrugge disaster: Roll-on/roll-off cross-channel ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off Zeebrugge harbor in Belgium; 193 people die.source
1987March 28 – An anti-tank landmine kills four people and injures one in the Josefsdal area near the Swaziland border.South Africa source
1987April 5 – Schoharie Creek Bridge Collapse: I-90 bridge collapse near Fort Hunter leaves 10 people dead. Investigators conclude that the bridge's piers had been weakened by structural flaws and significant scour. The accident leads to stricter safety standards in bridge design and inspection. The body of the 10th victim will ultimately be recovered from the Mohawk River more than two years later.source
1987May 9 – A Soviet-made Ilyushin Il-62 airliner, operated by LOT Polish Airlines, crashes into a forest just outside Warsaw, killing all 183 people on board.source
1987June 27 – A commercial HS 748 (Philippine Airlines Flight 206) crashes near Baguio, Philippines, killing 50.source
1987July 8 – A Delta Air Lines L-1011 strays 60 miles off course and nearly collides with a Continental Airlines 747 over the Atlantic Ocean. The two planes are carrying nearly 600 total passengers and may have come within 100 feet of each other.source
1987July 23: 1987 Tokyo Metropolitan area power outage, where 2.8 million household affected, which restore spent more three and half hours, according to Japanese government confirmed report.Japan source
1987July 27 – Salvage dives begin on the wreck of the Titanic; survivor Eva Hart likens the salvage teams to "vultures."source
1987August 16 – Northwest Airlines Flight 255 (a McDonnell Douglas MD-82) crashes on takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan, just west of Detroit, killing all but one (4-year-old Cecelia Cichan) of the 156 people on board.source
1987October 22 – The pilot of a British Aerospace BAE Harrier GR5 registered ZD325 accidentally ejects from his aircraft. The jet continues to fly until it runs out of fuel and crashes into the Irish Sea.source
1987November 18 – The King's Cross fire on the London Underground kills 31 people and injures a further 100.source
1987November 28 – South African Airways Flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean off Mauritius, due to a fire in the cargo hold; the 159 passengers and crew perish.source
1987November 29 – Korean Air Flight 858 is blown up over the Andaman Sea, killing 115 crew and passengers. North Korean agents are responsible for the bombing.source
198729 November – Bombing of Korean Air Flight 858North Korea source
1987November 29 - Korean Air Flight 858 was blown by the detonated bomb by the North Korean agents.South Korea source
1987December 7 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, United States, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-supervisor on the flight, then shoots both pilots.source
1987December 8 – Alianza Lima air disaster: A Peruvian Navy Fokker F27 crashes near Ventanilla, Peru, killing 43.source
19878 December – Israeli truck driver collides with two taxis carrying workers returning from work in Israel. Four Palestinian from the refugee camp Jabalia in the Gaza Strip are killed in the incident. A rumor which spread among Palestinians that the crash was deliberate and made in retaliation for the murder of an Israeli businessman in Gaza City two days earlier, sparks the First Intifada the next day.Israel source
19878 December: Israeli truck driver collides with two taxis carrying workers returning from work in Israel. Four Palestinians from the refugee camp Jabalia in the Gaza Strip are killed in the incident. A rumor which spread among Palestinians that the crash was deliberate and made in retaliation for the murder of an Israeli businessman in Gaza City two days earlier, sparked the First Intifada the next day.Palestine source
1987December 20 – In history's worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry MV Doña Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector 1 in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).source
1987December 20 – Interisland passenger ferry MV Doña Paz, travelling from Leyte to Manila and said to be overloaded, and oil tanker MT Vector collide at Tablas Strait off Mindoro Island, setting both on fire; 26 survived, death toll later estimated to be 4,386; considered the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in history.Philippines source
1988January – The cargo ship Khian Sea deposits 4,000 tons of toxic waste in Haiti after wandering around the Atlantic for sixteen months.source
1988February 17 – 1988 Oshakati bomb blast: A bomb explodes outside the First National Bank in Oshakati, Namibia, killing 27 and injuring 70.source
19888 March – Aeroflot Flight 3739 is hijacked en route from Irkutsk to Leningrad.Soviet Union source
1988March 17 – A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into the side of the mountains near the Venezuelan border, killing 143 people.source
198817 March – Avianca Flight 410 crashes in Cúcuta, killing all 143 people on board.Colombia source
1988April 1 – A bus carrying 54 passengers falls into the Han River in Seoul, South Korea killing 19 and injuring 35.source
1988April 5 – Kuwait Airways Flight 422 is hijacked while en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Kuwait. The hijackers demand the release of 17 Shiite Muslim prisoners held by Kuwait. Kuwait refuses to release the prisoners, leading to a 16-day siege across 3 continents. Two passengers are killed before the siege ends.source
19885 April – Kuwait Airways Flight 422 hijacked by Lebanese guerillas (suspected Hezbollah) after departing from Bangkok. During the incident the flight, initially forced to land in Iran, travelled 3,200 miles from Mashhad in northeastern Iran to Larnaca, Cyprus, and finally to Algiers. Two hostages were killed, prior to the crisis ending on 20 April.Thailand source
1988April 20 – The world's longest skyjacking comes to an end when the remaining passengers of Kuwait Airways Flight 422 are released by their captors.source
1988April 28 – Aloha Airlines Flight 243 safely lands after losing its roof in midair, killing a flight attendant and injuring 65 people.source
1988June 27 – The Gare de Lyon rail accident occurs in Paris, France as a commuter train headed inbound to the terminal crashes into a stationary outbound train, killing 56 and injuring 57.source
1988July 3 – Iran Air Flight 655 is shot down by a missile launched from the USS Vincennes, killing a total of 290 people on board.source
19883 July – Iran Air Flight 655, a civilian airliner was shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 passengers and crew on board.Iran source
1988July 6 – The Piper Alpha production platform in the North Sea is destroyed by explosions and fires, killing 165 oil workers and 2 rescue mariners. 61 workers survive.source
198831 July – Sultan Abdul Halim ferry terminal bridge collapse in Butterworth, Penang killed 32 and injured 1,674 people.Malaysia source
1988August 17 – Pakistani President Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Arnold Lewis Raphel, are among those killed when a plane crashes and explodes near Bahawalpur.source
1988August – General Zia, the U.S. ambassador and top Pakistan army officials die in mysterious air crash on 17 August. General Zia's death in 1988 ends an 11-year military rule.Pakistan source
1988September 22 – The Ocean Odyssey drilling rig suffers a blowout and fire in the North Sea (see also July 6), resulting in one death.source
198825 October – A major fire took place at the Singapore Refining Company (SRC) refinery in Pulau Merlimau.Singapore source
1988December 12 – The Clapham Junction rail crash in London kills 35 and injures 132.source
1988December 21 – Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270 people. Libya is suspected of involvement.source
1988December 21 - Pan Am Flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270 people. Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted of the bombing in 2001. Libyan refusal to extradite al-Megrahi for a trial was a major contributor to UN sanctions on the country throughout the 1990s.Libya source
1989January 4 – Gulf of Sidra incident (1989): Two Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are engaged and shot down by two US Navy F-14 Tomcats.source
1989February 14 – Union Carbide agrees to pay $470,000,000 to the Indian government for damages in the 1984 Bhopal disaster, a gas leak that killed 3.7 thousand.source
1989February 16 – Pan Am Flight 103: Investigators announce that the cause of the 1988 crash was a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player.source
1989February 24 – United Airlines Flight 811, a Boeing 747, suffers uncontrolled decompression after leaving Honolulu International Airport; nine passengers are blown out of the cabin to their deaths.source
1989March 4 – The Purley station rail crash in London leaves five people dead and 94 injured.source
1989March 17 – The Civic Tower of Pavia, built in the eleventh century, collapses.source
1989March 24 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: In Alaska's Prince William Sound, the Exxon Valdez spills 240,000 barrels of oil after running aground.source
1989April 7 – The Soviet submarine K-278 Komsomolets sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 41.source
1989April 15 – The Hillsborough disaster, one of the biggest tragedies in European football, claims the lives of 94 Liverpool F.C. supporters in Sheffield, England, a further three dying later.source
1989April 19 – The USS Iowa turret explodes on the U.S. battleship Iowa, killing 47 crew members.source
1989May 12–25 – San Bernardino train disaster: Southern Pacific freight locomotive SP 7551 East derails in a residential area of San Bernardino, California, killing four and destroying seven houses. On May 25, as a direct result of the derailment, the Calnev Pipeline explodes, killing an additional two people and destroying eleven more houses and 21 cars.source
198930 May – A car bomb containing 220 lbs of dynamite explodes in Bogotá. It kills 5, not including the intended target Miguel Maza Márquez, and injures over 100.Colombia source
1989June 7 – Surinam Airways Flight 764 crashes in Paramaribo, Suriname, killing 176.source
1989June 8 – The wreck of German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk in 1941, is located about 600 mi west of Brest, France.source
1989July 10 — 300,000 Siberian coal miners go on strike, demanding better living conditions and less bureaucracy.Soviet Union source
1989July 19 – United Airlines Flight 232 (Douglas DC-10) crashes in Sioux City, Iowa, killing 112; 184 on board survive.source
1989August 7 – U.S. Representative Mickey Leland (D-TX) and fifteen others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.source
1989August 13 – 1989 Alice Springs hot air balloon crash: An accident near Alice Springs, Australia kills thirteen people.source
1989August 20 – Marchioness disaster: Fifty-one people die when a pleasure boat collides with a dredger on the River Thames adjacent to Southwark Bridge in London.source
1989September 8 – Partnair Flight 394 crashes into the North Sea with the loss of 125 lives. The accident was due to the structural failure of the rudder of the Convair 580 caused by the use of counterfeit aircraft parts.source
198910 September - A Romanian cruiser carrying 179 people collides with a Bulgarian tugboat on the Danube, near Galați. Only 18 people are rescued from the cruiser.Romania source
1989September 19 – UTA Flight 772 explodes over Niger, killing all 171 people on board (the Islamic Jihad Organization claims responsibility).source
1989September 19 - UTA Flight 772 is blown up over Niger, killing all 170 passengers and crew on board. Libya was accused of involvement in the bombing, and later compensated the victims' families, although Libya did not accept responsibility.Libya source
198919 October - Vandellòs I nuclear accident: a fire breaks out in one of the nuclear plant's generators killing 31 employees and firefighters and exposing 130,000 people to radiation.Spain source
198922 October – 1989 De Meer nail bombsNetherlands source
1989October 23 – The Phillips disaster, a chemical plant explosion, in Pasadena, Texas, kills 23 and injures 314 others.source
198926 October – The crash of China Airlines Flight 204 in Hualien County.Taiwan source
1989October 28 – Aloha Island Air Flight 1712, a Twin Otter 300, crashed into mountainous terrain at night during an approach to Molokai Airport killing all 20 occupants on board.source
1989November 9 — Soviet power in Eastern Europe collapses with the Fall of the Berlin Wall.Soviet Union source
198911 November - An Islamist mob attacked Hindu shops and temples in Narsingdi. More than 25 Hindu-owned shops were set on fire and images in three temples were smashed.Bangladesh source
1989November 27 – Colombian domestic passenger flight Avianca Flight 203 is bombed by the Medellín drug cartel in an (unsuccessful) attempt to kill presidential candidate for the 1990 elections César Gaviria Trujillo. All 107 people on board as well as three people on the ground are killed.source
1989December 12 – Hong Kong begins the forcible repatriation of Vietnamese boat people, starting with a group of 59 who are flown to Hanoi.source
1989December 22 – Two tourist coaches collide on the Pacific highway north of Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia, killing 35 people.source
1990January 25 – Avianca Flight 052 crashes into Cove Neck, New York after a miscommunication between the flight crew and JFK Airport officials, killing 73 people on board.source
199025 January – Avianca Flight 052: 73 people die after an Avianca plane flying from Medellín to New York City, United States crashes in Cove Neck, New York.Colombia source
1990January 29 – The trial of Joseph Hazelwood, former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, begins in Anchorage, Alaska. He is accused of negligence that resulted in America's second worst oil spill to date.source
199029 January – January 1990 Mineriad: Over 5,000 miners from the Jiu Valley arrive in the capital following calls launched in the media by President Ion Iliescu.Romania source
1990January: Sukkur rail disaster.Pakistan source
1990February 14 – Indian Airlines Flight 605, an Airbus A320-231 registered as VT-EPN, crashes shortly before landing at Bangalore, killing 92 out of the 146 occupants on board.source
1990February 18 – A bus from the Ramos Cholele company collides with a truck near Taltal, leaving 22 dead and 30 injured.Chile source
1990February 27 – Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on 5 criminal counts.source
1990February 28 – Final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy, the last in any of the world's navies.source
1990March 1 – A fire at the Sheraton Hotel in Cairo, Egypt, kills 16 people.source
1990March 25 – In New York City, a fire due to arson at an illegal social club called "Happy Land" kills 87 people.source
1990April 7 – MS Scandinavian Star, a Bahamas-registered ferry, catches fire en route from Norway to Denmark, leaving 158 dead.source
199026 April – Israel's Supreme Court ordered the evacuation of 20 Jewish settlers, which provoked an international outcry when they moved to a building in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.Israel source
1990June 9 – Mega Borg oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston, Texas.source
1990July 2 – 1990 Mecca tunnel tragedy: A stampede in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca kills 1,426.source
1990July 21-22 – The Min Ping Yu No. 5540 incident occurs when the Taiwan Garrison Command forces 76 mainland Chinese illegal immigrants into sealed holds of a boat, causing 25 to die of suffocation.source
199021–22 July – The Min Ping Yu No. 5540 transports 76 mainland Chinese from Yilan County, Taiwan to Pingtan County, Fujian. Twenty-five Chinese die of suffocation during the journey.Taiwan source
1990October 2 – According to The Civil Aviation of China, two commercial planes collide on the runway at the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangdong, China. The total death toll is 128; 53 people were wounded, 97 were rescued.source
1990November 14 – Alitalia Flight 404 crashes on approach to Zurich Airport, killing all 46 occupants.source
1990December 3 – 1990 Wayne County Airport runway collision: At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9) collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 (a Boeing 727) on the runway, killing 8 passengers and 4 crew members.source
19906 December - 1990 Italian Air Force MB-326 crashItaly source
1990December 11 – A multi-vehicle traffic collision known as the 1990 Interstate 75 fog disaster occurs; 12 deaths and 42 were caused by this eventsource
1990List of South Korean films of 1990South Korea source
1991January 18 – Eastern Air Lines shuts down after 62 years of operations, citing financial problems. Later on December 4, Pan American World Airways ceases its operations.source
1991February 1 – USAir Flight 1493 collides with a SkyWest Airlines Fairchild Metroliner at Los Angeles International Airport, killing 34 people.source
199114 February – Culemborg fireworks disasterNetherlands source
1991March 13 – The U.S. Department of Justice announces that Exxon has agreed to pay $1 billion for the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.source
1991March 14 – Escondida in Chile's Atacama Desert –which is to become the world's most productive copper mine– is officially inaugurated.source
199126 March – Four Pakistanis hijack Singapore Airlines Flight 117 and demand the release of Pakistan Peoples Party members from Pakistani jails.Singapore source
1991April 10 – The Italian ferry Moby Prince collides with an oil tanker in dense fog off Livorno, Italy, resulting in 140 deaths with one survivor.source
19917 May – The Bright Sparklers Fireworks Factory at Sungai Buloh, Selangor caught fire and caused a huge explosion that killed 29 and injured 83 people. It was Malaysia's worst industrial disaster to date.Malaysia source
1991May 26 – Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashes near Bangkok, Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.source
1991June 9 – A major collapse at the Emaswati Colliery in Swaziland traps 26 miners 65 meters below the surface; they are rescued 30 hours later.source
1991July 11 – Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, a Douglas DC-8 operated by Canadian airline Nolisair, catches fire and crashes soon after takeoff from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 people on board.source
1991August 4 – The cruise liner MTS Oceanos sinks off the coast of South Africa, leading to the rescue of all 571 passengers on board by SAAF helicopters.source
1991August 8 – The Warsaw radio mast, the tallest structure in the world at the time, collapses.source
199128 August – 52 deaths in an international bus (Iran-Liiban) accident in Ağrı ProvinceTurkey source
1991September 3 – In Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire breaks out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people.source
199126 September – September 1991 Mineriad: The Jiu Valley miners return to Victory Square. Here take place negotiations with doors closed, between representatives of the miners and the country's leadership. The ensuing resignation of the second Petre Roman cabinet is announced at 12:30pm from the balcony of Victoria Palace. In the evening, the miners try to break into the headquarters of the Romanian Television. Here take place scenes of violence and vandalism.Romania source
1991October 20 – A large suburban firestorm centered in Oakland Hills, California, kills 25 people and injures 150 others.source
1991November 13 - The United Kingdom and the United States charge two Libyan men with the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing.Libya source
1991November 14 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103 over Britain in 1988.source
1991December 4 – Pan Am is officially dissolved after 64 years of operationsource
1991December 15 – The Egyptian ferry MV Salem Express sinks in the Red Sea, killing more than 450 people.source
1991A train travelling from Karachi to Lahore hits a parked freight train at Ghotki, killing over 100 of the 800 passengers.Pakistan source
1991See List of Spanish films of 1991Spain source
1992January 7 – 1992 European Community Monitor Mission helicopter downing: A Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 attacks two Italian Army Agusta-Bell AB-206L LongRanger helicopters carrying observers from the European Community Monitor Mission. One crashes, killing five people on board. The other helicopter crash-lands, but its occupants survive.source
1992January 20 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes in the Vosges Mountains near Barr, France, while circling to land at Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board. Facing tough competition from French high-speed TGV trains, Air Inter had encouraged its pilots to fly at high speeds at low altitudes, and had not installed ground proximity warning systems on its airliners because such systems generated too many nuisance alarms during high-speed, low-altitude flight.source
1992January 21 - The United Nations issue United Nations Security Council Resolution 731, demanding that Libya hand over suspects in the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.Libya source
1992March 25 – The International Atomic Energy Agency orders Iraq to destroy an industrial complex at Al Atheer that is being used to manufacture nuclear weapons.source
1992March 28 – The Shot (Duke–Kentucky): In what Sports Illustrated deemed the greatest college basketball game of all time, Christian Laettner sinks an overtime buzzer-beater to advance Duke to their fifth straight Final Four.source
19927 April – The plane carrying Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and 12 others crashes during sandstorm in Libya.Palestine source
1992May 9 – The Westray Mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, explodes, killing all 26 miners working the night shift.source
1992July 31 – China General Aviation Flight 7552 bound for Xiamen crashes soon after taking off from Nanjing Dajiaochang Airport, killing 108 of the 116 people on board.source
1992July 31 – Thai Airways International Flight 311, an Airbus A310-300, crashes into a mountain north of Kathmandu, Nepal killing all 113 people on board.source
199231 July – Thai Airways International Flight 311Thailand source
1992September 26 - 1992 Nigerian Air Force C-130 crash occurs crashes just after take-off from Lagos killing all 158 on boardNigeria source
1992September 28 – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashes into a mountain while on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal. All 167 occupants on board were killed. The crash of PIA Flight 268 occurred just 2 months after Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed into a mountain near Kathmandu under similar circumstances, killing all 113 occupants on board.source
199228 September – Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268, an Airbus A300B4-203, crashes into the southern slope of the Chure Hills on approach to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing all 167 passengers and crew.Pakistan source
1992October 4 – Israeli cargo plane El Al Flight 1862 crashes into residential buildings in Amsterdam's Bijlmermeer, Netherlands, after taking off from Schiphol Airport and losing two engines, killing all 4 people on board and 39 on the ground.source
19924 October – El Al Flight 1862, a cargo aircraft, crashed in the Bijlmermeer neighbourhoodNetherlands source
1992October 21 – 150,000 coal miners march in London to protest government plans to close coal mines and reduce the number of miners.source
1992November 14 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30.source
1992November 18 – Russian president Boris Yeltsin releases the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of Korean Air Flight 007, which was shot down by the Soviets in 1983.source
1992November 24 – In China, China Southern Airlines Flight 3943, a China Southern Airlines domestic flight, crashes, killing all 141 people on board.source
1992December 6 – Demolition of Babri Masjid: Extremist Hindu activists in India demolish Babri Masjid – a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya which has been used as a temple since 1949 – leading to widespread communal violence, including the Bombay riots, in all killing over 1,500 people.source
19927 December – There were a series of violence against the Bengali Hindus in protest against the demolition of Babri Masjid and violence against Muslims in India. the Dhakeshwari temple was attacked. The Bholanath Giri Ashram in Dhaka was attacked and looted. Hindu-owned jewellery shops were looted in old Dhaka. Hindu houses in Rayerbazar were set on fire.Bangladesh source
1992The municipalities of São Filipe and Mosteiros were formed from the former municipality of FogoCape Verde source
1993January 5 – MV Braer, a Liberian-registered oil tanker, runs aground off the Scottish island of Mainland, Shetland, causing a massive oil spill.source
199311 January: Three buses collide in a fiery crash in Corrientes, resulting in the deaths of at least 55 people and injuring 70 others.Argentina source
1993January 14 – The Polish ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea, killing 54 people.source
1993February 26 – World Trade Center bombing: In New York City, a van bomb parked below the North Tower of the World Trade Center explodes, killing six people and injuring over one thousand.source
1993March 5 – Macedonian Palair Flight 301, an F-100 on a flight to Zürich, crashes shortly after take-off from Skopje, killing 83 of the 97 on board.source
1993March 12 – 1993 Bombay bombings: Several bombs explode in Bombay, India, killing 257 and injuring hundreds more.source
199315 April – A car bomb is detonated in front of Bogotá's Centro 93 shopping mall by the Medellín Cartel, killing 8 and injuring 242. The blast destroys 100 commercial properties and causes damage valued at 1.5 Billion COP.Colombia source
1993April 27 – 1993 Zambia national football team plane crash: All members of the Zambia national football team die in a plane crash off Libreville, Gabon en route to Dakar, Senegal.source
1993May 19 – SAM Colombia Flight 501, a Boeing 727-46, crashed during its approach to José María Córdova International Airport, Colombia, killing all 132 occupants on board.source
1993July 26 – Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes into Mt. Ungeo in Haenam, South Korea; 68 are killed.source
1993July 26 - Asiana Airlines Flight 733 crashes near Mokpo Airport, killing 68 of the 116 passengers and crew.South Korea source
19935 August – An MRT collision takes place at Clementi station during the morning rush hour, resulting in 156 injuries.Singapore source
1993August 13 – More than 130 die in the collapse of Royal Plaza Hotel at Nakhon Ratchasima in Thailand's worst hotel disaster.source
1993September 22 – Big Bayou Canot train disaster: A bridge collapses while the Amtrak Sunset Limited is in the process of crossing it, killing 47 people.source
1993October 27–31 – The Southland Firestorm, formed of more than fourteen separate fires in Southern California burning simultaneously, burns more than 700 homes and 160,000 acres. Two of these fire are the Laguna Fire which burned more than 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares), destroyed hundreds of homes and caused $528 million in damage in Orange County, California, and the Kinneloa Fire in Los Angeles County, California which caused a fatality.source
19939 November – Fire rages through the National Assembly building, destroying the main chamber. According to PTV, the cause is believed to be an electric short circuit.Pakistan source
1993November 11 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 883 increases the strength of the sanctions levelled against Libya in UNSC Resolutions 731 and 748. The sanctions were strengthened due to Gaddafi's continued refusal to extradite the suspects in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.Libya source
1993November 20 – An Avioimpex Yakovlev Yak-42D crashes into Mount Trojani near Ohrid, North Macedonia. All 8 crew members and 115 of the 116 passengers are killed.source
1993December 11 – One of the three blocks of the Highland Towers near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia collapses, killing 48.source
1993December 24 – A grenade attack at a public market in Ozamiz, Misamis Occidental, kills 5 individuals and injures 47–48 others.Philippines source
1993On 13 December 1993, a Lao Aviation Harbin Yunshuji Y-12-II (registration RDPL-34117) crashed on approach to Phonesavanh Airport after clipping trees in fog, killing all 18 on board.Laos source
1994January 12 – Major General Nehemiah Tamari's helicopter crashed near Central Command headquarters, killing both him and three other officers.Israel source
1994March 23 – Green Ramp disaster: two military aircraft collide over Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, United States, causing 24 fatalities.source
19944 April – The KLM Cityhopper Flight 433 crashed during an emergency landing.Netherlands source
1994April 26 – China Airlines Flight 140, an Airbus A300, crashes while landing at Nagoya, Japan, killing 264 people.source
19942 June - 1994 Scotland RAF Chinook crash: A Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter carrying almost all the United Kingdom's senior Northern Ireland intelligence experts, crashes on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland, killing all 25 passengers and 4 crew members.Northern Ireland source
1994September 8 – USAir Flight 427, a Boeing 737 with 132 people on board, crashes on approach to Pittsburgh International Airport killing all on board.source
1994September 28 – The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.source
199428 September – Sinking of the MS Estonia: the car ferry MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea, killing 852.Estonia source
1994November 27 – A Fuxin Yiyuan dance hall catches fire in Liaoning Province, China, killing 233 persons, with another 71 rescued, according to a confirmed Chinese government official report.source
1994December 11 – A bomb, allegedly planted by Ramzi Yousef, explodes aboard Philippine Airlines Flight 434 bound for Tokyo, killing a Japanese businessman. The bombing, with another one at a movie theater in Manila on Dec. 1, is part of a test run for Project Bojinka.Philippines source
199419 December – Nigeria Airways Flight 9805 crashes in marshland near Kiri KasamaNigeria source
199429 December – Turkish Airlines Flight 278 crashed on approach to Van Ferit Melen Airport killing 57. Nineteen survived the incident.Turkey source
19944–5 October – 53 members of the cult, Order of the Solar Temple, commit mass suicide in Switzerland and Canada.Switzerland source
199510 February – The first Antonov An-70 prototype aircraft collided with an Antonov An-72 that was assisting with the An-70 test program over Borodianka Raion, killing all 7 crew members of the An-70.Ukraine source
1995March 20 – Members of the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo carry out the Tokyo subway sarin attack, killing 14 people and leading to over a thousand injured.source
1995March 31 – TAROM Flight 371 from Bucharest to Brussels crashes shortly after takeoff killing all 60 people on board.source
1995April 28 – A gas explosion in a subway construction site caused about 100 deaths in Daegu.South Korea source
1995May 10 – The Vaal Reefs mining disaster at Vaal Reefs gold mine in Orkney, South Africa. A runaway locomotive falls into a lift shaft onto an ascending cage and causes it to plunge 1,500 ft to the bottom of the 6,900 ft deep shaft, killing 104.source
1995June 29 – Sampoong Department Store collapse in the Seocho-gu district of Seoul, South Korea, kills 502 and injures 937.source
1995July 11 – A Cubana de Aviación Antonov An-24 crashes into the Caribbean off southeast Cuba killing 44 people.source
1995July 28 - The United Nations Security Council extended sanctions on Libya over its role in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772.Libya source
1995August 14 – Nepali Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikari along with seven other high-ranking officials survives a helicopter crash.source
1995October 9 – 1995 Palo Verde, Arizona, derailment An Amtrak Sunset Limited train derails through sabotage at a trestle near Palo Verde, Arizona, United States, resulting in one death.source
1995October 28 – A fire in Baku Metro, Azerbaijan, kills 289 passengers, becoming the world's worst subway disaster.source
19953 November: A series of explosions occur at the Río Tercero Military Factory in Córdoba, resulting in seven fatalities and over 300 injuries. The blast destroys the factory and causes extensive damage to the surrounding city.Argentina source
19953 December – Cameroon Airlines Flight 3701 crashes, killing 71 people.Cameroon source
19955 December - Azerbaijan Airlines Flight A-56 crashes shortly after takeoff from Nakhchivan Airport, killing 52 out of the 82 passengers and crew on board.Azerbaijan source
1995December 20 – American Airlines Flight 965 (Boeing 757) crashes into a mountain near Buga, Valle del Cauca, Colombia, killing 160 of the 164 on board.source
199520 December – American Airlines Flight 965 crashes on route to Cali, killing 155 of the 163 people on board.Colombia source
1995December 23 – Dabwali fire accident: The Rajiv Marriage Palace catches fire in Haryana, India, killing 442 persons.source
1995December – A bomb blast targeting the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad kills 13.Pakistan source
1995Sudden oak death, the tree disease caused by the plant pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, is first observed, in California, United States.source
19964 February – LAC Colombia Flight 028: A flight from Líneas Aéreas del Caribe (LAC), a Colombian airline, crashes near a soccer field in Mariano Roque Alonso, Paraguay, killing 4 people on board and 18 people on the ground, mostly children.Colombia source
1996February 6 – Birgenair Flight 301, on a charter flight from the Caribbean to Germany, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 passengers and crew.source
19968 February – BirgenAir accident 189 deathsTurkey source
1996February 29 – At least 81 people drown when a boat capsizes 120 kilometres east of Kampala, Uganda.source
19964 March – Dizengoff Center suicide bombing: A Hamas suicide bomber detonates a bomb outside the Dizengoff Center, Tel Aviv's largest shopping mall, killing 20 and wounding 75 others, including children celebrating the Jewish Purim holiday.Israel source
1996March 6 – A boat carrying market traders capsizes outside Freetown harbour in Sierra Leone, killing at least 86 people.source
1996March 18 – The Ozone Disco Club fire in Quezon City, Philippines, kills 163 people.source
1996March 24 – The Marcopper mining disaster on the island of Marinduque, Philippines takes place.source
1996April 3 – A Boeing 737 military jet crashes into a mountain north of Dubrovnik, Croatia. All 35 people on board are killed, including United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown.source
1996April 28 – Bhai Pheru bus bombing: A bomb explodes in Bhai Pheru, Punjab, Pakistan, killing more than 60 people.source
1996May 10 – 1996 Everest disaster: A sudden storm engulfs Mount Everest with several climbing teams high on the mountain, leaving eight people dead. By the end of the month, at least four other climbers die in the worst season of fatalities on the mountain to date.source
1996May 11 – After takeoff from Miami, a fire started by improperly handled oxygen canisters in the cargo hold of Atlanta-bound ValuJet Flight 592 causes the Douglas DC-9 to crash in the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.source
1996May 21 – The MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters in Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1,000 people in one of Africa's worst maritime disasters.source
1996June 15 – In Manchester, UK, an IRA bomb injures over 200 people and devastates a large part of the city centre.source
1996June 29 – An explosion in a firecrackers factory in Sichuan Province, China kills at least 52 people and injures 83 others.source
199615 July – The 1996 Belgian Air Force Hercules accident at Eindhoven Airport resulted in the death of 34 passengers.Netherlands source
199616 July – A bus ferrying a group of factory workers and their families on a holiday excursion plunged into a 120m-deep ravine at km 1 of the Genting Sempah–Genting Highlands Highway near the Genting Highlands Resort, killing 17. Six were children.Malaysia source
1996July 17 – Paris- and Rome-bound TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) explodes off the coast of Long Island, New York, killing all 230 people on board.source
199624 July – A train is bombed in Dehiwala, killing 42 and wounding 400. The LTTE was claimed responsible for the attack, placing suitcase bombs in four carriages on a commuter train.Sri Lanka source
1996August 14 – A rocket ignited during a fireworks display in Arequipa, Peru knocks down a high-tension power cable into a dense crowd, electrocuting 35 people.source
1996August 29 – A Russian Tupolev Tu-154 jetliner crashes into a mountain as it approaches the airport at Spitsbergen, Norway, killing all 141 people on board.source
1996October 2 – Aeroperú Flight 603 crashes into the Pacific Ocean when the instruments fail just after takeoff from Lima Airport, killing all 70 people on board.source
1996November 8 – All 144 people on board a Nigerian-owned Boeing 727 die after the aircraft crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while approaching Lagos airport.source
1996November 12 – Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 collides in mid-air with Kazakhstan Airlines Il-76 in New Delhi, India, resulting in the loss of 349 lives.source
1996November 20 – The 1996 Garley Building fire occurred in Hong Kong, resulting in 41 deaths and 81 injuries.source
1996November 21 – A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 33 people.source
1996November 23 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 is hijacked, then crashes into the Indian Ocean off the coast of Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125.source
1996November 25 – An ice storm strikes the U.S. killing 26 directly and hundreds more from accidents. A powerful windstorm blasts Florida with winds gusts up to 90 mph.source
1996December 3 – A fire, considered the largest in Lipa, Batangas, hits an entire purok, caused by an explosion in a public market and resulting to massive damages.Philippines source
1996December 6 – A Russian military airplane transported the body of former Afghan President Babrak Karmal to Mazari Sharif to be buried.Afghanistan source
1996December 25 – At least 283 migrants drown in the sinking of F174 near Capo Passero (Sicily).source
1996December 30 – In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.source
1997February 4 – On their way to Lebanon, two Israeli troop-transport helicopters collide, killing all 73 on board.source
19974 February – 1997 Israeli helicopter disaster: Two IAF troop-transport CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters collide in darkness near the remote She'ar Yashuv kibbutz, in northern Israel, killing 77 IDF soldiers.Israel source
1997March 18 – The tail of a Russian An-24 charter plane breaks off while en route to Turkey, causing the plane to crash, killing all 50 on board, and resulting in the grounding of all An-24s.source
1997March 24–26 – In San Diego, 39 Heaven's Gate cultists commit mass suicide at their compound.source
1997April 14 – Fire breaks out in a pilgrim camp on the Plain of Mena, 11 km from Mecca; 343 die.source
1997July 11 – Royal Jomtien Resort Hotel fire at Pattaya, Thailand's worst hotel fire, kills 90.source
1997August 6 – Korean Air Flight 801 crash lands west of Guam International Airport, resulting in the deaths of 228 people.source
199713 September – A German Air Force Tupolev Tu-154M observation aircraft and a United States Air Force C-141B Starlifter transport aircraft were destroyed in a mid-air collision off the coast of the country.Namibia source
1997September 21 – St. Olaf's Church, a stone church from the 16th century in Tyrvää, Finland, is burnt down.source
1997September 22 – Two overloaded PNR Metro trains collide, causing a train coach to hit into a squatter area in Muntinlupa, killing nine people and injuring more than 200 in one of the country's worst railway accidents. —"Philippines: 6 reported dead after 2 commuter trains crash" AP Archive. 09-22-1997. Retrieved 02-18-2022.Philippines source
1997September 26 – Garuda Indonesia Flight 152 crashes while on approach to Medan, North Sumatra, during the 1997 Southeast Asian haze, killing all 234 people on board. This becomes the deadliest aviation accident in Indonesian history.source
199727 September – Twenty-nine crewmen were missing, some people trapped in an Indian Vikraman cargo ship when it ship collided with a Caribbean Mount 1 supertanker in the Strait of Malacca near Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.Malaysia source
19978 October - Ghana marks World Disaster Day.Ghana source
1997October 10 – Uruguay's worst air disaster occurs when Austral Líneas Aéreas Flight 2553 crashes near Nuevo Berlín, killing all 74 on board.source
199725 October – Bus accident in Konya Province 49 deathsTurkey source
1997December 19 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.source
199719 December – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River near Palembang in South Sumatra killing all 104 people on board.Indonesia source
199719 December – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into Musi River near Palembang, Sumatra, killing all 104 people on board.Singapore source
1998February 2 - Cebu Pacific Flight 387 crashes into a mountain, this crash marked deadliest aviation accident in Philippines until 2000.source
1998February 4 – Western Pacific, a low-cost airline with headquarters at Colorado Springs Airport, ceases operations.source
1998February 16 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes upon attempted landing at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, killing 203, the second-deadliest air crash in Taiwan.source
199816 February – The crash of China Airlines Flight 676 in Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City).Taiwan source
199815 May – 1998 Klender mall fire: A fire in the Klender Mall due to looting leaves at least 200 people dead.Indonesia source
1998June 3 – Eschede train disaster: an Intercity-Express high-speed train derails between Hanover and Hamburg, Germany, causing 101 deaths.source
1998June 8 - The DeBruce Grain Elevator explosion in Wichita, Kansas kills 7.source
1998July 2 - Bombing in Aranykéz utca, Budapest kills 4 peopleHungary source
19986 July - The Kai Tak Airport, which was the international airport of Hong Kong since 1954 was closedHong Kong source
1998August 5 Korean Air Flight 8702South Korea source
1998August 27 - United Nations Security Council Resolution 1192 is issued, stating that the sanctions in place against Libya since 1992 would be lifted if a tentative plan to try the suspects in the bombings of Pan Am Flight 103 and UTA Flight 772 is followed through upon.Libya source
1998September 10 – At midnight, a shooting occurs aboard an Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarine of the Russian Navy docked in the northern Russian port city of Severomorsk.source
1998September 28: a TACV de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter (registered D4-CAX) crash-landed at Francisco Mendes International Airport in Praia, killing oneCape Verde source
1998December 11 – Thai Airways International Flight 261 crashes upon attempted landing at Surat Thani International Airport, killing 101, the second-deadliest air crash in Thailand.source
1998In Taloqan, Afghanistan, Taliban aircraft dropped several cluster bombs on a market, killing nine people, including a foreign journalist.Afghanistan source
1999March 1 – One of four bombs detonated in Lusaka, Zambia, which destroys the Angolan Embassy.source
1999April 5 – Two Libyans suspected of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 are handed over to Scottish authorities for eventual trial in the Netherlands. The United Nations suspends sanctions against Libya.source
1999April 5 - Libya hands over two suspects, reportedly linked to Libyan intelligence, to Dutch authorities for trial in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.Libya source
1999May 9 – Mother's Day bus crash: a charter bus veers off the roadway before colliding with a dirk embankment in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, killing 22 passengers and injuring another 22.source
1999June 1 – American Airlines Flight 1420 crash lands after overrunning the runway at Little Rock National Airport, killing 11 of the 145 people on board.source
1999June 30 – Twenty-three people die in a fire at the Sealand Youth Training Center in South Korea.source
1999June 30: Sealand Youth Training Center FireSouth Korea source
1999July 14 – the Big Blue crane collapse happened during the construction of Miller Park, killing three iron workers.source
1999July 16 – Off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, a plane piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr. crashes, killing him and his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette.United States source
1999July 27 – Twenty-one people die in a canyoning disaster at the Saxetenbach Gorge near Interlaken, Switzerland.source
1999July 31 – NASA intentionally crashes the Lunar Prospector spacecraft into the Moon, thus ending its mission to detect frozen water on the lunar surface.source
19997 August: A domestic TACV Flight 5002 from São Pedro Airport to Agostinho Neto Airport crashed into a mountain on Santo Antão island, killing the 16 passengers and 2 crew members on board.Cape Verde source
199922 August - China Airlines Flight 642 crashed at Hong Kong International Airport resulting in 3 fatalities and over 200 people getting injured.Hong Kong source
199931 August: A Líneas Aéreas Privadas Argentinas flight crashes during takeoff from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. There are 65 fatalities (63 occupants of the aircraft and 2 on the ground) – as well as injuries, some serious, to at least 34 people.Argentina source
1999September 3 – The 1999 Ontario Highway 401 crash occurs, involving 87 vehicles and killing 8.source
1999October 5 – Thirty-one people die in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash, west of London, England.source
1999October 30 – 1999 Incheon bar fire: A bar catches fire in Incheon, South Korea, killing 56 people.source
1999October 31 – EgyptAir Flight 990, travelling from New York City to Cairo, crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts killing all 217 on board.source
1999The Croatian cargo ship Borak, sailing from Koromačno to Solin and transporting cement, sank near Sestrica Vela after its cargo shifted because of bad weather. Two crew members (Valter Cimera and Stjepan Španić) lost their lives, while the other three (Ante Jureško, owner and captain of the ship, his son Slavko, as well as Muhamed Čeliković) were rescued by Damir Badžim (from Šibenik) and Slaviša Malešević (refugee from Bosnia and Herzegovina).source
199911 December - 50 killed as Bangladesh ferry capsizes.Bangladesh source
1999December 24 – Indian Airlines Flight 814 was hijacked on 24 December 1999 by five members of Harkat-ul-Mujahideen in what was considered to be India's worst and last plane hijackingsource
1999December 25 - Hijacked Indian Airlines Flight 814 lands in Afghanistan at the Kandahar Airport.Afghanistan source
1999December – Indian Airlines Flight 814 is hijacked in Indian airspace between Kathmandu, Nepal, and Delhi, India.Nepal source