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Disasters

Topics

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Chernobyl

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Chernobyl

Where Is Chernobyl? Chernobyl is located in northern Ukraine, about 80 miles north of Kiev. A small town, Pripyat, was constructed a few miles from the site of the nuclear plant to accommodate workers and their families. Construction of the Chernobyl power plant began in 1977, when the country was still part of the Soviet […]

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Group portrait of female American Red Cross workers with uniformed young boys (possibly boy scouts) with a Red Cross flag holding money, during a Red Cross parade, Birmingham, Alabama, May, 1918. US War Department photo.

Red Cross

Henry Dunant and the Origins of the Red Cross In 1859, Swiss businessman Henry Dunant was traveling in northern Italy when he witnessed the aftermath of a bloody battle between Franco-Sardinian and Austrian forces near the small village of Solferino. The fighting had left some 40,000 troops dead, wounded or missing, and both the armies, […]

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Oil Spill in Alaska Teams of firefighters cleaning the Alaskan coast following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (Photo by jean-Louis Atlan/Sygma via Getty Images)

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Oil Spill Cleanup In the months after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Exxon employees, federal responders and more than 11,000 Alaska residents worked to clean up the oil spill. Exxon payed about $2 billion in cleanup costs and $1.8 billion for habitat restoration and personal damages related to the spill. Cleanup workers skimmed oil from […]

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1:49 minTV-PG

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

A look at the extraordinary life of Margaret Brown, best known as ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ after she survived the 1912 RMS Titanic disaster. She later became an activist for workers’ and women’s rights and made a bid for election six years before women had the right to vote.

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Stories

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The airship Hindenburg burning after it crashed on May 6, 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

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The Hindenburg Disaster: Why the Giant Dirigible Burst Into Flames

Theories about why the giant German dirigible burst into flames range from negligence to sabotage to an ‘act of God.’

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7 of the Most Dramatic US Plane Crashes

7 of the Most Devastating US Plane Crashes

Although not the deadliest, these flight disasters are among the most unforgettable in American history.

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August 3, 2007. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Investigators move cautiously amid the rubble of the 35W bridge that lies in pieces in the Mississippi River.

7 of History’s Most Devastating Bridge Collapses

The disasters had a wide range of causes, from marching soldiers to a circus clown in a barrel.

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Fukushima Timeline: How an Earthquake Triggered Japan’s Nuclear Disaster

Fukushima Timeline: How an Earthquake Triggered Japan’s 2011 Nuclear Disaster

An earthquake, a tsunami…and then a devastating power plant failure.

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Videos


1:49 minTV-PG
Play

Featured

The Unsinkable Molly Brown

A look at the extraordinary life of Margaret Brown, best known as ‘Unsinkable Molly Brown’ after she survived the 1912 RMS Titanic disaster. She later became an activist for workers’ and women’s rights and made a bid for election six years before women had the right to vote.

Watch nowWatch now video about The Unsinkable Molly Brown

This Day in History

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2014

The Flint water crisis begins

21st Century
2014

Malaysia Airlines flight vanishes with more than 200 people aboard

21st Century
2010

Massive oil spill begins in Gulf of Mexico

Natural Disasters & Environment
2010

Chilean miners are rescued after 69 days underground

Latin American History
1961

U.S. figure skating team killed in plane crash

Sports
1832

The first railroad accident

19th Century
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