The Worst World Disasters of All Time

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Kevin Baker. The Worst World Disasters of All Time

1 – Introduction

2 – Latiya Bay Megatsunami

3 – Death Hailstorms

4 – Huascaran Avalanche

5 – Bengal Famine

6 – Spanish Flu Pandemic

7 – Minamata Mercury Poisoning

8 – USS Indianapolis

9 – Hurricane Katrina

10 – The Killing Fields

11 – Irish Potato Famine

12 – Nagasaki Atomic Bomb

13 – Hiroshima Atomic Bomb

14 – Chernobyl

15 – Bhopal Gas Tragedy

16 – Hindenburg Disaster

17 – Peshtigo Wildfire

18 – Russian Heat Wave 2010

19 – Lake Nyos Limnic Eruption

20 – Legalisation of Tobacco

21 – Malaria

22 – Dona Paz Ferry Disaster

23 – Tenerife Airplane Collision

24 – Cholera

25 – Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

26 – The Black Death

27 – Empress Sinking

28 – Measles

29 – The Chungqing & Italian Hall Mass Panic

30 – Smallpox

31 – Typhoon Tip

32 – Russian Nuclear Submarine K-219

33 – Subprime Mortgage Crisis

34 – Kiangya Passenger Steamship Explosion

35 – Kyshtym Russian Nuclear Disaster

36 – Queen of the Sea Rail Disaster

37 – Ghouta Chemical Weapons Attack

38 – Krakatoa

39 – Titanic

40 – Plurs, Switzerland Avalanche 1618

41 – Agent Orange

42 – European Witch Hunts

43 – Shaanxi Earthquake

44 – 2004 Tsunami and Earthquake

45 – Bhola Cyclone

46 – Black Saturday Bush Fires

47 – The Love Canal

48 – Sampoong Department Store Collapse

49 – The Storm of the Century 1993

50 – Twin Towers Collapse – 911

51 – Hepatitis C

52 – Stock Market Crash 1929

53 – Banqiao Dam Burst

54 – Pompeii 79 AD

55 – China Floods 1931

56 – Tunguska Event

57 – Cancer

58 – Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

59 – Vredeford Dome African Asteroid Strike

60 – European Heat Wave 2003

61 – AIDS

62 – Halabja Chemical Weapons Attack

63 – Valvidia Earthquake

64 – Deforestation

65 – The Collapse of Personal Privacy

66 – Bridge Creek F5 Tornado 1999

67 – Typhus

68 – The Great White Plague

69 – The Great Smog of London

70 – Church of Company Fire

71 – Tyrolean Alps Avalanches 1916

72 – Ethiopian Famine 1983 – 1985

73 – MS Herald of Free Enterprise

74 – Benxihu Colliery Mining Disaster 1942

75 – Shaanxi Earthquake 1556

76 – Ranrahirca, Peru Avalanche 1962

77 – The Great Russian Famine of 1921

78 – The Great Blizzard of 1888

79 – Ancash Earthquake

80 – Fukushima Meltdown

81 – Egypt and Syria 1202 Earthquake

82 – Worldwide Alcohol Abuse

83 – The Super Outbreak 1974

84 – WW1

85 – WW2

86 – Worldwide Drug Abuse

87 – Polio

88 – The Great Black Dragon Fire

89 – Tangshan Earthquake

90 – Courrieres French Mining Disaster 1906

91 – Texas City Disaster 1947

92 –MV Sewol Sinking

93 – Oppau Explosion 1921

94 – Halifax Explosion, 1917

95 – Extinction Events

96 – The Holocaust

97 – North Korean Famine

98 – Armero Tragedy

99 – Aral Sea Disappearance

100 – Hurry Sickness

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I have included the most significant disasters throughout history that I have come across whilst researching for this book. Although choosing which disasters to feature in this book was still a subjective process. After all, how can you really grade a disaster? As this depends on each individual’s perspective. So I have included disasters that have had a profound effect on the world or disasters with a high number of fatalities. There have been so many wars throughout recent history alone, especially after the industrial revolution, so I have kept away from chalking up every war as a disaster in this book. The only war that I could not help but mention in this book was World War 2, as this war gave rise to new technologies that threaten us today. If I included WW2 then how could I not include The Great War? So, these two wars are exceptions. I have also mentioned events that have happened as a result of war and prejudice or politics that have had a devastating effect on innocent civilians, such as the persecution of the Jews in World War 2 for instance.

I hope that this book will serve as a reminder that this world is turbulent and unpredictable, and that peace and tranquillity in our lives should never be taken for granted. Each peaceful morning when we wake up with a stress free day filled with happiness ahead of us really is a bonus.

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Can you picture being on a boat and hearing what sounds like an atomic explosion, then being met head on by a 1,720 feet high wall of water? This is exactly what happened to Howard G.Ulrich and his son who were anchored in a small cove. After being woken up by violent rocking of his boat due to an 8.3 magnitude earthquake on the Fairweather Fault, he then went on deck to see what was going on. Following that, 30 million cubic meters of rock and ice fell into the narrow inlet in Lituya Bay, Alaska. Fortunately, they were then miraculously carried by the wave over treetops as the wave crossed land and then dropped them back in the water safely on the other side of the land mass.

Not everyone was lucky on the day that the megatsunami occurred on July the 9th, 1958. Two other people who were anchored in the bay on their boat were killed; three other people also died when the beach that they were standing on suddenly subsided to 100 feet below sea level.

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