November 19, 1861: America for the first time began exporting petroleum when a cargo ship departed Philadelphia bound for London with 901 barrels of oil & 428 barrels of kerosene. In 1948, America for the first time became a net importer of oil. Note: American energy dependency has since become a major political, economic & military issue. November 19, 2002: Single-hulled oil tanker Prestige sank off Atlantic coast of Spain. Six days earlier, disabled tanker split in half spilling 20 million gallons of fuel oil. November 19, 1984: Firestorm created by series of explosions at petroleum storage facility in Mexico City, 500+ people died. November 19, 1824: Neva River flooded St. Petersburg, Russia, 10,000 people died. Very cold weather caused blocks of ice to form on Neva River. Enough ice developed that the rivers flow was nearly stopped for several weeks. Water backed up behind the ice, but did not freeze. As a result, when weather briefly warmed, the ice jam broke apart. Surge of rushing water overwhelmed the citys dam. November 19, 1805: Ferdinand, Vicomte de Lesseps, French developer of Suez Canal, was born. In 1869, Mediterranean & Red Seas were connected via a canal for the first time. This substantially reduced East & West sailing distances & transport travel times. He later unsuccessfully attempted to build a lockless version of the Panama Canal. In 1914, the United States finally completed the Panama Canal after major developments in medicine were made to combat malaria & yellow fever in Central America.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 15:38:58 +0000
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