On this day in history: 1535 – Following the Affair of the Placards—an incident in which anti-Catholic posters appear in public places in Paris, France, and in four major provincial cities—French Protestants are burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris 1832 – In Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, Henry Sovereign murders his seven children and his wife via bludgeoning, stabbing, and burning. He is later executed. 1854 – RMS Tayleur, a full rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line, runs aground and sinks on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 290 survive. She has been described as “the first Titanic.” 1876 – A Great Northern Railway express passenger train passes a signal jammed in the clear position during a blizzard and is in a rear-end collision with a freight train at Abbots Ripton, England. Thirteen passengers are killed and 59 people are injured. 1882 – In Red Bud, Illinois, after striking student James McBride in the face, teacher Robert Bailey is fatally wounded when McBride stabs him twice with a knife he is using to sharpen a pencil. 1910 – Canadian Pacific Railways Soo Express derails while crossing a bridge at the Spanish River in northern Ontario, Canada. Forty-four people die and many more are injured. 1917 – An earthquake in Bali, Indonesia, causes widespread damage and triggers many landslides, which causes 80% of the 1,500 casualties. 1938 – An express passenger train collides with an empty coaching stock train at Oakley Junction, England, due to a signalmans error. Three people are killed and 46 injured. 1943 – Pan Am Flight 1104 crashes into a mountain near Boonville, California, killing all 19 passengers and crew, including Rear-Admiral Robert H. English, commander of the US Pacific Submarine Fleet. 1960 – At the Coalbrook mine near Sasolburg, South Africa, 437 people are killed in a coal mine explosion. 1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes on landing at Sangster International Airport, Jamaica, killing two of seven crew and 35 of 39 passengers on board in Jamaicas worst aviation accident. 1960 – In Settle, England, an express passenger train is derailed due to a defect on the BR Standard Class 7 locomotive hauling it. Five people are killed and nine are injured. 1961 – An accident at the Coalbrook North Mine of the Clydesdale Colliery near Sasolburg, Orange Free State, South Africa, kills 437 people. 1961 – An unnamed man kills nine people with a knife in Sunyani, Ghana, before being arrested. 1968 – A United States Air Force plane crash near Thule Air Base in Greenland kills one person and leads to a serious nuclear incident. The B-52 bomber had been flying as part of a US military program called Operation Chrome Dome, in which several bombers were constantly flying in high-latitude airspace near the Soviet Union to demonstrate America’s capability for rapid response in the event of a Soviet first strike. Beginning in 1961, the program also had bombers flying over Thule Air Base, a US Air Force base in Greenland, for surveillance in case of Soviet attack. On the afternoon of January 21, one such bomber experiences a fire in the cabin and changes course to Thule Air Base in an attempt at an emergency landing. Quickly realizing they will not make it to the base intact, the crew ejects over the base, except for co-pilot Leonard Svitenko, who has no ejection seat and is killed trying to escape through a lower hatch. The plane crashes on sea ice in North Star Bay. The four 1.1-megaton hydrogen bombs on board detonate on impact (though not triggering a nuclear explosion), spreading radioactive material over a wide area. American and Danish forces race to clean up the radioactive material before the spring thaw deposits contaminants into the ocean. Some of the contaminated ice and debris are buried in the United States. Despite an extensive search, only three of the four bombs are accounted for; a major component of the fourth remains missing to this day. 1968 – The Battle of Khe Sanh—one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War—begins in Quang Tri Province and lasts until July 9. Thousands are killed and wounded on both sides. 1972 – In San Nicolas, Colombia, a Satena flight crashes into a mountain. All 39 people aboard are killed. 1972 – In Funza, Colombia, a Lineas Areas Ia Urraca flight crashes shortly after leaving Bogata after an explosion aboard. All 20 people aboard are killed. 1973 – Aeroflot Flight 6263 loses control and crashes near Petukhovo, Soviet Union, killing all 39 passengers and crew on board. The aircraft may have been shot down by a missile. 1976 – A CAAC flight crashes on approach to Huanghua Airport in China, killing all 40 on board. 1980 – Iran Air Flight 291 crashes into the Alborz Mountains near Tehran, Iran, amid a snowstorm on approach to Mehrabad International Airport; of the 128 people on board, no one survives. 1982 – An overcrowded bus swerves to avoid a speeding truck and plunges off a bridge at Narayanganj, Bangladesh, killing at least 28 people; another 40 are injured. 1985 – In Goddard, Kansas, 14-year-old James Kearbey, a student at Goddard Middle School, arms himself with an M1-A semiautomatic rifle and a .357-caliber handgun and fatally shoots his principal and wounds three teachers. 1985 – Galaxy Airlines Flight 203 crashes shortly after takeoff from Reno-Cannon International Airport in Reno, Nevada, due to an improperly secured air start door, killing all but one of the 71 people on board. 1987 – A truck and a bus collide near Temuco, Chile, killing 43 people. 1995 – A truck carrying religious pilgrims plunges 50 feet off a highway outside Oaxaca, Mexico, killing 22 people and injuring 10. 1996 – An overloaded ferry sinks in an unexpected storm off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 340 people. 1999 – At least 22 people are killed when a bus falls into a ravine near the town of Baguio, Philippines. 1999 – A Nicaraguan Air Force flight crashes after getting too low on approach and striking a tree near Bluefields Airport in Nicaragua, killing all 28 people on board. 2000 – ETA reinitiates its attack campaign in Madrid, Spain, killing Army Lieutenant Colonel Pedro Antonio Blanco and injuring at least four others in a car bomb explosion. 2002 – In Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, several people are killed and injured when hot lava, from Nyiragongo volcano, touches off an explosion at a gas station. 2003 – In Foping County, China, Qian Minghai murders four people and injures eight others, and is later sentenced to death. 2003 – An earthquake on the Pacific coast of the Mexican state of Colima leaves 29 dead and 300 injured. 2005 – Twenty-eight people are killed when a passenger bus skids off the road and plunges into a 500-foot ravine after the driver swerves to avoid rocks falling from the mountain side between Shiraz-Kazero and Mazandaran, Iran. 2005 – Fourteen people are killed when a suicide car bomb explodes outside the al-Taf mosque just after morning prayers. Twelve people are killed when a suicide bomber drives his ambulance into a crowd of Shiites celebrating a wedding near Youssifiyah. 2008 – A suicide bomber kills 18 in a funeral tent in Al-Hajaj, Iraq; 22 more are injured. 2009 – In Iraq, Ziyad al-Ain, a dean of Baghdad, Iraq’s Islamic University and the Iraqi Under-secretary for the Education Ministry, Ammar Aziz Mohammed Ali, survive a car bomb but four others, including a woman and a child, are killed and 10 others injured. 2009 – In Awang Kasom Khullen, India, soldier Sheneyi Mede-O guns down six of his colleagues and flees with his AK-47 rifle. 2009 – In Blacksburg, Virginia, Yang Xin, a 22-year-old graduate student from Beijing, China, is decapitated with a kitchen knife by fellow student Zhu Haiyang in a cafe on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). 2011 – An oil spill on the Mumbai-Uran pipeline in India causes between 40-55 tons of oil to spill into the Arabian Sea. 2013 – Suspected Boko Haram militants murder 31 people over the course of three days in northern Nigeria, beginning on January 21. 2013 – Two Vienna S-Bahn trains packed with morning commuters collide on a single-track stretch of line between Hütteldorf and Penzing in Austria, leaving 41 people injured, five of them seriously. 2013 – An InterCity train collides with a Regional train in Alfarelos, Portugal, leaving 25 people injured. 2013 – A suicide bomber detonates a truck full of explosives at a building used by a pro-government militia in the central Syrian city of Salamiyah. At least 42 people are killed and dozens more wounded, with militia members and civilians among the casualties. 2013 – At least 14 people are killed and 13 injured in a car accident in Asyut Governorate, Egypt. 2013 – At least 24 people are killed and seven injured in road accident in northern Ghana. 2013 – At least 18 people are killed and 24 injured when a bus falls off the road and plunges into a ravine in western Bolivia. 2014 – For the second time in a month, a suicide car bomber strikes the Hezbollah Shite suburb of Haret Hreik, Lebanon, killing four people and wounding 35 others. 2014 – A bus carrying pilgrims returning from Iran is bombed while it is passing through Mastung District, Pakistan. At least 22 people die and another 32 are wounded in the attack.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 12:41:30 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015