On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers reached surviving
members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound
pioneers stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains
for nearly four months.
James Frazier Reed (1800 – 1874) was
an organizing member of the party.
William H. Eddy, survivor and chief
rescuer of the ill-fated Donner Party
At midday, a 40-foot wave of fiery hot molasses flooded the
streets of Boston on January 15, 1919, killing 21 people and
injuring scores of others.
A 58-foot high tank filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude
molasses burst under pressure due unseasonably hot
weather at the U.S. Industrial Alcohol Company plant in
the north end of the city.
The flood crushed buildings, moved a firehouse, and
knocked an elevated train off its tracks.
There are several ways you can help through the American
Red Cross :
McDonald’s Restaurant In Perry Florida Damaged By
Hurricane Helene.
More than 1,000 people taking a pleasure trip on New York City’s
East River were drowned or burned to death when a fire swept
through the boat. This was one of the United States’ worst
maritime disasters.
The riverboat-style steamer General Slocum was built in 1890
and used mostly as a vehicle for taking large groups on day
outings. On June 15, the St. Mark’s German Lutheran Church
assembled a group of 1,360 people, mostly children and teachers,
for their annual Sunday School picnic.
The picnic was to take place at Locust Point in the Bronx after
a cruise up the East River on the General Slocum.
At about 9 a.m., the dangerously overcrowded boat left its dock
in Manhattan with Captain William Van Schaik in charge. As the
boat passed 83rd Street, accounts indicate that a child spotted
a fire in a storeroom.
In Washington, D.C. on June 9, 1893, the interior of ramshackle
Ford’s Theatre collapses, causing the deaths of 22 people.
The building—where President Lincoln was shot on April 14,
1865— houses hundreds of clerks employed by the War
Department’s Records and Pensions Division.
An investigation determined the cause of the tragedy was a pier
that had given way during excavation in the basement for an
electric-light plant.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
A National Historic Site, Ford’s Theatre today.
