On September 19, 1957, the United States detonated a 1.7-
kiloton nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel at the
Nevada Test Site, a 1,375-square-mile research center
located 65 miles north of Las Vegas. 
 

The test, known as Rainier, was the first fully contained
underground detonation and produced no radioactive
fallout. A modified W-25 warhead weighing 218 pounds
and measuring 25.7 inches in diameter and 17.4 inches
in length was used for the test.

Rainier was part of a series of 29 nuclear weapons and
nuclear weapons safety tests known as Operation
Plumbbob that were conducted at the NTS between
May 28, 1957, and October 7, 1957.

On July 17, 1944, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine near San
Francisco experienced a catastrophic explosion when two
ammunition ships, the SS E.A. Bryan and the SS Quinault
Victory, detonated while loading munitions for Pacific troops.

The steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River near
Memphis, killing 1,700 passengers including many discharged
Union soldiers. The accident is still considered the largest
maritime disaster in U.S. history in terms of lives lost.

The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. The boat
was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376
passengers and crew.

        
On April 25, 1865, the Sultana left New Orleans with 100
passengers. It stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair
of a leaky boiler.

R. G. Taylor, the boilermaker on the ship, advised Captain J.
Cass Mason that two sheets on the boiler had to be replaced,
but Mason ordered Taylor to simply patch the plates until the
ship reached St. Louis.

   
    
    
   

The only known photograph of the Sultana taken on the last
day of its fateful voyage in Helena, Arkansas on April 27,
1865.

Model of Sultana by artist & Lincoln Shrine docent Ken Jolly.

SANDY KOZEL

Before and after shuttle explosion (first visible signs of
danger on left, just after explosion on right).

At 11:38 a.m. EST, on January 28, 1986, the space shuttle
Challenger lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and
Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first
ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space.

McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school social studies teacher
from New Hampshire, won a competition that earned her
a place among the seven-member crew of the Challenger.

She underwent months of shuttle training but then, beginning
January 23, was forced to wait six long days as the Challenger‘s
launch countdown was repeatedly delayed because of weather
and technical problems. Finally, on January 28, the shuttle lifted
off.

Seventy-three seconds later, hundreds on the ground,
including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the
shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire.

The Final Crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

President Ronald Reagan addressing the nation from the
White House on the day of the space shuttle Challenger explosion.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to
New York exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland,
killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard,
as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground.