CAMILLE BOHANNON

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 riverboat-style steamer General Slocum. This was
one of the United States’ worst maritime disasters.

The General Slocum was built in 1890 and used mostly 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 and reported it to the Captain. The onboard
fire hose, which had never been used, tested or inspected, did
not work.

In all, 630 bodies were recovered and another 401 were missing
and presumed dead.

The boat’s crew, and officers in the Knickerbocker Company,
owner and operator of the General Slocum, were charged with
criminal negligence.

Hindenburg begins to fall seconds after catching fire.

The airship Hindenburg, the largest dirigible ever built and the
pride of Nazi Germany, burst into flames upon touching its
mooring mast in Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937.

On April 18, 1906, at 5:13 a.m., an earthquake estimated at close
to 8.0 on the Richter scale struck San Francisco, California, killing
an estimated 3,000 people as it topples numerous buildings.

The quake was caused by a slip of the San Andreas Fault over a
segment about 275 miles long, and shock waves could be felt from southern Oregon down to Los Angeles.

San Francisco’s brick buildings and wooden Victorian structures
were especially devastated. Fires immediately broke out and–
because broken water mains prevented firefighters from stopping
them–firestorms soon developed citywide.

Charles Francis Richter (1900 – 1985) 
was an American seismologist and
physicist. He is the namesake and
one of the creators of the Richter
scale.

             
MIKE GRACIA

Sir Elton Hercules John (Reginald Kenneth Dwight) is a British
singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship
have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry,
and his songwriting partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin is
one of the most successful in history. John was the 19th
EGOT winner in history. He has sold over 300 million records
worldwide, making him one of the best-selling music artists
of all time. Elton John is 78 years old today.

       
CARLATA BRADLEY

From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. was
successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7
spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was
among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration in 1959 to become America’s 
first astronauts.

President John F. Kennedy on the phone.

John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016)