Worldwide disasters. The worst disasters in the world
Throughout history, humanity has faced terrible disasters that have claimed countless lives. Below is a list of ten of the strangest and most unusual of them.
Elephant panic in Chandaka forest
In the spring of 1972, the Chandaka region in India was gripped by a terrible drought due to abnormal heat. Local elephants, which usually did not cause problems, were literally going crazy from the high temperatures and lack of water. Residents told authorities that they were afraid to go out into the fields because of the strange behavior of the “giants of the savannah.” Later the situation worsened. On July 10, the elephants, succumbing to an inexplicable panic, took flight and actually completely destroyed 5 villages. 24 people died.
In September 1971, about 90,000 tons of grain arrived at the Iraqi port of Basra. It was American barley and Mexican wheat treated with methyl mercury to slow down rotting. The grain was dyed bright pink and all the bags had a warning message printed on them, but only in English and Spanish. Before the bags were distributed to farmers, they were stolen from the docks and sold to the starving population.
The Iraqi government, fearing outrage over their criminal negligence, covered up the story. Nothing was known about it for almost two years, until an American correspondent found evidence of 6,530 incidents of mercury poisoning. Officials admitted to only 459 deaths, but the real number of victims was about 6,000. In addition, another 10,000 suffered side effects such as blindness, deafness and brain damage.
On April 15, 1947, a French freighter arrived in Texas. On board there were about 1,400 tons of fertilizer, ammonium nitrate. That same night, a fire broke out on the ship. By dawn, local authorities were significantly concerned about the plumes of black smoke emanating from the ship, as the city's chemical plant was located only 300 meters from the fire. Tugboats were prepared to push the cargo out to sea. However, suddenly a huge column of fire enveloped the ship. For many, this was the last thing they saw. A wall of flame spread to a chemical plant, causing an explosion. Much of the business district was wiped off the face of the earth. The fire raged along the shoreline, where there were huge tanks of butane. After midnight, a new chain reaction of explosions began. The disaster killed more than 500 people and seriously injured about 1,000.
On June 30, 1098, a huge explosion occurred near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia. The mid-air explosion was most likely caused by a meteorite or comet fragment with a radius of 20 meters. The energy of the explosion was about 10–20 megatons of TNT, which is 1,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Tunguska explosion destroyed approximately 80 million trees, covering more than 2,150 square kilometers. The destructive effects of the meteorite are still visible from satellites.
Empire State Building disaster
On Saturday, July 28, 1945, the Army veteran took off in a U.S. Air Force B-25 Mitchell bomber from Massachusetts to New Jersey with a co-pilot and a young sailor on board. Due to fog, visibility was poor. An hour later, people on the streets of Manhattan heard the deafening roar of an engine and saw a bomber wandering among the skyscrapers. Some time later, he crashed into the Empire State Building. The wreckage of the plane fell to the ground. One of the engines blew a hole on the 78th floor, passing through seven walls and exiting on the opposite side of the building. The second engine hit the elevator shaft and fell into the basement. When the plane's fuel tank exploded, the fire engulfed 6 floors. Fortunately, not all offices were open on Saturday; only 11 people and three plane passengers died.
Year after year, firefighters in Gillingham, Kent, England, construct a house of sorts out of wood and canvas for an annual popular fire-fighting demonstration. Every year, several boys are selected to take part in the demonstration. On July 11, 1929, 9 boys, aged 10 to 14, and 6 firefighters, dressed as members of a wedding party, went up to the third floor of the “house.” According to the plan, firefighters would light a smoke bomb on the ground floor, rescue the “celebrants” using ropes and ladders, and then set the empty house on fire, demonstrating the fire hoses in action. However, by mistake, a real fire was lit first. The spectators, who mistook the real burning bodies for mannequins, cheered and applauded, unaware of the real fire. All 15 demonstrators died that day.
A huge cylindrical gasometer, the largest in the world at that time, located in the heart of the industrial center of Pittsburgh, was leaking. On the morning of November 14, 1927, repairmen began searching for a hole using a blowtorch with an open flame. At approximately 10 a.m., they discovered the leak. As a result, the tank containing about 5 million cubic feet of natural gas rose into the air like a balloon and exploded. Huge pieces of metal flew over a distance of about a kilometer, and the combined effects of air pressure and fire destroyed everything within a square mile. Then 28 people died, hundreds were injured, damage was estimated at $4 million.
On January 15, 1919, workers and residents of Boston were outside enjoying a surprisingly warm day. Suddenly, with a low boom, the cast iron tank of the Purity Distilling Company exploded and a huge wave (2.5 to 4.5 m high) of raw black molasses crashed onto the city. Neither pedestrians nor cars could overcome this stream, which swept through the streets at a speed of about 60 km/h. The 8,700 m³ of molasses intended for rum consumed many people: 21 people died from suffocation, unable to escape from the viscous substance, and another 150 were hospitalized. In addition, the wave destroyed several buildings and an elevated railway. For another week the smell of molasses lingered in Boston, and the port remained brown until the summer.
Panic at the Baptist Church
Three thousand people, mostly black, gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 19, 1902, to hear an address by Booker Taliapher Washington. The brick church building was erected quite recently. A steep flight of stairs, lined with brick, led from the front doors to the liturgy section. After Washington's speech, a squabble began over empty seats, and the word "fight" was mistaken for the word "fire." All the parishioners began a panicked flight to the stairs. Those who reached it first began to be pushed from behind, and they began to fall. Others fell right on top of them until the screaming bodies formed a pile 4 meters high, completely barricading the passage.
Attempts by Washington and church officials to call the people to calm were of no avail; they could only watch helplessly as their brothers and sisters either suffocated or were trampled to death. In reality, there was no fire or even a fight, however, 115 people died.
Snake invasion in Saint-Pierre
Volcanic activity at Mount Pelee, in Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was usually so insignificant that no one noticed the smoking vents and tremors in April 1902. Soon (in early May) a continuous rain of ash began, and the acrid smell of sulfur appeared in the air. As a result, more than a hundred pit vipers crawled out of their shelters on the mountainside, as they became uninhabitable, and then infested one of the quarters of Saint-Pierre, inhabited by mulattoes. The venomous snakes, up to two meters long, killed 50 people and countless animals before being wiped out by the city's stray cats. But that was only the beginning.
On May 5, a huge landslide of boiling mud flowed into the sea, causing a tsunami that killed several hundred people. And, to top off all the misfortunes, three days later, on May 8, a volcanic eruption occurred, as a result of which a huge amount of hot lava headed straight into the city. In just three minutes, the city was completely wiped off the face of the Earth. Almost the entire 30,000 population of Saint-Pierre died, only two survived.
14 August 2008 10:05
There are hundreds of tragedies of the 20th century... Mountains of corpses, blood, pain and suffering - this is what revolutions, world wars, political upheavals and monstrous incidents brought with them. And all of them, as a rule, are carefully photographed and recorded...
And this terrible list opens with photographs from aboard the infamous Titanic... 
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TRAGEDY OF THE TITANIC. More than eighty years have passed since the moment when, on the frosty night of April 14-15, 1912, south of the island of Newfoundland, the giant Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ship of the beginning of the century, sank after colliding with a drifting iceberg. 1,500 passengers and crew died. And although there were enough terrible tragedies in the 20th century, interest in the fate of this ship does not wane even today. Here is a rather rare photograph of the ship three days before departure... 
Unfortunately, we will have to come to terms with the fact that the complete truth about the sinking of the Titanic will never be known. Despite two investigations carried out immediately after the floating palace was swallowed up by the waves, many details remained unclear. The ship sets off on its fateful voyage... 
As soon as Captain Smith was informed that the last ladder had been removed and secured, the pilot got down to business. At the pier, the mooring lines were released, securing the bow and stern to the powerful shore bollards. Then the tugs got to work. The long hull of the Titanic, centimeter by centimeter, began to move away from the pier... A retouched photograph of the Titanic's departure... 
The complex sailing maneuvers were watched by hundreds of passengers on the Titanic's promenade decks and thousands of people on shore. Farewell... 
And then something happened that could have ended very sadly. The New York steamship was in the harbor. At that moment, when the Titanic passed by, the bows of both ships were on the same line, the six steel cables with which the New York was moored were stretched and a strong crack was heard, similar to shots from a revolver, and the ends of the cables whistled in the air and fell onto the embankment into a frightened, fleeing crowd... 
Of course, there are no photographs of the sinking Titanic. But. There are quite a lot of photographs taken from the rescue ship Carpathia. They managed to lift more than 100 people on board - all those who survived on five boats... "Carpathia"... 
Killer iceberg... 
Boat No. 12 is one of those that managed to reach the side of the Carpathia... 
Saved. On board the Carpathia... 
Newsboys. Terrible news... 
HOLODOMOR. This terrible word is used to describe the mass death of the population of the Ukrainian SSR from famine in 1932-1933... In the USSR, the scale of the tragedy that occurred and its real causes were simply hidden... But witnesses recall that the streets of cities and villages were littered with the corpses of the dead, swollen from hunger of people... 
Currently, there is a point of view in the scientific community according to which the mass death of the population of Ukraine was caused by the conscious and purposeful actions of the Soviet leadership... 
During these terrible years, at least 4,500,000 people died in Ukraine... 
There were corpses everywhere... 
Hospitals and morgues could not cope with their responsibilities... 
Improvised cemeteries stretched for tens of kilometers on the outskirts of the city... 
Foreign journalists took photographs out of Ukraine at the risk of their own lives. And yet, something leaked to the press... 
THE LAST AIRSHIP DISASTER. On May 6, 1937, the German aircraft Hidenburg exploded and burned - at that time the world's largest airship, the length of which was about 248 m, the diameter was more than 40 m. It was built in the 30s as a symbol of Hitler's new Germany... A photograph of that time from the archives of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.. 
It could fly 15 thousand km at a maximum speed of 135 km/h. On two floors of the passenger compartment there were 26 double cabins, bars, a reading room, a restaurant, galleries, and kitchens. The ticket cost over $800. "Hidenburg" was destroyed by fire while approaching the mooring mast in Lakehurst (New Jersey, USA), completing a flight from Frankfurt (Germany)... 
32 seconds after the explosion, the airship, more than 2 times the length of a football field, resembled a fantastic charred skeleton of curved metal. This disaster claimed 36 human lives... 
The explosion was heard fifteen miles away. Thanks to the courage and self-control of the captain, the crew and 62 passengers were saved. The fire is directly related to the use of hydrogen, the only carrier gas Germany had available since the United States refused to supply helium in commercial quantities. There was also a version of the terrorist attack - in the early 1970s, information appeared that Nazi enemy Erich Spehl, one of the team members, had planted a time mine... 
PEARL HARBOR. The most famous US naval base in the Hawaiian Islands. On December 7, 1941, during World War II, Japanese carrier aircraft launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and disabled the main forces of the American Pacific Fleet. On December 8, the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan... 
The sun rose over Pearl Harbor that day in all its usual tropical glory. It was Sunday and the fleet was "home". The officers and sailors thought about the upcoming day of rest. As always on Sundays, the wake-up call was given late. At that moment, when the sounds of the bugle died down, unknown planes appeared in the sky. Without any delay, they began dropping bombs and torpedoes... 
50 bombers, 40 torpedo bombers and 81 dive bombers attacked the ships of the Pacific Fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor... 
When the last Japanese planes left, Navy and Marine Corps casualties stood at 2,835, with 2,086 officers and men killed or mortally wounded. The army's losses amounted to 600 people, of whom 194 were killed and 364 wounded. In addition to damage to ships and hangars, 92 navy aircraft were destroyed and 31 aircraft were damaged, and the army lost 96 aircraft... 
HIROSHIMA - REVENGE FOR PEARL HARBOR? The Great Patriotic War ended on May 9, 1945. But the war did not end there. It lasted until September 2, 1945. And there were fights. And there were victories. And there were victims. And there were tragedies. And the worst of them is the atomic bombing of Japanese cities... 
The area of the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 was about 26 square meters. miles, of which only 7 were completely built up. There were no clearly designated commercial, industrial and residential areas. 75% of the population lived in a densely built area in the city center... 
The regiment commander, Colonel Tibets, named his aircraft “Enola Gay” in honor of his mother. The body of the atomic bomb, located in the bomb bay of the Enola Gay, was covered with a variety of both humorous and serious slogans. Among them was the inscription “from the guys from Indianapolis”... 
On August 6, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, two B-29 bombers appeared over Hiroshima. People continued to work without entering the shelter and looked at enemy planes. When the bombers reached the city center, one of them dropped a small parachute, after which the planes flew away. At 8:15 a.m. there was a deafening explosion that seemed to tear apart heaven and earth in an instant... 
A blinding flash and a terrible roar of explosion - after which the entire city was covered with huge clouds of smoke. Among the smoke, dust and debris, wooden houses burst into flames one after another, and until the end of the day the city was engulfed in smoke and flames. And when the flames finally subsided, the whole city was nothing but ruins. Charred and burned corpses were piled up everywhere, many of them frozen in the position in which the explosion had caught them. The tram, of which only one skeleton remained, was filled with corpses holding on to the belts... 
A single bomb with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of TNT, which exploded at an altitude of 600 meters above the city, instantly destroyed 60 percent of the city to the ground. Of the 306,545 residents of Hiroshima, 176,987 people were affected by the explosion. 92,133 people were killed or missing, 9,428 people were seriously injured and 27,997 people were slightly injured. In an effort to reduce their responsibility, the Americans underestimated the number of casualties as much as possible - the number of killed and wounded military personnel was not taken into account when calculating losses. Many died from radiation sickness. There was nothing left of those who were near the epicenter - the explosion literally evaporated people... 
AUSCHWITZ - 40 HECTARES OF DEATH. The largest extermination camp, it was called a death factory, a death conveyor, a death machine. In fact, in Polish Silesia, on several thousand hectares, the most monstrous state in the world was built with a population of several million people, of whom less than three thousand survived, with its own value system, economy, government, hierarchy, rulers, executioners, victims and heroes. The inscription above the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp read: “Work makes you free.” Entrance to Hell... 
“You were brought here not to a sanatorium, but to a German concentration camp. Remember, there is only one way out from here - through the crematorium pipe.” This is how the voice of Deputy Commandant Frach spoke through the loudspeakers... 
The engineers were given a task: a crematorium was needed, because otherwise there would be too many problems with the bodies of the dead. The engineers calculated: three furnaces, coal, loading 24 hours a day. They gave the answer: 340 people can be burned. The engineering management thanked them, but set a new task - to increase production capacity... 
Two tons of human hair is what they didn’t have time to use. The camp supplied them at 50 pfennigs per kilogram. Industrialists took it willingly - they got inexpensive, durable fabric and ropes... 
The gold hordes from the glasses were neatly stacked in a special room... 
The main entrance... People were brought in carriages... 
Up to six people slept on the bunks. In winter, many people had incontinence. And all this flowed from the upper bunks to the lower ones. And going to the toilet at night was a nightmare. The guards beat people because they had instructions: the latrine must be clean... 
At the same time, the Germans were experimenting with gas. It was served through holes in the ceiling. People didn't know where they were going. They were told that it was for sanitation. The SS men checked whether the prisoners were alive or not. They took a nail and poked it into the body... The road to the gas chamber... 
"Cyclone-B"... 
They took their anger out on the Russians. There were twelve thousand of them, maybe sixty people remained. For example, they had this punishment: in the barracks they opened the doors on one side and the other, but it was winter, and the prisoners had to stand naked. The guards also sprayed them with cold water from a hose... 
They prepared soup for the prisoners, of course, without fat or meat. When they carried a full cauldron, the stew spilled. People licked the ground if a drop fell. The SS men also beat me for this... 
Kids show hands with numbers... 
Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. Less than seven thousand people remained there. The Germans destroyed all five crematoria and gas chambers, and took away most of the prisoners. Those who remained said themselves: we are no longer people after what we experienced here... 
DEATH OF GOEBBELS. During the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the main ideologist of fascism, Joseph Goebbels, took poison, having first poisoned his family - his wife and six children. The corpses, according to his dying order, were burned. Here is a photograph showing the corpse of a criminal. The photo was taken in the Imperial Chancellery building on May 2, 1945 by Major Vasily Krupennikov. On the back of the photo, Vasily wrote: “We covered Goebbels’s sensitive spot with a handkerchief, it was very unpleasant to look at it”... 
TSAR BOMB, "IVAN", "KUZKA'S MOTHER". A thermonuclear device developed at CCCP in the mid-50s by a group of physicists led by Academician I.V. Kurchatov 
The development team included Andrei Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov. 
The original version of the bomb, weighing 40 tons, was rejected by the designers as too heavy. Then nuclear scientists promised to reduce its weight to 20 tons, and aircraft manufacturers proposed a program for corresponding modification of Tu-16 and Tu-95 bombers. The new nuclear device, according to the tradition adopted in the USSR, received the code designation “Vanya” or “Ivan”, and the Tu-95 chosen as the carrier was named Tu-95V. 
The results of the explosion of the charge, which received the name Tsar Bomba in the West, were impressive - the nuclear “mushroom” of the explosion rose to a height of 64 kilometers, the shock wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times, and ionization of the atmosphere caused radio communications interference for hundreds of kilometers from the landfill within one hour... 
The test of the world's most powerful thermonuclear device took place on October 30, 1961, during the XXII Congress of the CPSU. The bomb exploded within the nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya at an altitude of 4,500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 50 megatons of TNT. No casualties or damage were officially reported... 
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY. The tragedy happened on November 22, 1963, Friday... 
The number of proposed clues to this incident is confidently moving towards infinity. What is known for certain?.. 
On November 22, the president, along with his wife and Texas Governor John Connally, were driving from the Dallas airport to the city center. As the motorcade moved through the business district of the city, the president was greeted by more than 200 thousand people. At some point, the car slowed down, and that’s when shots rang out. 
The bullets hit JFK in the head and throat. The President fell into the arms of his wife, and the next shot seriously wounded the Governor of Texas in the back. 
This 40-second recording, made on a simple video camera by someone from Dallas, has become the most famous recording in the world. Immediately after the shots were fired, the car rushed to the clinic, where 14 surgeons fought for Kennedy’s life... 
...but despite all their efforts, he died 35 minutes later...
45 minutes after the assassination attempt, the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was detained. But he, too, was mysteriously killed - 2 days later he was put to death by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Well, US Vice President Lyndon Johnson became the new president of the country. By the way, he was traveling in another car of the same motorcade... 
The VIETNAM WAR began in August 1964 with an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, during which coast guard ships of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam fired on American destroyers providing fire support to government forces of South Vietnam in their fight against guerrillas... 
To defend South Vietnam, the United States deployed an army of half a million across the ocean, equipped with all types of modern weapons, except nuclear... 
American soldiers fought fiercely in the impenetrable jungle against pro-communist guerrillas (Viet Cong)... 
In huge areas, they destroyed thick foliage that hid the elusive enemy with pesticides, mercilessly bombed partisan areas and the territory of North Vietnam - everything was in vain... 
Subsequently, hostilities covered the territory not only of Vietnam itself, but also of neighboring Laos and Cambodia... 
50 thousand Americans died; Many times more Vietnamese were killed. By the beginning of 1968, the war had reached a dead end; peace negotiations began in May 1968, which lasted more than four years... On January 27, 1973, the US administration agreed to sign an agreement on the conditions for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. The war, which the United States thought would be a cakewalk, turned out to be America's nightmare. The post-war crisis continued in the United States for more than 10 years. It’s hard to say how it would have ended if the Afghan crisis had not turned up…
In the second half of the 20th century, humanity learned two terrible phrases - “world terrorism” and “man-made disaster”... Since the 60s of the last century, cosmodromes and factories, trains and planes, houses and nuclear reactors have been blowing up one after another in this world ...
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BAIKONUR, OCTOBER 24, 1960. "Nedelin's catastrophe." The explosion of the R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile during testing at the cosmodrome... 
The explosion and resulting fire killed more than 90 people, including the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces... According to unofficial data, there were 165... 
The designer, academician M.K. Yangel, who was absent for a short time before the start, miraculously survived... 
The disaster was kept secret until the end of the 90s... 
However, much less tragic events were also classified then. Interestingly, there are still rumors in Baikonur to this day that the Soviet Union was sending people into space even before Gagarin. But since these attempts ended in the death of the astronauts, they were kept secret... 
And the monument to the dead turned out to be very modest... 
BLOODY TUESDAY IN MUNICH. On September 5, 1972, at the XX Olympics, the most monstrous tragedy in the history of sports competitions occurred. At 3:30 in the morning, 8 heavily armed terrorists belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization militant group Black September burst into one of the houses of the Olympic Village. They managed to take 11 members of the Israeli sports delegation hostage. The security of the Olympic Village simply did not notice the terrorists... 
Having climbed through the metal mesh enclosing the athletes' dormitory, the terrorists unpack their weapons and enter entrance No. 1 of building 31. A few seconds later, they persistently knock on the door of the room in which the Israeli classical wrestling judge Yosef Gutfreund is located. Gutfreund is famous for his heroic physique and Hercules strength. Seeing suspicious people, he leans his whole body on the door and detains the criminals for a few seconds... 
One of the terrorists orders one of the hostages to show the rooms in which the rest of the Israelis live. He refuses, and the terrorist fires a burst of Kalashnikov at him. Thus, he saves the lives of shooters, fencers, a race walker and a swimmer... 
Still, 12 Israelis were captured by the terrorists. Demands were put forward - the immediate release of 234 terrorists from Israeli prisons and 16 from Western European prisons... Negotiations continued until late in the evening... 
The bodies of all eleven dead athletes were sent to Israel. During the unsuccessful operation, two German citizens also died: a policeman and the pilot of one of the helicopters. In the homeland of the victims, in addition to relatives, the mourning ceremony was attended by the head of government Golda Meir, all ministers, members of the Knesset, members of the sports delegation who left the Olympics, thousands of Israeli citizens... 
CHERNOBYL DISASTER. On April 26, 1986, 187 control and protection system rods entered the core to shut down the reactor. The chain reaction had to be broken. However, after 3 seconds, alarm signals were registered for exceeding the reactor power and increasing pressure. And after another 4 seconds - a dull explosion that shook the entire building. The emergency protection rods stopped before they were even halfway... 
Sparkling clumps began to fly out from the roof of the fourth power unit, as if from the mouth of a volcano. They rose high up. It looked like fireworks. The clumps scattered into multi-colored sparks and fell in different places... 
A black fireball soared up, forming a cloud that stretched horizontally into a black cloud and went to the side, spreading death, disease and misfortune in the form of small, small drops.. 
And at this time people were still working inside. There is no roof, part of the wall is destroyed... The lights went out, the phone went off. Floors are collapsing. The floor is shaking. The premises are filled with either steam, fog, or dust. Short circuit sparks flash. Radiation monitoring devices are off the charts. Hot radioactive water is flowing everywhere... 
After the largest man-made disaster in world history, pine trees like these were born in the Zone... 
...such animals... 
...and these are the children... 
These photographs were taken for one of the secret reports to the Central Committee of the USSR Politburo... 
Now almost all houses in the Zone look like this... 
THE 1988 EQUIPMENT THAT DESTROYED THE CITY OF SPITAK. Also in Armenia, the cities of Leninakan, Stepanavan, Kirovakan were destroyed. 58 villages in the north-west of the republic were reduced to ruins, almost 400 villages were partially destroyed. 
450 mine rescuers arrived from the fraternal union republics in Armenia. 6.5 thousand military personnel, 25 teams of military doctors, and 400 units of army equipment are participating in rescue operations in the disaster zone. 
Tens of thousands of people died, 514 thousand people were left homeless. The loss of national wealth amounted to 8.8 billion rubles. 
Over the past 80 years, this is the most powerful earthquake in the Caucasus... 
On March 1, 1995, FAMOUS TV JOURNALIST VLAD LISTYEV was KILLED at the entrance of his house. 
The murder of the general director of ORT and simply a popular person came as a shock to millions of people. He was so loved and popular that even the then head of state Boris Yeltsin, abandoning everything, rushed to Ostankino to apologize to the television crew. The investigation began almost immediately, sketches of the alleged killers were made and published, but the hot pursuit did not produce results. 
Over the past 11 years, the wording of the Prosecutor General's Office messages has remained almost unchanged. Only the volume of investigation materials has changed: this year there are already more than 200 volumes. 
CAPTURE OF BUDENNOVSK. On June 14, 1995, detachments of Chechen militants under the command of Shamil Basayev entered Budennovsk and took about 1,500 hostages. The terrorists, having made the cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations in Chechnya a condition for the release of the hostages, gained a foothold in the city hospital. 
On June 17, special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB made several attempts to storm the hospital. During these operations, both the terrorists and the attackers were killed and wounded, but the hostages suffered the most (from the attackers’ fire) - up to 30 people died and many were wounded. During the assault, the terrorists forced the hostages, including women, to stand at the windows and shout to the Russian servicemen: “Don’t shoot!” 
After the failure of the assault on June 18, through the mediation of S.A. Kovalev, negotiations began between Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and Basayev, during which it was possible to reach an agreement on the release of the hostages. The conditions for their release were: the cessation of hostilities on the territory of Chechnya and the resolution of controversial issues through negotiations. A detachment of militants traveled on buses provided by the federal side to the mountainous Chechen village of Zandak. At the same time, 120 hostages who volunteered to accompany the terrorists were used as “human shields.” In total, as a result of this terrorist action in Budennovsk, 105 civilians were killed, including 18 women, 17 men over 55 years old, a boy and a girl under 16 years old. 11 police officers and at least 14 military personnel were also killed. 
THE MURDER OF YITZHAK RABIN. Every Israeli knows the name of the killer of the Israeli prime minister. Yigal Yigal Amir is a member of the underground ultra-ultra-right nationalist organization "Eyal" (Lions of Judah). 
The murder took place on November 4, 1995 in Tel Aviv, the evening after thousands of people demonstrated in support of the peace process. Yitzhak Rabin, wounded in the back by two bullets, was taken to the nearby Ihillov hospital in the back seat of a government limousine. 
By 11 p.m., Rabin's personal secretary reported that the prime minister had been fatally shot. 
The aging leader of the Workers' Party, Yitzhak Rabin, whose policies were subject to severe criticism, was instantly canonized. It is now customary in Israel to name squares, streets and educational institutions after him... 
HOUSE EXPLOSIONS IN MOSCOW AND VOLGODONSK IN 1999. A series of terrorist attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999 claimed the lives of more than 300 people. The explosions occurred in a situation where fighting was taking place in Dagestan between federal troops and invading armed separatist detachments from Chechnya, led by Shamil Basayev... 
Explosion on Guryanov Street. On September 8, 1999, at 11:58 p.m., an explosion occurred in the basement of a 9-story residential building 19 on Guryanova Street (Pechatniki district) in the southeast of Moscow. The building was partially destroyed, one section of the residential building collapsed. Rescuers worked on the ruins of a residential building for several days... 
According to official data, the explosion killed 109 people and injured 160 people. As explosives experts established, an explosive device with a capacity of 300-400 kg of TNT went off in the basement of the house. The blast wave deformed the structures of neighboring house 19. A few days later, houses 17 and 19 were destroyed by explosives experts, the residents were relocated to other houses... 
There were speculations in the media that this was a terrorist attack. A day of mourning for those killed in the explosion was set for September 13. On the same day, a sketch of a man who allegedly rented a basement in a residential building was shown on television... 
Explosion on Kashirskoye Highway. On September 13 at 5 a.m., a new explosion occurred on Kashirskoye Highway in an 8-story residential building number 6/3. As a result of the explosion, the house was completely destroyed, almost all the residents in the residential building - 124 people - were killed, 9 people were injured and rescuers pulled them out of the rubble, and 119 families were affected. Due to the fact that the house was made of brick, almost all the inhabitants who were in it during the explosion died... 
On the same day, September 13, in the Maryino area, supplies of explosives were found in sugar bags, sufficient to destroy several more residential buildings. A state of emergency was not declared, but unprecedented security measures were taken in Moscow and other cities, and all attics and basements were checked. Residents of residential buildings spontaneously organized round-the-clock watches for several months... 
On September 16, a few days after the explosions in Moscow, at 5.40 am, the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov Region, was rocked by a terrible explosion. A GAZ-53 van filled with explosives exploded near the police department building and next to a 9-story residential building on Gagarin Street, 35. A crater with a diameter of 15 m and a depth of 3 m formed in the courtyard of the house. 437 people lived in 144 apartments of the panel building - 18 people died. 
TRAGEDY IN THE TRANSITION ON PUSHKIN SQUARE. Another powerful explosion occurred in Moscow. The explosive device was planted by two young Caucasians... 
They allegedly approached commercial booth number 40 and asked to sell them goods for US dollars. The seller refused, then the young people asked the seller to look after the bag while they went to exchange dollars for rubles. Literally a few minutes after they left, a homemade explosive device lying in the bag with a capacity of 400 grams to 1.5 kg of TNT went off... 
According to witnesses who were in the passage at that moment, there was first a strong bang and a bright flash, then a blast wave rolled through the tunnel and heavy smoke poured out. People began to run out. Those who were closer to the epicenter had numerous burns and wounds, and blood was pouring out. The explosion was so powerful that it literally tore the clothes off the victims... 
The explosion killed 7 people, 93 sought medical help. Of these, 59 people were taken to city hospitals, 34 refused hospitalization. Among the victims were three children... 
THE DEATH OF "KURSK". On August 12, 2000, a tragedy broke out in the Barants Sea, riveting hundreds of millions of people to their television screens 
For several days, Russian and British naval forces tried to rescue 118 crew members of the nuclear submarine from underwater captivity. 
However, all efforts were in vain... 
As the investigation later established, the tragedy was caused by the explosion of the so-called “thick torpedo” in the torpedo compartment. All submariners on board died. 
TRAGEDY AT DUBROVKA. On October 23, 2002, at 21:15, armed people in camouflage burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, on Melnikov Street (formerly the Palace of Culture of the State Bearing Plant). At that time, the musical “Nord-Ost” was playing at the cultural center; there were more than 700 people in the hall. The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building... 
At 10 o'clock in the evening it became known that the theater building was captured by a detachment of Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev, among the terrorists there were women, all of them were hung with explosives... 
On October 24, at a quarter past midnight, the first attempt was made to establish contact with the terrorists: State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov entered the center building. At half past midnight, several shots were heard in the building. The hostages who managed to contact the television companies by mobile phones asked not to begin the assault: “These people say that for every one of their own killed or wounded, they will kill 10 hostages”... 
On October 26, at five hours and 30 minutes, three explosions and several machine gun bursts were heard near the Palace of Culture building. At about six o'clock the special forces began the assault, during which nerve gas was used. At half past seven in the morning, an official representative of the FSB reported that the Theater Center was under the control of the special services, Movsar Barayev and most of the terrorists had been destroyed... 
At 7:25 a.m., Russian Presidential Assistant Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially announced that the operation to free the hostages was completed. The number of neutralized terrorists in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka alone amounted to 50 people - 18 women and 32 men. Three terrorists detained... 
On November 7, 2002, the Moscow prosecutor's office published a list of citizens who died as a result of the actions of terrorists who seized the theater center on Dubrovka. It included 128 people: 120 Russians and 8 citizens from near and far abroad countries. Five hostages received gunshot wounds as a result of the militants' actions. The four dead hostages could not be identified for a long time, and their names were not included in the lists of health authorities... 
SEPTEMBER 11 – WAR WITHOUT RULES. America has never known such a tragedy... The worst nightmares have come true... Manhattan, 8 hours 44 minutes in the morning on September 11, 2001, a minute before the tragedy. 
At 8:45 a.m., the first kamikaze plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. The footage shows how the second one flies up... 
One of the towers, 110 floors high, was rammed right through... 
An explosion and immediately a strong fire. The last person to answer the phone from the upper floors shouted "We are dying!" 
A series of powerful explosions took place along the perimeter of the Twin Towers... 
The fire burst out. The top of the building “falls” into the base... 
The two tallest buildings of the World Trade Center collapsed after standing for less than an hour... 
The streets of Manhattan south of Colon Street are shrouded in such dense smoke that rescuers cannot get there... 
BESLAN - A BITTER LESSON. At approximately 8 a.m. on September 1, 2004, near the village of Khurikau, on the border of the Mozdok and Pravoberezhny regions of North Ossetia, approximately 60 km from Beslan, armed people stopped a local district police officer, a police major, and put him in their car. According to preliminary data, it was with the help of the ID of an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the militants in a GAZ-66 and two cars freely passed several checkpoints on the way to Beslan... 
During the ceremonial assembly on the occasion of September 1, they broke into the territory of school No. 1. In total, according to the education committee of the Beslan administration, 895 students and 59 teachers and technical staff of the school were present at the line. The number of parents who came to see their children off to school is unknown... 
Having opened indiscriminate fire in the air, the militants ordered everyone present to enter the school building, but the majority - mostly high school students and adults - were able to simply run away. Those who could not do this - primary school students and their parents and some teachers - were driven into the gym by the bandits... 
Then everything happened like in a nightmare... An explosion was recorded inside the school. Data on the number of hostages is still scattered. Based on lists compiled by relatives and parents of students, it was established that there could be 132 children in the school. In total, according to unconfirmed data, the militants managed to capture from 300 to 400 people... 
Information appears that the gym is mined... Bodies are burning in the gym, they are being poured from fire hoses. Strong explosions inside the school occur with some persistent frequency. Meanwhile, the crowd slowly but surely begins to approach the building. Soldiers of the internal troops are trying to get in their way. “Better let me in,” one of the men says calmly. And they retreat. People want to go to the gym and see with their own eyes how many people were killed there... 
The hostages are shot, they die from dehydration and suffocation... 
This is what the gym looked like after the assault... 
Sad results: in Beslan they say that about six hundred people were saved. No one denies that there were at least a thousand hostages - so the total number of victims is about 400 people. There is still no exact data - many are missing... 
At the end of December 2004, the strongest earthquake and tsunami in the last 40 years occurred in six countries in Southeast Asia. 
The first and most powerful earthquake occurred on December 26 at about 03:00 in the Indian Ocean. Literally a few minutes later, a destructive tsunami wave reached land - first of all, the island of Sumatra (Indonesia), and then Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives / 
Eyewitnesses described how, in absolutely sunny, windless weather, the water suddenly began to recede from the beach, and then a six-meter wave formed. Those who were able to escape in these few minutes were saved. Tons of water swept away everything in its path: people, cars and even entire hotels 
The number of victims reached 400 thousand people. About 100 thousand more have not yet been found or identified. 
The largest number of victims - more than 10 thousand - was registered in Indonesia, off the coast of which there was an epicenter measuring 9 points on the Richter scale. 
Then hundreds of settlements were flooded and wiped off the face of the earth. 
Seismologists call the December events exceptional. According to them, no more than five such earthquakes have been recorded over the past century. 
This region of South-East Asia still cannot recover from the terrible destruction. 
Below is a list of the ten largest natural disasters in human history. The rating is based on the number of deaths.
Earthquake in Aleppo
Death toll: about 230,000
The ranking of the largest natural disasters in human history opens with the Aleppo earthquake of magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale, which occurred in several stages near the city of Aleppo in northern Syria on October 11, 1138. It is often cited as the fourth-deadliest earthquake in history. According to the Damascus chronicler Ibn al-Qalanisi, approximately 230,000 people died as a result of this disaster.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
Number of victims: 225,000–300,000
An underwater earthquake that occurred on December 26, 2004 in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of North Sumatra, 250 kilometers southeast of the city of Banda Aceh. Considered one of the strongest earthquakes of the 20th–21st centuries. Its magnitude, according to various estimates, ranged from 9.1 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. Occurring at a depth of about 30 km, the earthquake caused a series of destructive tsunamis, the height of which exceeded 15 meters. These waves caused enormous destruction and took the lives of, according to various estimates, from 225 thousand to 300 thousand people in 14 countries. The coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand were hit the hardest by the tsunami.
Death toll: 171,000–230,000
Banqiao Dam is a dam on the Zhuhe River, Henan Province, China. On August 8, 1975, due to the powerful Typhoon Nina, the dam was destroyed, thereby causing flooding and a huge wave 10 km wide and 3–7 meters high. This disaster, according to various estimates, claimed the lives of from 171,000 to 230,000 people, of whom about 26,000 died directly from the flood. The rest died from subsequent epidemics and famine. In addition, 11 million people lost their homes.
Number of victims: 242,419
The Tangshan earthquake, measuring 8.2 on the Richter scale, is the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century. It happened on July 28, 1976 in the Chinese city of Tangshan at 3:42 local time. Its hypocenter was located near the millionaire industrial city at a depth of 22 km. The 7.1 aftershocks caused even more damage. According to the Chinese government, the number of victims was 242,419 people, but according to other sources, about 800,000 inhabitants died, and another 164,000 were seriously injured. The earthquake also affected settlements located 150 kilometers from the epicenter, including Tianjin and Beijing. More than 5,000,000 houses were completely destroyed.
Flood in Kaifeng
Death toll: 300,000–378,000
The Kaifeng flood is a man-made disaster that primarily struck Kaifeng. This city is located on the southern bank of the Yellow River in the Chinese province of Henan. In 1642, the city was flooded by the Yellow River after the Ming Dynasty army opened the dams to prevent the advance of Li Zicheng's troops. Then the flood and subsequent famine and plague killed about 300,000–378,000 people.
Indian Cyclone – 1839
Death toll: over 300,000
Fifth place in the ranking of the largest natural disasters in history is occupied by the Indian cyclone of 1839. On November 16, 1839, a 12-meter wave caused by a powerful storm completely destroyed the large port city of Coringa, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. More than 300,000 people died then. After the disaster, the city was never rebuilt. Nowadays in its place there is a small village with a population (2011) of 12,495 inhabitants.
Death toll: approximately 830,000
This earthquake, measuring approximately 8.0 magnitude, occurred on January 23, 1556, in the Shaanxi province of China, during the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 districts were affected by it, everything was destroyed in an area of 840 km, and in some areas 60% of the population died. In total, the China earthquake killed approximately 830,000 people, more than any other earthquake in human history. The huge number of victims is due to the fact that the majority of the population of the province lived in loess caves, which were destroyed or flooded by mudflows immediately after the first tremors.
Number of victims: 300,000–500,000
The most destructive tropical cyclone in history, it struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and the Indian state of West Bengal on November 12, 1970. It killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people, mostly as a result of a 9m high surge that swamped many low-lying islands in the Ganges delta. The sub-districts of Thani and Tazumuddin were the hardest hit by the cyclone, killing more than 45% of the population.
Death toll: about 900,000
This devastating flood occurred on September 28, 1887 in Henan Province, China. The torrential rains that fell here for many days were to blame. Due to the rains, the water level in the Yellow River rose and destroyed a dam near the city of Zhengzhou. The water quickly spread throughout northern China, covering an area of approximately 130,000 square meters. km, taking the lives of about 900 thousand people, and leaving approximately 2 million homeless.
Number of victims: 145,000–4,000,000
The world's largest natural disaster is the Chinese flood, or more precisely a series of floods that occurred in 1931 in South-Central China. This disaster was preceded by a drought that lasted from 1928 to 1930. However, the following winter was very snowy, there was a lot of rain in the spring, and during the summer months, the country suffered from heavy rains. All these facts contributed to the fact that the three largest rivers in China: the Yangtze, Huaihe, and Yellow River overflowed their banks, taking the lives of, according to various sources, from 145 thousand to 4 million people. Also, the largest natural disaster in history caused epidemics of cholera and typhoid, and also led to famine, during which cases of infanticide and cannibalism were recorded.
Sometimes it is quite difficult to assess the scale of a particular global catastrophe, because the consequences of some of them can appear many years after the incident itself.
In this article we will present the 13 worst disasters in the world. Among them are incidents that occurred on water, in the air, and on land, due to human fault and for reasons beyond his control, widely known and those that not a very large circle of people know about.
The wreck of the superliner Titanic
Date Time: 14.04.1912 - 15.04.1912
Primary victims: at least 1.5 thousand people
Secondary victims: unknown
The British superliner Titanic, which was called the “most luxurious ship” of its time and “unsinkable,” gained worldwide fame. Unfortunately - sad. On the night of April 14-15, during its maiden voyage, the superliner collided with an iceberg and sank after more than two hours. The disaster was accompanied by numerous casualties among passengers and crew.
On April 10, 1912, the liner set out on its last voyage from the port of Southampton to New York, America, with almost 2.5 thousand people on board - passengers and crew members. One of the reasons for the disaster was that there was a tense ice situation on the liner’s route, but for some reason the captain of the Titanic, Edward Smith, did not attach any importance to this even after receiving numerous warnings about floating icebergs from other ships. The airliner was moving almost at its maximum speed (21-22 knots); there is a version that Smith fulfilled the unofficial requirement of the White Star Line company, which owned the Titanic, to receive the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, a prize for the fastest ocean crossing, on the first voyage.
Late at night on April 14, the superliner collided with an iceberg. An ice block, which the lookout did not notice in time, pierced the five bow compartments of the ship on the starboard side, which began to fill with water. The problem turned out to be that the designers did not count on the occurrence of a 90-meter hole in the ship, and here the entire survivability system was powerless. In addition, the “ultra-safe” and “unsinkable” ship did not have a sufficient number of lifeboats, and those that were, for the most part, turned out to be irrationally used (12-20 people floated away on the first boats, 65 on the last ones). -80 with a capacity of 60 people). The result of the disaster was the death, according to various sources, from 1496 to 1522 passengers and crew members.
Today, the remains of the Titanic rest at a depth of about 3.5 km in the Atlantic. The ship's hull is gradually deteriorating and will finally disappear at the turn of the 21st and 22nd centuries.
Explosion of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
Date Time: 26.04.1986
Primary victims: 31 people from the duty shift of Chernobyl NPP-4 and fire crews who arrived to extinguish the fire
Secondary victims: 124 people suffered acute radiation sickness but survived; up to 4 thousand liquidators died within 10 years after liquidation; from 600,000 to a million suffered from eliminating the consequences of radioactive contamination and staying in contaminated areas or as the radioactive cloud moved
The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is a man-made disaster on the territory of Ukraine, between the cities of Pripyat and Chernobyl. As a result of the explosion of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a large amount of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere, which led to the contamination of surrounding areas and the formation of a radioactive cloud that swept across the territory of the USSR, Europe and reached the United States.
The accident occurred due to several factors - haste on the part of the Chernobyl NPP management, insufficient competence of the ChNPP-4 duty shift, errors in the design and construction of the RBMK-1000 reactor and the nuclear power plant unit itself. On the morning of April 26, reactor tests were planned at Chernobyl NPP-4, which were supposed to demonstrate the ability to operate the reactor cooling system in the interval between shutting down the reactor and starting the emergency diesel generators. However, due to some factors, the test was postponed to the night from April 26 to 27, which is why it was carried out by an unprepared and not warned in advance shift, and xenon gas accumulated in the reactor during 10 hours of idling operation.
All this together led to the fact that when the reactor was artificially shut down, its power first fell below a critical level, and then began to grow like an avalanche. Attempts to activate AZ-5 (emergency protection) instead of eliminating the emergency situation worked as an additional catalyst for increasing the temperature of the reactor, and as a result a powerful explosion occurred. Only one person died directly from the explosion; another died a few hours later from his injuries. The remaining victims received shock doses of radiation in the process of extinguishing the fire and the initial liquidation of the consequences, due to which 29 more people died over the subsequent months of 1986.
The population of the first 10-kilometer and then 30-kilometer zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was resettled. The evicted people were told that they would return back in three days. However, no one actually returned back. Elimination of the consequences of the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant took more than a year, cost billions of rubles, and 240 thousand people passed through the ChEZ in 1986-1987. The city of Pripyat was completely abandoned, hundreds of villages were razed, Chernobyl-4 is now a partially populated city - military, police and employees of the remaining three Chernobyl nuclear power plant units live there.
Terrorist attack 9/11
Date Time: 11.09.2001
Primary victims: 19 terrorists, 2977 police, military, firefighters, doctors and civilians
Secondary victims: 24 people missing, the exact number of injured is unknown
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (better known as 9/11) are the largest terrorist attack in American history. A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks claimed nearly three thousand lives and caused massive destruction to the buildings attacked.
According to the official version of events, on the morning of September 11, four groups of a total of 19 terrorists, armed only with plastic knives, hijacked four passenger airliners, sending them to targets - the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon and the White House (or the Capitol) in Washington. The first three planes hit targets; what happened on board the fourth is not known for certain - according to the official version, the passengers clashed with terrorists, which is why the plane crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching its target.
Of the more than 16 thousand people who were in both WTC towers, at least 1,966 people died - mainly those who were at the sites of the aircraft attacks and on the floors above, and also at the time of the collapse of the towers, assisting the victims and carrying out the evacuation. 125 people died in the Pentagon building. All 246 passengers and crew members of the hijacked planes were also killed, along with 19 terrorists. In the process of eliminating the consequences of the terrorist attack, 341 firefighters, 2 paramedics, 60 police officers and 8 ambulance workers died. The final death toll in New York alone was 2,606.
The terrorist attack of 9/11 became a real tragedy in the United States; citizens of 91 other countries also died. The terrorist attack provoked the US invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, and later Syria under the banner of the fight against terrorism. Disputes about the true causes of the terrorist attack and the course of events on this tragic day have not subsided to this day.
Fukushima-1 accident
Date Time: 11.03.2011
Primary victims: 1 person died from the consequences of radiation poisoning, about 50 people died during the evacuation
Secondary victims: up to 150,000 people were evacuated from the radioactive contamination zone, more than 1,000 of them died within a year of the disaster
The disaster, which occurred on March 11, 2011, simultaneously combines the features of man-made and natural disasters. A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of nine and the subsequent tsunami caused a failure of the power supply system of the Daiichi nuclear plant, as a result of which the cooling process of reactors with nuclear fuel was stopped.
In addition to the monstrous destruction that was caused by the earthquake and tsunami, this incident led to serious radioactive contamination of the territory and water area. In addition, the Japanese authorities had to evacuate up to one hundred and fifty thousand people due to the high likelihood of severe illness due to exposure to severe radioactive radiation. The combination of all these consequences gives the right to the Fukushima accident to be called one of the worst disasters in the world in the twenty-first century.
The total damage from the accident is estimated at $100 billion. This amount includes the costs of liquidation of consequences and payment of compensation. But we must not forget that work to eliminate the consequences of the disaster is still ongoing, which accordingly increases this amount.
In 2013, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was officially closed, and only work to eliminate the consequences of the accident is being carried out on its territory. Experts believe that it will take at least forty years to clean up the building and the contaminated area.
The consequences of the Fukushima accident are a reassessment of safety measures in the nuclear energy industry, a drop in the price of natural uranium, and, accordingly, a decrease in the prices of shares of uranium mining companies.
Collision at Los Rodeos Airport
Date Time: 27.03.1977
Primary victims: 583 people - passengers and crew of both airliners
Secondary victims: unknown
Perhaps the world's worst disaster resulting from an aircraft collision was the collision of two aircraft in the Canary Islands (Tenerife) in 1977. At Los Rodeos airport, two Boeing 747 airliners, which belonged to KLM and Pan American, collided on the runway. As a result, 583 out of 644 people died, including both passengers and airline crews.
One of the main reasons for this situation was the terrorist attack at Las Palmas airport, which was carried out by terrorists from the MPAIAC organization (Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario). The terrorist attack itself did not cause any casualties, but the airport administration closed the airport and stopped accepting planes, fearing further incidents.
Because of this, Los Rodeos became congested as it was diverted by planes that were bound for Las Palmas, in particular two Boeing 747 flights PA1736 and KL4805. It should be noted that the plane, owned by Pan American, had sufficient fuel to land at another airport, but the pilots obeyed the dispatcher's order.
The cause of the collision itself was fog, which severely limited visibility, as well as difficulties in negotiations between controllers and pilots, which were caused by the thick accents of the controllers, and the fact that the pilots were constantly interrupting each other.
Collision « Dona Paz" with a tanker « Vector"
Date Time: 20.12.1987
Primary victims: up to 4386 people, of which 11 are crew members of the tanker “Vector”
Secondary victims: unknown
On December 20, 1987, the Philippine-registered passenger ferry Doña Paz collided with the oil tanker Vector, resulting in the world's worst peacetime disaster on the water.
At the time of the collision, the ferry was following its standard Manila-Catbalogan route, which it travels twice a week. On December 20, 1987, at about 06:30, the Doña Paz sailed from Tacloban bound for Manila. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the ferry was passing through the Tablas Strait near Marinduque, and survivors reported clear but rough seas.
The collision occurred after the passengers had fallen asleep; the ferry collided with the Vector tanker, which was transporting gasoline and oil products. Immediately after the collision, a strong fire broke out due to the fact that oil products spilled into the sea. The strong impact and fire almost instantly caused panic among passengers; in addition, according to survivors, there were not the required number of life jackets on the ferry.
Only 26 people survived, of which 24 were passengers from Donya Paz and two people from the Vector tanker.
Mass poisoning in Iraq, 1971
Date Time: autumn 1971 - end of March 1972
Primary victims: officially - from 459 to 6,000 deaths, unofficially - up to 100,000 deaths
Secondary victims: according to various sources, up to 3 million people who could have suffered from poisoning in one way or another
At the end of 1971, a shipment of grain treated with methylmercury was imported into Iraq from Mexico. Of course, the grain was not intended to be processed into food, and was to be used only for planting. Unfortunately, the local population did not know Spanish, and accordingly all the warning signs that read “Do not eat” turned out to be incomprehensible.
It should also be noted that the grain was delivered to Iraq late, since the planting season had already passed. All this led to the fact that in some villages grain treated with methylmercury began to be eaten.
After eating this grain, symptoms such as numbness of the limbs, loss of vision, and loss of coordination were observed. As a result of criminal negligence, according to official data, about one hundred thousand people suffered from mercury poisoning, of whom from 459 to 6 thousand died (unofficial data show other pictures - up to 3 million victims, up to 100 thousand deaths).
This incident led the World Health Organization to monitor grain circulation more closely and take the labeling of potentially hazardous products more seriously.
Mass destruction of sparrows in China
Date Time: 1958-1961
Primary victims: at least 1.96 billion sparrows, no known human casualties
Secondary victims: 10 to 30 million Chinese died from famine in 1960-1961
As part of the “Great Leap Forward” economic policy, China, under the leadership of the Communist Party and Mao Zedong, carried out a large-scale fight against agricultural pests, among which the Chinese authorities identified the four most terrible ones - mosquitoes, rats, flies and sparrows.
Employees of the Chinese Research Institute of Zoology calculated that because of sparrows, the amount of grain that could feed about thirty-five million people was lost during the year. Based on this, a plan was developed to exterminate these birds, which was approved by Mao Zedong on March 18, 1958.
All the peasants began to actively hunt birds. The most effective method was to keep them from falling to the ground. To do this, adults and children shouted, hit basins, waved poles, rags, etc. This made it possible to frighten the sparrows and prevent them from landing on the ground for fifteen minutes. As a result, the birds simply dropped dead.
After a year of hunting sparrows, the harvest really increased. However, later caterpillars, locusts, and other pests that ate the shoots began to actively breed. This led to the fact that after another year, harvests fell sharply, and famine occurred, which led to the death of 10 to 30 million people.
Piper Alpha oil rig disaster
Date Time: 06.07.1988
Primary victims: 167 platform staff
Secondary victims: unknown
The Piper Alpha platform was built in 1975, and oil production started on it in 1976. Over time, it was converted for gas production. However, on July 6, 1988, a gas leak occurred, which led to an explosion.
Due to indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 on the platform died.
Of course, after this event, oil and gas production on this platform was completely stopped. Insured losses totaled approximately US$3.4 billion. This is one of the most famous disasters in the world associated with the oil industry.
Death of the Aral Sea
Date Time: 1960 - present day
Primary victims: unknown
Secondary victims: unknown
This incident is the biggest environmental disaster on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior in North America, and Lake Victoria in Africa. Now in its place is the Aralkum desert.
The reason for the disappearance of the Aral Sea is the creation of new irrigation canals for agricultural enterprises in Turkmenistan, which took water from the Syrdarya and Amu Darya rivers. Because of this, the lake has retreated greatly from the shore, which has led to the exposure of the bottom covered with sea salt, pesticides and chemicals.
Due to natural evaporation, the Aral Sea lost about a thousand cubic kilometers of water between 1960 and 2007. In 1989, the reservoir split into two parts, and in 2003, the volume of water was about 10% of its original volume.
The result of this incident was serious changes in climate and landscape. In addition, of the 178 species of vertebrate animals that lived in the Aral Sea, only 38 remain.
Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion
Date Time: 20.04.2010
Primary victims: 11 platform personnel, 2 accident liquidators
Secondary victims: 17 platform staff
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that occurred on April 20, 2010 is considered one of the largest man-made disasters in terms of its negative impact on the environmental situation. 11 people died directly from the explosion and 17 were injured. Two more people died during the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.
Due to the fact that the explosion damaged pipes at a depth of 1,500 meters, approximately five million barrels of oil spilled into the sea over 152 days, creating a slick with an area of 75,000 kilometers; in addition, 1,770 kilometers of coastline were polluted.
The oil spill threatened 400 species of animals and also led to a fishing ban.
Eruption of Mont Pele volcano
Date Time: 8.05.1902
Primary victims: from 28 to 40 thousand people
Secondary victims: not established for certain
On May 8, 1902, one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in human history occurred. This incident led to the emergence of a new classification of volcanic eruptions, and changed the attitude of many scientists to volcanology.
The volcano awakened back in April 1902, and within a month, hot vapors and gases, as well as lava, accumulated inside. A month later, a huge grayish cloud burst out at the foot of the volcano. The peculiarity of this eruption is that the lava did not come out from the top, but from side craters that were located on the slopes. As a result of a powerful explosion, one of the main ports of the island of Martinique, the city of Saint-Pierre, was completely destroyed. The disaster claimed the lives of at least 28 thousand people.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis
Date Time: 02.05.2008
Primary victims: up to 90 thousand people
Secondary victims: at least 1.5 million injured, 56 thousand missing
This disaster unfolded as follows:
- Cyclone Nargis formed on April 27, 2008, in the Bay of Bengal, and initially moved towards the coast of India, in a northwest direction;
- On April 28, it stops moving, but the wind speed in the spiral vortices began to increase significantly. Because of this, the cyclone began to be classified as a hurricane;
- On April 29, the wind speed reached 160 kilometers per hour, and the cyclone resumed movement, but in a northeast direction;
- On May 1, the wind direction changed to the east, and at the same time the wind was constantly increasing;
- On May 2, the wind speed reached 215 kilometers per hour, and at noon it reached the coast of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Province.
According to the UN, 1.5 million people were injured as a result of the violence, of whom 90 thousand died and 56 thousand were missing. In addition, the major city of Yangon was seriously damaged, and many settlements were completely destroyed. Part of the country was left without telephone communications, internet and electricity. The streets were littered with debris, debris from buildings and trees.
To eliminate the consequences of this disaster, the united forces of many countries of the world and international organizations such as the UN, EU, and UNESCO were needed.
War claims tens of thousands of human lives, but even the bloodiest one cannot compare with the elements: the planet does not spare us - and does not even pay attention to the number of victims suffered from cyclones, floods and other terrible misfortunes. What's worse - a tornado or a fire? What are the chances of surviving a volcanic eruption? What about during an avalanche? Unfortunately, the answer in both cases is minimal. We have collected 10 of the most terrible natural disasters in the entire history of mankind: apparently, nature is beginning, gradually, to punish us for the careless destruction of the planet.
Eruption of Mont Pele volcano
1902 On May 8, 1902, the Mont Pele volcano, which had been dormant peacefully for decades, suddenly exploded. This catastrophe simply cannot be called an eruption: lava flows and pieces of rock literally destroyed the main port of Martinique, Saint-Pierre. In just a few minutes, as many as 36,000 people died.
Flood in China
1931 The beginning of 1931 became a terrible test for the entire people of China. A series of terrible floods, which modern historians call the worst natural disaster in human history, claimed almost 4 million lives.
Fire in Curonian-2
1936 The summer of 1936 turned out to be very hot. The fire that started near the village was fanned by the wind. The fire moved towards the people. At night, a train approached the village, and work began to save the logging site. At the very end, when the danger was very high, the train moved away - the villagers were sitting on logs. When the train approached the canal, the wooden bridge was already on fire. A train loaded with logs took over from him. People were burning alive. About 1,200 people died in one night.
Avalanche of Huascaran
1970 An earthquake off the coast of Peru destabilizes the northern slope of the majestic double-humped Mount Huascaran. An avalanche of ice and rock rushed down at a speed of 180 miles per hour. The town of Jungau, located on the spur of Huascaran, has already encountered 80 million cubic meters of mud, ice and snow. Of the 25,000 residents of the village, none survived.
Cyclone Bhola
1970 This tropical cyclone is recognized as one of the most destructive natural disasters of the modern world. The storm surge that hit the islands of the Ganges Delta killed half a million people. Once again, think about this number: 500,000 people died in just one day.
Storm in Iran
1972 A terrible snow storm lasted a whole week: rural areas of Iran were completely covered with a three-meter layer of snow. Some villages were literally buried under avalanches. Subsequently, authorities counted as many as 4,000 people dead.
Tanshan earthquake
1976 This natural disaster occurred in the Chinese city of Tangshan. At about four o'clock in the morning, at a depth of 22 kilometers, a powerful earthquake occurred. The city was destroyed to the ground, none of the 655,000 people survived.
Tornado in Daulatpur
1989 Observers noticed a deadly tornado, the radius of which exceeded 1.5 kilometers, on the morning of April 26. A little later, this giant fell on Bangladesh. The tornado was powerful enough to easily lift entire houses into the air. People were literally torn apart: in just one day, about one and a half thousand people died, another 12 thousand ended up in the hospital.
European heat
2003 The summer heat wave of 2003 killed 70,000 people. According to the authorities, the local health care system was simply not designed for such incredible loads. It is noteworthy that weather forecasters claim a repetition of such a heat attack approximately every thirteen years.
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