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Today in History

Dec. 6 1884 - The construction of the Washington Monument was completed by Army engineers. The project took 34 years
 
Isn't this the one they say is still burning?

December 6, 1907,
The Monongah coal mine disaster kills 361
In West Virginia’s Marion County, an explosion in a network of mines owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah kills 361 coal miners. It was the worst mining disaster in American history.

Citation linked here
 
Isn't this the one they say is still burning?
You may be thinking of this one
The Centralia mine fire is a coal-seam fire that has been burning underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. The original cause of the fire is still a matter of debate.
 
Thanks for posting these Mark.........mostly sad, but interesting.

I did not realize the Washington Monument was that old.
 
The hardest video on this subject I have ever seen is one on youtube about the Station Nightclub. It's not a fancy video. It's raw footage of someone that made it out. Video starts inside as this person exits early and then it continues horribly from there.

It's just plain horrible, but everyone should watch it at least once. Everyone. Not for entertainment, but for awareness of how fast things can go sour.
 
Dec 7 1946: Fire engulfs Winecoff Hotel
Fire broke out at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, killing 119 people, including hotel founder W. Frank Winecoff. Advertised as "absolutely fireproof", the Winecoff was a 15-story hotel downtown Atlanta, originally constructed in 1912. Of the 304 guests in the hotel that night, 119 died, about 65 were injured and about 120 were rescued uninjured.
 

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The hardest video on this subject I have ever seen is one on youtube about the Station Nightclub. It's not a fancy video. It's raw footage of someone that made it out. Video starts inside as this person exits early and then it continues horribly from there.

It's just plain horrible, but everyone should watch it at least once. Everyone. Not for entertainment, but for awareness of how fast things can go sour.
The video was shot by cameraman Brian Butler, a Providence new station videographer doing a story on nigh club safety.

I recommend anyone in the coe enforce profession read this book;

John Barylick, "Killer Show: The Station Nightclub Fire, America's Deadliest Rock Concert."
 
DECEMBER 22, 1910 - CHICAGO, IL 21 Firefighters Killed.

On December 22, 1910, The Chicago Union Stock Yards Fire resulted in the deaths of 21 firefighters, which until September 11, 2001 was the largest single instance of firefighter line of duty deaths in the United States.

It was 24 degrees outside at 4 a.m. on Dec. 22, 1910, the first full day of winter. In the unlit basement of a packing house in the Union Stock Yards, that coal-black cold was being replaced by the glow of sparking wires, and then the first flames of a fire fed by combustibles ranging from rags to raw meat.
Within little more than an hour, that fire would grow to engulf warehouse No. 7 of the Morris & Co. plant. Then, in a few horrendous seconds, it would turn the nearly windowless brick building at 44th and Loomis streets from just another meat-packing operation into a graveyard.

Until the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, no single disaster in the history of the United States claimed the lives of more firefighters.

Credit through Roy Liard Jr. to Facebook group Fire Service Line of Duty Deaths linked here
 
Italian Hall Disaster” of December 24, 1913.


It’s oft-repeated that, in spite of our freedom of speech, one still can’t yell “fire!” in a crowded room. For a chilling illustration, look no further than the event known as the “Italian Hall Disaster” of December 1913.

Calumet’s Italian Hall was a two-story building with a single steep stairway leading to the second floor. Hundreds of partygoers gathered upstairs to eat, drink, and be merry that night. What exactly happened next is uncertain. Someone yelled, “fire!” into the crowded room, likely from the foot of the stairs, even though there was no fire.

Revelers rushed to escape the apparent blaze. Seventy-three people—59 of them children—died in the ensuing stampede. They were either trampled underfoot suffocated in the crush of bodies.

source material linked here
 
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Mar. 10 1933: Long Beach earthquake
An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.3 struck Southern California, U.S. With its epicenter in Long Beach, it resulted in the death of more than 115 people and severely damaged buildings throughout the region
 
March 17th 1909 - Taiwan Earthquake
A powerful earthquake and aftershocks rock Taiwan , killing over 1,200 people.
The 1909 April 14 Taiwan earthquake caused significant damage in Taipei. Most of the information on this earthquake available until now is from the written reports on its macro-seismic effects and from seismic station bulletins. In view of the importance of this event for assessing the shaking hazard in the present-day Taipei, we collected historical seismograms and station bulletins of this event and investigated them in conjunction with other seismological data. We compared the observed seismograms with those from recent earthquakes in similar tectonic environments to characterize the 1909 earthquake. Despite the inevitably large uncertainties associated with old data, we conclude that the 1909 Taipei earthquake is a relatively deep (50–100 km) intraplate earthquake that occurred within the subducting Philippine Sea Plate beneath Taipei with an estimated MW of 7 ± 0.3. Some intraplate events elsewhere in the world are enriched in high-frequency energy and the resulting ground motions can be very strong. Thus, despite its relatively large depth and a moderately large magnitude, it would be prudent to review the safety of the existing structures in Taipei against large intraplate earthquakes like the 1909 Taipei earthquake.
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March 30th- not construction related


1822: Florida becomes a US territory
The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States between March 30, 1822 and March 3, 1845. On March 3, 1845 it was admitted to the Union as the State of Florida.
1867: Alaska is purchased for $7.2 million
U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward, under President Andrew Johnson, signed a treaty with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $7.2 million. The deal’s detractors in Congress took to calling it “Seward’s folly,” “Seward’s icebox” and “Johnson’s polar bear garden.”
1870: The Fifteenth Amendment is adopted
The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited denying citizens the right to vote and hold office on the basis of race, is declared in effect by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish.
1965: Explosion in front of the US Embassy in Vietnam
22 people were killed while more than 180 were injured after a bomb in a car parked outside the U.S. Embassy exploded, in Saigon, Vietnam. The explosion destroyed almost the entire building.
1981: Assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan
John Hinckley Jr. shot the U.S. president in the chest outside a Washington, D.C. hotel, where he addressed a labor meeting. Hinckley fired six shots that hit Reagan, White House Press Secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and District of Columbia police officer Thomas Delahaney. Reagan survived the assassination after a two-hour surgery.
2017: Atlanta's Interstate 85 bridge collapses
A bridge on Interstate 85 interstate highway in Atlanta, Georgia collapsed after a massive fire erupted during evening rush hours. Commuters were stuck for hours during the evening rush before they were redirected by the transport officials which also prevented any loss of life or injury. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for Atlanta and Fulton County later that night.
 
Rhythm Club Fire

April 23, 1940

Source linked here

Each year, on March 25th, historians and journalists mark the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 145 immigrant women in New York City. The calamity is an object lesson in the histories of immigration, women’s lives, labor conditions, and safety hazards. It is regularly taught in undergraduate survey courses in American history, and rightly so.

Nearly three decades after the Triangle Shirtwaist blaze, another fire claimed even more lives. Known as the Rhythm Club Fire, it occurred in the small town of Natchez, Mississippi, on April 23, 1940. Those who died in the Rhythm Club dance hall in Natchez were all African American; however, except for case studies written by firefighters who rank it as the fourth deadliest club fire in the history of the country, this tragedy is barely known to the American public.
 
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