Disaster

A disaster is natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing destruction, loss of lives and sometimes permament changes to natural environment.

Ancient times :

• Vesuvius? volcano eruption

Modern times :

• Krakatau volcano eruption (August 27 1883)
• Titanic sinking (April 15 1912)
• Hindenburg? catastrophe (May 6 1937)
• Shooting down of Boeing 747 KAL007 (September 1 1983)
• Chernobyl atomic power-plant explosion (May 25 1986)
• Challenger [space shuttle]? explosion (January 28 1986)
• Estonia ferry sinking (September 28 1994)
• The Boston Molasses Disaster (January 15 1919)
• Halifax explosion (December 6 1917)
• Crashing of B-25 into Empire State Building (July 28 1945

Commonly called a disaster :

• [Three Mile Island]?. (March 28 1979) A pump in the reactor cooling system fails; the plant barely avoids a total meltdown. A class-action lawsuit against the company owning the Three Mile Island plant is dismissed nearly two decades after the incident, for lack of evidence. The Three Mile Island incident remains the worst nuclear accident in United States history.