Worst U.S. Disasters

Highest Death Tolls

  1. 1862, Sept. 17 - Battle of Antietam in the Civil War had the highest number of casualties in a single day, a total of 26,193 including 4710 dead and 3043 missing. Total Civil War casualties were 1,094,453 including 623,026 dead.
  2. 1918 - Spanish influenza killed 670,000 Americans during the year nation-wide. It killed 43,000 U.S. soldiers, one-third of the 116,516 U.S. military deaths in WWI. It was the world's most deadly pandemic, killing 20-40m worldwide, more than the Black Death of 1347-51.
  3. 1944, June 6, - D-Day invasion of France in World War II resulted in U.S. casualties in the first day of 6577, including 1465 dead and 1928 missing. Total World War II U. S. military casualties during its 1364 days of participation were 1,078,162. Total dead were 407,316, including 292,131 from battle and 115,185 from other causes. Death tolls in other countries were far higher: Russia lost 7m soldiers and 7m civilians (but may have been as high as 35m); Poland lost 6m or 20% of its population; Germany lost 5m; Japan lost 2m; France lost 600,000; Italy lost 330,000; Britain lost 300,000. Of the world total 50m dead, 17m were soldiers and 33m were civilians. Of the civilians, 12m died in concentrations camps (6m Jews and 6m non-Jews). The cost of the 2191 days of world war was $3 trillion.
  4. 1853 - Yellow fever killed 7,790 in New Orleans.
  5. 1916 - infantile paralysis caused over 7,000 deaths and 27,363 cases were reported nation-wide in America's worst polio epidemic.
  6. 1900, Sept. 8 - Galveston TX hurricane killed an estimated 6,000 to 8,000, from devastation due to both winds and tidal surge.
  7. 1889, May 31 - Johnstown PA flood from the collapse of South Fork Dam left more than 2,200 dead.
  8. 1865, April 27 - Memphis TN boiler explosion on Mississippi River steamboat Sultana, killed 1,547.
  9. 1871, Oct. 8- Peshtigo, Wis., forest fire killed over 1,500 people and burned 1.2 million acres.
  10. 1925, March 18 - Tri-State Tornado across Missouri and Illinois and Indiana left 689 dead and 2,000 injured.
  11. 1903, Dec. 30 - Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago killed 602.
  12. 1947, April 16-18 - Texas City TX fire destroyed most of the city and subsequent explosion on the French freighter Grandcamp, which was carrying a cargo of ammonium nitrate, killed at least 516 and injured over 3,000.
  13. 1906, April 18 - San Francisco earthquake and fire razed more than 4 sq miles, with more than 500 dead or missing.
  14. 1942, Nov. 28 - Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston MA killed 491.
  15. 1944, July 17 - Port Chicago, CA, killed 322 when ammunition ships exploded.
  16. 1907, Dec. 6 - Monongah, WV coal mine explosion killed 362 in the nation's worst mine disaster.
  17. 1979, May 25 - American Airlines DC-10 lost left engine upon take-off in Chicago and crashed seconds later, killing all 272 persons aboard and 3 on the ground in worst U.S. air disaster.
  18. 1953 - smog and air pollution kill 260 in New York, one year after the killer fog in London that killed 4000, and after the 1939 St. Louis and 1948 Denora disasters; became a new concern of the conservation movement.
  19. 1871, Oct. 8 - Great Chicago Fire burned 17,450 buildings and killed 250 people; $196 million in damage.
  20. 1981-2001 - The Centers for Disease Control reported 816,149 total AIDS cases and 467,910 total AIDS deaths in the U.S.; total world cases were 42 million; total world AIDS deaths were 27.9 million.

Power Blackouts by date

Storms by date

Terrorist attacks in U.S.

In the past 20 years, both military installations and US embassies abroad have been targeted, frequently making civilians the victims of anti-American terrorism. In the early 1980s, embassy compounds in the Middle East were the subject of attacks. In 1983, a fundamentalist suicide bomber blew up the US embassy on the sea front in Beirut, killing 63 people, including 16 Americans. The following year, East Beirut was the target for another US embassy bombing. An explosive-packed station wagon detonated in front of the embassy, killing 11 people, including the driver.

Military personnel in civilian settings have also been the subjects of attack. Civilians at La Belle disco in West Berlin, a popular nightspot with off-duty US soldiers, were injured alongside military personnel in an explosion in 1986. The bomb, which killed two US servicemen, injured 200 other people. Washington blamed the incident on Libya.

In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, as were 11 residents of Lockerbie. The US and UK later accused two Libyan agents of responsibility for the blast.

In February 1993, the first major terrorist attack on American soil took place at the World Trade Centre in New York. Six people were killed and more than 1,000 - mainly civilians - injured in the blast. The US implicated Egyptian terrorists in the plot to attack targets in the country. After the New York bomb, terrorist activity against the US returned to Middle East targets.

Seven people were injured - including five Americans - in an explosion in 1995 near a US-run military training centre in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. A year later, a huge explosion killed 19, and injured many others at a military complex housing US troops at Khobar in the east of the country. The US responded by moving their remaining troops in the region in fear of reprisals.

Undoubtedly, the incident which traumatised America was the bombing in April, 1995, of the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. A massive bomb inside a rental truck exploded, blowing half of the nine-story building into oblivion. It took nearly two weeks to recover bodies from the rubble. Eventually, the death toll stopped at 168. It was the worst terrorist attack on US soil. See History of Bombings in the United States

On Aug. 7, 2001, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were bombed by terrorists, leaving 258 people dead (12 Americans) and more than 5,000 injured. No group has claimed responsibility for Friday's explosions in Tanzania and Kenya but it is thought that the bombs were aimed at the US embassies in each of the countries.

(compiled from AP and BBC)

Sources:

Links:






revised 9/1/05 by Schoenherr | Hoaxes | List of Lists