Merry Christmas friends! Sandi I want to step outside the boundaries of Kentucky for one short post. Close your eyes and imagine no cable or satellite television broadcasts; no radio, many times no newspapers, or maybe just small local papers delivered weekly. Think of how long it would take for earth-shattering news to reach the Kentucky family. As the 20th century made its appearance, communications improved tremendously of course, and the family had a better grasp on world events. Thus, in addition to worrying about their own problems, internal conflicts in the US, plagues and the like, the family was introduced more and more to what was happening in those far away countries they had only studied about in a geography book. It is said today, in our age of instant coverage, that the only headlines we hear or see contain bad news. It is the gripping spontaneous coverage of murders, hurricanes, uprisings, and other traumatic events that are primarily blasted out to us on a constant basis. Thus, this posting deals with disasters that made the news - from the days of the early 1800's up through the 1920's. How many of my readers, I wonder, remember some of the more current events that our Kentucky families were reading about? This is not a complete list of course, but will give the reader some sense of how many major disasters there have been that touched our lives in one way or another. 1805: July 26: More than 65 000 lost their lives in a tremendous earthquake in Naples, Italy. 1814: February 1: More than a thousand people killed and 5 villages destroyed when the volcano Mayon erupts in the Philippines. 1845: July 14: A fire starts in a building in New York which was filled with gun powder. The explosion sets fire to other buildings which rages for 7 hours. 1849: May 17: 7 steamboats and 15 city blocks are destroyed by a fire in St. Louis, MO. 1851: May 3: Great San Francisco fire. 1853: May 5: 46 people died as the New Heaven Railroad train ran through an open drawbridge and plunged into the Norwalk Canal in Norwalk, CT. 1856: July 17: A head-on train crash kills 66 passengers in Camp Hill, PA. 1859: June 28: Michigan Southern Expess falls through the Springbrook broken bridge. 41 die in the wreckage of cars in Mishawake, IN. 1887: February 23: Carnival ball ends with deadly earthquake killing more than 2000 people in the Riviera. 1897: May 4: 1897. Hundreds of aristocrats lost their lives during a charity bazaar fire in Paris. 1900: May 1: 201 men perish in coal mine explosion in Schofield, UT. August 27: A Galveston. Texas hurricane and High tides destroy the city leaving more than 6000 dead. September 8: Bolivar, Texas is not spared as a train is destroyed by a hurricane. 85 passengers killed. 1901: November 27: Two trains running behind schedule collide at night, killing 20 in Senaca, Michigan. 1902: May 8: Mount Pelee. Martinique. In few minutes 30 000 people were incinerated as the violent eruption engulfed the city in volatile gases in September 20: Birmingham, Alabama. Fire in a church takes 115 lives. 1904: February 7... What started as a small fire in a warehouse keeps growing and rages for 2 days destroying more than 2500 buildings. June 15: The excursion steamer General Slocum bursts in flames in New York and 1000 passengers lost their life. 1905: March 10th: Explosion in a coal mine claims more than 1000 lives in France. 1906: April 18: A two minute earthquake, about 8.3 in San Francisco leaves the city in flames and hundred dead. October 28: An electric train plunges in Elizabeth river in Atlantic City after derailing while crossing a bridge. 57 killed. December 29: Express train collides with local train during snowstorm, 22 passengers killed in Elliot Junction, Scotland. 1907: February 11: Between Providence and New York the Joy Line Larchmond sinks in a mere 15 minutes in the freezing waters after a collision with The Knowlton. 322 passengers died. 1908: March 4th: Fire in a school in Collinwood, OH. takes 160 lives. 1909: November 13: Cherry. Illinois is the sight of a coal mine fire - 259 perish. 1910: February 9: French steamer "General Chancy" wrecked off Minorca. 200 perish near Spain. March 30: Collision of The Lloyd Express and a military train collide and 20 are killed , 41 injured in Mulheim, Germany. 1911: March 25: Deadly fire at the eighteenth floor in Triangle Shirtwaist factory. In less than 20 minutes - 150 young women lost their lives. September 23: Montreuil-Bellay, France Flood damage to a bridge causes a pier to collapse causing two locomotives and 3 coaches into the river. 22 lives lost, 27 injured. - New York. 1912: April 14: Titanic broke in two after collision with an iceberg. July 4: Excursion train to Niagara Falls was struck in the rear by a following Express. 39 killed, 40 injured in Corning, NY. September 28: In Japan the Kichermaru sinks. 1000 lost. 1913: October 13: 439 men killed in a mine explosion in Cardiff, Wales. October 21: In Dawson, New Mexico an explosion in coal mine kills 263. 1914: March 5: Spanish shipper "Principe de Asturia" sank off the coast of Brazil. More than 400 deaths. April 28: Eccles, WV 183 killed in explosion of coal mine May 29: Due to a thick fogbank , Norwegian collier "Storstad" collides with the Canadian liner "Empress of Ireland" which sank almost immediately with passengers sleeping. 1 024 died in St. Lawrence River. 1915: January 13: 1915 An earthquake claims 29,980 lives in Avezzano, Italy. April 24: The beginning of Armenian genocide by the Ottoman and Turkish governments resulting in 1,500,000 deaths. May 7th: Shores of Ireland. Lusitania sinks after being stroked by German torpedoes. 1198 died. July 24: 812 people from the 2500 packed on "Eastland" steam excursion ship drowned when the ship capsized, Michigan City, IN. 1916: August 29: 1000 Chinese soldiers perish, as cruiser collides with steamer maneuvering in a fogbank. 1917: February 21: Train crashes in Chirucha, Romadia killing 500. May 26: Illinois. Tenesse. Indiana. Kansas. Kentucky. Missouri. Arkansas.Alabama - Killer tornadoes kills 249 l and injures1200. June 23: Munition factory explodes in Boleweg, Bohemia killing 1000 workers. July 9: British battleship "Vanguard" blows up . 800 officers killed. December 6: Collision of the MONT BLANC loaded with few hundred tons of TNT, and the IMO, the blast incinerated 2 square miles of the north end of Halifax , killing 1,600. 1918: September 19: Collision of 2 trains in the Pacy tunnel, kills 30. More than a hundred are injured. In Tonnerre, France. In earthquake on October 11 in Puerto Rico followed by tidal wave kills 116. October 12: Collision of two passenger trains claims 67 lives, 25 injured in Selerra, Spain. November 6: Steinbbruch-Rakos, Hungary. 60 killed and 180 injured in a troop train wreck. 1919: September 3: Over Florida, Louisiana and Texas, a hurricane kills 287. Another deadly hurricane on September 12 in the same area kills 287. 1920: December 14: 30 killed and 35 injured in the collision between a postal train and a freight train. In Bommidi, India. December 16: Tremendous earthquake and massive landslides in a 300 miles long , 100 miles wide area, buries entire villages. More than 180 000 killed in Kansu, China. 1921: August 24: British dirigible ZR-2 breaks in two. 62 died - Hall, England. September 21: the Princess of the Orient, had sunk on a voyage from Cebu City to Manila. September 21: Oppau, Germany. Ammonium nitrate explosion kills 600. December 5: 27 killed in a head-on train collision in Woodmont, CA. 1922: August 2: Typhon and tidal wave kill more than 50 000 in Shantou, China. September 22: Smyrna, Asia Minor. City destroyed by a fire. Hundreds dead. 1923: September 17: Fire destroys 600 buildings in Berkeley, CA. September 21: In Tokyo and Yokohama more than 200,000 dead in earthquake followed by a fire. December 21: French dirigible DIXMUDE vanishes with 51 on board in the Mediterranean Sea. 1926: September 5: The Scenic Limitated passenger train derails on a curve, 6 of the 14 coaches were thrown into the Arkansas river. 23 killed, more than 50 injured - Waco, CO. September 12: Florida and Alabama Hurricane kills 243 in 10 days. September 14: Florida and Alabama Hurricane kills 243 in 10 days. October 20: A hurrican in Havana, Cuba kills more than 600. December 11: Tiehlong, Manchuria is the sight of 25 killed in train collision. 1928: May 19: 195 workers perish in the coal mine explosion in Mather, PA. 1929: May 25: A Cleveland. OH fire in X-ray room of the clinic claims 121 killed by the poisonous fumes. July 18: A flash flood in Straton, CO sweeps away a bridge scattering train coaches into the swirling waters. 10 were drowned. October 5: A hurricane in the Dominican Republic Hurricane kills more than 2000. And in Beauvais.France a British dirigible crashes. 47 dead. (c) Copyright 24 December 1998, Sandra K. Gorin, all rights reserved. sgorin@glasgow-ky.com Sandi Gorin - A Kentucky Colonel 205 Clements Ave., Glasgow, KY 42141 (502) 651-9114 PUBLISHING: http://www.members.tripod.com/~GorinS/index.html GORIN FAMILY MSG BOARD: http://www.insidetheweb.com/mbs.cgi/mb248461 BARREN CO OBITS, WILLS, DEEDS & BIBLE RECORDS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/BarrenObits KYRESEARCHING TIPS: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Tips KYBIOGRAPHIES: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/genbbs.cgi/USA/Ky/Bios