Known in America as The Columbus Day Storm of 1962, Typhoon Freda struck the West Coast of Canada and the American Pacific Northwest on October 12, 1962. It was the most powerful cyclone in the U.S. in the 20th century.
On March 18, 1937, a natural gas leak created an explosion at the London School in New London, Texas. 300 students and teachers died and about the same number were injured. It remains the third-deadliest disaster in Texas history.
The Blons avalanches occurred on January 11-12, 1954, near the village of Blons, Vorarlberg, in western Austria. 125 people, just over a third of the local population, were buried after two avalanches struck within a nine-hour period.
On January 28, 1922, the roof of a Washington, D.C. movie house, the Knickerbocker Theatre, collapsed under the weight of snow. 98 patrons were killed and 133 injured.
On May 15, 1956, a Canadian Royal Air Force CF-100 fighter jet crashed into the Villa St. Louis convent in the community of Orléans, Ontario. 15 people were killed, including 11 nuns.
On August 4, 1978, 40 people died in a bus crash near Eastman, Quebec. It was Canada's second deadliest road crash, with about half of the passengers having physical or mental disabilities.
In Pictou County, Nova Scotia the dangers of mining are real and present, never so clearly than on May 9, 1992. Despite the latest safety devices, methane gas released by mining coal was somehow ignited, and 26 miners died.
The snow is falling on March 10, 1989 and the temperature is dropping. A Fokker F28 with 69 passengers aboard attempts to lift off from Dryden Ontario. Speeding down the runway, ice forms on it's wings. and the aircraft fails to lift, crashing at the end of the runway. 24 passengers die in the jet fuel accelerated inferno.
Mt. Taal in the Phillipines has erupted several times in recorded history, but this doesn't stop people from living in it's shadow. On January 30, 1911 a massive eruption and the ensuing lava flow and tsunami killed 1355 people. On September 28, 1965, the volcano once again erupts, sending a massive lava flow down it's banks and killing another 350. When it will erupt again is anyone's guess...
