I’ve been saying I want to see which months have the most tragedies for years now. I’m going to put my April Theory to the test. I decided to start it today after seeing a This Day in History via History.com link someone else posted on Facebook today.

What caught my eye about it was it referred to, what else?, a tragedy. This day in history in 1865 saw the worst maritime disaster in American history. The steamboat Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River and sunk. 2,100 passengers were on board. It killed all but 400. The explosion was thought to be the result of a boiler malfunction.

Very tragic indeed. Even more so because it was right after the Civil War ended. Just days after. Most of the passengers onboard were soldiers. Mostly Union veterans who had survived serving time in brutal Confederate prisoner of war camps only to be released and meet their ends this way.

More April victims.

But will we see other months with similarly sad and tragic stories? I know we will, but come this time next year which month will have racked up the most stories?

I’m officially on my way to finding out. No sense putting it off any longer. Might as well just dive right in starting today. And so I have.

Next I’d like to track if any of these tragedies happened during Mercury Retrograde cycles, or other astrological events.

But that’s research for after I’ve compiled all my tragedies data. Excited to be on my way with this study, though. Looking forward to what comes of it!

OTHER BIG EVENTS ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1521: Magellan killed in the Philippines (not exactly a “tragedy” but newsworthy then and interesting to note now)

1789: Mutiny on the HMS Bounty (again, not a tragedy of the sort I’m documenting but another interesting historical tidbit to note)

*1992: Riots in Los Angeles (BINGO! This is exactly the sort of thing I believe April is famous for.)

*1996: Port Arthur Massacre in Australia (Ditto the above. Another BINGO! find.)

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This morning the news was filled with more chaos. The two stories that caught my eye were the 12 dead, 200 injured  in the Belarus subway bombing and Japan ups nuke crisis severity to match Chernobyl.

April strikes again!

It gave me chills. I saw it coming. I wrote about it here and on Haunt Jaunts. (See: Madame Mroch’s Prognostications.)

Well, I didn’t see the Belarus bombing coming. (Not that it would be a subway bombing or in Belarus, but I’m not surprised someone felt the need to blow something up like that. April has a penchant for such events.)

But the Japan thing…how anyone didn’t see that coming is what perplexes me. First off, not only is it April, but didn’t we learn anything from last year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf? It’s always worse than the authorities let on. They never tell the truth until the situation gets so out of control they can’t lie about it any more!

And as I was reminded of yet another sentinel event that happened in April (the anniversary of the start of the Civil War –or the War Between the States, depending on where you live and how it’s interpreted), I wondered: Was it Mercury Retrograde then too?

Which got me wondering if a Mercury Retrograde cycle has been in place during the other April Curse events.

And what about self-fulfilling prophecies? Is April really cursed with more than it’s fair share of sentinel events, or am I trying to make a fit? (Or do other people see how bad things happen in April and get the idea they’ll do something then too? The Columbine Massacre could sort of fit in with this as they boys were said to love Hitler and Nazis and wanted to do something big in honor of something big the Nazis did in April. I forget what it was now, but something with the Holocaust.)

When people are responsible for the mayhem (ie. the Belarus subway bombing, the Columbine massacre, the Oklahoma City bombing), do they unleash their crazy in April because of seasonal factors? For instance, was it a very cold winter that left them homebound with more time on their hands than usual to plot their craziness? When it finally starts to warm up in April is that why they come out? Does increased sunlight play any factor? (For some, more sun in Spring makes them more frisky in a sexual way. Maybe it affects their crazy/destructive side somehow?)

I really want to study this more. I think it’s super fascinating. And I’m growing more and more curious about what kind of correlations I might find…or might not, as the case may also be.

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