I’ve been trying to figure out how to catalog tragedies and disasters for the tragedies study I’m working on. I want to use my blog to help me keep track of them. That way I can use tags to help me sort them by months for future reference.

I’d like to do it weekly. Last week was a bit nuts and got away from me so I’m scrunching 10 days together in this inaugural tracking post.

May 3, 1962 - Trains collide near Tokyo: Two commuter trains and freight train collided. 160 people died. Double that was injured in the wreck.

May 4, 2002 – Nigerian plane crash in crowded city: An EAS airplane crashed in Kano, Nigeria. 148 people died. (All 76 passengers plus the remaining victims who were on the ground and burned to death in the resulting explosion.) Three full blocks of structures were destroyed.

May 4, 1886 – The Haymarket Square Riot: A labor rally turned deadly when a bomb was thrown at police trying to break it up. The police fired on the crowd. Several were killed. Over 100 were injured.

May 4, 1970 – National Guard Kills 4 at Kent State: National Guardsman fired on a group of anti-war demonstrators. 4 students killed, 8 wounded, another permanently paralyzed.

May 5, 1995 – Dallas Hail Storm: This surprise hail storm was the worst to hit the area in the century. Hail was the size of tennis balls to start. It was the flash flooding, not the hail, that left 17 dead, though. Interesting to note sentence from History.com entry: “Reportedly, items as large as frogs, worms and fruit have been swept up by updrafts and turned into hail.”

May 6, 1937 – Hindenburg Explosion: It was the largest dirigible ever built and 36 people died when it exploded near Lakehurst, New Jersey. But what made it iconic and significant was of the live radio broadcast of the event. There were 56 surivors.

On WLS radio, announcer Herbert Morrison gave an unforgettably harrowing live account of the disaster, “Oh, oh, oh. It’s burst into flames. Get out of the way, please . . . this is terrible . . . it’s burning, bursting into flames, and is falling . . . Oh! This is one of the worst . . . it’s a terrific sight . . .oh, the humanity.”

May 7, 1902 – Volcano buries Martinique city of Saint Pierre:Mount Pele started steaming on April 2, 1902. Residents ignored the warnings, thinking they only had to worry about lava. When it erupted, it burst out a cloud of gas with a temperature of more than 3,000 degrees and sent boiling ash down the side of the mountain. Saint Pierre was buried within minutes. Number of casualites was not specified on History.com article, but it was noted 2 people somehow survived. Also, 15 ships in the harbor capsized when the volcano exploded. One ship stayed afloat and half the crew survived, but had serious burns.

May 7, 1915 – Lusitania sinks: Without warning a German submarine torpedoed the British ocean liner Lusitania in the Celtic Sea. 1,959 passengers and crew were on board. 1,198 were drowned. Significant event during World War I.

May 8, 1950 – Flash floods in Nebraska kill 23: Most were caught by surprise and were trapped in their vehicles and drowned.

May 9, 2001 – Soccer stampede kills 126 in Ghana: Accra Stadium in Ghana. Police clash with rowdy fans, sparks a stampede. Was “the worst ever-sports-related disaster” in Africa at that time. (Um, I thought sporting events were spectator events? “Worst-ever sports-related disaster” should not be words that all go together.)

May 10, 1996 – Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during storm: It was the worse loss of life in a single day and sparked the bestselling book Into Thin Air. In total, 15 climbers died during the spring 1996 climbing season. (98 successfully completeed the climb that year.) From 1980 to 2002, 91 died attempting the climb.

May 11, 1934 – Dust storm sweeps from Great Plains to Eastern U.S.: Millions of tons of topsoil were swept from the Great Plains region to states in the East like New York, Boston and Atlanta. (Not sure if it was the start of the Dust Bowl time. April 15, 1935 came to be called “Black Sunday.”)

May 11, 1985 – 50 die in soccer stadium fire: Bradford, England. Fire was most likely started by a cigarete that ignited trash. Wooden roof over the stands caught fire. Some had no idea of the enormity of the situation. Reported some “danced and sang in front of the raging fire while others threw stones at a television crew.”

May 12, 1987 – Massive China wildfire claims 193 victims: The fire actually began on May 6, 1987 in Mohe County of the Heilongjiang Province. It was finally contained on this day, but didn’t totally burn out until May 27. It burned 2 1/2 million acres of land, destroyed 50,000 homes, hundreds were injured, and 193 people perished.

May 13, 1846 – Polk declares war on Mexico: Not quite a “disaster” but a significant event.

May 13, 1981 – Pope John Paul II shot: Again, not quite a “disaster” but a significant event worth noting.

May 13, 1972 – Club fire in Japan kills 118: The Playtown Cabaret in Osaka, Japan caught fire. Only 48 survived.

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.)

On Today this morning they were asking experts just how bad it really is in Japan. They also asked reporters covering the story from there if the survivors had access to the latest information and if they knew what all was going on, such as the nuclear reactors potentially failing.

The experts said the situation was grim. Especially where the nuclear reactors were concerned. Some people who had been working inside the plants trying to get them operational and stabilized again were now being treated for radiation sickness. Also, they’re expecting a shift in the winds. Winds had been blowing out to sea, but a front will change them and begin blowing back towards land. If radiation levels increase, or, worse, one of the nuclear plants fail, it could amount to an even bigger tragedy for Japan.

Also, I read a report about how thousands of bodies that were swept out to sea when the tsunami struck have now washed ashore. That’s only added to an ever-increasing clean-up mess.

I bet it’s much worse over there then the news is letting on. As one expert pointed out, they need to be careful what information they convey. They don’t want to freak people out and cause widespread panic. They have to buffer it so people will “keep calm and carry on.”

Understood.

However, even if there was nothing I could do about, no way to protect myself or get out, I’d still like to know I was about to be zonked out by a nuclear meltdown.

Also, I don’t mean to impune Japan’s government in any way, shape or form, but you can’t trust so called authorities. Look at the BP disaster. They didn’t let on just how bad it was until they couldn’t cover up the severity of the situation any longer.

I know they’re not a government, but they were in a position of power. Basically, I don’t trust governments or companies when bad shit does down. Historically, disasters are almost always worse than what they first lead people to believe.

I hope I’m wrong and stories don’t later start surfacing about just how bad things were, but…the pessimist in me fears it will.

I also hope the reactors hold until they can be fixed. (And are not actually leaking more than they say they are.) Good grief, they really don’t need a triple whammy. And especially one like a nuclear plant explosion. They already had to deal with that sort of crap in their history. (Well, those were bombs, but still…they were nuclear and devastated many.)

The upside is, time and again people keep saying that for such a disaster there was no place more well prepared than Japan. Still, as prepared as you might be, you hate to ever have to put it to the test.

Sure wish I had more than prayers to offer to all those affected by this tragedy. And sure hoping I’m wrong that it’s not much worse than they’re letting on that it is.