April 14, 2026
The Bombay Explosion (1944)
The SS Fort Stikine sailed from England in late February 1944 and made stops in Gibraltar, Egypt, and Pakistan before reaching Bombay, India, laden with a cargo of cotton bales, gold, explosives, and munitions. While the ship was berthed there, a fire broke out on board. Attempts to extinguish the fire failed, and a massive explosion soon tore the ship apart, sinking nearby vessels as well and igniting a massive blaze in the surrounding area. How many people were killed in the disaster?
April 13, 2026
The Chicago Flood (1992)
The source of the water pouring into the basements of buildings in the Chicago Loop area had not yet been identified when reports of live fish in the water began surfacing. This helped lead a reporter to the source of the flood—a leak in an old tunnel that ran underneath the Chicago River. It turned out that the leak had been discovered months earlier, but the city had failed to repair it in a timely fashion, allowing it to worsen and eventually inundate the area with how much river water?
April 12, 2026
Canter & Siegel Post the First Commercial Mass Usenet Spam (1994)
Spam is now a ubiquitous part of the Internet, but that was not always the case. Early in the Internet age, two enterprising immigration lawyers—Laurence Canter and Martha Siegel—opened the floodgates of unwanted online commercial solicitation when they posted an ad for their services on thousands of Usenet newsgroups. Though not the first Usenet spam, the "Green Card Lottery" notice was the first to be commercial in nature and ushered in the modern era of Internet spam. What became of the duo?
