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Omaha Steve

(108,874 posts) Wed Jan 15, 2014, 07:46 PM Jan 2014

January 15, 1919 [View all]

http://todayinlaborhistory.wordpress.com/2014/01/15/january-15-1919/

A 58-foot-high metal tank, 90 feet in diameter, filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses bursts in Boston, and the explosion sends a 40-foot tall tidal wave of molasses and debris crashing down Commercial Street. What became known as the Boston Molasses Flood killed 21 workers and residents and injured another 150. After many years of litigation, the United States Industrial Alcohol Company was eventually found culpable and forced to pay a million-dollar settlement.

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January 15, 1919 [View all] Omaha Steve Jan 2014 OP

Wow! Never heard of this. Squinch Jan 2014 #1

Me neither. Hidden from history, I guess. n/t Smarmie Doofus Jan 2014 #2

It happened in the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic, and only a year after WW1. I guess in the Squinch Jan 2014 #3

Lord, death by molasses frazzled Jan 2014 #4

Saw it on "Mysteries at the Museum" PDittie Jan 2014 #5

I think I remember reading Jenoch Jan 2014 #6

Wow Shankapotomus Jan 2014 #7

And we apparently learned exactly nothing. Scuba Jan 2014 #8

Dennis Lehane has a great book "The Given Day" panader0 Jan 2014 #9