November 18, 1978: Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones led hundreds of his followers in a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in remote northwestern Guyana. Several cult members who refused to take cyanide-laced fruit-flavored concoction were either forced to do so at gunpoint or shot as they fled. Final death toll was 913, including 276 children. November 18, 1999: Huge bonfire at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas collapsed, where 12 people died & 28 were injured. “World’s largest” bonfire collapsed while under construction prior to their school’s annual football game against their arch rival, the University of Texas. November 18, 1987: Fire broke out in London’s busiest underground subway station, where 30 commuters died. Rubbish & grease accumulated underneath an escalator ignited by a discarded cigarette was probable cause. When flames were first spotted beneath escalator, it was too late. As fire quickly spread, smoke filled station leaving no clear path to escape. November 18, 1970: Linus Pauling, American chemist & Nobel Prize winner, declared large doses of Vitamin C could ward off colds. He proposed that regular intake of vitamin C in amounts far higher than officially sanctioned RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) could help prevent & shorten duration of the common cold. He concluded that the optimal daily intake of vitamin C for most people is 2.3 grams to 10 grams daily. Although medical establishment immediately voiced their strong opposition to this idea, many ordinary people believed Dr. Pauling & began taking large amounts of vitamin C. His book Vitamin C and the Common Cold soon became a best-seller. November 18, 1947: Fire disaster at Ballantyne Store in Christchurch, New Zealand; where 41 people (mostly employees) died. It was later determined that the fire response was inadequate & the building did not meet fire codes. Office employees trapped on the second floor were not evacuated because stores owners required that insured equipment be stored away in a fireproof safe first. November 18, 1929: Atlantic Ocean earthquake (7.2-magnitude) triggered a submarine slide that fractured 12 Trans-Atlantic cables. Resultant tsunami hit Newfoundland, where 27 people died. November 18, 1923: Alan Shepard, American astronaut, was born. He was Americas first man in space & one of only 12 humans who walked on the Moon. Shepherd’s 15-minute suborbital flight in 1961 sent his space capsule 115 miles in altitude & 302 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral, Florida. His flight came three weeks after launch of Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, who became first human space traveler on a one-orbit flight lasting 108 minutes. November 18, 1787: Louis Daguerre, French inventor, was born. His daguerreotype was first practical photographic processes. Daguerre found that a permanent image could be formed on a silver iodide-coated copper plate if it was exposed to light, then fumed with mercury vapor & fixed by a solution of common salt. November 18, 1755: Largest earthquake in Massachusetts history occurred. November 18, 1727: Earthquake struck Persia (now Iran), where 77,000 people died. November 18, 1421: Holland/Zeeland dikes broke during a North Sea storm, where 10,000 people died. St. Elizabeths flood destroyed 42 villages in what is now the Netherlands.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 14:31:09 +0000
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