Halifax Explosion

The Halifax Explosion occurred on December 6, 1917, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada when a munitions ship, the Mont Blanc, collided with a Norwegian ship, the Imo, headed for wartime Belgium. The Mont Blanc caught fire, and then exploded, killing 1,635 people and injuring thousands more. The Explosion caused a tsunami, an earthquake, and a pressure wave of air so powerful that it snapped trees, bent iron rails, and demolished buildings, carrying the fragments of them for hundreds of metres.

Related Topics:
December 6 - 1917 - Halifax, Nova Scotia - Canada - Munitions - Mont Blanc - Tsunami - Earthquake - Pressure wave

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This was the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb test explosion in 1945 and still ranks as the largest ever man-made, non-nuclear explosion. It was also the largest single-day loss of life on North American soil between the 3,600 to 4,800 deaths at the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862) in the American Civil War and the nearly 3,000 deaths of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the U.S.

Related Topics:
Explosion - Atomic bomb - 1945 - North American - Battle of Antietam - September 17 - 1862 - American Civil War - September 11, 2001 attacks - World Trade Center - The Pentagon - U.S.

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