| Summary: | Berlin Wall: On the morning of August thirteenth, 1961, East Berliners woke to a changed city. Overnight the Soviet controlled government had completely sealed off East Berlin from the west. Armed guards patrolled while a civilian and military army dug holes, sank concrete posts into the ground and stretched kilometers of barbed wire fencing and entanglements around the entire city. This was the first incarceration of what the west would call, the Wall of Shame. Soon, thousands of prefabricated concrete blocks were brought in and a high wall erected, topped with wire. Overnight the many crossings from East Berlin to West Berlin were reduced to just eight. Concorde: The charter flight with a flight number 4590 operated from Paris, Charles de Gaulle airport to New York Kennedy. It had 100 passengers and nine crew members onboard. The aircraft took off at Paris at 4:44 local time and crashed just right after it did take off. Asian Tsunami: On December 26, 2004, people stared in wonder as the ocean rolled back into the distance. A few minutes later it returned growing as it surged forward, rearing up and roaring like several freight trains as it pounded the shore. Bloody Sunday: In 1972, what began as a peaceful march ended in a bloody massacre. British soldiers stormed the area, racing through the streets in armored tanks. September 11: The events of September 11 shocked and horrified people around the world. This was an attack on innocent civilians, ruthlessly calculated for maximum loss of life. Nelson Mandela: During Mandela's 27 years in jail, he had been offered freedom. But with strings attached. Acceptance would have effectively assured the continuing oppression of black South Africans under apartheid. He refused. Chernobyl: On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Pripyat, Ukraine, experienced what has been widely regarded as the worst nuclear meltdowns in history. The high radiation levels that resulted from the disaster led to several hundred deaths and thousands of cases of thyroid cancer. Beslan Massacre: In the Russian town of Beslan, in 2004, terrorists stormed a local school holding more than 1,100 children, parents and teachers hostage for three days. The assault followed in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Russia by separatist militants, an issue based on ethnic, territorial and religious grounds. Afghanistan War: Late in 2001, Afghanistan suddenly became center stage in a new theater of war. The September 11 attacks on America pitted Al-Qaeda under its leader Osama Bin Laden against a world superpower. The war on terror had been declared, and some of the greatest military might in the world mobilized to eliminate Al-Qaeda at its hidden bases in Afghanistan. Moon Landing: In the late 1950s, both the Russians and Americans began on the quest to discover the secrets of the moon, but it carried a price, far more than mere money, astronauts from both nations lost their lives. Space was the new frontier and this was dangerous territory with unknown risks. Hurricane Katrina: One of the deadliest storms in United States history struck the nation's southern coast in August 2005. Hurricane Katrina rampaged through Gulf Coast communities, leaving a trail of death, destruction, and dislocation. The magnitude of the disaster made it the most destructive hurricane in history. Lockerbie Plane Disaster: Four days before Christmas in 1988, Pan Am flight 103 fell in pieces from the night sky, plummeting to the ground at over 800 kilometers an hour. A wing section landed on a house in the small Scottish town of Lockerbie and erupted into a massive fireball, carving out a vast crater and killing 11 Lockerbie residents. The aircrafts 259 passengers and crew were all killed. Tiananmen Square Massacre: In the Peoples Republic of China in 1989, hundreds of thousands civilians took to the streets protesting for freedom. After weeks of mainly peaceful protest, the government decided it was enough. Vast numbers of soldiers and tanks were sent to Beijing to break up the pro-democracy protest. VLCC Amoco Cadiz: VLCC Amoco Cadiz became grounded after a severe storm, and began losing oil. Continuing high winds spread the oil slick over a large area, washing up onto pristine beaches in France's second most important fishing area and tourist region. Apollo 13: When Apollo 13 launched in April 1970, it was nine years since the first manned space flight and almost a whole year since the historic moon landing. To the now blasé general public, that momentous day was light years in the past. On April thirteenth, a chain of events starting with an electrical component led to a catastrophic explosion in the spaceship's service module and a loss of most of its oxygen supply. The undamaged Lunar Module, the LM, was to become the crew's lifeboat and only hope of survival. Hillary at Mt. Everest: Tells the story of Sir Edmund Percieval Hillary, who, accompanied by Sherpa mountaineer, Tenzing Norgay, were the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953. Bhopal Disaster: Union Carbide's old pesticide factory remains untouched haunting the crowded Indian city of Bhopal. A constant reminder of the region's darkest night. The leak of a lethal cocktail of gases on the night of December 3, 1984, from the factory, was the world's worst industrial disaster. Gross negligence by the Union Carbide Corporation is widely viewed as the cause of the tragedy. Hiroshima: On August 6, 1945, in the early morning hours a B-29 bomber named Enola Gay took off from the island of Tinian and headed toward Japan. The bombers primary target was the city of Hiroshima, which at the time was of considerable military significance with a civilian population of approximately 300,000. Rwanda Genocide: With the assassination of Hutu Rwandan president Juvnal Habyarimana. Hutu sought a blood thirsty revenge on the minority Tutsi and their supporters. Within hours of the president's death, the genocide began. A frenzied campaign of mayhem that left more than 800,000 people, regardless of age or gender, systematically slain. Idi Amin: The brutal reign of one of the twentieth centuries most notorious and bloodiest dictators, Idi Amin, began on January 25 1971, when he seized control of Uganda in a military coup. And so began an eight year reign of terror, torture, and the murder of up to 300,000 people. Haiti Earthquake: On January 12, 2010, a monumental earthquake left in its wake thousands dead, thousands homeless, and a country crippled. The devastation was followed by desperate rescue attempts through rubble and debris. Mass confusion and profound grief as the reality of the earthquakes tragedy slowly unfolded. An estimated 3,000,000 people were affected by the quake. Montserrat Volcano: On July 18, 1995, Soufrière Hills Volcano, which had lain dormant throughout recorded history exploded in an eruption of titanic proportions and rendered the southern half of Montserrat uninhabitable.
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