Was it really that long ago? A Log of Disasters Quiz

Answer: 1963

Lee Harvey Oswald shot John F. Kennedy as he drove along a plaza in Dallas in an open top motorcade - or at least that's what the FBI claims.

Answer: 1666

The Great Fire destroyed about two-thirds of the City of London.

Answer: 1934

A fire broke out in the library, and quickly spread throughout the ship. The most horrifying images were witnessed, not by the passengers still on board, but by the survivors sailing away. Some passengers tried to escape through the portholes, got stuck and slowly burned to death.

Answer: 1959

This was a disastous war, involving the deadly napalm bomb. A very famous image came out of the war though. Some may recall seeing a naked girl running from her house in Vietnam. She later stood up in the USA in front of the crowd and publically forgave the South Vietnamese soldier who dropped the bomb on her house.

Answer: 1980

At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted. Shaken by an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale, the north face of this tall symmetrical mountain collapsed in a massive rock debris avalanche. Nearly 230 square miles of forest were blown over or left dead and standing.

At the same time a mushroom-shaped column of ash rose thousands of feet skyward and drifted downwind, turning day into night as dark, gray ash fell over eastern Washington and beyond. The eruption lasted nine hours, but Mount St.

Helens and the surrounding landscape were dramatically changed within moments. Mount St. Helens is situated in Washington State. Alas, the area is a very densely populated in this particular part of Washington.

Answer: 1994

Incidentally, new boy Roland Ratzenberger was killed during the practice sessions. A very dark weekend for F1.

Answer: 1988

Co-incidentally, the M1 air crash happened just a few days after.

Answer: 1989

The disaster occurred before the match began and during the first few minutes. Many fans had great difficulty entering the stadium, and as a result of gross mismanagement by the police, a severe crush ensued, in which 96 fans were killed and 766 were injured.

At the time the police blamed the fans, and it was not until 2012 that the truth emerged: the the Hillsborough Independent Panel concluded that the disaster resulted from police mismangement of the crowd (and of the overall situation) and was exacerbated by poor co-ordination between the emergency services. The police had suppressed evidence and altered 164(!) witness statements.

At the time sections of the media heaped abuse on the Liverpool fans, gleefully blaming the victims.

Answer: 1977

A Dutch aircraft collided with a Pan-Am jumbo on the runway.

Answer: 1971

66 fans were killed. Rangers were losing and lots of fans were leaving. But all of a sudden, Rangers scored, and fans trying to leave came face to face with fans running back in. One of the barriers gave way: there was chaos and many people either died from asphixiation or were crushed to death.