Saturday, July 25, 2009

Anniversary of Chicago's Eastland Disaster

Very few people know of this horrible incident, even those living in Chicago, but Friday, July 24th marked the 94th anniversary of the sinking of the S.S. Eastland in the Chicago River in which nearly 850 people died withing yards of land on the Chicago River between Clark and LaSalle streets.

The ship was way overloaded with 2,500 employees of Western Electric, looking forward to a picnic at Michigan City, Indiana. The ship capsized and became Chicago's worst-ever disaster in terms of life lost.

It was considerably more deaths than the much-better known Chicago Fire which took place October 8, 1871 and an estimated 250 died (a fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, the same day claimed 1,182 lives). And, there was also a little-known calamity at the Iroquois Theater December 39, 1903, in which 602 perished..

History That Shouldn't Be Forgotten. --Cooter

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