Ten April Days of Tragedy (April 11 to 20)-- Part 2: School Shootings and Industrial Accidents

**  APRIL 15, 2019:  Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris.

**  APRIL 16, 2007:  Mass shooting at Virginia Tech  (32 killed)

**  APRIL 17, 2013:  West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion  (15 killed)

**  APRIL 18, 1906:  San Francisco earthquake.  (Est. 3,000 to 6,000 killed)

**  APRIL 19, 1993:  Branch Dravidian Siege, Waco, Texas  (About 80 killed)

**  APRIL 19, 1995:  Oklahoma City Bombing  (168 killed)

**  APRIL 20, 1999:  Columbine High School in Colorado murders.  (13 students and one teacher killed)

**  APRIL 20, 2010:  Deepwater Horizon explosion in Gulf of Mexico (11 workers killed)

--DaCoot

The Peshtigo Firestorm-- Part 2: Deadliest Fire Ever in the U.S.

This list is compiled by the United States Geological Survey.

2.  Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood of 1889 which killed 2,200 people.

3.  Peshtigo, Wisconsin, forest fire which killed 1,200 people.

4.  San Francisco earthquake of 1906 which killed 700 people.

5.  The Tri-State Tornado of 1925 which went through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana and killed 695 people.

The authors of the book believe that the real Peshtigo death toll was over 2,500.  regardless, it still remains the deadliest fire in U.S. history.

--DaCoot

Repairing Washington, DC's National Cathedral

From the Dec. 16, 2012, Chicago Tribune "Return to the Pinnacle: Stonemason who put final stone in National Cathedral is redoing his life's work to repair damage from 2011 D.C. earthquake." by Timothy M. Phelps.

On August 23, 2011, the nation's church was rocked by that surprise east coast earthquake.  It snapped some of the 53 carillon bell cables causing them to ring.  Outside cracks appeared on some of the flying buttresses.  Tops of pinnacles started swaying.

Back in 1991, Joe Alonso, mason foreman, had put the Episcopal cathedral's last stone in place.  Now, he has back repairing it.  It is the house of prayer for all people.  In 2004, President  Ronald Reagan's 2004 state funeral drew 4,000.

The quake hit at 1:51 PM and shook things from Georgia to Canada along the east coast.  At least 29 pinnacles weer toppled, rotated on their base or otherwise damaged.  Fortunately, no visitors or employees were injured and the cathedral closed for nearly three months.

I was at Topsail Beach, North Carolina, trying to close hurricane shutters at Mom's condo and other units, many of which hadn't been closed in years and were a bit rusted into place.  I was pounding away with a hammer and talking to myself and didn't feel it.  Another condo owner asked Mom if she had felt shaking and she thought it was me with those darn shutters.

One Very Impressive Bit of Gothic Architecture.  --Cooter

The San Francisco 1906 Earthquake in True Color

From the March 10, 2011, Yahoo! News.

Museum volunteers have found perhaps the only color photographs to be taken of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.  Six never-before-published images taken by photo-innovator Frederick Eugene Ives several months after the April earthquake have been found.  Most were taken from the roof of a hotel where he was staying in October.

They had been stored all these years with a collection of items donated by his son, Herbert Ives.

They were discovered in 2009by National Museum of American History volunteer Anthony brooks when cataloguing the collection.  Hand-colored photos of the even have surfaced before, but this is probably the only ones still in color.

Ives was one of the few photographers back then with expertise with color and these pictures were to be 3-D in a device he invented that never caught on.  It is known for sure that he visited San Francisco in October, but it is also possible that he might have been there earlier.

Of interest, Ives is also known for inventing the halftone reproduction process still used to print photos in newspapers.

Check them Out.  --Cooter