Latest news with #Grandcamp
Chicago Tribune
16-04-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Today in History: 32 people killed in Virginia Tech shooting
Today is Wednesday, April 16, the 106th day of 2025. There are 259 days left in the year. Today in history: On April 16, 2007, Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before taking his own life. It remains the deadliest school history in US history. Also on this date: In 1945, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoed the ship MV Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers. As many as 7,000 people died as the ship broke apart and sank minutes after being struck. In 1947, the French cargo ship Grandcamp, carrying over 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, blew up in the harbor in Texas City, Texas. A nearby ship, the High Flyer, which was carrying ammonium nitrate and sulfur, caught fire and exploded the following day. The combined blasts and fires killed nearly 600 people and injured 5,000 in the worst industrial accident in U.S. history. In 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' in which the civil rights activist responded to a group of local clergymen who had criticized him for leading street protests. King defended his tactics, writing, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off for the moon with astronauts John Young, Charles Duke and Ken Mattingly on board. In 2010, the U.S. government accused Wall Street's most powerful firm of fraud, saying Goldman Sachs & Co. had sold mortgage investments without telling buyers the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. (In July 2010, Goldman agreed to pay $550 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it did not admit wrongdoing.) In 2012, a trial began in Oslo, Norway, for Anders Breivik, charged with killing 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in July 2011. (Breivik was found guilty of terrorism and premeditated murder and given a 21-year prison sentence.) Today's Birthdays: Singer Bobby Vinton is 90. Basketball Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is 78. Football coach Bill Belichick is 73. Actor Ellen Barkin is 71. Singer Jimmy Osmond is 62. Actor Jon Cryer is 60. Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence is 60. Actor Peter Billingsley is 54. Actor Lukas Haas is 49. Actor-singer Kelli O'Hara is 49. Actor Claire Foy (TV: 'The Crown') is 41. Rapper Chance the Rapper is 32. Actor Anya Taylor-Joy is 29. Actor Sadie Sink is 23.
Boston Globe
16-04-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Today in History: April 16, the Virginia Tech shooting
In 1928, tens of thousands of mill workers went on strike in New Bedford over a 10 percent cut in pay. The strike would last six months. Advertisement In 1945, a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea torpedoed the ship Goya, which Germany was using to transport civilian refugees and wounded soldiers. As many as 7,000 people died as the ship broke apart and sank minutes after being struck. In 1947, the French cargo ship Grandcamp, carrying over 2,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, blew up in the harbor in Texas City, Texas. A nearby ship, the High Flyer, which was carrying ammonium nitrate and sulfur, caught fire and exploded the following day. The combined blasts and fires killed nearly 600 people and injured 5,000 in the worst industrial accident in US history. Advertisement In 1952, state lawmaker Thomas P. 'Tip'' O'Neill announced he would run for the US House seat from Cambridge being vacated by John F. Kennedy, who was running for Senate. O'Neill would spend the next four decades in Congress, with the last ten years as speaker of the House. In 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his 'Letter from Birmingham Jail,' in which the civil rights activist responded to a group of local clergymen who had criticized him for leading street protests. King defended his tactics, writing, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off for the moon with astronauts John Young, Charles Duke, and Ken Mattingly on board. In 2007, Seung-hui Cho, a 23-year-old Virginia Tech student, killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus before taking his own life. It remains the deadliest school history in US history. In 2010, the US government accused Wall Street's most powerful firm of fraud, saying Goldman Sachs & Co. had sold mortgage investments without telling buyers the securities were crafted with input from a client who was betting on them to fail. (In July 2010, Goldman agreed to pay $550 million in a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but it did not admit wrongdoing.) In 2012, a trial began in Oslo, Norway, for Anders Breivik, charged with killing 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in July 2011. (Breivik was found guilty of terrorism and premeditated murder and given a 21-year prison sentence.)
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
On This Day, April 16: MLK Jr. writes 'Letter from Birmingham Jail'
April 16 (UPI) -- On this date in history: In 1862, the U.S. Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. In 2005, the city officially began observing the date as Emancipation Day. In 1912, as crowds gathered outside its New York City offices, the White Star Line denied that it was withholding information on the sinking of RMS Titanic. In 1947, a fire aboard the French freighter Grandcamp in the Texas City, Texas, port on Galveston Bay ignited ammonium nitrate and other explosive materials in the ship's hold, causing a massive blast that destroyed much of the city and killed nearly 600 people. In 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail" while imprisoned in Alabama for protesting segregation. It was published May 19, 1963. In 1972, Apollo 16 blasted off on an 11-day moon mission with three astronauts aboard. In 1990, Dr. Jack Kevorkian helped in his first assisted suicide. In December, he was charged with murder for the death of a woman with Alzheimer's disease, who died using his so-called suicide machine in June. In 1991, the first Jewish settlement under the Israeli government opened in the occupied territories, defying a U.S. request to stop settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In 1999, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky announced his retirement from the NHL after 21 years. He was inducted into the NHL Hall of Fame in November without having to go through the usual three-year waiting period. In 2002, Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok and members of his government resigned after a report faulted them, along with the United Nations, for failing to prevent the 1995 massacre of 7,500 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Bosnia. In 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a senior at Virginia Tech, went on a campus shooting rampage, killing 32 people before killing himself. In 2011, a vicious rash of tornadoes tore through 14 U.S. states over three days, leaving more than 40 people dead and many others homeless. In 2018, Kendrick Lamar became the first rapper to win the Pulitzer Prize for music for his album Damn. In 2021, Raul Castro, brother of the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, announced he was stepping down as head of Cuba's Communist Party. In 2024, one of Denmark's oldest buildings, the 400-year-old stock exchange the Børsen, went up in flames while under renovation.
