18-04-2025
Cruelest week in history: Tragedies (FSU shooting, Titanic, Columbine) happened around April 20
For some reason, the week of April 15-21 has been unusually cruel in history. Over the years, that time period has been referred to as "the cruelest week."
Historically, the week of April 15 is no stranger to tragedy. While disaster can strike at any time, an unusual number of tragic events seem to take place on a few inauspicious days in April. Eerie coincidence? In most cases, yes. But it leads one to wonder if a day (or a week) can simply be unlucky.
The Florida State University shooting at the Tallahassee campus on April 17, 2025, was the latest event to make this list. Two people, who were not FSU students, were killed and six others injured in the shooting. The alleged shooter, 20-year-old FSU student Phoenix Ikner – the son of a Leon County Sheriff's Office deputy – was in the hospital after he was taken down by law enforcement. During the shooting, he used a handgun that was previously used and purchased by his mother, reports said.
"This is a tragic day for Florida State University," FSU President Richard McCullough said. "We're absolutely heartbroken by the violence."
Below is a list of 14 historic tragedies, in chronological order, that happened during the week of April 15-21.
Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth while attending a play at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C.
Lincoln was carried to a house across the street from the theater, where he died.
Booth escaped the theater after the assassination, but was shot to death 11 days later when the 16th New York Cavalry attempted to capture him on a farm in Virginia.
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Early in the morning of April 18, 1906, a powerful earthquake, centered on the northern California coast, shook the city of San Francisco.
After the quake, a fire broke out in the city and burned for four days and nights. Between 700 and 3,000 people were killed and more than 80% of the city was destroyed. Up to 300,000 people were left homeless.
In an eerie coincidence, on June 15, 2006, a century after the massive San Francisco Earthquake, there was another natural disaster in San Francisco. According to CNN, "A magnitude 4.7 earthquake and multiple aftershocks shook the south San Francisco Bay Area. The effects were felt in a 28-mile radius. The earthquake, which the U.S. Geological Survey deemed 'light,' happened at 5:24 a.m. PT." No one was hurt, and there was no significant damage reported.
More than 100 years after it sank, the most famous cruise ship still evokes tragic feels. The subject of many a movie, documentary, books and podcasts, the passenger liner RMS Titanic sank after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic.
The Titanic sank April 15, 1912.
The ship carried only 20 lifeboats, which provided an escape for just a fraction of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster, making it one of the worst commercial maritime disasters during peacetime.
Striking coal miners and their families were staying in a tent colony outside Ludlow, Colorado, when an ongoing conflict with the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. and the Colorado National Guard turned deadly. On April 20, 1914, when a gunfight broke out between the miners and guards, the guards fired on the tent colony with a machine gun. Reports show 20 people, including 12 children, were killed.
On April 15, 1989, overcrowding in the standing-only central pen at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, led to a disastrous event in which 96 people were crushed to death and 766 were injured.
The central pen became dangerously crowded during a Football Association Challenge Cup semi-final match, when police failed to control the number of people coming into the area. People at the back of the pen were not aware that people near the front were being crushed as more and more fans streamed in.
Police and bystanders didn't fully realize what was happening until a near-goal caused fans in the pen to surge forward, breaking a barrier and spilling injured people onto the field.
The Hillsborough Disaster remains the UK's deadliest sporting disaster.
The Waco Siege, also referred to as the Waco disaster, began when members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to raid a compound occupied by heavily armed members of the Branch Davidian religious group.
The resulting conflict lasted several weeks and involved the ATF, the FBI, law enforcement and the U.S. military.
On April 19, 1993, which marked the end of the standoff, the FBI used tear gas in an attempt to flush the Branch Davidians out of the compound. Shortly after, a massive fire broke out, which resulted in the deaths of 76 people, including children.
A truck loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people on April 19, 1995. The blast was, at the time, the worst terror attack in United States history.
Timothy McVeigh and several co-conspirators orchestrated the attack, which McVeigh said was in retaliation to the government's handling of the siege at Waco aka the Waco disaster (see above).
McVeigh was convicted and executed by lethal injection in 2001.
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Two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shot and killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded an additional 21 people in a massacre that made the word "Columbine" synonymous with school shootings. The Columbine shooting happened April 20, 1999.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold initially planned a bomb attack, but the propane bombs they planted in the school cafeteria failed to detonate.
Harris and Klebold died by suicide after exchanging gunfire with police.
Undergraduate student Seung-Hui Cho shot 49 people, killing 32, in one of the worst school shootings in United States history.
On April 16, 2007, less than a decade after the Columbine school shooting (see above), Cho shot and killed two students in a residence hall before returning to his room, changing out of his bloodstained clothes and heading to the engineering, science and mechanics building. There, he killed 30 more people before fatally shooting himself.
The Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig was destroyed by an explosion and subsequent fire while drilling for BP about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. On April 20, 2010, 11 workers were killed and 17 others were injured in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Following the explosion, engineers discovered a massive oil leak was spreading from the well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, which has since been renamed to the Gulf of America. The well continued to leak for weeks, as several containment efforts were unsuccessful. The spill caused massive ecological damage in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Gulf Coast.
Terrorists detonated two bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, killing three people and injuring more than 250.
Two brothers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were identified as suspects. The brothers engaged police in a dramatic chase and shootout that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer dead, and 17 other police officers wounded.
After his arrest, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said the brothers were influenced by extremist Islamist beliefs.
A fire broke out at a fertilizer storage and distribution facility in the city of West, Texas, about 18 miles north of Waco. As firefighters responded, a massive ammonium nitrate explosion killed 15 people, injured 160 others and destroyed or damaged more than 150 buildings in West.
The April 17, 2013, blast was the equivalent of more than 7 tons of TNT and created a 93-foot wide crater. Windows were blown out of buildings miles away, and the explosion shook the ground with the strength of a magnitude 2.1 earthquake.
In 2016, the ATF said their investigation revealed the fire had been intentionally set.
A fire started in the roof of the famous Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral and spread through the structure, toppling the iconic lead and timber spire as firefighters rushed to save the irreplaceable relics and works of art from the 800-year-old church.
On April 15, 2019, millions watched in real-time via live news coverage or social media livestreams as the landmark cathedral burned.
When the fire was finally extinguished, the cathedral's roof was almost completely burned and the structure had suffered major damage. The facade, with its distinctive towers, remained standing, though the priceless rosette window had fallen away.
The landmark cathedral was undergoing a $6.8 million renovation when the fire broke out.
Police say the son of a sheriff's deputy opened fire at Florida State University in Tallahassee on April 17, 2025, killing two people (who authorities said were not FSU students) and injuring six others. Police identified the alleged gunman as 20-year-old Phoenix Ikner.
Authorities said the gunman was taken into custody and taken to a local hospital. Tallahassee police believe the suspect acted alone.
At the scene, investigators recovered a handgun that belonged to the suspect's mother, a longtime deputy with the Leon County Sheriff's Office, said Sheriff Walt McNeil. A shotgun was also found, but it's unclear whether it was used. Ikner, an FSU student majoring in political science, had previously attended trainings held by the law enforcement agency.
"Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons," McNeil said. "We are continuing that investigation into how that weapon was used and what other weapons he perhaps may have had access to."
A vigil was planned the next day at FSU.
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY, and Tarah Jean and Arianna Otero, Tallahassee Democrat
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU shooting joins Titanic, Columbine in April 20 week tragedies
