History's A Disaster
Bloody history and bloodier crimes. Andrew takes a weekly look at all things bloody. From natural disasters to man made atrocities
Episodes
56 episodes
Alfred Packer The Colorado Cannibal
A winter crossing turned deadly when Alfred Packer led five men into the San Juans against Chief Ouray’s warning, then returned alone with shifting stories and other men’s gear. We trace the confessions, the trials, and the forensics that still...
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21:04
Luxor Hot Air Balloon Crash
The dawn over Luxor promises gold on stone and quiet air over the Nile—until one failed part turns awe into catastrophe. We unpack the 2013 hot air balloon crash from the ground up: how balloon flight really works, why landing is the most peril...
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20:32
Dublin Whiskey Fire
Blue flames raced down Dublin’s streets as thousands of gallons of whiskey burst from a burning warehouse and turned the Liberties into a flowing inferno. We take you straight into the 1875 Dublin Whiskey Fire—how casks exploded, why water made...
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20:32
Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train Crash of 1918
A midnight circus run. A hot axle on a curve. An empty troop train racing through signals toward a sleeping engineer. Before dawn near Ivanhoe, Indiana, steel met wood, kerosene met sparks, and one of America’s worst rail disasters turned a rol...
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25:02
Apollo 13
A routine moon mission that no one was watching turned into the most gripping survival story in spaceflight. We open on the quiet confidence of Apollo-era repetition, then snap into crisis as a routine cryogenic stir triggers an explosion that ...
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22:13
Meltdown at Three Mile Island
A stuck valve. A wall of alarms. A company line that insisted everything was “fine.” We walk through the morning when Three Mile Island went from a routine shutdown to America’s most defining nuclear scare—and why the fallout was as much about ...
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32:25
Crash at Tenerife
On a foggy March day in 1977, the tiny Los Rodeos Airport on Tenerife in the Canary Islands became an unintended host to multiple diverted jumbo jets after a terrorist bombing closed their intended destination. Among them were two Boeing 747s: ...
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23:22
The Fall Of The Pemberton Mill
The thunderous crash of collapsing floors, desperate screams rising from beneath rubble, and the horrifying spread of flames that turned rescue into tragedy – these are the sounds and sights of the Pemberton Mill Collapse, one of America's dead...
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27:29
The Unsolved Be-Lo Murders
A shocking triple homicide shatters the peaceful facade of small-town Windsor, North Carolina, leaving a community forever changed and a killer who vanished without a trace.When people talk about small towns where everyone knows everyon...
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20:40
Sinking of the SS Eastland: Tragedy at the Dock
A company picnic that ended in catastrophe. A passenger ship that should never have sailed. 844 lives lost just 20 feet from shore.The SS Eastland disaster remains one of America's deadliest maritime tragedies, yet has been largely forg...
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22:44
American Airlines Flight 191
The sky was clear on May 25, 1979, as American Airlines Flight 191 accelerated down the runway at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Seconds after liftoff, the unthinkable happened—the left engine tore free from the wing, flipping over the top before cr...
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20:15
1967 Skydiving Disaster
A free jump from a historic World War II bomber—what skydiver could resist? But when eighteen experienced skydivers plunged through thick cloud cover on August 27, 1967, they faced a horrifying realization. Instead of the expected Ohio airfield...
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17:21
The McDonald's Massacre
On July 18, 1984, a sleepy border community in Southern California became the site of unimaginable horror when 41-year-old James Oliver Huberty walked into a McDonald's restaurant and unleashed what would become the deadliest mass shooting in C...
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19:56
The 1988 Carrollton Bus Disaster
Sixty-three excited teenagers and four adult chaperones boarded a church bus on a sunny May morning in 1988, anticipating a day of roller coasters and fun at Kings Island Theme Park. No one suspected their joyful outing would become the deadlie...
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19:13
The Sinking of the Essex Part 3: Heartbreaks & Bellyaches
The final chapter of the Essex tragedy unfolds as a haunting testament to human survival instinct pushed beyond moral boundaries. After spotting land, the starved crew members experience a fleeting moment of hope—only to discover Henderson Isla...
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32:59
The Sinking of the Essex Part 2: Thar She Blows
The infamous true story that inspired Moby Dick unfolds in horrifying detail as we follow the crew of the Essex after their ship is deliberately rammed and sunk by an enraged sperm whale in November 1820. Twenty men, now stranded in three tiny ...
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28:01
The Sinking of the Essex Part 1: The Real Life Moby Dick
Massive whales hunted from tiny rowboats. Men covered head-to-toe in blood and oil. A ship sunk by an angry leviathan. Welcome to the brutal world of 19th-century whaling."Oil makes the world go round." This simple truth connected our p...
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27:59
The Monongah Mine Disaster
America's deadliest mining disaster unfolded in an instant on December 6, 1907, when a broken coupling pin sent coal carts careening down rails, showering sparks through dusty mine air. What happened next would change mining safety forever....
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14:15
The 2008 K2 Disaster
Few mountains inspire both awe and dread quite like K2. Standing in the shadow of Everest's fame yet claiming a far deadlier reputation, the world's second-highest peak demands respect—one climber dies for every four who summit. During a fatefu...
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15:28
The 1999 Bourbonnais Amtrak disaster
A semi-truck ignores flashing warning lights. An Amtrak train barrels forward at 79 miles per hour. Eleven lives are lost in the devastating collision that follows. The 1999 Bourbonnais Amtrak disaster stands as a sobering reminder of how quick...
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22:27
The London Beer Flood of 1814
Nobody expects to drown in beer. Yet on October 17, 1814, that's exactly what happened to eight Londoners when a massive vat at Horseshoe Brewery catastrophically failed, unleashing a 15-foot tsunami of porter beer through the impoverished stre...
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14:21
Genoa Bridge Collapse
On August 14th, 2018, the Morandi Bridge in Genoa, Italy collapsed, resulting in the death of 43 people and causing significant destruction. Designed by Ricardo Morandi and opened in 1967, the bridge was a symbol of Italian engineering. However...
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14:07
Texas City Disaster
On April 16th, 1947, the SS Grandcamp, loaded with 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate, caught fire and exploded in Texas City, causing the deadliest industrial accident in US history and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever. The explosion...
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24:10