In 1983, a 100-foot section of the Mianus River Bridge collapsed and 4 vehicles plunged into the shallow water below.
The Captain
Bob Keeshan started his performing career in 1948 as the horn-honking Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show. His landmark show, Captain Kangaroo, premiered in 1955 and would run for 30 years.
Radioactive Boy Scout
A hazmat crew rolled into the suburban address and carefully dismantled a workspace that had been used by a 17-year-old Eagle Scout to create a primitive nuclear reactor.
Martin and Mitchell
Two cryptographers working for the National Security Agency left the United States and never returned. William Martin and Bernon Mitchell defected to the Soviet Union.
Dancing Mania
In 1374, hundreds (maybe thousands) of Germans suddenly started dancing in the streets.
Isner and Mahut
In the world's longest tennis match, John Isner defeated Nicoloas Mahut in the first round at Wimbledon after 11 hours and 5 minutes of play that stretched over 3 days and 183 games.
The River that Burned
In June of 1969, Cleveland's heavily polluted Cuyahoga River caught fire. The fire quickly spread and at its peak the flames were 5 stories high.
The Maury Island Incident
4 or 5 doughnut-shaped crafts were flying in formation directly above Harold Dahl's boat when one of them started dropping strange, rocky, slag-like material.
Attack on Fort Stevens
No lives were lost in the Fort Stevens attack but it goes down in history as the only attack on a mainland military installation during World War II.
Feodor II
In 1605 the 16-year-old tsar of Russia was murdered, along with his mother.
The Last Emperor of Mexico
Maximilian's rise to power was the ill-conceived brainchild of Napoleon III who sought to extend French imperial power
Eratosthenes
Eratosthenes was the guy who came up with the science we know as Geography, and he was the first person to prove that the Earth was round.
The Fiji Mermaid
This half-woman, half-fish oddity would become one of his most popular sideshow attractions of all time.
5 Monks and a Crater
5 English monks witnessed an amazing spectacle. They saw what appeared to be "two horns of light" on the shaded part of the Moon.
Mumtaz Mahal
Mumtaz Mahal, the beloved Empress of India, died while giving birth to her fourteenth child.
Death of a Lawyer
Clement Vallandigham was an outspoken anti-war, pro-Confederate democrat. He came up with the snappy slogan, "To maintain the Constitution as it is, and to restore the Union as it was."
Villa Diodati
It was on a rainy night in 1816 that a bunch of friends gathered at a summer house near Lake Geneva. Their collective creativity would mark a pivotal moment in horror history.
The Mississauga Blob
A mysterious flaming blob flew into Traven Matchett's backyard in southern Ontario. The fiery object nearly hit his nineteen-year-old daughter, Donna, in the head.
Ella's Last Day
On this day Ella Fitzgerald spent her last morning listening to birds in the backyard of her Beverly Hills home.
First Blood Transfusion
A French physician named Jean-Baptiste Denys gave a 15-year-old boy about 12 ounces of sheep blood.