Panic ensued as churchgoers struggled to reach the exits, but the inward opening doors hampered the evacuation. The church would burn to the ground in less than 20 minutes.

Casey Stengel (an outfielder for the Pirates) was hearing non-stop boos from the Dodger fans until he surprised them with this magic trick.

Elmer Ellsworth is remembered as the first Union soldier killed in the Civil War. He had a surprising connection to Abraham Lincoln.

Although he was wounded, Carney would carry the flag all the way into the fort and plant it on the parapet.

The sub plummeted 243 feet and slammed into the ocean floor.

Congressman Preston Brooks beat Senator Charles Sumner to a bloody pulp on the floor of the United States Senate.

A counterweight had failed and the 6-ton baroque behemoth came crashing down. The incident would inspire Gaston Leroux to write The Phantom of the Opera.

A 30-foot wide meteor came within 93,000 miles of hitting Earth. On the cosmic scale, that's a pretty close call.

A large swath of New England was plunged into almost total darkness. Many believed it was the end of the world.

The massive landslide involved 60 million cubic meters of earth. 116 people and over 500 farm animals were killed.

More than a cubic mile of rock blasted into the sky, leaving behind a gigantic horseshoe crater. The force of the Mount St. Helen's blast was equal to 1600 atomic bombs.

At least 200 workers would die in a relentless storm of explosions that literally launched buildings into the air.

After 32 years with an anglicized spelling, the United States Congress changed "Porto Rico" to "Puerto Rico."

Captain Eli Beeding rode a rocket sled and subjected himself to the world’s worst case of whiplash.

During the Civil War, the Union Army occupied New Orleans under the command of Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler, who issued an infamous order.

A year and a half before the Wright Brothers' famous flight at Kitty Hawk, an eccentric character named Lyman Gilmore took off in his steam-powered plane - or so he claimed.

With unemployment at record levels and an economy in the crapper, 100,000 New Yorkers took to the streets.

A Union soldier named John J. Williams was the last man to die in the American Civil War.

Vice President Richard Nixon was attacked by an angry mob in Venezuela. The incident occurred during a goodwill tour of South America.

Two men survived being lost at sea for 6 months aboard a 13-foot dinghy.