Disasters in the world of the 20th century. Tragedies of the 20th century (143 photos)

The twentieth century is “rich” in events such as bloody wars, destructive man-made disasters, and severe natural disasters. These events are terrible both in the number of casualties and the extent of damage.

The most terrible wars of the 20th century

Blood, pain, mountains of corpses, suffering - this is what the wars of the 20th century brought. In the last century, wars took place, many of which can be called the most terrible and bloodiest in the entire history of mankind. Large-scale military conflicts continued throughout the twentieth century. Some of them were internal, and some involved several states at the same time.

World War I

The beginning of the First World War practically coincided with the beginning of the century. Its causes, as is known, were laid at the end of the nineteenth century. The interests of the opposing allied blocs collided, which led to the start of this long and bloody war.

Thirty-eight of the fifty-nine states that existed in the world at that time were participants in the First World War. We can say that almost the whole world was involved in it. Having begun in 1914, it ended only in 1918.

Russian Civil War

After the revolution took place in Russia, the Civil War began in 1917. It continued until 1923. In Central Asia, pockets of resistance were extinguished only in the early forties.

In this fratricidal war, where the Reds and the Whites fought among themselves, according to conservative estimates, about five and a half million people died. It turns out that the Civil War in Russia claimed more lives than all the Napoleonic wars.

The Second World War

The war that began in 1939 and ended in September 1945 was called World War II. It is considered the worst and most destructive war of the twentieth century. Even according to conservative estimates, at least forty million people died in it. It is estimated that the number of victims could reach seventy-two million.

Of the seventy-three states that existed in the world at that time, sixty-two states took part in it, that is, about eighty percent of the planet’s population. We can say that this world war is the most global, so to speak. The Second World War was fought on three continents and four oceans.

Korean War

The Korean War began at the end of June 1950 and continued until the end of July 1953. It was a confrontation between South and North Korea. In essence, this conflict was a proxy war between two forces: the PRC and the USSR on the one hand, and the USA and their allies on the other.

The Korean War was the first military conflict where two superpowers clashed in a limited area without using nuclear weapons. The war ended after the signing of a truce. There are still no official statements about the end of this war.

The worst man-made disasters of the 20th century

Man-made disasters occur from time to time in different parts of the planet, claiming human lives, destroying everything around, and often causing irreparable harm to the surrounding nature. There are known disasters that resulted in the complete destruction of entire cities. Similar disasters occurred in the oil, chemical, nuclear and other industries.

Chernobyl accident

The explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant is considered one of the worst man-made disasters of the last century. As a result of that terrible tragedy that happened in April 1986, a huge amount of radioactive substance was released into the atmosphere, and the fourth power unit of the nuclear plant was completely destroyed.

In the history of nuclear energy, this disaster is regarded as the largest of its kind both in terms of economic damage and the number of injured and killed.

Bhopal disaster

In early December 1984, a disaster occurred at a chemical plant in the city of Bhopal (India), which was later called the Hiroshima of the chemical industry. The plant produced products that destroyed insect pests.

Four thousand people died on the day of the accident, another eight thousand within two weeks. Almost five hundred thousand people were poisoned an hour after the explosion. The causes of this terrible disaster have never been established.

Piper Alpha oil rig disaster

In early July 1988, a powerful explosion occurred on the Piper Alpha oil platform, causing it to completely burn down. This disaster is considered the largest in the oil industry. After a gas leak and subsequent explosion, out of two hundred and twenty-six people, only fifty-nine survived.

The worst natural disasters of the century

Natural disasters can cause no less harm to humanity than major man-made disasters. Nature is stronger than man, and periodically it reminds us of this.

We know from history about major natural disasters that occurred before the beginning of the twentieth century. Today's generation has witnessed many natural disasters that occurred already in the twentieth century.

Cyclone Bola

In November 1970, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded struck. It covered the territory of Indian West Bengal and eastern Pakistan (today it is the territory of Bangladesh).

The exact number of victims of the cyclone is unclear. This figure ranges from three to five million people. The destructive power of the storm was not in power. The reason for the huge death toll is that the wave swamped low-lying islands in the Ganges delta, wiping out villages.

Earthquake in Chile

The largest earthquake in history is recognized as occurring in 1960 in Chile. Its strength on the Richter scale is nine and a half points. The epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean just a hundred miles from Chile. This in turn caused a tsunami.

Several thousand people died. The cost of the destruction that occurred is estimated at more than half a billion dollars. Severe landslides occurred. Many of them changed the direction of the rivers.

Tsunami on the coast of Alaska

The strongest tsunami of the mid-twentieth century occurred off the coast of Alaska at Lituya Bay. Hundreds of millions of cubic meters of earth and ice fell from the mountain into the bay, causing a response surge on the opposite shore of the bay.

The resulting half-kilometer wave, soaring into the air, plunged back into the sea. This tsunami is the highest in the world. Only two people became its victims only due to the fact that there were no human settlements in the Lituya area.

The most terrible event of the 20th century

The most terrible event of the last century can be called the bombing of Japanese cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This tragedy occurred on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively. After the explosions of atomic bombs, these cities were almost completely turned into ruins.

The use of nuclear weapons showed the whole world how colossal their consequences could be. The bombing of Japanese cities was the first use of nuclear weapons against humans.

The most terrible explosion in the history of mankind, according to the site, was also the work of Americans. "The Big One" was blown up during the Cold War.
Subscribe to our channel in Yandex.Zen

14 August 2008 10:05

There are hundreds of tragedies of the 20th century... Mountains of corpses, blood, pain and suffering - this is what revolutions, world wars, political upheavals and monstrous incidents brought with them. And all of them, as a rule, are carefully photographed and recorded...

And this terrible list opens with photographs from aboard the infamous Titanic...

.
TRAGEDY OF THE TITANIC. More than eighty years have passed since the moment when, on the frosty night of April 14-15, 1912, south of the island of Newfoundland, the giant Titanic, the largest and most luxurious ship of the beginning of the century, sank after colliding with a drifting iceberg. 1,500 passengers and crew died. And although there were enough terrible tragedies in the 20th century, interest in the fate of this ship does not wane even today. Here is a rather rare photograph of the ship three days before departure...


Unfortunately, we will have to come to terms with the fact that the complete truth about the sinking of the Titanic will never be known. Despite two investigations carried out immediately after the floating palace was swallowed up by the waves, many details remained unclear. The ship sets off on its fateful voyage...


As soon as Captain Smith was informed that the last ladder had been removed and secured, the pilot got down to business. At the pier, the mooring lines were released, securing the bow and stern to the powerful shore bollards. Then the tugs got to work. The long hull of the Titanic, centimeter by centimeter, began to move away from the pier... A retouched photograph of the Titanic's departure...


The complex sailing maneuvers were watched by hundreds of passengers on the Titanic's promenade decks and thousands of people on shore. Farewell...


And then something happened that could have ended very sadly. The New York steamship was in the harbor. At that moment, when the Titanic passed by, the bows of both ships were on the same line, the six steel cables with which the New York was moored were stretched and a strong crack was heard, similar to shots from a revolver, and the ends of the cables whistled in the air and fell onto the embankment into a frightened, fleeing crowd...


Of course, there are no photographs of the sinking Titanic. But. There are quite a lot of photographs taken from the rescue ship Carpathia. They managed to lift more than 100 people on board - all those who survived on five boats... "Carpathia"...


Killer iceberg...


Boat No. 12 is one of those that managed to reach the side of the Carpathia...


Saved. On board the Carpathia...


Newsboys. Terrible news...


HOLODOMOR. This terrible word is used to describe the mass death of the population of the Ukrainian SSR from famine in 1932-1933... In the USSR, the scale of the tragedy that occurred and its real causes were simply hidden... But witnesses recall that the streets of cities and villages were littered with the corpses of the dead, swollen from hunger of people...


Currently, there is a point of view in the scientific community according to which the mass death of the population of Ukraine was caused by the conscious and purposeful actions of the Soviet leadership...


During these terrible years, at least 4,500,000 people died in Ukraine...


There were corpses everywhere...


Hospitals and morgues could not cope with their responsibilities...


Improvised cemeteries stretched for tens of kilometers on the outskirts of the city...


Foreign journalists took photographs out of Ukraine at the risk of their own lives. And yet, something leaked to the press...

THE LAST AIRSHIP DISASTER. On May 6, 1937, the German aircraft Hidenburg exploded and burned - at that time the world's largest airship, the length of which was about 248 m, the diameter was more than 40 m. It was built in the 30s as a symbol of Hitler's new Germany... A photograph of that time from the archives of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper..


It could fly 15 thousand km at a maximum speed of 135 km/h. On two floors of the passenger compartment there were 26 double cabins, bars, a reading room, a restaurant, galleries, and kitchens. The ticket cost over $800. "Hidenburg" was destroyed by fire while approaching the mooring mast in Lakehurst (New Jersey, USA), completing a flight from Frankfurt (Germany)...


32 seconds after the explosion, the airship, more than 2 times the length of a football field, resembled a fantastic charred skeleton of curved metal. This disaster claimed 36 human lives...


The explosion was heard fifteen miles away. Thanks to the courage and self-control of the captain, the crew and 62 passengers were saved. The fire is directly related to the use of hydrogen, the only carrier gas Germany had available since the United States refused to supply helium in commercial quantities. There was also a version of the terrorist attack - in the early 1970s, information appeared that Nazi enemy Erich Spehl, one of the team members, had planted a time mine...


PEARL HARBOR. The most famous US naval base in the Hawaiian Islands. On December 7, 1941, during World War II, Japanese carrier aircraft launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and disabled the main forces of the American Pacific Fleet. On December 8, the United States and Great Britain declared war on Japan...


The sun rose over Pearl Harbor that day in all its usual tropical glory. It was Sunday and the fleet was "home". The officers and sailors thought about the upcoming day of rest. As always on Sundays, the wake-up call was given late. At that moment, when the sounds of the bugle died down, unknown planes appeared in the sky. Without any delay, they began dropping bombs and torpedoes...


50 bombers, 40 torpedo bombers and 81 dive bombers attacked the ships of the Pacific Fleet anchored in Pearl Harbor...


When the last Japanese planes left, Navy and Marine Corps casualties stood at 2,835, with 2,086 officers and men killed or mortally wounded. The army's losses amounted to 600 people, of whom 194 were killed and 364 wounded. In addition to damage to ships and hangars, 92 navy aircraft were destroyed and 31 aircraft were damaged, and the army lost 96 aircraft...

HIROSHIMA - REVENGE FOR PEARL HARBOR? The Great Patriotic War ended on May 9, 1945. But the war did not end there. It lasted until September 2, 1945. And there were fights. And there were victories. And there were victims. And there were tragedies. And the worst of them is the atomic bombing of Japanese cities...

The area of ​​the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 was about 26 square meters. miles, of which only 7 were completely built up. There were no clearly designated commercial, industrial and residential areas. 75% of the population lived in a densely built area in the city center...

The regiment commander, Colonel Tibets, named his aircraft “Enola Gay” in honor of his mother. The body of the atomic bomb, located in the bomb bay of the Enola Gay, was covered with a variety of both humorous and serious slogans. Among them was the inscription “from the guys from Indianapolis”...

On August 6, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, two B-29 bombers appeared over Hiroshima. People continued to work without entering the shelter and looked at enemy planes. When the bombers reached the city center, one of them dropped a small parachute, after which the planes flew away. At 8:15 a.m. there was a deafening explosion that seemed to tear apart heaven and earth in an instant...

A blinding flash and a terrible roar of explosion - after which the entire city was covered with huge clouds of smoke. Among the smoke, dust and debris, wooden houses burst into flames one after another, and until the end of the day the city was engulfed in smoke and flames. And when the flames finally subsided, the whole city was nothing but ruins. Charred and burned corpses were piled up everywhere, many of them frozen in the position in which the explosion had caught them. The tram, of which only one skeleton remained, was filled with corpses holding on to the belts...


A single bomb with a capacity of 20 thousand tons of TNT, which exploded at an altitude of 600 meters above the city, instantly destroyed 60 percent of the city to the ground. Of the 306,545 residents of Hiroshima, 176,987 people were affected by the explosion. 92,133 people were killed or missing, 9,428 people were seriously injured and 27,997 people were slightly injured. In an effort to reduce their responsibility, the Americans underestimated the number of casualties as much as possible - the number of killed and wounded military personnel was not taken into account when calculating losses. Many died from radiation sickness. There was nothing left of those who were near the epicenter - the explosion literally evaporated people...


AUSCHWITZ - 40 HECTARES OF DEATH. The largest extermination camp, it was called a death factory, a death conveyor, a death machine. In fact, in Polish Silesia, on several thousand hectares, the most monstrous state in the world was built with a population of several million people, of whom less than three thousand survived, with its own value system, economy, government, hierarchy, rulers, executioners, victims and heroes. The inscription above the entrance to the Auschwitz concentration camp read: “Work makes you free.” Entrance to Hell...


“You were brought here not to a sanatorium, but to a German concentration camp. Remember, there is only one way out from here - through the crematorium pipe.” This is how the voice of Deputy Commandant Frach spoke through the loudspeakers...


The engineers were given a task: a crematorium was needed, because otherwise there would be too many problems with the bodies of the dead. The engineers calculated: three furnaces, coal, loading 24 hours a day. They gave the answer: 340 people can be burned. The engineering management thanked them, but set a new task - to increase production capacity...

Two tons of human hair is what they didn’t have time to use. The camp supplied them at 50 pfennigs per kilogram. Industrialists took it willingly - they got inexpensive, durable fabric and ropes...


The gold hordes from the glasses were neatly stacked in a special room...


The main entrance... People were brought in carriages...

Up to six people slept on the bunks. In winter, many people had incontinence. And all this flowed from the upper bunks to the lower ones. And going to the toilet at night was a nightmare. The guards beat people because they had instructions: the latrine must be clean...


At the same time, the Germans were experimenting with gas. It was served through holes in the ceiling. People didn't know where they were going. They were told that it was for sanitation. The SS men checked whether the prisoners were alive or not. They took a nail and poked it into the body... The road to the gas chamber...


"Cyclone-B"...


They took their anger out on the Russians. There were twelve thousand of them, maybe sixty people remained. For example, they had this punishment: in the barracks they opened the doors on one side and the other, but it was winter, and the prisoners had to stand naked. The guards also sprayed them with cold water from a hose...


They prepared soup for the prisoners, of course, without fat and meat. When they carried a full cauldron, the stew spilled. People licked the ground if a drop fell. The SS men also beat me for this...

Kids show hands with numbers...


Soviet soldiers liberated Auschwitz on January 27, 1945. Less than seven thousand people remained there. The Germans destroyed all five crematoria and gas chambers, and took away most of the prisoners. Those who remained said themselves: we are no longer people after what we experienced here...


DEATH OF GOEBBELS. During the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the main ideologist of fascism, Joseph Goebbels, took poison, having first poisoned his family - his wife and six children. The corpses, according to his dying order, were burned. Here is a photograph showing the corpse of a criminal. The photo was taken in the Imperial Chancellery building on May 2, 1945 by Major Vasily Krupennikov. On the back of the photo, Vasily wrote: “We covered Goebbels’s sensitive spot with a handkerchief, it was very unpleasant to look at it”...


TSAR BOMB, "IVAN", "KUZKA'S MOTHER". A thermonuclear device developed at CCCP in the mid-50s by a group of physicists led by Academician I.V. Kurchatov


The development team included Andrei Sakharov, Viktor Adamsky, Yuri Babaev, Yuri Trunov and Yuri Smirnov.


The original version of the bomb, weighing 40 tons, was rejected by the designers as too heavy. Then nuclear scientists promised to reduce its weight to 20 tons, and aircraft manufacturers proposed a program for corresponding modification of Tu-16 and Tu-95 bombers. The new nuclear device, according to the tradition adopted in the USSR, received the code designation “Vanya” or “Ivan”, and the Tu-95 chosen as the carrier was named Tu-95V.


The results of the explosion of the charge, which received the name Tsar Bomba in the West, were impressive - the nuclear “mushroom” of the explosion rose to a height of 64 kilometers, the shock wave resulting from the explosion circled the globe three times, and ionization of the atmosphere caused radio communications interference for hundreds of kilometers from the landfill within one hour...


The test of the world's most powerful thermonuclear device took place on October 30, 1961, during the XXII Congress of the CPSU. The bomb exploded within the nuclear test site on Novaya Zemlya at an altitude of 4,500 meters. The power of the explosion was about 50 megatons of TNT. No casualties or damage were officially reported...


ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT KENNEDY. The tragedy happened on November 22, 1963, Friday...

The number of proposed clues to this incident is confidently moving towards infinity. What is known for certain?..

On November 22, the president, along with his wife and Texas Governor John Connally, were driving from the Dallas airport to the city center. As the motorcade moved through the business district of the city, the president was greeted by more than 200 thousand people. At some point, the car slowed down, and that’s when shots rang out.


The bullets hit JFK in the head and throat. The President fell into the arms of his wife, and the next shot seriously wounded the Governor of Texas in the back.


This 40-second recording, made on a simple video camera by someone from Dallas, has become the most famous recording in the world. Immediately after the shots were fired, the car rushed to the clinic, where 14 surgeons fought for Kennedy’s life...

...but despite all their efforts, he died 35 minutes later...
45 minutes after the assassination attempt, the suspect, Lee Harvey Oswald, was detained. But he, too, was mysteriously killed - 2 days later he was put to death by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Well, US Vice President Lyndon Johnson became the new president of the country. By the way, he was traveling in another car of the same motorcade...


The VIETNAM WAR began in August 1964 with an incident in the Gulf of Tonkin, during which coast guard ships of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam fired on American destroyers providing fire support to government forces of South Vietnam in their fight against guerrillas...

To defend South Vietnam, the United States deployed an army of half a million across the ocean, equipped with all types of modern weapons, except nuclear...


American soldiers fought fiercely in the impenetrable jungle against pro-communist guerrillas (Viet Cong)...

In huge areas, they destroyed thick foliage that hid the elusive enemy with pesticides, mercilessly bombed partisan areas and the territory of North Vietnam - everything was in vain...


Subsequently, hostilities covered the territory not only of Vietnam itself, but also of neighboring Laos and Cambodia...


50 thousand Americans died; Many times more Vietnamese were killed. By the beginning of 1968, the war had reached a dead end; peace negotiations began in May 1968, which lasted more than four years... On January 27, 1973, the US administration agreed to sign an agreement on the conditions for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. The war, which the United States thought would be a cakewalk, turned out to be America's nightmare. The post-war crisis continued in the United States for more than 10 years. It’s hard to say how it would have ended if the Afghan crisis had not turned up…
In the second half of the 20th century, humanity learned two terrible phrases - “world terrorism” and “man-made disaster”... Since the 60s of the last century, cosmodromes and factories, trains and planes, houses and nuclear reactors have been blowing up one after another in this world ...

.
BAIKONUR, OCTOBER 24, 1960. "Nedelin's catastrophe." The explosion of the R-16 intercontinental ballistic missile during testing at the cosmodrome...


The explosion and resulting fire killed more than 90 people, including the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces... According to unofficial data, there were 165...


The designer, academician M.K. Yangel, who was absent for a short time before the start, miraculously survived...


The disaster was kept secret until the end of the 90s...


However, much less tragic events were also classified then. Interestingly, there are still rumors in Baikonur to this day that the Soviet Union was sending people into space even before Gagarin. But since these attempts ended in the death of the astronauts, they were kept secret...


And the monument to the dead turned out to be very modest...


BLOODY TUESDAY IN MUNICH. On September 5, 1972, at the XX Olympics, the most monstrous tragedy in the history of sports competitions occurred. At 3:30 in the morning, 8 heavily armed terrorists belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization militant group Black September burst into one of the houses of the Olympic Village. They managed to take 11 members of the Israeli sports delegation hostage. The security of the Olympic Village simply did not notice the terrorists...

Having climbed through the metal mesh enclosing the athletes' dormitory, the terrorists unpack their weapons and enter entrance No. 1 of building 31. A few seconds later, they persistently knock on the door of the room in which the Israeli classical wrestling judge Yosef Gutfreund is located. Gutfreund is famous for his heroic physique and Herculean strength. Seeing suspicious people, he leans his whole body on the door and detains the criminals for a few seconds...


One of the terrorists orders one of the hostages to show the rooms in which the rest of the Israelis live. He refuses, and the terrorist fires a burst of Kalashnikov at him. Thus, he saves the lives of shooters, fencers, a race walker and a swimmer...

Still, 12 Israelis were captured by the terrorists. Demands were put forward - the immediate release of 234 terrorists from Israeli prisons and 16 from Western European prisons... Negotiations continued until late in the evening...


The bodies of all eleven dead athletes were sent to Israel. During the unsuccessful operation, two German citizens also died: a policeman and the pilot of one of the helicopters. In the homeland of the victims, in addition to relatives, the funeral ceremony was attended by the head of government Golda Meir, all ministers, members of the Knesset, members of the sports delegation who left the Olympics, thousands of Israeli citizens...


CHERNOBYL DISASTER. On April 26, 1986, 187 control and protection system rods entered the core to shut down the reactor. The chain reaction had to be broken. However, after 3 seconds, alarm signals were registered for exceeding the reactor power and increasing pressure. And after another 4 seconds - a dull explosion that shook the entire building. The emergency protection rods stopped before they were even halfway...


Sparkling clumps began to fly out from the roof of the fourth power unit, as if from the mouth of a volcano. They rose high up. It looked like fireworks. The clumps scattered into multi-colored sparks and fell in different places...

A black fireball soared up, forming a cloud that stretched horizontally into a black cloud and went to the side, spreading death, disease and misfortune in the form of small, small drops..


And at this time people were still working inside. There is no roof, part of the wall is destroyed... The lights went out, the phone went off. Floors are collapsing. The floor is shaking. The premises are filled with either steam, fog, or dust. Short circuit sparks flash. Radiation monitoring devices are off the charts. Hot radioactive water is flowing everywhere...

After the largest man-made disaster in world history, pine trees like these were born in the Zone...

...such animals...

...and these are the children...

These photographs were taken for one of the secret reports to the Central Committee of the USSR Politburo...


Now almost all houses in the Zone look like this...


THE 1988 EARTHQUAKE THAT DESTROYED THE CITY OF SPITAK. Also in Armenia, the cities of Leninakan, Stepanavan, Kirovakan were destroyed. 58 villages in the north-west of the republic were reduced to ruins, almost 400 villages were partially destroyed.


450 mine rescuers arrived from the fraternal union republics in Armenia. 6.5 thousand military personnel, 25 teams of military doctors, and 400 units of army equipment are participating in rescue operations in the disaster zone.


Tens of thousands of people died, 514 thousand people were left homeless. The loss of national wealth amounted to 8.8 billion rubles.


Over the past 80 years, this is the most powerful earthquake in the Caucasus...


On March 1, 1995, FAMOUS TV JOURNALIST VLAD LISTYEV was KILLED at the entrance of his house.


The murder of the general director of ORT and simply a popular person came as a shock to millions of people. He was so loved and popular that even the then head of state Boris Yeltsin, abandoning everything, rushed to Ostankino to apologize to the television crew. The investigation began almost immediately, sketches of the alleged killers were made and published, but the hot pursuit did not produce results.


Over the past 11 years, the wording of the Prosecutor General's Office messages has remained almost unchanged. Only the volume of investigation materials has changed: this year there are already more than 200 volumes.


CAPTURE OF BUDENNOVSK. On June 14, 1995, detachments of Chechen militants under the command of Shamil Basayev entered Budyonnovsk and took about 1,500 hostages. The terrorists, having made the cessation of hostilities and the start of negotiations in Chechnya a condition for the release of the hostages, gained a foothold in the city hospital.

On June 17, special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB made several attempts to storm the hospital. During these operations, both the terrorists and the attackers were killed and wounded, but the hostages suffered the most (from the attackers’ fire) - up to 30 people died and many were wounded. During the assault, the terrorists forced the hostages, including women, to stand at the windows and shout to the Russian servicemen: “Don’t shoot!”

After the failure of the assault on June 18, through the mediation of S.A. Kovalev, negotiations began between Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and Basayev, during which it was possible to reach an agreement on the release of the hostages. The conditions for their release were: the cessation of hostilities on the territory of Chechnya and the resolution of controversial issues through negotiations. A detachment of militants traveled on buses provided by the federal side to the mountainous Chechen village of Zandak. At the same time, 120 hostages who volunteered to accompany the terrorists were used as “human shields”. In total, as a result of this terrorist action in Budennovsk, 105 civilians were killed, including 18 women, 17 men over 55 years old, a boy and a girl under 16 years old. 11 police officers and at least 14 military personnel were also killed.


THE MURDER OF YITZHAK RABIN. Every Israeli knows the name of the killer of the Israeli prime minister. Yigal Yigal Amir is a member of the underground ultra-ultra-right nationalist organization "Eyal" (Lions of Judah).

The murder took place on November 4, 1995 in Tel Aviv, the evening after thousands of people demonstrated in support of the peace process. Yitzhak Rabin, wounded in the back by two bullets, was taken to the nearby Ihillov hospital in the back seat of a government limousine.

By 11 p.m., Rabin's personal secretary reported that the prime minister had been fatally shot.


The aging leader of the Workers' Party, Yitzhak Rabin, whose policies were subject to severe criticism, was instantly canonized. It is now customary in Israel to name squares, streets and educational institutions after him...


HOUSE EXPLOSIONS IN MOSCOW AND VOLGODONSK IN 1999. A series of terrorist attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999 claimed the lives of more than 300 people. The explosions occurred in a situation where fighting was taking place in Dagestan between federal troops and invading armed separatist detachments from Chechnya, led by Shamil Basayev...


Explosion on Guryanov Street. On September 8, 1999, at 11:58 p.m., an explosion occurred in the basement of a 9-story residential building 19 on Guryanova Street (Pechatniki district) in the southeast of Moscow. The building was partially destroyed, one section of the residential building collapsed. Rescuers worked on the ruins of a residential building for several days...


According to official data, the explosion killed 109 people and injured 160 people. As explosives experts established, an explosive device with a capacity of 300-400 kg of TNT went off in the basement of the house. The blast wave deformed the structures of neighboring house 19. A few days later, houses 17 and 19 were destroyed by explosives experts, the residents were relocated to other houses...


There were speculations in the media that this was a terrorist attack. A day of mourning for those killed in the explosion was set for September 13. On the same day, a sketch of a man who allegedly rented a basement in a residential building was shown on television...


Explosion on Kashirskoye Highway. On September 13, at 5 a.m., a new explosion occurred on Kashirskoye Highway in an 8-story residential building number 6/3. As a result of the explosion, the house was completely destroyed, almost all the residents in the residential building - 124 people - were killed, 9 people were injured and rescuers pulled them out of the rubble, and 119 families were affected. Due to the fact that the house was made of bricks, almost all the residents who were in it during the explosion died...


On the same day, September 13, in the Maryino area, supplies of explosives were found in sugar bags, sufficient to destroy several more residential buildings. A state of emergency was not declared, but unprecedented security measures were taken in Moscow and other cities, and all attics and basements were checked. Residents of residential buildings spontaneously organized round-the-clock watches for several months...


On September 16, a few days after the explosions in Moscow, at 5.40 am, the city of Volgodonsk, Rostov Region, was rocked by a terrible explosion. A GAZ-53 van filled with explosives exploded near the police department building and next to a 9-story residential building on Gagarin Street, 35. A crater with a diameter of 15 m and a depth of 3 m formed in the courtyard of the house. 437 people lived in 144 apartments of the panel building - 18 people died.


TRAGEDY IN THE TRANSITION ON PUSHKIN SQUARE. Another powerful explosion occurred in Moscow. The explosive device was planted by two young Caucasians...


They allegedly approached commercial booth number 40 and asked to sell them goods for US dollars. The seller refused, then the young people asked the seller to look after the bag while they went to exchange dollars for rubles. Literally a few minutes after they left, a homemade explosive device lying in the bag with a capacity of 400 grams to 1.5 kg of TNT went off...

According to witnesses who were in the passage at that moment, first there was a strong bang and a bright flash, then a blast wave rolled through the tunnel and heavy smoke poured out. People began to run out. Those who were closer to the epicenter had numerous burns and wounds, and blood was pouring out. The explosion was so strong that it literally tore the clothes off the victims...


The explosion killed 7 people, 93 sought medical help. Of these, 59 people were taken to city hospitals, 34 refused hospitalization. Among the victims were three children...


THE DEATH OF "KURSK". On August 12, 2000, a tragedy broke out in the Barants Sea, riveting hundreds of millions of people to their television screens

For several days, Russian and British naval forces tried to rescue 118 crew members of the nuclear submarine from underwater captivity.


However, all efforts were in vain...


As the investigation later established, the tragedy was caused by the explosion of the so-called “thick torpedo” in the torpedo compartment. All submariners on board died.


TRAGEDY AT DUBROVKA. On October 23, 2002, at 21:15, armed men in camouflage burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, on Melnikov Street (formerly the Palace of Culture of the State Bearing Plant). At that time, the musical “Nord-Ost” was playing at the cultural center; there were more than 700 people in the hall. The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building...


At 10 o'clock in the evening it became known that the theater building was captured by a detachment of Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev, among the terrorists there were women, all of them were hung with explosives...


On October 24, at a quarter past midnight, the first attempt was made to establish contact with the terrorists: State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov entered the center building. At half past midnight, several shots were heard in the building. The hostages who managed to contact the television companies by mobile phones asked not to begin the assault: “These people say that for every one of their own killed or wounded, they will kill 10 hostages”...


On October 26, at five hours and 30 minutes, three explosions and several machine gun bursts were heard near the Palace of Culture building. At about six o'clock the special forces began the assault, during which nerve gas was used. At half past seven in the morning, an official representative of the FSB reported that the Theater Center was under the control of the special services, Movsar Barayev and most of the terrorists had been destroyed...


At 7:25 a.m., Russian Presidential Assistant Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially announced that the operation to free the hostages was completed. The number of neutralized terrorists in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka alone amounted to 50 people - 18 women and 32 men. Three terrorists detained...


On November 7, 2002, the Moscow prosecutor's office published a list of citizens who died as a result of the actions of terrorists who seized the theater center on Dubrovka. It included 128 people: 120 Russians and 8 citizens from near and far abroad countries. Five hostages received gunshot wounds as a result of the militants' actions. The four dead hostages could not be identified for a long time, and their names were not included in the lists of health authorities...


SEPTEMBER 11 – WAR WITHOUT RULES. America has never known such a tragedy... The worst nightmares have come true... Manhattan, 8 hours 44 minutes in the morning on September 11, 2001, a minute before the tragedy.


At 8:45 a.m., the first kamikaze plane crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers. The footage shows how the second one flies up...


One of the towers, 110 floors high, was rammed right through...


An explosion and immediately a strong fire. The last person to answer the phone from the upper floors shouted "We are dying!"


A series of powerful explosions took place along the perimeter of the Twin Towers...


The fire burst out. The top of the building “falls” into the base...


The two tallest buildings of the World Trade Center collapsed after standing for less than an hour...


The streets of Manhattan south of Colon Street are shrouded in such dense smoke that rescuers cannot get there...


BESLAN - A BITTER LESSON. At approximately 8 a.m. on September 1, 2004, near the village of Khurikau, on the border of the Mozdok and Pravoberezhny regions of North Ossetia, approximately 60 km from Beslan, armed people stopped a local district police officer, a police major, and put him in their car. According to preliminary data, it was with the help of the ID of an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the militants in a GAZ-66 and two cars freely passed several checkpoints on the way to Beslan...


During the ceremonial assembly on the occasion of September 1, they broke into the territory of school No. 1. In total, according to the education committee of the Beslan administration, 895 students and 59 teachers and technical staff of the school were present at the line. The number of parents who came to see their children off to school is unknown...


Having opened indiscriminate fire in the air, the militants ordered everyone present to enter the school building, but the majority - mostly high school students and adults - were able to simply run away. Those who could not do this - primary school students and their parents and some teachers - were driven into the gym by the bandits...

Then everything happened like in a nightmare... An explosion was recorded inside the school. Data on the number of hostages is still scattered. Based on lists compiled by relatives and parents of students, it was established that there could be 132 children in the school. In total, according to unconfirmed data, the militants managed to capture from 300 to 400 people...


Information appears that the gym is mined... Bodies are burning in the gym, they are being poured from fire hoses. Strong explosions inside the school occur with some persistent frequency. Meanwhile, the crowd slowly but surely begins to approach the building. Soldiers of the internal troops are trying to get in their way. “Better let me in,” one of the men says calmly. And they retreat. People want to go to the gym and see with their own eyes how many people were killed there...


The hostages are shot, they die from dehydration and suffocation...


This is what the gym looked like after the assault...


Sad results: in Beslan they say that about six hundred people were saved. No one denies that there were at least a thousand hostages - so the total number of victims is about 400 people. There is still no exact data - many are missing...


At the end of December 2004, the strongest earthquake and tsunami in the last 40 years occurred in six countries in Southeast Asia.


The first and most powerful earthquake occurred on December 26 at about 03:00 in the Indian Ocean. Literally a few minutes later, a destructive tsunami wave reached land - first of all, the island of Sumatra (Indonesia), and then Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives /


Eyewitnesses described how, in absolutely sunny, windless weather, the water suddenly began to recede from the beach, and then a six-meter wave formed. Those who were able to escape in these few minutes were saved. Tons of water swept away everything in its path: people, cars and even entire hotels

The number of victims reached 400 thousand people. About 100 thousand more have not yet been found or identified.


The largest number of victims - more than 10 thousand - was registered in Indonesia, off the coast of which there was an epicenter measuring 9 points on the Richter scale.


Then hundreds of settlements were flooded and wiped off the face of the earth.


Seismologists call the December events exceptional. According to them, no more than five such earthquakes have been recorded over the past century.

This region of South-East Asia still cannot recover from the terrible destruction.

Remember the movie "Troubling Sunday", in which firefighters saved a port city from the threat of an explosion on a burning tanker? Almaty also had its own “alarming” Saturday, but it was more tragic. 5 photos.

27 years ago, on May 20, on the railway switch of the access tracks of the Alma-Ata2 station, located almost in the center of the city, two trains collided - one was pushing 6 tanks with liquefied gas in front of itself, and the oncoming diesel locomotive was pulling three cars with household junk. The impact caused a hole in the second gas tank along the route; the gas under pressure rushed forward, reached the hot manifold of the diesel locomotive and burst into flames.

The locomotive caught fire and its driver died in the fire. A column of black smoke rose over the city, an escalated alarm was announced, and fire crews rushed to the incident. At that moment, when the firefighters of the nearest unit had already arrived and began to turn around, the first tank along the route exploded. The commander of the fifth unit, Erkin Iskakov, immediately died, more than a dozen firefighters received severe burns, and civilians were also injured. In total, 99 people were hospitalized in the city with burns. Following this, all the carriages caught fire, 13 one-story houses located along the railway tracks and several warehouse buildings and workshops caught fire.

The firefighters were faced with the task of preventing the explosions of the remaining tanks by any means. Otherwise, the damage from such a disaster would be terrible.

Almost all the city’s fire brigades arrived at the scene, and regional departments also began to arrive. The flaming cars were uncoupled, pulled back, and began to cool and extinguish. For six hours, more than two hundred firefighters fought against the terrible elements, were able to prevent explosions of the remaining tanks, and saved many lives.

But the losses were terrible - a total of 36 people died. Nine of them were firefighters: E. Iskakov, I. Abdranov, K. Akkulov, S. Alimtaev, R. Kasymov, M. Malikov, V. Nikulenko, I. Safargaliev, F. Sharipov - they died a few days after the disaster. Then I heard a formula from doctors: if the area of ​​body burns plus age is more than 100, then there is no chance of survival.

My story, I saw everything with my own eyes. We remembered the guys and decided to write.

You cannot live in the past, dream about the future, you need to appreciate the present, enjoy every day you live. The horrors that befell humanity in the twentieth century cannot be forgotten. You will find the most tragic events and shocking lessons of fate in our review.

Disasters on the water

The death of thousands of people on the waters is caused by various reasons: human factor, design errors, military actions, natural disasters. Let's look at the largest tragedies in terms of the number of victims that occurred on the water in the last century:

1. "Goya". The warship, confiscated by the Germans after they occupied Norwegian territories during the Great Patriotic War, killed 7,000 people. On April 16, 1945, a torpedo was fired at the powerful ship from a Russian submarine, causing the Goya to sink in the Baltic Sea.

2. "Wilhelm Gustloff." The German ship is named after the Nazi party leader. At the time of construction it was considered the largest ship in the world. Before the war it was used as a means of recreation. The ship sank on January 30, 1945. The reason is an attack by the Soviet military from a submarine. The exact composition of the passengers is unknown, but according to the official version, 5,348 people died. There were women and children on board.

3. "Mont Blanc". On December 6, 1917, a French warship exploded in a Canadian harbor and collided with the Imo (Norway). As a result of the fire, few managed to survive. Mortality is 2,000 people (1,950 people identified), and the cause is a banal human factor. Not counting the pre-nuclear era, this explosion was the most powerful in the history of mankind. You can watch a film about the terrible tragedy made in Canada in 2003 - “Destructive City”.

4. "Bismarck". The German battleship was sunk by British aircraft on June 12, 1944 during the war. The number of victims was 1,995 people.

The sinking of the Titanic

At the time of commissioning, the ship was considered the largest on earth. The giant ship sank on its first voyage on April 15, 1912, colliding with an iceberg.

Horror and death in the air

In the mid-twentieth century, air travel became widespread. The active development of passenger aviation has led to an excess of deaths in the sky compared to “water” mortality. Here is a list of “bright” tragedies that claimed the lives of many innocent people:

1. Clash in Tenerife. The disaster occurred on March 27, 1977. Event location: Canary Islands (Tenerife). The fatal “meeting” of two airliners caused the death of 583 people. 61 people managed to escape the tragedy. For the period of the twentieth century, this plane crash is the largest in terms of the number of civil aviation events.

2. Disaster near Tokyo. On August 12, 1985, a Japanese airliner lost control 12 minutes after takeoff, losing its vertical stabilizer. For 32 minutes, the crew fought to save the plane in the air, but a collision with Mount Otsutaka influenced the devastating outcome of events. 520 people died, and only 4 survived. The disaster is called the largest in the history of “one plane.”

3. Charkhi Dadri (city in India). The plane crash occurred as a result of a collision between the flagship and Kazakh airliners at an altitude of 4,109 meters. All passengers were killed, including the crew of both planes (349 people in total).

4. Air crash near Paris. On March 3, 1974, a wide-body airliner built by a Turkish company killed 346 people. A few minutes after takeoff, the cargo bay door suddenly opened.

Explosive compression destroyed all control systems. The plane was picketing and crashed into the forest. The investigation indicated that the locking mechanism in the compartment was imperfect. Afterwards, many airlines made changes to aircraft designs to avoid catastrophic recurrences.

5. Terrorist attack near Cork. On its way to London, India's flagship carrier was the victim of a brutal terrorist attack. Just a few minutes before arrival, an explosion occurred on board the plane and everyone on board died (329 people). This is the largest terrorist attack in Canadian history.

Tragedies on earth

Some tragedies that happened in the last century on earth still cause concern and fear, continuing to destroy the health and lives of ordinary residents, namely:

1. Bhopal disaster. The man-made tragedy is the largest in history. An accident occurred at a chemical plant in India (1984). 18,000 people died. 3,000 of the dead were victims of instant death, while the rest died in the months and years following the tragedy. The cause of the terrible event could not be determined.

2. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. On April 26, 1986, a major deadly accident occurred, an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (Ukraine). The release of a huge amount of radioactive substances into the air caused the death of hundreds of people, not immediately, but gradually.

3. Piper Alpha. At the oil station in 1988, 167 people (staff members) died, 59 people were lucky, they managed to survive. This disaster is the largest in the oil industry.

In addition to man-made tragedies, many other shocking events occurred in the 20th century - a warrior whose total number of millions of victims can no longer be counted: World War I (1914-1818), Civil War in Russia (1917-1923), World War II (1939 -1945), Korean War (1950-1053).

Natural disasters

1. Cyclone Bhola. The disaster occurred in 1970. The tropical storm swept across several territories of Pakistan and Bengal, wiping out cities and small villages. Researchers were unable to find out the exact number of deceased citizens (approximately 5,000,000 people).

2. Valdivian earthquake (1960 - Chile). The resulting tsunami did not protect many innocent residents. The number of victims reached several thousand people. In addition to death, the natural phenomenon caused significant damage to the affected areas (cost estimate: $500 million).

3. Megatsunami in Alaska (1958). Earthquake, landslides, collapse of rocks and ice into the water, the world's highest tsunami. The disaster totals 5,000,000 casualties.

Tsunami in Alaska

On April 26, the world remembers one of the largest man-made disasters of the 20th century - the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. FBA "Economy Today" has prepared a review of the most famous disasters of the last century.

Why do disasters happen? Most often, this is an absurd coincidence of a series of events and the notorious human factor.

Halifax

December 6, 1917. 3,000 tons of explosives in the hold of the French military transport Mont Blanc, which entered the Canadian port of Halifax, became the cause of the most powerful man-made disaster of the early 20th century. The explosion exposed the bottom of the bay, and parts of the ship were scattered within a radius of 20 kilometers. More than 3,000 people were killed, 2,000 were missing, and about 9,000 were injured. The city was engulfed in fires and covered in rubble. The next day frosts hit here, a storm began, and a day later a storm hit Halifax. The cause of the accident was a human factor: the captain of a ship carrying dangerous cargo made a mistake during maneuvering and collided with another ship.

"Lighthouse"

September 29, 1957. The closed city of Chelyabinsk-40 (now Ozersk). A powerful explosion at the Mayak plant, which produced weapons-grade plutonium. Due to the failure of the cooling system, about 20 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere (for comparison: during the Chernobyl accident - 50 million curies). A cloud of radioactive substances covered an area of ​​23,000 km² with a population of 270,000 people in 217 settlements in three regions: Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen. The victims of this accident were about 160 thousand people who received a large dose of radiation. The reason is errors in the operation of the waste storage facility.

Bhopal Union Carbide Chemical Plant

December 3, 1984. An accident at a large chemical plant producing pest control products in the Indian city of Bhopal. In one hour, more than 500,000 people were poisoned as a result of the deadly gas leak. About 4,000 people died on the day of the accident, 8,000 within two weeks. The grass in the area turned yellow, leaves fell from trees, and animals died en masse. More than 16,000 local residents later died. Thousands have lost their sight. The accident was called chemical Hiroshima. The consequences of the disaster are still felt today. The exact cause of the accident has not been established. However, there is an assumption that this was due to a gross violation of safety regulations and deliberate sabotage of the enterprise.

Chernobyl

April 26, 1986. Explosion at the fourth reactor. More than one hundred tons of burning uranium were released into the atmosphere. More than 135 thousand people were evacuated from a 30-kilometer zone around the station. Thousands of people were involved in eliminating the consequences of the accident. The level of radiation was such that the robots putting out the fire had microcircuit failures! Many liquidators died within a few days. The radioactive cloud covered not only many areas of the USSR, but also spread over a number of European countries. Work to eliminate the consequences of this accident has not been completed even 30 years after the tragedy. The cause of the accident is the human factor. The cost of the disaster is $200 billion.

Piper Alpha

July 6, 1988. Explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform. The accident killed 167 personnel and 226 workers. Only 59 managed to survive in this hell. The explosion was caused by a gas leak, and the ill-conceived and indecisive actions of the personnel only worsened the situation. The Piper Alpha platform's pipelines were connected to a common network with other platforms that continued to operate and pump oil and gas. And this work was not stopped for a very long time, which only fueled the fire. The cost of the accident is $3.4 billion.

Chemical plant AZF (Toulouse, France)

September 21, 2001. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, located in a finished goods warehouse, exploded. This resulted in the death of 30 people and the injury of 3.5 thousand. Thousands of residential buildings and more than 300 educational institutions were also destroyed and damaged. 40 thousand people were left homeless. The reason is non-compliance with safety rules for storing explosive substances. Price: 3 billion euros.

NPP "Fukushima-1"

March 11, 2011. A powerful earthquake in Japan (the tremors reached a magnitude of 9) provoked a huge tsunami wave that splashed onto the northeast coast and damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant. Then the cooling system was disabled and several explosions occurred. Iodine-131 and cesium-137 were released into the air. Their amount amounted to 20% of emissions after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It will take about 40 years to eliminate the accident. The cost of the disaster is $74 billion.