Thousands were killed and thousands of others wounded. Tiananmen Square, meaning “Gate of Heavenly Peace” refers to a cluster of ancient buildings plus a massive square in the heart of Beijing. The former is a museum dealing with events from China’s past, the latter is an important site ever since 1949 when communist revolutionaries became …
Tiananmen Square Massacre – China – June 4, 1989 Read More »
Damage was extensive and large as twenty-five miles of the San Andreas Fault slipped. On October 18, 1989, an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 struck a branch fault of the San Andreas near the city of Santa Cruz in the southern Santa Cruz Mountains. It came to be known as the Loma Prieta earthquake after the …
Loma Prieta Earthquake – California – October 18, 1989 Read More »
This new form of terrorism brought a wave of toxic gases over Kuwait and its surrounding area. At the same time, large areas of ocean life in the Gulf were destroyed. At the beginning of August 1990, Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in order to gain control of its oilfields and make it a province of …
This was the second largest volcanic eruption worldwide in the twentieth century. The biggest was Mount Katmai in Alaska in 1912. On June 15, 1991, and persisting for eight hours, the second largest volcanic eruption of the twentieth century, that of Mount Pinatubo, took place on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The largest …
Mount Pinatubo Volcanic Eruption – Philippines – June 15, 1991 Read More »
The peak gusts of 164 mph led to huge destruction of homes in the built-up area of southern Florida. Total damage costs were $26.5 billion. Hurricane Andrew was the most destructive twentieth century U.S. hurricane. It reached Florida as a category 4 storm where it made landfall at Homestead at 5 A.M. on August 24 …
A powerful bomb exploded in the parking area beneath the World Trade Center towers. This was the first and failed attempt by terrorists to take down the twin towers. Just before noon on the morning of February 26, 1993, a bomb went off beneath one of the towers of the World Trade Center, New York. …
New York City Terrorism – New York – February 26, 1993 Read More »