Upper Big Branch Mine disaster
The disaster occurred on April 5, 2010 roughly 1,000 feet (300 m) underground in Raleigh County, West Virginia at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch coal mine located in Montcoal. Twenty-nine out of thirty-one miners at the site were killed, in an accident that was the worst in the United States since 1970. The explosion ignited from an unknown source with high methane levels being a contributing causal factor.
Akashi Kaikyo Bridge opened
The Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is a suspension bridge which links the city of Kobe on the Japanese island of Honshu to Iwaya on Awaji Island. The bridge has three spans and at the time, its central span was the longest central span of any suspension bridge in the world, at 1,991 metres (6,532 ft).
Ripple Rock destroyed
Located in the Seymour Narrows of the Discovery Passage in British Columbia, Canada, Ripple Rock is an underwater mountain that produced large, dangerous eddies from the strong tidal currents that flowed around them at low tide. The hazardous nature of the rock prompted the Canadian government to remove the top of the mountain in one of the largest non-nuclear controlled explosions of the time (pictured).
Robert Maillart died
Robert Maillart was a Swiss civil engineer who revolutionized the use of structural reinforced concrete with such designs as the three-hinged arch and the deck-stiffened arch for bridges, and the beamless floor slab and mushroom ceiling for industrial buildings. His Salginatobel (1929-1930) and Schwandbach (1933) bridges changed the aesthetics and engineering of bridge construction dramatically and influenced decades of architects and engineers after him. In 1991 the Salginatobel Bridge was declared an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
1936 Tupelo-Gainesville tornado outbreak
On April 5-6, 1936, an outbreak of at least 12 tornadoes struck the Southeastern United States. Approximately 454 people were killed by these tornadoes - 419 by two tornadoes alone, the stronger of which was retroactively rated F5 on the modern Fujita scale. This outbreak is the second deadliest ever recorded in US history. Additionally, severe flash floods from the associated storms produced millions of dollars in damage across the region.
The Transandine Railway connecting Chile and Argentina is inaugurated
The Transandine Railway (Spanish: Ferrocarril Trasandino) was a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3/8 in) metre gauge combined rack (Abt system) and adhesion railway which operated from Mendoza in Argentina, across the Andes mountain range via the Uspallata Pass, to Santa Rosa de Los Andes in Chile, a distance of 248 km.
1902 Ibrox disaster
A stand collapsed at Ibrox Park (now Ibrox Stadium) in Govan (now part of Glasgow), Scotland. The incident led to the deaths of 25 supporters and injuries to 500 more during an international association football match between Scotland and England. Several factors have been reasoned for the collapse, including heavy rainfall the previous night and the large crowd stamping and swaying as the match progressed.
