The Lotte World Tower was completed
The 555-metre (1,821 ft) 123-story supertall skyscraper Lotte World Tower is located in Sincheon-dong, Songpa, Seoul, South Korea. It is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the world.
Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill
The Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill was an environmental and industrial disaster that occurred on Monday December 22, 2008, when a dike ruptured at a coal ash pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4.2 million cubic metres) of coal fly ash slurry. The coal-fired power plant, located across the Clinch River from the city of Kingston, used a series of ponds to store and dewater the fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion. The spill released a slurry of fly ash and water, which traveled across the Emory River and its Swan Pond embayment, onto the opposite shore, covering up to 300 acres (1.2 km2) of the surrounding land. It was the largest industrial spill in United States history.
Stephen Timoshenko was born
Ukrainian-American Stepan Prokopovich Timoshenko is considered to be the father of modern engineering mechanics. He was a founding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences and wrote seminal works in the areas of engineering mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials, many of which are still widely used today. Along with Paul Ehrenfest, he developed the theory that takes into account shear deformation and rotary inertia (Timoshenko-Ehrenfest beam theory).
856 Damghan earthquake
The 856 Damghan earthquake or the 856 Qumis earthquake had an estimated magnitude of 7.9, and a maximum intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. The meizoseismal area (area of maximum damage) extended for about 350 kilometres (220 mi) along the southern edge of the eastern Alborz mountains of present-day Iran including parts of Tabaristan and Gorgan. The earthquake's epicenter is estimated to be close to the city of Damghan, which was then the capital of the Persian province of Qumis. It caused approximately 200,000 deaths and is listed by the USGS as the sixth deadliest earthquake in recorded history. This death toll has been debated.
