10 Questions: My Date With Disaster Multiple Choice Quiz | History

Answer: Hindenburg

The Hindenburg was the first disaster caught on tape when it burst into flames as mooring ropes were being lowered preparing for landing. There have been many theories as to how the disaster occurred, including a terrorist plot but most experts have said that a freak weather event caused static electricity to ignite the airship which was filled with hydrogen, a highly flammable gas.

The cause of the fire, to this day is still unknown. Thirteen passengers were killed along with 21 crew members on the airship and another ground crew member.

Answer: Tsunami

The Tsunami that occurred on Boxing Day 2004 killed over 230,000 people and caused devastation in many countries including: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, The Maldives, Somalia, India and Thailand. It was caused by an undersea earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia.

The earthquake that generated the tsunami had a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3 on the Richter Scale, which was the 3rd largest ever recorded on a Seismograph.

Answer: English Channel

On the night of 6th March 1987 the car and passenger ferry, Herald of Free Enterprise, capsized only moments after leaving the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, killing 193 passengers and crew. It was found after investigations, that the bow doors were left open, causing water to flood the lower decks and subsequently causing the capsize. Assistant Boatswain, Mark Stanley and First Officer Leslie Sabel were both found to be at fault, Stanley for not closing the doors and Sabel for not checking that the doors were closed.

Answer: India

Bhopal, India is the site of the gas leak that caused the deaths of up to 8,000 people from the immediate gas leak and approximately 20,000 deaths in the following 20 years. On December 2-3, 1984 a storage tank containing methyl isocyanate leaked gas into this densely populated area and some say it's one of the worst industrial accidents in history. Even now, approximately 120,000 people are living with the effects of the leak which include blindness, extreme shortness of breath, cancers, birth deformities, and early onset of menopause in women.

The soil and water are still contaminated and continue to poison the people that live in the area.

Answer: Kursk

The Kursk sunk during exercises where it was firing dummy torpedoes at a Russian battlecruiser. An explosion occurred during this and it is now believed that hydrogen peroxide fuel leaked out, causing an explosion and subsequent fire.
The Russians did not realise that the Kursk had sunk until the evening when it failed to report in. The next morning a rescue attempt was launched but failed due to a combination of bad weather, lack of modern equipment and the angle of the submarine. Assistance was offered from the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States but it was four days before they accepted the help.
No one was sure whether any of the crew had survived, however, when Norwegian divers opened the hatches where they thought any survivors would have been, it was flooded and they believed that all 118 crew on board had perished. There had, in fact been survivors of the explosions. A note found in the pocket of Lieutenant Captain Dmitri Kolesnikov stated that there were 23 men that had survived hours after the explosion.

Answer: China

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the city of Tangshan, China on 28th July 1976 and causing the deaths of 240,000. The earthquake lasted between 14 and 16 seconds and hit in the early hours of the morning when most people were asleep. The earthquake was so powerful that it destroyed most of the city. All but one of the roads into Tangshan were undrivable, making it difficult for rescue workers to get through.

Many people survived the initial quake, however, a 7.1 aftershock struck, killing many of the people under the debris as they awaited help.

Answer: Christmas Island

Early in the morning of 15th December a boat carrying asylum seekers heading for Australia, collided with rocks and sank killing at least 30 people out of the 90 on board. Poor weather conditions made rescue efforts difficult and the Australian vessels HMAS Pirie and ACV Triton called upon to help. The Royal Flying Doctor Service was also called from Perth to assist.
Many questions were asked because border protection authorities track the movement of illegal boats and most are intercepted before they enter Australian waters.
Christmas Island is an Australian Territory located in the Indian Ocean 2,600 kilometres north west of the capital of Western Australia, Perth. Asylum seekers from Indonesia, which is its closest neighbour, have landed on the island from the late 1980s. An immigration detention centre was constructed on the island in 2006.

Answer: The Spanish Flu

The Spanish flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted for two years between June 1918 and December 1920. Between 50 and 100 million people died throughout the world, making it one of the deadliest disasters on record.
This strain of influenza was unusual as it affected healthy, young adults as opposed to other influenza strains which affected young children and the elderly. The strain even reached remote regions such as the Arctic and islands in the South Pacific.
In 2009 an outbreak occurred in the form of the Swine Flu. This was called the second pandemic of the H1N1 virus of which the Spanish Flu was the first.

Answer: 1666

The Great Fire of London began at a bakery shop on Pudding Lane on Sunday 2nd September 1666. Approximately 13,000 homes were destroyed as well as 87 churches and, more famously, St Paul's Cathedral. Wind fuelled the fire as well as the fact that most of the buildings were wooden structures with thatched roofing.

There were only 6 recorded deaths. However this has been challenged as deaths of the poor were not recorded and many bodies may have been cremated in the heat of the fire leaving no recognisable remains.

The fire lasted for 4 days when it was controlled by the winds dying down and effective firebreaks to prevent further spreading.

Answer: 10th April 1912

The RMS Titanic captained by E. J. Smith, left Southampton, England on its maiden voyage to New York. Of course it never reached its final destination. At 2.20am on 15th April 1912, the vessel sank after hitting an iceberg at 11.40pm on the previous day -- 1514 passengers and crew perished in the sinking. Investigations into the disaster concluded that safety precautions were out of date and new laws recommended.

Another contributing factor was the number of lifeboats on board. It was found during the investigations that there were sufficient for first class passengers, but not for the lower class, and most of the lower class passengers had no idea where to find them.