Disaster (redirected from calamities)

Disaster

See also Shipwreck.

Amoco Cadiz

oil tanker broke up off Britanny coast; 1.6 million barrels spilled (1978). [Fr. Hist.: Facts (1978), 201, 202]

Angur-boda

Utgard giantess, worker of disaster; literally, ‘anguish-boding.’ [Norse Myth.: Leach, 58]

Chicago fire

conflagration destroyed most of city (1871). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 94]

Deluge

earth-covering flood that destroyed all but Noah’s family and animals in the ark. [O.T.: Genesis 6–8]

Deucalion’s Flood

the Deluge of Greek legend. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 266]

Evangeline

concerns peaceful village vacated and destroyed during war. [Am. Lit.: “Evangeline” in Magill I, 261–263]

Fatal Vespers

2 Jesuits and 100 others killed in collapse of lecture hall. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1127]

Gilgamesh epic

Babylonian legend contains pre-Biblical ac-count of Flood. [Near East. Myth.: EB, IV: 542]

Hindenburg, the

German airship blew up upon mooring in New Jersey (1937). [Am. Hist.: NCE, 43]

Johnstown Flood

Pennsylvania city destroyed by flood (May 31, 1889); 2,200 lives lost. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1427]

Lusitania

British luxury liner sunk by German submarine in World War I. [Br. Hist.: EB (1963) XX, 518]

Pompeii

Roman city buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79). [Rom. Hist.: NCE, 2187]

red cloud

indicates disaster is impending. [Eastern Folklore: Jobes, 350]

San Francisco earthquake

disaster claiming many lives and most of city (1906). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 443–444]

Titanic

British passenger ship sinks on maiden voyage (1912). [Br. Hist.: NCE, 2753]