Tag: disaster
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The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari (Netflix)
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari: Don’t walk on a volcano when it’s due to go off. Quick synopsis: The story of a deadly volcanic eruption in New Zealand in 2019. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The heat of pyroclastic flows is somewhere between 390-1300°. It’s not a great place to…
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N-4 Down by Mark Piesing
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for N-4 Down: Airship in the Arctic? What could possibly go wrong? Quick synopsis: The story of Umberto Nobile’s attempt to explore the North Pole in an airship. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The first time Santa was said to live in the North Pole was by poet Thomas Nash in…
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Empire of Ice and Stone by Buddy Levy
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Empire of Ice and Stone: The lesson, as always, is don’t go to the Arctic. Quick synopsis: The story of the Karluk, which was shipwrecked in the Arctic and the crew’s attempts to survive. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Friendly reminder that many of the events in the Arctic take…
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Death by Fire and Ice by Brian E. O’Connor
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Death by Fire and Ice: My vote is the fire part is worse. Quick synopsis: The story of the sinking of the steamboat Lexington in 1840 and how it all happened. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Cornelius Vanderbilt started out working on his father’s New York ferry. Fun Fact for…
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The Halifax Explosion by Ken Cuthbertson
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Halifax Explosion: When Canada decides to go big, they go really big. Quick synopsis: The story of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, one of the worst man-made disasters in history. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: This is still the largest non-nuclear man-made explosion in human history. Fun Fact for…
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Endurance by Alfred Lansing
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline: I would have just laid down and died. Quick synopsis: The story of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914–1917 led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: No one died from the Endurance. Read the book. They all should have. Fun Fact for History Nerds: When the expedition returned…
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Madhouse at the End of the Earth by Julian Sancton
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Madhouse at the End of the Earth: Belgium tried to do what? Quick summary: The voyage of the Belgica, a ship from Belgium intent on Antarctic discovery in 1897. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: The Antarctic Giant Petrel’s defense mechanism is to puke on you. It smells really bad apparently.…
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The Terrible Hours by Peter Maas
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Terrible Hours: As if you needed more reasons not to go on a submarine. Quick synopsis: The story of the rescue of the crewmen on the submarine Squalus in 1939. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like: Until about the mid-1930s, if your submarine had a problem, you were going to…
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The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch by Gill Hoffs
Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Lost Story of the Ocean Monarch: A chronicle of how much the 19th century sucked. Quick synopsis: The story of the sinking of the Ocean Monarch in 1848. The ship was an emigrant ship headed for Boston and caught fire soon after leaving port. Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:…