5. The Christmas Cyclone
Christmas day of 1974 witnessed the most destructive cyclone to ever hit Australia. Cyclone Tracy barreled through the unsuspecting city of Darwin destroying roughly 70 percent of the town. The devastating cyclone killed an estimated 71 people and left $500-600 million dollar worth of damage (that would be about 2.5 to 3 billion dollars today). Roughly 30,000 people were left homeless with only six percent of the houses still standing.
6. Italian Hall Disaster
What is considered to be the deadliest stampede in American history took place in the little copper-mining town of Calumet, Michigan. It all started in the backdrop of a bloody and violent strike from the region’s 9,000 unionized copper miners. On the Christmas eve of 1913, the union- Western Federation of Miners-hosted a Christmas party for the strikers’ children at the Italian Hall in Calumet. What was meant to be a break from all the fighting quickly turned into a horrifying event when an unknown person yelled, “Fire” in a room packed with 700 people and 400 children. The panicked crowd crammed the narrow exit passageways in an attempt to get out of the building. 73 people – including 59 children and 13 women – were killed in the resulting stampede. The worst part: there was no fire.
