The Tunguska Explosion: One Of History’s Most Mysterious Events
Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesTrees knocked over from the Tunguska event, one of the world’s most baffling but interesting historical events ever. 1908.
The Tunguska event is one of the most mysterious interesting historical events ever. To this day, experts still do not know exactly what caused it.
On June 30, 1908, local residents in Evenki, Russia reported a column of blue light moving across the sky. Some said it was even as bright as the sun. Ten minutes later they reported something that sounded like heavy artillery fire, moving from the east to the north.
Then, a shock wave blew through the town, knocking people off of their feet and glass out of windowpanes.
Despite hearing all of the sounds of an explosion, and an explosion registering at seismic stations across Eurasia and even Great Britain, residents of Evenki and the surrounding towns never reported seeing an actual explosion.
For days the skies above Asia and Europe seemed to glow, a result of ice particles that formed at high altitudes. Atmospheric pressure changes were detected across the world, from the U.S. to Great Britain.
Sovfoto/UIG/Getty ImagesYoung forest at the site of the Tunguska explosion in 2008.
Though no one had reported an explosion, a blast site was found. More than 800 square miles of forest — roughly 80 million trees — in eastern Siberia had been completely flattened, with no explanation at all. Scientists initially believed it was the result of an impact, though no crater was ever located.
However, for an area that large to be completely flattened, the energy of the airburst would have had to have been roughly 10-15 megatons, the same amount of energy put out by the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Bikini Atoll.
Scientists originally pushed themselves to discover what had caused the blast, as an explosion of that magnitude could easily wipe out an entire metropolitan area. Over time, however, and since nothing like it has happened again, they have let investigations fall by the wayside.
The most common explanation now is that the event was caused by the air burst of a meteoroid, as it exploded above the atmosphere.
The Unsolved Bombing Of Wall Street In 1920
Library of CongressObservers stand close to the bomb site on Wall Street.
Over a century ago, New York City fell victim to a deadly terrorist attack. A terrorist attack that, to this day, no one has claimed responsibility or been prosecuted for, making it one of the most interesting historical events in American history.
On Sept. 16, 1920, the Financial District was bustling with stockbrokers and bankers. At 23 Wall Street, known as “the Corner,” stood the J.P. Morgan building, the headquarters of J.P. Morgan and Co., a financial institution that had risen from the ashes of World War I as the greatest banking institution in the world.
As per usual at noon, the streets were full of financial investors and bank clerks pushing through the crowded streets on their way to and from lunches, meetings, and commutes.
Then, at 12:01, 100 pounds of dynamite exploded in front of the Corner.
Debris from the blast flew as high as the 34th floor of the J.P Morgan building, breaking windows and launching pedestrians into the air. A streetcar two blocks away was derailed by the shockwave. Those inside the NYSE felt it too, immediately halting trading.
Within minutes Wall Street looked like a war zone. Hundreds of pounds of metal fragments, which had been concealed inside the wagon that had hidden the bomb, filled the streets with shrapnel. Burned bodies littered the sidewalks and smoke filled the air.
Library of CongressCrowds gather to view the commotion.
Authorities initially believed that the Corner had been the target of the attack. After World War I there were many disgruntled critics who claimed that Morgan had profited off of the war.
However, most of the bomb’s victims were regular civilians who had been hanging around the streets at the time of the blast. The lofty Morgan executives had been in their high rise offices, far enough away from the blast to avoid injury.
Suspicion immediately fell on communist groups as the Red Scare was still going strong. However, police soon suspected the Galleanists, an Italian anti-government anarchist gang led by Luigi Galleani, a man with extensive explosives knowledge. Though Galleani had been deported the year before, authorities believed that there were many aspects of the bombing that matched Galleani’s M.O.
However, the Galleanists never took credit for the attack and the police never made an arrest. The FBI spent over three years trying to identify the owner of the wagon, find people on the streets who were deemed suspects, and locate members of the Galleanist family who could have been responsible, but to no avail.
Just one day after the explosion, Wall Street reopened in typical resilient New York fashion. Today, the damage from the explosion is still visible on the J.P. Morgan building.
