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Disasters

Natural and man-made catastrophes — earthquakes, fires, floods, and accidents — that tested American resilience and shaped public policy.

1900 Galveston Hurricane
The deadliest natural disaster in American history
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
The quake and fire that destroyed a great American city
Boston Marathon Bombing
The 2013 terror attack and the manhunt that gripped a city
Columbine High School Shooting
The 1999 attack that reshaped how America sees school violence
COVID-19 Pandemic
The 2020–2023 public health crisis that killed over a million Americans and transformed national life
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
The worst river flood in American history — and the disaster that built the modern federal government
Hurricane Katrina
The 2005 storm and flood that devastated New Orleans and exposed a broken federal safety net
Oklahoma City Bombing
The Deadliest Act of Domestic Terrorism in American History, April 19, 1995
September 11 Attacks
The deadliest terrorist attack on American soil, 2001
Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
The 1986 explosion that killed seven astronauts and shook America's faith in its space program
The 1918 Flu Pandemic
The "Spanish flu" that killed more Americans than all the century's wars
The AIDS Epidemic
A public-health catastrophe that reshaped medicine and activism
The Dust Bowl
The ecological catastrophe that stripped the Great Plains bare, 1930–1940
The Great Chicago Fire
The 1871 blaze that destroyed a city — and rebuilt it greater
The Johnstown Flood
The 1889 dam failure that drowned a city and shamed the Gilded Age elite
Three Mile Island
The 1979 nuclear accident that ended the American nuclear power era
Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
The 1911 factory disaster that transformed American labor law