39. A Sticky Disaster

This historical event is a truly freaky accident. On January 15, 1919, a storage tank at the Purity Distilling Company in Boston burst open due to a rapid change in temperature. The tank was filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses that weighed about 12,000 tons. The tank’s collapse caused a huge molasses flood throughout the streets of Boston’s North End. 

This sounds comical to us now, but it was actually a tragedy. Twenty-one people perished in the molasses flood, and another 150 people were injured. The sticky event eventually entered Boston folklore. Decades after the debacle, many people would say they could smell the sticky sweetness of molasses on a hot summer’s day.