On June 24, 1973, an arson fire at the UpStairs Lounge, a popular gathering spot for New Orleans’ LGBT community in the French Quarter, results in 32 deaths and at least 15 injuries. At the time, it was the deadliest known attack at a gay club in American history. The fire’s official cause was “undetermined,” and no one was ever arrested for the crime.
The rapidly moving fire began in a second-floor lounge, a New Orleans fire department official said. Firefighters became blocked by stalled vehicles and crowds of early evening revelers. Witnesses smelled gasoline before the blaze. Fifteen people leaped from the second floor of the club. All survived.
On August 1, 1943, 177 B-24 bombers take off from an Allied base in Libya, bound for the oil-producing city Ploiești, Romania, nicknamed “Hitler’s gas station.” The daring raid, known as Operation Tidal Wave, resulted […]
On October 25, 1964, after recovering a fumble against the 49ers in San Francisco, Minnesota Vikings star defensive end Jim Marshall runs 66 yards the wrong way into his own end zone. The four-year veteran […]
While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants—the white woman’s husband and her brother—made […]
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