The Sultana Disaster – Today In Southern History
27 April 1865
On this date in 1865…
The steamboat Sultana while carrying 2,427 passengers (mostly paroled Federal POWs on their way home) exploded in the Mississippi River off Memphis. Up to 1,800 passengers were killed in what became the greatest maritime disaster in United States history. Because of the changing course of the Mississippi, the remains of the Sultana were only recently discovered below a soybean field in Arkansas.
Other Years:
1584 – Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched an expedition led by Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe to explore the eastern coast of North America.
1773 - British House of Commons passed the Tea Act tax leading to further protests from American colonists
1861 - US President Lincoln illegally suspended the writ of habeas corpus.
1861 – Virginia invited the Confederate States’ government to establish Richmond as their capital.
1861 – Colonel Thomas J. Jackson was assigned to command at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
1942 – A massive tornado destroyed Pryor, Oklahoma, killing more than 100 and injuring more than 300 people.
1978 – A cooling-tower collapse in a coal-fired power plant at Willow Island, West(ern) Virginia, killed 51 workers.
1986 - John R MacDougall AKA “Captain Midnight” at Ocala, FL hacked into and interrupts HBO’s broadcast of The Falcon and the Snowman to protest Captain Midnight satellite signal scrambling
2011 - More than 100 tornadoes touched down across the Southern states killing more than 300.
2019 - Diver Victor Vescovo of Dallas, TX made the deepest dive ever to the bottom of the Mariana trench at 35,849ft and found a discarded plastic bag
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