The Waco Tornado – Today In Southern History
11 May 1953
On this date in 1953…
An estimated F-5 tornado killed more than 110 people in Waco, Texas and caused $39 million damage.
Other Years:
1862 – Confederate troops scuttled the ironclad C.S.S. Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia to prevent its capture by Federal forces.
1864 – Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart was mortally wounded at the Battle of Yellow Tavern, Virginia.
1867 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis was released from prison on a $100,000 bond provided by prominent Northerners, among them old abolitionists Gerrit Smith and Horace Greely. Although still scheduled to be tried for charges of treason, he would never be tried.
1934 – A severe two-day dust storm stripped the topsoil from the great plains of Oklahoma and Texas, one of many storms creating the “Dust Bowl.”
1963 – Racially motivated bombings struck Birmingham, Alabama.
1996 – A ValuJet DC-9 caught fire shortly after takeoff from Miami enroute to Atlanta and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 110 people on board.
2001 – U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced his decision to approve a 30-day delay of the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh because the FBI had failed to disclose thousands of documents to McVeigh’s defense team.
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