Disaster Area

It was a beautiful Monday morning in San Diego on September 25, 1978 - sunny and hot with not a cloud in the sky. There was no reason whatsoever to think the day would be ruined by anything, but especially not by two planes colliding over a horrified suburb.

Videos:

Air Crash Investigation: Blind Spot
Allec Joshua Ibay: Blind Spot - 1978 San Diego Mid-Air Collision

Articles and books:

NTSB report on the collision between Flight 182 and the Cessna
San Diego Magazine: This is It!
Memorializing the 45th Anniversary of the Crash of PSA Flight 182 at the San Diego Air & Space Museum
Memories That Will Never Go Away" The Crash of Flight 182 and Its Aftermath

When we think of deadly peacetime maritime disasters, Titanic is the first ship to come to mind. But there is a far deadlier disaster which holds the record for the worst in terms of loss of life ... when a loaded oil tanker and a packed ferry collided in the Philippines one moonless night just before Christmas in 1987.

Videos:

Asia's Titanic

Articles and books:

Doña Paz victims waiting for justice 25 years after
Catbalogan folk cry foul over demolition of Doña Paz memorial
The Philippines Off Mindoro, a Night to Remember
It's Gloom And Glitter For Manila
NYT: 1,500 ARE FEARED LOST AS 2 SHIPS COLLIDE AND SINK NEAR PHILIPPINES
Caltex v. Sulpucio
Paul Allen's research vessel surveys wreckage of 'Asia's Titanic' — 1987 ferry sinking killed 4,300
Alchetron: MV Dona Paz

Or where have I been the past three months?
(Alas, it's not as interesting as the title makes it sound.)

It should have just been a regular Saturday night dancing to rock music and having a good time at the relatively new dance hall outside of Saint-Laurent, France. But in the early morning hours of November 1st, 1970, what was likely one dropped match or cigarette turned the Club Cinq-Sept into an oven.
Videos:
Pierre Montillo interview

AP News clips of the fire

Articles and books:
The worst thing is the sound of silence": 50 years after the "5-7" tragedy, the memory and the grief remain intact.

Youth to Burn: Guy Debord on the fire at Saint-Laurent-du-Pont

Virtual Globetrotting: Diagram of the layout of the Club Cinq-Sept

France: An Unusual Silence

1970: Nightclub inferno 'wipes out generation'

It would start with a headache, a fever, maybe a funny tummy. But soon enough your knee would give out, or your arm would hang limp, or you would struggle to breathe. You'd be taken to the hospital, where you'd get your diagnosis - polio. If you survived, you ran the risk of doing so with paralyzed limbs, struggling to walk on bulky leg braces. Your parents would be terrified they might lose you, and so everybody wanted the one thing that could stop all of this - a vaccine.
Videos:
New England Journal of Medicine: The Cutter Incident, 50 Years Later

American Experience: The Polio Crusade

The Iron Lung and Polio by M.Rockoff | OPENPediatrics

Articles and books:
Polio: An American Story, by David M. Oshinsky

The Cutter Incident, by Dr. Paul Offit

NEJM: The Cutter Incident