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Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters was playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like roaring surf, one of them said later.
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Like a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence, said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window-"Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!"
A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour. It demolished wooden homes, even the brick fire station. The number of dead wasn't known for days. It would be years before a landmark court battle determined who was responsible for the disaster.
This author was at SCLS on 3/17/21, talking about his book,"Voyage of Mercy: The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine, and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission."
Presented by: Stephen Puleo, who is an author, historian, teacher, public speaker, and communications professional. He has published seven narrative history books. A former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor of articles and book reviews to publications and organizations that include American History magazine, Politico, the Boston Globe, and the Bill of Rights Institute. Steve has taught history at Suffolk University in Boston and currently teaches at UMass-Boston. He also has developed and taught writing workshops for high school and college students, as well as for adults who aspire to be writers. He holds a master’s degree in history from UMass-Boston, where he received the Dean’s Award for Academic Achievement and was the Graduate Convocation keynote speaker. His master’s thesis, From Italy to Boston’s North End: Italian Immigration and Settlement, 1890-1910, has been downloaded more than 15,000 times by scholars and readers in 51 countries. Steve is also a Massachusetts Historical Society Fellow. Steve is the past recipient of the prestigious i migliori award, presented by the Pirandello Lyceum to Italian-Americans who have excelled in their fields of endeavor.
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