Around 8:30 AM on April 16, 1947, a large column of smoke started billowing from a ship at the port in Texas City, Texas. Forty minutes later, the ship exploded. In the hours that followed, the scale of the disaster became clear - what is generally considered to be the worst industrial disaster in American history.
The history of cotton clothing has followed an interesting path, including a period of a few decades in the United States when cotton represented ingenuity, resilience, and patriotism itself.