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 Reconquista, or Christian reconquest of Iberia, took nearly 800 years. The fighting did not come without great attempts by Muslim powers across the strait trying to reestablish their presence in mainland Europe. The last gasp of that effort came in the 1330s, when the powerful Marinid sultanate of what is modern Morocco invaded in an attempt to reverse Christian gains and secure the perilous position of the Sultanate of Granada.