Only a handful of tornadoes each year cause loss of life and/or significant property damage- and such storms are certainly a significant part of American history. But a particularly costly storm in 1948 not only made history, it changed our very understanding of tornadoes themselves, resulting in the first tornado forecast.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.