On October 16, 1972 a small Cessna 310 aircraft carrying four people went missing en route between Anchorage and Juneau Alaska. While flying in Alaska can be notably treacherous, the loss of this particular aircraft was especially notable, as among the four were two US congressmen, Alaska’s Nick Begich, and Louisiana's Hale Boggs, the house majority leader.
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.