User:Chris857/Italian Hall disaster
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Italian Hall disaster was a tragedy that occurred on December 24, 1913, in Calumet, Michigan.[lower-alpha 1] A miner's strike had been in force since July, and a Christmas party was held for the children of strikers on the second floor of Italian Hall. About 675 people were in attendance when a false cry of "fire" was heard, leading to a panicked escape down the main stairway. Over seventy people, mostly children, died in the stampede, making it the worst disaster by lives lost in the history of the Keweenaw Peninsula.[2]
This is the sandbox of Chris857. A sandbox is a subpage of a template or article used to test a change to the main article or template before deploying said changes. Once you have finished with the test, please erase the contents of this page leaving this box ({{Sandbox notice}}) in place. (diff) See also: Main sandbox
|
TODO: Books: Cradle to Grave, Red Metal, Death's Door. Add/clarify funeral details, resolve confusion about filming, more on inquest (including interpreters), mention Lehto dislike of deathbed confessions and rework current one, actual fire mentioned in Red Metal, figure out issue with Tyomies and doors publication, more on Citizen's Alliance, figure out proper inclusion of Ella Reeve Bloor, use or lose news refs at bottom, expand lead, make sure everything has a ref, cleanup and remove html comments, mainspace it. |
A number of questions regarding the disaster have never been fully resolved, despite a coroner's inquest and a congressional investigation. Estimates of the death toll have ranged from seventy-one to over eighty. The person who cried "fire" was never officially identified. A number of theories as to why so many died in the stairway have been proposed, including doors that opened inward or that were held shut.
The disaster has been commemorated in a variety of ways including song, literature, opera, and film. Italian Hall was demolished in 1984 and the doorway arch was incorporated into a memorial park on the site.