March 18, 1925: The Tri-State Tornado

March 18, 1925: The Tri-State Tornado, the deadliest in U.S. history, rampages through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people and injuring 2,027.

The tornado touched down in Shannon County, Missouri, about 150 miles southwest of St. Loius, and moved to the northeast. The tornado immediately began to produce heavy damage to structures in Missouri, before directly impacting the town of Annapolis, destroying 90 percent of the town and killing 2 people. Debris from Sedgewickville was found almost 50 miles away. Over half of the population of the town of Gorham, Illinois was killed, and over 100 people were killed in Murphysboro, Illinois.

The tornado killed at least 20 farm owners in southeastern Illinois and southwestern Indiana, more than the combined total of the next four deadliest tornadoes in the history of the United States. It killed a combined total of 695 people, the majority of which occurred in Illinois.

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March 18, 1925 was a Sunday. Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And the Stanley Cup Playoffs were between the league finals and the Cup Finals. The Montreal Canadiens, Cup holders, had again won the NHL Championship. The Victoria Cougars had won the West Coast Hockey League title. The Cougars went on to win the Cup, and they remain the last team from outside the NHL to win it -- making the Canadiens, in addition to the team that has won the most Cups, the last team to win the NHL Championship without winning the Stanley Cup.