August 10, 1903: A fire breaks out on the Métro, the subway system in Paris, France. Because most of the deaths occurred at the Couronnes station, it becomes known as the Couronnes Disaster.
And it happened at the end of what Americans would come to call "rush hour." The first sign of trouble was at 6:53 PM, when double train 43 completed the climb to Boulevard Barbès station with heavy smoke pouring from one of the motors on its front car, car M202.
The train's passengers were evacuated onto the platform, and its "contact shoes" were lifted from the electrified third rail, to cut off the power, whereupon the burning subsided. But with the station full of annoyed passengers, the staff now focused their attention on restoring service. That meant moving the train, and there was no siding before the line descended back into the tunnel.
The fatal decision was made to lower the shoes and move it under its own power, when in fact the motor had not simply overheated, but had a short circuit. Train 43 left the station at 7:05 p.m. amid a cloud of black smoke, but before it had passed two stations, the fire on car M202 had reignited with greater intensity.
Unaware of the severity of the situation, the driver kept the train moving until it was back in the tunnel, and only then stopped for help at the first station (Combat, now Colonel Fabien). Again, the shoes were lifted and the burning stopped; again power was reapplied, and the fire restarted. This time, the wooden paddles used to lift the shoes were consumed.
A third car was added to the back of the train, to get more passengers out. At 7:32, the triple train began moving slowly forward, with the short circuit on the front car M202 still live and feeding the fire. The fire grew out of control and the crew fled for their lives. Power was cut at the nearest substation, but since the line was not divided into electrically isolated sections, the shorted motor was still receiving power from other substations.
At about 8:00, the fire destroyed the one circuit supplying the station lighting. Couronnes station was plunged into darkness just as a dense, choking cloud of smoke emerged from the tunnel leading to Ménilmontant. In less than a minute, the station had become a death trap. Disoriented by the smoke and far from the exit, many people wandered the wrong way until they succumbed to asphyxia.
In all, 84 people were killed: 75 at Couronnes, 7 at Ménilmontant, and 2 two who tried to escape through the tunnel. It remains the deadliest subway train disaster in European history. Among the whole world, it has been exceeded only by the 1918 Malbone Street Wreck in Brooklyn and the 1995 Baku Metro fire in Azerbaijan.
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August 10, 1903 was a Monday. There were 5 baseball games played:
* The New York Highlanders, forerunners of the Yankees, beat the Washington Senators, 6-1 at Hilltop Park in Upper Manhattan. Jack Chesbro was the winning pitcher, and helped his own cause with a home run. Willie Keeler went 4-for-5, while Jimmy Williams went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs.
* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Superbas, forerunners of the Dodgers, 3-1 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. Christy Mathewson was the winning pitcher.
* The Boston Red Stockings, forerunners of the Red Sox, beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 7-2 at the Huntington Avenue Grounds in Boston. Cy Young outpitched Eddie Plank. Between them, those 2 men ended up winning 837 major league games.
* The Cleveland Naps beat the Chicago White Sox, 10-2 at League Park in Cleveland. The Cleveland team was named for its manager and 2nd baseman, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie. They became the Cleveland Indians in 1915, and the Cleveland Guardians in 2022. Lajoie went 1-for-4 on this day.
* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner, by most observers' estimation the greatest player in the game at the time, went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
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