November 19, 1984: A series of explosions at the Pemex Petroleum Storage Facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec, in Mexico City, ignites a major fire and kills about 500 people. Yet another story of how fossil-fuel companies don't care about people, only profit.
Known as the San Juanico Disaster, the explosions ignited liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at a "tank farm." In addition to the deaths, over 5,000 people suffered severe burns. It remains the deadliest industrial accident involving fires and/or explosions from hazardous materials in a process or storage plant since the Oppau explosion in Germany in 1921.
As bad as it was, it would be overshadowed by an earthquake that struck Mexico City 10 months later, which killed about 10 times as many people.
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November 19, 1984 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers came in at 6-5, while the New Orleans Saints were 5-6. And they were playing at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Steelers were favored by only 1 point. So a Saints win would not have been a big deal.
That morning, I walked into the kitchen, and saw my father having breakfast. He was listening to Don Imus on New York radio station WNBC, and Imus said this: "If the Saints beat Pittsburgh, I will eat Mr. T's shorts." Well, the Saints won, 27-24. The next morning, guys were calling Imus up, asking him things like whether they should send him ketchup for the shorts worn by the Rocky III and The A-Team actor.
There was 1 game played in the NBA: The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 137-120. Rookie Michael Jordan of the Bulls led all scorers with 34 points.
And there were 2 games played in the NHL. In an "Original Six" matchup, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens, 6-4 at the Montreal Forum. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Calgary Flames, 5-4 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.
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