April 16, 1947: An industrial accident occurs in the port of Texas City, Texas, on Galveston Bay. It remains the deadliest one in American history, and one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions.
The explosion was triggered by a mid-morning fire on board the SS Grandcamp, a French vessel docked at the port. ), which detonated her cargo of about 2,300 tons of ammonium nitrate. This started a chain reaction of fires and explosions aboard other ships, and in nearby oil-storage facilities, ultimately killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of Texas City's volunteer fire department.
The disaster drew the first class action lawsuit against the U.S. federal government, on behalf of 8,485 plaintiffs, under the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act. In 1950, in the case of Elizabeth Dalehite, et al. v. United States, the district court found the government responsible for a litany of negligent acts of omission and commission by 168 named agencies and their representatives, in the manufacture, packaging, and labeling of ammonium nitrate. This was further compounded by errors in transport, storage, loading, fire prevention, and fire suppression, all of which led to the explosions and the subsequent carnage.
In 1952, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this decision, finding that the U.S. maintained the right to exercise its own "discretion" in vital national matters. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that decision on June 8, 1953, in a 4-to-3 opinion, noting that the district court had no jurisdiction under the federal statute to find the government liable for "negligent planning decisions" which were properly delegated to various departments and agencies. In short, the FTCA clearly exempts "failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty", and the court found that all of the alleged acts in this case were discretionary in nature.
According to famous attorney Melvin Belli in his 1965 book Ready for the Plaintiff!, Congress acted to provide some compensation after the courts refused to do so. Relief was granted by means of legislation. When the last claim had been processed in 1957, 1,394 awards totaling nearly $17 million had been made.
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April 16, 1947 was a Wednesday. Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. was born, becoming the basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. So was singer Gerry Rafferty.
The day before, Jackie Robinson became the 1st black player in modern major-league baseball. But, as is usually the case today, many teams scheduled days off for the day after their Opening Day, to guard against a postponement by rain. So there was only one game on this day: The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Stan Musial and Marty Marion hit home runs.
Football was out of season. Game 1 of the Finals of the 1st season of the Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA, was played at the Philadelphia Arena. The Philadelphia Warriors beat the Chicago Stags, 84-71. The Warriors went on to win the tile, 4 games to 1.
The Stanley Cup Finals were between Games 4 and 5. The Toronto Maple Leafs led the Montreal Canadiens, 3 games to 1, and would win, 4-2.
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