December 6, 1917: The Halifax Explosion

December 6, 1917: The French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc collides with the Norwegian ship SS Imo in the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mont-Blanc was carrying high explosives, meant for the French forces in World War I. In the collision, it caught fire and exploded, destroying the Richmond district of Halifax.

Officially, between the initial explosion, the subsequent fires, building collapses, and people being hit by debris, the death toll was 1,782 people. It is widely believed that the true toll was over 2,000. It remains the largest disaster in Canadian history, and the largest human-made explosion up to that point, larger than the Black Tom explosion in New Jersey the year before, and the Morgan explosion, also in New Jersey, the year after. It was estimated to have the same effect as 2.9 kilotons of TNT. (For comparison's sake, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was estimated at 15 kilotons; the one dropped on Nagasaki, 21.)

The crew of the Mont-Blanc were under orders from the French government to carry her cargo from New York via Halifax to Bordeaux, France. The collision occurred at 8:45 AM. The impact damaged benzol barrels stored on deck, leaking vapors that were ignited by sparks from the collision. This set off a fire on board that grew out of control. At 9:04 AM, the Mont-Blanc exploded, wiping out all structures within a half-mile radius.

The Imo was washed ashore by the subsequent tsunami, and 7 of its crew, including its Captain, Haakon From, were killed. But on Mont-Blanc, only 1 crewman died, Yves Quequiner, a 20-year-old gunner. (That's the official story. I refuse to believe that, with an explosion of such a magnitude, only one man onboard died.) There was also widespread damage across the harbor, in the city of Dartmouth. The tsunami hit an area called Tufts Cove, killing all members of the Mi'kmaq First Nation tribe.

To make matters worse, the next day, December 7, 1917 -- a date which, like the one before it, lives in suffering, if not infamy -- a blizzard struck Canada's Maritime Provinces, impeding relief efforts, including trains and ships full of supplies and workers from inner Canada and the Northeastern U.S.

The initial judicial inquiry found the crew of Mont-Blanc to have been responsible for the disaster, but a later appeal determined that both vessels were to blame. The North End of Halifax has several memorials to the victims of the explosion.

Although Imo's superstructure was severely damaged by the blast, the ship was repaired, and returned to service in 1918. The ship was renamed Guvernøren (The Governor) in 1920. But perhaps it was cursed: On November 30, 1921 she ran aground off East Falkland, in the Falkland Islands of the coast of Argentina, and was abandoned.

The Hydrostone District was built after the war, to provide housing for people displaced by the explosion. Today, Halifax is a city of 350,000 people, with a metropolitan area of 465,000. (Aside from its 3 largest cities -- Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver -- Canada doesn't really do suburbs.)

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December 6, 1917 was a Thursday. This was also the day that Finland declared its independence from Russia. However, I do not have a separate entry for this event. Rather, I have one for the end of the Finnish Civil War the next year, because that secured the country's independence.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. Professional basketball barely existed. And the 1st season of the National Hockey League was 13 days away from beginning. So there were no scores on this historic day.

November 8, 1946: Viola Desmond, the Rosa Parks of Canada

November 8, 1946: Canada develops its own Rosa Parks -- 9 years before America had theirs.

Viola Irene Davis was born on July 6, 1914 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father was a barber, and she wanted to go into the hair care profession, too. But the only beauty school in town wouldn't admit her, because she was black. So she trained where she could: Montreal, Atlantic City, and New York. She married Jack Desmond, and they opened a combination barbershop/beauty salon. She also opened her own beauty school, so no other black woman would have to be denied like she was.

On November 8, 1946, she drove across Nova Scotia to Sydney, to sell her beauty products, but her car broke down in New Glasgow. The good news was, the mechanic she went to was willing to fix a black person's car. The bad news was, it would take a day.

So she went to see a movie. The Roseland Theatre was showing The Dark Mirror, and sold her a ticket to the balcony section, which matched America's treatment of black people in segregated movie theaters. But her eyesight was poor, so she asked for a floor seat. The ticket seller said, "I'm not permitted to sell downstairs tickets to you people." Which, legally, was a lie. She took her ticket for the balcony, and sat in the floor section.

And usher found her, and told her to move. She refused. She offered to pay the additional 10 cents for a floor seat. They responded to this by calling the police, who picked her up, injuring her hip. With that injury, she was in jail for the next 12 hours. She was never informed about her right to legal advice, a lawyer, or bail.

The charge was tax evasion. She wasn't evading anything: She had offered to pay the extra 10 cents. One cent of that was slated for the Province of Nova Scotia, and she was convicted of depriving the government of a single cent. Instead of paying an extra 10 cents, she was fined $26.

Her husband wanted her to let it go, and pay the fine. But her church stood buy her, and hired a lawyer. His name was Frederick Bissett, and he made a critical mistake: He opted for a judicial review, rather than appeal the original conviction. Desmond's lawyer tried to appeal the decision on the basis of her being wrongfully accused of tax evasion, not on the basis of racial discrimination. The prosecutors stood by the theater's story, that the issue wasn't race, it was taxes. Which was a lie, because she had offered to pay the money. The fine stood.

To make matters worse, her husband soon left her. She closed her business, went to college in Montreal, moved to New York, and died on February 7, 1965, only 50 years old. She had surely heard the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott, but there is no record of Mrs. Parks and Mrs. Desmond ever having met.

The legend of Viola Desmond grew after her death. In 2010, the Nova Scotia Provincial government granted her a pardon and an apology. They were posthumous, of course: She would have been 94 years old. Beginning in 2018, her face adorned the Canadian $10 bill, replacing that of the country's 1st Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald.

As of November 8, 2022, there has never been a film made about her, even though a prominent black American film actress shares her birth name of Viola Davis.

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November 8, 1946 was a Friday. Baseball season was over. There were 3 college football games played that night:

* The University of Miami, based in Coral Gables, Florida, played Miami University, based in Oxford, Ohio, at Burdine Stadium in Miami, the stadium renamed the Orange Bowl in 1959. UM beat MU, 20-17. Each school is named for a Native American tribe, with no connection to each other, and the English translation of each's name to "Miami" was a coincidence. They've faced each other 3 times, and the Florida school has won them all, also winning in 1945 and 1987. (UPDATE: They faced each other again in 2023, and the school usually listed as "Miami (FL)" beat "Miami (OH)" again.)

* Villanova beat the University of Detroit, 23-6 at Titan Stadium in Detroit.

* And Texas A&M beat Southern Methodist University, 14-0 at Ownby Stadium in Dallas.

The NHL season was underway, but no games were scheduled for this day. One game was played in the brand-new Basketball Association of America, the league that would become the NBA: The Toronto Huskies beat the Detroit Falcons, 73-71 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Neither team lasted into a 2nd season.

October 28, 1991: The Perfect Storm

October 28, 1991: A storm hits the Northeastern U.S., and Canada's Maritime Provinces. It becomes known as the 1991 Perfect Storm, The No-Name, and the Halloween Gale.

Initially an extratropical cyclone, the storm absorbed Hurricane Grace to its south, and evolved into a small, never-named hurricane later in its life.

Damage from the storm totaled over $200 million, and 13 people were killed in total, 6 of which were an outcome of the sinking of a commercial fishing vessel, F/V Andrea Gail, off the coast of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The boat had left Gloucester, Massachusetts on September 20, and was heading for the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.

The Andrea Gail

The boat's loss inspired a book, published in 1997, by Robert Case, a forecaster for the National Weather Service based in Boston, and journalist Sebastian Junger. They called it The Perfect Storm, after an expression used for a combination of meteorological phenomena that produces destructive results. It was made into a movie in 2000. Since then, the phrase "perfect storm" has come to mean any combination of events that forms any unusual result.

This Northeastern storm also caused another storm to, literally, stop cold over the Midwest, resulting in a Halloween Blizzard that dumped up to 3 feet of snow and killed 22 people.

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October 28, 1991 was a Monday. The baseball season had ended the day before, when the Minnesota Twins won Game 7, and thus the World Series, over the Atlanta Braves. Football was in midweek. The NBA season began 4 days later. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Raiders, 24-21 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

There were 2 games in the NHL. The Toronto Maple Leafs and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 1-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Los Angeles Kings beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.