November 19, 1984: The San Juanico Disaster

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.

April 22, 1992: The Guadalajara Explosions

April 22, 1992: Gasoline explosions in the sewer system of Guadalajara, Mexico's 2nd largest city, kill 252 people – some people think that figure is significantly lowballed, and that it may have been over 1,000 – and leaves over 15,000 people homeless.

An investigation into the disaster found that there were two precipitating causes. New water pipes, made of zinc-coated iron, were built too close to an existing steel gasoline pipeline. The underground humidity caused these materials to create an electrolytic reaction, akin to that which occurs inside a zinc-carbon battery. As the reaction proceeded, it eventually caused the steel pipe to corrode, creating a hole in the pipeline that permitted gasoline to leak into the ground and into the main sewer pipe.

The sewer pipe had been recently rebuilt into a U-shape, so that the city could expand its underground metro railway system. Usually sewers are built in a slope, so that gravity helps move waste along. In order to get the U-shape to work, an inverted siphon was placed so that fluids could be pushed against gravity. The design was flawed, however: While liquids were successfully pumped through, gases were not, and gas fumes would build up.

Four officials from Pemex, Mexico's federally-run petroleum company, were indicted for negligence, but all were cleared. Don't be so shocked.

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April 22, 1992 was a Wednesday. Adam Lanza, the shooter in the Sandy Hook Massacre in Connecticut in 2012, was born on this day.

These Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Kevin Maas singled Roberto Kelly home with the winning run in the top of the 9th inning, making a winning pitcher of Steve Howe a winning pitcher in relief of Scott Sanderson.

* The New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-2 at Shea Stadium. David Cone pitched well, Wally Whitehurst blew the lead in the 8th inning. Eddie Murray hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th, to make a winning pitcher of Jeff Innis.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos, 2-0 at the Olympic Stadium. Doug Drabek pitched a 5-hit shutout, outpitching Dennis Martinez. Barry Bonds went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-2 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ryne Sandberg and Andre Dawson hit home runs.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-1 at Royals Stadium (now Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City. Cal Ripken went 1-for-3 with a walk. George Brett went 0-for-4.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers, 12-8 at Arlington Stadium in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Travis Fryman went 4-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs.

* The Houston Astros beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-1 at the Astrodome in Houston. Chris Jones hit a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning.

* The San Diego Padres beat the Atlanta Braves, 9-4 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. Bruce Hurst outpitched Tom Glavine. Tony Gwynn went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Oakland Athletics, beat the California Angels, 10-4 at the Oakland Coliseum. Mark McGwire hit 2 home runs, and Rickey Henderson hit 1.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Seattle Mariners, 8-1 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4.

* And the Boston Red Sox and the Milwaukee Brewers were supposed to play at Milwaukee County Stadium, but were postponed due to cold weather. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on August 14. The Brewers swept, 8-7 and 1-0. Jim Gantner won the opener with a home run off Jeff Reardon in the bottom of the 13th inning. In the nightcap, Cal Eldred pitched 8 innings of 3-hit shutout ball, and Darren Holmes finished the 3-hit shutout.

Over the 2 games, Robin Yount went 1-for-7 with a walk and 3 RBIs, Paul Molitor went 2-for-8 with a walk, and Wade Boggs went 4-for-9 with 2 RBIs.

Football was out of season. The NBA Playoffs were in progress, but no games were scheduled for this date. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were in progress, and these 4 games were played:

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-4 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Yves Racine scored the winning goal, 1:15 into overtime.

* The St. Louis Blues beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 at the St. Louis Arena. Brett Hull scored the winning goal, 3:33 into the 2nd overtime.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Edmonton Oilers beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.