Chaos and despair: December 3 has seen some of it over the years
Bob Marley's December 3 almost had him killed in 1976. An aeroplane collision once killed eight people in the US and, at another time, an orphanage caught fire - history has seen some events turn bad on this day.
Today is Wednesday, December 3, 2014. Thank goodness for that! History has seen previous versions of this day end rather badly. Let’s recap.
In 1965, American singer and songwriter Ray Charles was convicted of possession of heroin and marijuana. He received a five-year suspended sentence and a fine of $10 000.
1976 saw Bob Marley doing some crying – woman or not. Seven gunmen fired shots into his home in Kingston, Jamaica while he was rehearsing with his band. He survived to live for five more years.
In Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands, a Spantax flight crashed and 155 people died. This happened in 1972.
Die-hard fans of The Who did just that in 1979. Eleven fans died when they were trampled to death at Cincinnati’s Roverfront Coliseum in the rush to grab some unreserved seats at a concert.
In 1984, more than 2000 people died in Bophal, India, when toxic gas (methyl isocyanate) escaped from a Union Carbide insecticide plant.
A collision took place between a Northwest Airlines DC-9 and a Northwest Boeing at 727 at Detroit’s Metropolitan Airport in 1990. This happened on the ground and a fire erupted that killed eight people.
In 1998, an orphanage in Manilla caught fire. A total of 28 people died. Most of the victims were children.
