April 15: On This Day in World History … briefly
In the days and weeks following the disaster, police fed false stories to the press suggesting that hooliganism and drunkenness by Liverpool supporters were the root causes of the disaster.
1989: Soccer fans are crushed to death
Ninety six people were crushed to death and in excess of 700 injured in one of Britain’s worst sports disaster in Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. The day promised to be such a memorable one for the quality of football played by FA Cup semi-finalists Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, but instead it turned into an absolute nightmare.
Tragedy struck when a gate was opened to ease a crush of around 4 000 Liverpool supporters who arrived just before kick-off and were trying to get inside the grounds. Most fans then thronged into the packed stand, crushing those at the front who were prevented from escaping by a high wire mesh fence erected to stop pitch invasions.
As events unfolded, some police officers were still deployed creating a cordon three-quarters of the way down the pitch to prevent Liverpool fans from reaching the opposing supporters. Without public address announcements to explain the situation, many Nottingham Forest fans on the other end were chanting for their team and whistled their anger at what they saw as a pitch invasion, incensing some of the Liverpool supporters.
Some fans tried to break through the cordon simply to ferry injured fans to waiting ambulances on the Nottingham Forest end but were forcibly turned back.
Most notable historic snippets or facts extracted from the book ‘On This Day’ first published in 1992 by Octopus Publishing Group Ltd, London, as well as additional supplementary information extracted from Wikipedia.
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