This Month in History: April

Historically, the ancient Greeks held the Olympics as a festival to honour Zeus. Ancient Greece ended with the rise of Christianity in the Roman Republic and the Olympic games were banned, along with all other pagan practices, in 393 CE. Over a thousand years later, a French baron named Pierre de Coubertin proposed bringing the games back to promote international companionship in a competitive festival. From there, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was formed. During the first games, 241 athletes from 13 different countries came to Athens, Greece, to compete in the 43 events. Recently, the 2022 Beijing Olympics hosted 2,897 athletes from 91 countries to compete in 109 different events.

Being on the west coast of the United States, San Francisco is no stranger to earthquakes. However, this earthquake would go down as one of the worst natural disasters in the U.S.A. Houses, roads, and businesses were torn apart when the 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit. It only lasted for less than a minute, but that was enough to cause plenty of damage—including fires. The fires that swept through the city lasted several days after the earthquake and ended up destroying about 28,000 buildings before finally being extinguished by rain. Global humanitarian aid came to help the 250,000 people left homeless. Between the fires and the earthquake, the death toll was 700. However, that number has since been increased to an estimated 3,000. When the city was rebuilt, the buildings were made to be better protected against earthquakes and fires.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and its surrounding areas are a desolate ghost town, thanks to the disaster that occurred there. The plant itself was not very securely built, nor was it operated by properly trained personnel. So when testing turned tragic at reactor #4, a chain reaction was set off. The malfunction caused two distinct explosions, killing two of the plant workers. The radiation released would also lead to future long-term health issues and fatalities. People had to leave their homes, most notably in the town of Pripyat, which now stands as empty as how it was left. There are containment measures in place today since reactor #4 left behind lots of highly radioactive waste that could continue to cause serious damage.