Military
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At 10:08 p.m. on July 17, 1944, one of history's most powerful man-made, non-nuclear disasters destroyed two cargo ships at Port Chicago, killing 320 men and wounding hundreds in the worst stateside disaster of World War II. The cause of the explosion remains unknown. Seismographs recorded two blasts six seconds apart, and witnesses said the first occurred on the dock among the rail cars. The SS E.A. Bryan, a liberty ship loaded with 4,600 tons of munitions, exploded in the second blast, and the empty SS Quinault Victory, moored on the opposite side of the pier, was also demolished, with its shattered hull landing more than 500 feet away. Debris flew across Suisun Bay, structures in nearby towns and cities were damaged, and the shock registered 3.4 on the Richter scale. The disaster led to revised safety procedures for handling explosives, helped push the Navy to reconsider racial segregation, and after a long dispute the Navy used eminent domain and closed the adjacent town of Port Chicago in 1968.
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