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Events/Disaster · 1907

Darr mine explosion

Disaster, December 1907, United States.

What happened

An explosion at the Darr mine in Pennsylvania in December 1907 killed 239 miners. It was part of the month known as Bloody December, when 703 miners died in five US coal mine explosions.1,2

Why it matters

Along with Monongah and Cherry, Darr is among the deadliest events in US coal mining.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Leadville: inception recorded

    Leadville has an inception date of 1877 in Wikidata.3

  2. Gold found on the Witwatersrand

    It created the largest gold field known and Johannesburg.4,5

  3. Monongah: inception recorded

    Monongah has an inception date of 1891 in Wikidata.6

  4. Kambalda: inception recorded

    Kambalda has an inception date of 1897 in Wikidata.7

  5. Penpoll builds a Liverpool smelter for Bolivian tin

    The smelter was built solely to treat Bolivian material.8,9

  6. Courrieres mine disaster

    Courrieres mine disaster. Wikidata records 1099 deaths.10

  7. Haber-Bosch process comes online

    The source says the Chilean nitrate monopoly and shrinking reserves in the 1890s pushed European scientists to fix nitrogen from the air.11,12

  8. Rand Rebellion begins

    An uprising on the Witwatersrand began on 28 December 1921 and ran into 1922 (dates from Wikidata).13,14

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Where next

Events

An example ofMonongah mine explosionDarr killed 239 in December 1907, the month 703 miners died in five US explosions.1An example ofPeak year for US coal mining deathsDarr's 239 deaths were part of 3,242 US coal deaths in 1907.15

Sources

  1. Underground Coal Mine Disasters 1900-2010: Events, Responses, and a Look to the Future NIOSH (Brnich and Kowalski-Trakofker)
  2. Darr Mine Disaster (item Q5224211), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q286702 (Leadville)
  4. Discovery of the Gold in 1884 South African History Online
  5. Johannesburg (item Q34647), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  6. Wikidata item Q2731020 (Monongah)
  7. Wikidata item Q3192342 (Kambalda)
  8. Hillman J., The Emergence of the Tin Industry in Bolivia Journal of Latin American Studies 16(2) (Cambridge University Press)
  9. Wikidata item Q24826 (Liverpool)
  10. Wikidata item Q1550228 (Courrieres mine disaster)
  11. Dirty Business Science History Institute
  12. Germany (item Q183), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  13. Wikidata item Q3070782 (Rand Rebellion)
  14. Wikidata item Q34647 (Johannesburg)
  15. Coal fatalities, 1900 to date US Mine Safety and Health Administration

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.