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Events/Disaster · 1942

Benxihu colliery explosion

Disaster, 1942-04-26, China.

What happened

A gas and coal dust explosion at the Benxihu (Honkeiko) mine in Liaoning on 26 April 1942 killed an estimated 1,549 miners. Mine managers are reported to have sealed parts of the mine and shut down the ventilation to contain the fire.1,2,3

Why it matters

It is generally listed as the deadliest coal mine disaster on record.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Timmins: inception recorded

    Timmins has an inception date of 1912 in Wikidata.4

  2. Anglo American founded

    Anglo American founded.5

  3. Ottawa Accords steer Northern Rhodesian copper to Britain

    Preferential access to British markets meant most Northern Rhodesian copper went to Britain.6,7

  4. Dalstroi gold output peaks at 80 tonnes

    Output fell to 75.7 t in 1941, 74.4 t in 1942, 70.1 t in 1943 and 70.5 t in 1944.8,9

  5. Wittenoom townsite gazetted

    Town gazetted for the asbestos mine.10

  6. Toquepala mine: Wikidata inception date

    The southern Peru copper mine is dated to 1960 in Wikidata.11

  7. China agrees to fund TAZARA with US$415 million

    A tripartite agreement signed in Beijing started surveys of the line.12,13,14

  8. Poseidon nickel share boom

    The RBA paper says the 1974 Senate Select Committee report documented abuses during the boom and recommended changes to the regulation of financial markets.15,16

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Where next

People

An example ofFerdinand von RichthofenRichthofen travelled almost every province of China in 1868 to 1872. Benxihu killed about 1,549 in 1942.1

Events

Broke the record ofCourrieres coal mine disasterBenxihu's 1,549 deaths in 1942 pass Courrieres's 1,099 as the deadliest coal disaster.1

Sources

  1. The world's worst coal mining disasters (China feature, 2026) Mining Technology
  2. A closer look at eight of the worst coal mining disasters in history NS Energy
  3. Benxihu Colliery (item Q711090), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Wikidata item Q991310 (Timmins)
  5. Wikidata item Q541451 (Anglo American founded)
  6. Money D., Teh L., Race at Work: A Comparative History of Mining Labor and Empire on the Central African Copperbelt and the Fushun Coalfields, ca. 1907-1945 International Labor and Working-Class History 101 (Cambridge University Press)
  7. Wikidata item Q239580 (Kitwe)
  8. Three Days in Auschwitz without Gas Chambers: Henry A. Wallace Visit to Magadan in 1944 Wilson Center
  9. Wikidata item Q7968 (Magadan)
  10. Information on the former town of Wittenoom Government of Western Australia
  11. Wikidata item Q4287862 (Toquepala Mine)
  12. 'Win-win' contested: negotiating the privatisation of Africa's Freedom Railway with the 'Chinese of today' Journal of Modern African Studies 59(1) (Cambridge University Press)
  13. Connective Financing: Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries (Working Paper 64) AidData, William & Mary
  14. Wikidata item Q1960 (Dar es Salaam)
  15. Three Australian Asset-price Bubbles (J. Simon, 2003 conference paper) Reserve Bank of Australia
  16. Laverton (item Q1002750), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

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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