October 11: Two Terrible Disasters

Today in 1138, the worst in a series of earthquakes struck the contested lands of the Crusader State near Aleppo (Syria). Beginning with an August 9 temblor, and extending into the following year, the quakes killed some 230,000 people. And though the worst known damage was at Aleppo, whose citadel collapsed, losses were harder to estimate at the Crusader stronghold at Harim and the Moslem fort of Al-Atarib, whose destructions were nearly total.

The Aleppo earthquake is the third deadliest in history, following earthquake strikes in China of 1556 (830,000 dead) and 1976 (probably 655,000 dead, though the official figure of the Chinese government was 255,000).


Overnight last night, the anniversary also passed of the peak destructiveness of the Great Hurricane of 1780 - the deadliest Atlantic cyclone of all time, killing more than 23,000 as it passed through the Caribbean. This included the loss of 4000 Frenchmen and 40 of their ships off Martinique, stationed there to assist the Americans in the ongoing Revolutionary War.