On December 6, 1917, the Norwegian ship Imo and the French vessel Mont-Blanc collided, yielding the most massive explosion prior to the atomic bomb. It was an accident, caused by a misunderstanding of the signals sent between the two ships. Mont-Blanc was carrying munitions for World War I, which detonated after being ignited by sparks created when metal scraped against metal in the collision. Two Canadian towns were leveled, over nine thousand lives were lost, and a whole lot of physical capital was damaged.
So - why don't most people know about this? I really don't know. It happened almost a hundred years ago, but everybody knows about WWI. Probably, it was "just an accident" that could have been averted if people were more careful. Well, maybe we should at least know the circumstances that caused (I think) the first man-made tsunami. Then, as people lay out designs for new vessels and transport mediums, they'll think "what might go wrong?" and implement better systems of communication and safety.
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