Chicago is a city marked by disaster. Maybe even defined by it. Not only did the modern metropolis arise out of the ashes of the 1871 fire, but it then assembled a chain of terrible tragedies, such as the Iroquois Theater fire in 1903 and the Eastland capsizing in 1915, the former the most lethal building fire in US history (unless you consider 9/11 just a building fire, and I don’t), the latter among the deadliest maritime disasters ever.
There’s more. The St. Mary of the Angels School Fire. The first major aviation disaster in U.S. history was in Chicago, the Wingfoot Express, a hydrogen-filled Goodyear blimp that exploded over the Loop in 1919, crashing through the skylight of a bank, killing 13 people.
