Today -100: October 1, 1911: Of bombardments, dam failures, and women-hating railroad bosses

The Italian fleet is bombarding Tripoli.

Almost 1,000 people, one-fourth the population of Austin, Pennsylvania, are killed by flood and fire when the new, badly built dam bursts (the fire was the result of flood waters rupturing natural gas pipes). (Update: or maybe just 78 people died, according to Wikipedia.) The nearby small town of Costello is wiped out, “not a building standing on its foundation,” but a man in an automobile raced to give the town warning of the flood, arriving 3 minutes ahead of the waters, which gave most of the population time to flee into the hills.

Evidently the Southern Pacific Railroad has come out against women’s suffrage in California (referendum coming up in a couple of weeks).