1944 Port Chicago disaster

An ammunition ship exploded while being loaded at Port Chicago, California, a wartime naval loading point on the Sacramento River delta. History.com records 320 people killed and every building in Port Chicago damaged, with people knocked off their feet by the blast. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were African American enlisted men in the Navy, a group that the same account puts at 15 percent of all African Americans killed during the Second World War.

Date
1944-07-17
Deaths (Wikipedia list, low end where it gives a range)
320
What the pin marks
The pier at Port Chicago where munitions were being loaded, as the cited page positions it.
Where the position is published
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster

Category: Disasters & Incidents

Tags: ship explosion, munitions, wartime, navy, california

Coordinates: 38.0575, -122.02972

Part of Industrial and accidental explosions that killed 200 or more people since 1900

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