fascinatinghorror

The Tay Bridge Disaster

In this video I show a picture of the locomotive that pulled the train which was destroyed in the collapse. It’s in pretty bad shape, not only because of the crash, but because it was accidentall...

The Worst Poet in History

Here's another of my "Fascinating Failures" - although this time it's a little different, as it's a creative failure rather than a business one. William McGonagall of Dundee was, ...

The Accidental Death Row Electrocution

While researching this short I came across a similar but somewhat different story: that of Troy Leon Gregg. Gregg was a convicted murderer, sentenced to death in Georgia. He wasn’t able to have h...

The Roseville Yard Explosion

You might be wondering what became of the town of Antelope which was destroyed by this disaster. At the time, it consisted of only around 30 buildings: a post office, a general store and a handful ...

The Glass Tower Disaster

This one was a lot of fun to work on – a movie that I’ve enjoyed and had on my radar for quite a while, and one that rivals The Poseidon Adventure when it comes to classic 1970s hammy ...

The Winecoff Hotel Fire

In this video I mention the hugely influential photograph taken by Arnold Hardy. It’s an interesting one, because it’s one of the last photographs he took. Although he had a keen interest in ph...

The Fish with Human Teeth

You might have seen pictures of this fish elsewhere, perhaps under a different name. It’s sometimes known as the “convict” fish, because the stripes along its body resemble the stripes on an ...

A Brief History of Hazing (Part Two)

There was one other unusual hazing death from the 1970s that I wanted to include in this video… but ultimately I just couldn’t find enough imagery to cover it. 2024-03-19 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Adrift in the Pacific

There’s so much to this story that I couldn’t find space for in the video. If you’re interested in it, I definitely recommend the book 438 Days by Jonathan Franklin. It was written a...

The Most Important Snail in History

If this story interests you at all, I’d definitely recommend reading more about it. The Wikipedia article 2024-03-08 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post

The Buncefield Explosion

I’m old enough to have a clear memory of this accident, which was a pretty big news story all over the UK. There had, I recall, quite recently been a terrorist attack in London, and so people wer...

The Khodynka Crush

Given when this disaster took place, I was surprised to see that there are quite a few of the souvenir cups that were handed out at the banquet still in circulation. 2024-02-27 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

The Oubliette

Identifying an oubliette is sometimes an easy task: if it’s stacked full of human bones, it may well have been an oubliette at one point or another. In some cases, though, it’s much more tricky...

The Hoover "Fly for Free" Fiasco

Here's another "Fascinating Failure" that I thought I'd share with you a little early (I'll be publishing it on the channel next week). This one covers the Hoover Holidays scandal, which was quite ...

The Pemberton Mill Collapse

While researching this video I spent quite a long time trying to determine what the new Pemberton Mill building is used for today. Other mills in the area have been converted into apartment buildin...

The Zacatón Sinkhole Accident

While I was doing some background reading for this story I came across this rather unusual form. It’s posted on a...

This Fungus Turns Ants Into Zombies

I can’t complete a short about the Ophiocordyceps fungus without mentioning the video game The Last of Us. It’s an excellent game with a very compelling story, set in a world ...

Workplace Horrors

I showed a few lockout/tagout devices in the last part of this video… but there are many, many more out there. In fact, there’s pretty much a device custom-designed for locking out any machine ...

The Estadio Nacional Disaster

I wasn’t able to find footage of the disputed goal that I could get permission to use in the video… but it appears that it was captured on camera. 2024-01-30 11:15:01 +0000 UTC View Post

The Quietest Room on Earth

When I was working on this short I watched some videos of the anechoic chamber to get an idea of what it’s like inside. 2024-01-26 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post

The Big Bayou Canot Disaster

There’s one other notable accident involving the Sunset Limited that also took place in the 1990s – although in the case of this one it’s not particularly clear what happened. In the...

The Blitz

In the video I mention that there was a lack of deep shelters early on in the Blitz… and that it took a lot of protest by ordinary people to change this. One person who really stands out when it ...

The Unluckiest Lucky Escape

This is an example of a very well-documented close call. It’s interesting to note, though, that in the months after the sinking of the Titanic, it appears that quite a large number of pe...

The Gillingham Fair Disaster

The inquest into this disaster was unable to determine what had caused the house to burn before it was scheduled to… but they weren’t totally without evidence. The testimony of 16-year-old dock...

The Worst Speech in History

Here's something a little different: today I'm sharing a video from my other channel (https://www.youtube.com/@KristianCrow...

The Daegu Subway Fire

The construction of a "Safety Theme Park" is a rather unusual development in the wake of a disaster. From the accounts I’ve read of this one, though, it certainly seems to be effective. The attra...

The English City Underneath New York

There’s apparently not much to see at Bristol Basin, although there is a plaque that was installed in 1974, which has a rather poetic way of describing the situation:

“Beneat...

2023-12-29 11:15:00 +0000 UTC View Post