The city of London sweltered in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that baked the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial effluents had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone an

On a blustery afternoon in 1919, disaster struck Boston. A massive holding filled with sticky, sweet molasses gave way sending a tidal wave of the thick liquid rushing through the streets. The power was catastrophic, crushing buildings and trapping citizens in a gooey mass. Scores of people were lost their lives, and many more sustained injuries.