1770 Great Bengal famine | |
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| Total costs | N/A |
| Deaths | 10000000 |
The Bengal Famine of 1770 (Bengali: Chiẏāttôrer mônnôntôr, lit. The Famine of 76) was a famine that struck the Bengal region between 1769 and 1770 (1176 to 1177 in the Bengali calendar) and affected some 30 million people. It occurred during a period of dual governance in Bengal. This existed after the East India Company had been granted the diwani, or the right to collect revenue in Bengal by the Mughal emperor in Delhi, but before it had wrested the nizamat, or control of civil administration, which continued to lie with the Mughal governor, the Nawab of Bengal.Crop failure in autumn 1768 and summer 1769 and an accompanying smallpox epidemic were thought to be the manifest reasons for the famine. The Company had farmed out tax collection on account of a shortage of trained administrators, and the prevailing uncertainty may have worsened the famine's impact. Other factors adding to the pressure were: grain merchants ceased offering grain advances to peasants, but the market mechanism for exporting the merchants' grain to other regions remained in place; the Company purchased a large portion of rice for its army; and the Company's private servants and their Indian Gomasthas created local monopolies of grain. By the end of 1769 rice prices had risen two-fold, and in 1770 they rose a further three-fold. In Bihar, the continual passage of armies in the already drought-stricken countryside worsened the conditions. The Company provided little mitigation through direct relief efforts; nor did it reduce taxes, though its options to do so may have been limited.By the summer of 1770 people were dying everywhere. Although the monsoon immediately after did bring plentiful rains, it also brought diseases to which many among the enfeebled fell victim. For several years thereafter piracy increased on the Hooghly river delta. Deserted and overgrown villages were a common sight. Depopulation, however, was uneven, affecting north Bengal and Bihar severely, central Bengal moderately, and eastern only slightly. The recovery was also quicker in the well-watered Bengal delta in the east.Between seven and ten million people—or between a quarter and third of the presidency's population—were thought to have died. The loss to cultivation was estimated to be a third of the total cultivation. Some scholars consider these numbers to be exaggerated in large part because reliable demographic information had been lacking in 1770. Even so, the famine devastated traditional ways of life in the affected regions. It proved disastrous to the mulberries and cotton grown in Bengal; as a result, a large proportion of the dead were spinners and weavers who had no reserves of food. The famine hastened the end of dual governance in Bengal, the Company becoming the sole administrator soon after. Its cultural impact was felt long afterwards, becoming the subject a century later of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's influential novel Anandamath.
Source: Wikipedia 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake | |
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| Total costs | 6000000000 paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid paid |
| Deaths | 63 |
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at 5:04 p.m. local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of the San Andreas Fault System and was named for the nearby Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains. With an Mw magnitude of 6.9 and a maximum Modified Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), the shock was responsible for 63 deaths and 3,757 injuries. The Loma Prieta segment of the San Andreas Fault System had been relatively inactive since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (to the degree that it was designated a seismic gap) until two moderate foreshocks occurred in June 1988 and again in August 1989. Damage was heavy in Santa Cruz County and less so to the south in Monterey County, but effects extended well to the north into the San Francisco Bay Area, both on the San Francisco Peninsula and across the bay in Oakland. No surface faulting occurred, though many other ground failures and landslides were present, especially in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Liquefaction was also a significant issue, especially in the heavily damaged Marina District of San Francisco, but its effects were also seen in the East Bay, and near the shore of Monterey Bay, where a non-destructive tsunami was also observed.Because it happened during a national live broadcast of the 1989 World Series, taking place between Bay Area teams San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, it is sometimes referred to as the 'World Series earthquake', with the championship games of the year being referred to as the 'Earthquake Series'. Rush-hour traffic on the Bay Area freeways was lighter than normal because the game, being played at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, was about to begin, and this may have prevented a larger loss of life, as several of the Bay Area's major transportation structures suffered catastrophic failures. The collapse of a section of the double-deck Nimitz Freeway in Oakland was the site of the largest number of casualties for the event, but the collapse of man-made structures and other related accidents contributed to casualties occurring in San Francisco, Los Altos, and Santa Cruz.
Source: Wikipedia
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