1917 - Environment

Environment

An earthquake on the island of Bali in the Dutch East Indies January 17 leaves an estimated 15,000 dead; an earthquake in China July 30 kills 1,800.

A new Catskill water system aqueduct opens to provide New York City with 250 million gallons daily of the purest, best-tasting water of any major American metropolis (see 1892).

Alaska's Mount McKinley National Park is established by act of Congress. The park embraces nearly 2 million acres that include large glaciers, spectacular wildlife (caribou, Dall sheep, grizzly bears, moose, wolves), and the highest mountain (20,300 feet) in North America. Called Denali (the Great One) by local tribespeople, the mountain received its English name in 1896 from William A. Dickey, then just out of Princeton and prospecting for gold on the Sustina River, after hearing of William McKinley's nomination for the presidency (see 1980).

An explosion destroys much of Halifax, Nova Scotia, December 6, leveling two square miles in the city's north end; it breaks windows 60 miles away, kills 1,654, blinds, maims, or disfigures 1,028, and leaves thousands homeless. The Norwegian relief ship Imo loaded with supplies for war-torn Europe has plowed into the French munitions ship Mont Blanc loaded with 4,000 tons of TNT, 2,300 tons of picric acid, 61 tons of other explosives, and a deck cargo of highly flammable benzene, which has caught fire and touched off the explosives. A half-ton anchor shank is thrown two miles, and the tidal wave created by the explosion washes wreckage at the shoreline out to sea.