A Wave of Molasses Killed 21 People

At 12:30 p.m. on January 15, 1919, a 50-foot tank in Boston's North End dumped 2.3 million gallons of molasses into a lunch-hour street. The wave hit about 25 feet high and 35 mph. 21 people died. This is the logistics, then the physics, then the part that actually matters. 0:00 The wave that should have been slow 0:40 Lunch Hour on Commercial Street 1:50 Why the Tank Was There 3:10 The Leaks They Painted Over 4:30 The First Ninety Seconds 5:40 Heavier Than Water 6:50 And It Gets Worse 8:10 Cesar Nicolo 9:40 Six Years in Court 11:00 What Does Not Happen Public-record history. Some speeds, depths, and dollar conversions are estimates from contemporary reports and later engineering studies. #BostonMolassesFlood #GreatMolassesFlood #1919 #EngineeringFailure #FluidDynamics #NorthEnd #DisasterHistory #USIA This is an explainer, not a recap of fiction. No one in this story is a character from a movie. Visuals are original AI-generated stills. Audio may be synthetic. Not medical, legal, or financial advice.