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Everyone knows that too much booze can lead to disaster
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But disasters, even booze-related ones, come in a lot of different shapes and sizes
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Today, we're popping the cork on the two biggest booze disasters in history
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There are a lot of dangers to worry about in life, but nobody expects to be drowned by a tsunami of beer
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an experience a lot of people would probably pay money for. However, on October 17, 1814, a small neighborhood in the heart of London was tragically struck
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by a 570-ton wave of golden suds after a vat and a nearby brewery exploded
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The vat belonged to the Meux & Company Brewery, which had been operating at the same location
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in the St. Giles Rookery for nearly 50 years. It had become the city's fifth-largest producer of beer, and they had the stock to show it
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But due to improper containment of pressure, a vat of the fermenting beverage burst
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setting off a domino effect that caused vat after vat to explode
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Ultimately, almost a million and a half liters of beer would be sent rushing into the poverty-stricken streets of downtown London
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Again, it may sound like an elaborate bachelor party, but that roughly half an Olympic swimming pool suddenly blasting through the streets People were drowned crushed or otherwise obliterated in the wave of beer as walls crumbled homes collapsed and basements were flooded
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With no proper drainage systems in place in the city, people had no other option but to
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wade through the depths of the muddied brew in search of their loved ones. Russia really knows how to party until something goes terribly wrong
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Just ask Rasputin. Another dangerous celebration took place on May 9, 1945. On May 7, 1945
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Germany officially surrendered to the Allies and called off its armed forces
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It was 1.10 a.m. on May 9, 1945, when the news finally broke in Russia. Even an ordinary
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impromptu celebration usually calls for a drink or two. So it makes sense that when you're
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celebrating the end of the biggest global conflict of all time, you might have a little more than
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that. How much more? Well, if you're a Russian, a lot more. It took a mere 22 hours before
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they had completely run out of vodka. In the US, it would probably be a huge news story
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But we imagine the news was slow to spread in Russia because even the reporters were too
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busy partying. For example, one later wrote, I was lucky to buy a liter of vodka at the train station when I arrived, because it was
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impossible to buy any later. There was no vodka in Moscow on May 10th. We drank it all
