Modern Era · North America · Disaster

1980

Mount St. Helens erupts

May 18, 1980

After weeks of small quakes, the north face of a Washington State volcano gave way in the biggest landslide in recorded history and the mountain exploded sideways with the force of a hydrogen bomb. Fifty-seven people died. The blast wave flattened two hundred thirty square miles of old-growth forest like matchsticks.

More from 1980 Modern Era

In context

Also in 1980 (6 other events on record)

Solidarity strike at Gdansk · Europe · Politics
Iran-Iraq War begins · Middle East · War
Gwangju uprising · East Asia · Politics
John Lennon shot · North America · Culture
Four American nuns killed in El Salvador · North America · Religion
Rubik's Cube and Pac-Man launch · Europe · Culture

Before and after in North America

Before: July 19, 1979: Sandinistas take Managua
After: March 30, 1981: Reagan shot

Before and after in Disaster

Before: March 28, 1979: Three Mile Island
After: June 5, 1981: AIDS first reported

Era

Modern Era (1901–2000), one of 590 events from that era on Saeculum.

Sources

Wikipedia: Mount St. Helens