Disasters recorded on 31 May across the years, drawn from our archive of historical events.
The 1970 Huascarán Debris Avalanche occurred on May 31 1970, when a debris avalanche and mudflow triggered by the Ancash earthquake destroyed the town of Yungay, Peru and 10 nearby villages, leaving up to 30,000 people dead. It is the deadl…
The Johnstown Flood, sometimes referred to locally as the Great Flood of 1889, occurred on Friday, May 31, 1889, after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam, located on the south fork of the Little Conemaugh River, 14 miles (23 km)…