In Their Lives 11-10-63: 300, No 400, No 500!

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One of these days I'll do a countdown of my favorite "fake news" headlines from newspaper archives. But for now, I'm celebrating the November family members' birthdays with a peek at headlines from the years they were born. This one caught my eye, so I thought I'd highlight it. 11/10/63: Twin Disasters in Japan Kill....A Lot! Scrolling through the newspaper website, which displays page one on any particular day you type in, the headlines vary significantly in their mention of the death toll. In Yokohama two trains collided, which resulted in the deaths of at least 155 individuals. On the same day there was a mine explosion in Omuta, at the Mitsui mine. In that catastrophe, at least 327 died in the initial reports, with over 300 miners rescued. The final death toll for the train wreck was 162, which (as the US papers pointed out) included one American. In the mine, the final death count was much worse: 458 miners were dead by the time all the rescue and recovery efforts had ended. I'm not making fun of the disasters, mind you, because it was, without question, a terrible day in Japanese history. I'm just shaking my head at the newspaper headlines. Of course, they had deadlines to meet, but..... A 1963 newsreel about the dual tragedies: