On this day: October 4

POSTED: 05:01 PM PDT Oct 03, 2012    UPDATED: 11:00 PM PDT Oct 03, 2012 

Work begins on Mount Rushmore, Sputnik is launched into space, the pope visits America for the first time, Janis Joplin is found dead of an overdose, all on this day.

OTD October 4 - Gillespie Company explosion
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Public domain

1918: An explosion kills more than 100 and destroys the T.A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant in Sayreville, N.J. Fires and explosions continue for three days, forcing massive evacuations and spreading ordnance over a wide area, pieces of which have been found as late as 2007.

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