“Oh, the Humanity!”

As The Writer’s Almanac reminds us, “It was on this day in 1937 that the [German rigid airship] Hindenburg caught fire as it was landing in Lakehurst, New Jersey, killing 35 people. The cause of the fire is still unknown, but the disaster ended the growing business of transatlantic passenger flight in zeppelins.”

The original film footage of that disaster, with radio announcer Herbert Morrison’s emotional narration, is embedded below.