June 15 marks a somber day in American history, as it commemorates one of the deadliest maritime disasters in the country's past. On this day in 1856, a steamboat called the SS Sultana exploded and caught fire on the Mississippi River near New Orleans, Louisiana, killing an estimated 1,800 people - although some sources claim the death toll was as low as 1,100. The tragedy occurred when the ship, which was carrying a large number of Union prisoners of war who had just been released from Confederate prison camps, suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion. The SS Sultana disaster has been overshadowed by the more famous sinking of the Titanic, but it remains one of the deadliest maritime disasters in U.S. history, with many of its victims being former soldiers who had survived the brutal conditions of Civil War prisons.
Today In History: June 15, over 1,000 killed in New York steamboat accident Canon City Daily Record
