Japan on Tuesday acknowledged the first possible casualty from radiation at the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant, a worker who was diagnosed with cancer after the crisis broke out in 2011. The health ministry's recognition of radiation as a possible cause may set back efforts to recover from the disaster, as the government and the nuclear industry have been at pains to say that the health effects from radiation have been minimal.

An avalanche of mud and rocks buries a school in Aberfan, Wales, killing 148 people, mostly young students. The elementary school was located below a hill where a mining operation dumped its waste.

An earthquake hits the San Francisco Bay Area on this day in 1989, killing 67 people and causing more than $5 billion in damages. Though this was one of the most powerful and destructive earthquakes ever to hit a populated area of the United States, the death toll was quite small.

Prosecutors investigating possible criminal misconduct at the site on flank of Guatemala City after warnings about risk of building homes in the neighbourhood.

The death toll from a landslide on a village 15km away from the Guatemalan capital rises to 56, with 350 others still feared missing, authorities say.

At least 85 people were killed when a cooking gas cylinder blew up in a crowded restaurant in central India on Saturday, triggering a second blast of construction detonators stored illegally nearby, police said.

It was not immediately clear who owned the crane that collapsed or whether it was involved in the expansion of the mosque or another project nearby. The construction giant Saudi Binladin Group is leading the mosque expansion. The Binladin family is close to the ruling Al Saud family, and is overseeing numerous building project across the Kingdom. The al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was a member of the wealthy family, though there are vast numbers of relatives. He was disowned in the 1990s.

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

Here are 10 essentials to have ready if a disaster strikes and you're trapped in your home.

French prosecutors said on Thursday that further analysis of a piece of an airplane wing that washed up on a remote Indian Ocean island had allowed investigators here to determine “with certitude” that it came from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared in March 2014 with 239 people on board.

Massive hurricanes striking Miami or Houston. Earthquakes leveling Los Angeles or Seattle. Deadly epidemics. Is the United States prepared? By David A. Graham.

A piece of debris that washed up on the shore of Reunion Island in July was part of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the Paris prosecutor's office said Thursday, backing up a statement that Malaysia's Prime Minister made weeks ago.

The takeover by charter programs hasn’t helped the worst-off kids. By Andrea Gabor.

The agency says it's now spending record amounts on fire suppression, and these bills are coming at the expense of its other programs — many of which would help prevent future wildfires.

Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane. Despite being only the third most powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

The most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded history occurs on Krakatau (also called Krakatoa), a small, uninhabited volcanic island located west of Sumatra in Indonesia. Heard 3,000 miles away, the explosions threw five cubic miles of earth 50 miles into the air, created 120-foot tsunamis and killed 36,000 people.

We all know that major storms can wreak havoc, flooding cities and decimating infrastructure. But there’s an even bigger worry than wind and rain: space weather. If a massive solar storm hit us, our technology would be wiped out. The entire planet could go dark.

We all know that major storms can wreak havoc, flooding cities and decimating infrastructure. But there’s an even bigger worry than wind and rain: space weather. If a massive solar storm hit us, our technology would be wiped out. The entire planet could go dark. “We’re much more reliant on technology these days that is vulnerable to space weather than we were in the past,” said Thomas Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The healing continues, more than four years after a magnitude-nine earthquake triggered a massive tsunami that devastated Japan, killing more than 15,000. Ten hours a day, six days a week, rock is funneled through nearly two miles of giant conveyor belts. It'll form a new foundation for an entire town. Amya Miller is an American who grew up in Japan. She was so devastated by news of the tsunami that she flew to Japan to volunteer -- and never left.

Not long after it was announced that cyanide levels have exceeding national standards at the site of China’s deadly explosion in Tianjin, thousands of dead fish washed ashore at the nearby Haihe River prompting even more concern over the environmental consequences of the blast.