July 6, 1944 - In Hartford, CT, a fire broke out under the big top of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus; 8,000 spectators inside the big top, 169 people killed, 682 injured. Two-thirds of those who perished were children. Tent's ropes burned and its poles gave way, the whole burning big top came crashing down, consuming those who remained inside. Within 10 minutes it was over, and some 100 children and 60 of their adult escorts were dead or dying. An investigation revealed that the tent had undergone a treatment with flammable paraffin thinned with three parts of gasoline to make it waterproof. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus eventually agreed to pay $5 million in compensation, and several of the organizers were convicted on manslaughter charges. 1950 - in a late development in the case, Robert D. Segee of Circleville, Ohio, confessed to starting the Hartford circus fire. Segee claimed that he had been an arsonist since the age of six and that an apparition of an Indian on a flaming horse often visited him and urged him to set fires.  November 1950 - Segee was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 22 years in prison, the maximum penalty in Ohio at the time.

April 2, 1973 - ITT pleads guilty to asking CIA to affect Chilean President election.

November 13, 1974 - Karen Silkwood, an Oklahoma metallurgy worker at a Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium nuclear processing plant near Crescent, OK, blew the whistle on blatant worker safety violations at the plant; she is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and is forced off the road and dies while driving to an interview with New York Times reporter,  David Burnham. Her files are missing from the car wreck; an FBI investigation later concludes accident, but is not generally believed to have been impartial.

November 22, 1977 - A federal judge fined Phillips Petroleum $30,000 fine for using a clandestine corporate fund to illegally funnel contributions to various political campaigns. In a related matter, the judge also found Phillips guilty of filing fudged tax reports.

August 7, 1978 - President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at Love Canal (a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York); those living closest to the site were relocated; December 20, 1979 - Environmental Protection Agency announced today that the Department of Justice (on behalf of EPA) filed four suits against Hooker Chemical Co., and its parent corporation, Occidental Petroleum Corporation; requested the company clean up four chemical waste dumpsites in Niagara Falls, New York, which pose substantial danger to residents of the area; suits seek a total of $117,580,000 in clean-up costs from Hooker as well as reimbursement for more than $7 million spent by Federal agencies in emergency measures at Hooker's Love Canal waste disposal site, and unspecified civil penalties; sites involved, each the subject of separate actions, are Love Canal, Hyde Park, 102nd Street and the "S" Area landfill; suits specify that Hooker disposed of 199,900 tons of chemical waste at the four sites between 1942 and 1975 and Olin Corporation disposed of 66,000 tons of chemical waste at the 102nd Street landfill; EPA scientists found 82 toxic chemicals in air, water, and soil samples near the dumps; numerous toxic chemicals (dozen of which are carcinogenic) discarded at Love Canal over the past 30 years triggered several health problems, including miscarriages, among the area's residents, have transformed whole sections of this once pleasant community into a ghost town; June 22, 1994 - Occidental Petroleum agreed to pay $98 million to cover New York State's cleanup costs; December 22, 1995 - Occidental Petroleum agreed to pay $129 million to cover the federal government's cleanup costs at Love Canal.

March 28, 1979 - America's worst commercial nuclear accident occurred inside the Unit Two reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (three-months-old) near Middletown, PA (on an island in the Susquehanna River about 11 miles south of Harrisburg); released above-normal levels of radiation into the central Pennsylvania countryside; officials of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said radiation outside the plant was far less than that produced by diagnostic X-rays; some of the 60 employees on duty were contaminated, did not require hospitalization; 15,000 people living within a mile of the plant were not evacuated, 'general emergency' was declared.

March 13, 1980 - A jury in Winamac, IN found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto.

March 30, 1980 - Phillips Petroleum's Alexander Kielland platform n the North Sea collapsed, 123 killed; housed 208 men who worked on the nearby Edda oil rig in the Ekofisk field, 235 miles east of Dundee, Scotland; platform, held up by two large pontoons, had bedrooms, kitchens and lounges and provided a place for workers to spend their time when not working; subsequent investigation revealed that a previously undetected crack in one of main legs of the platform caused the structure’s collapse.

May 21, 1980 - President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal in Niagra Falls, New York; property had been a dumping site for Hooker Chemicals and Plastics; 1981 - plans made to evacuate 710 families, ordered after a study reported that 30 percent of the residents in the area had suffered chromosome damage caused by the toxic chemicals leaking through the ground into their homes.

September 29, 1982 - Seven people in the Chicago area died after unknowingly taking Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide; suspect for the murders was never found; led to safety seals on most consumer products.

February 14, 1984 - Drs. Thomas E. Starzl and Henry T. Bahnson perform world's first heart-liver double transplant in six-year-old Stormie Jones from Texas at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh; had blood levels of cholesterol almost five times the safe level; lived until age 13.

December 3, 1984 - More than 4,000 people Bhopal, India (360 miles south of New Delhi) died after more than  40 tons of highly poisonous methyl isocyanate gas leaked in a 40-minute period from one of three underground tanks at a pesticide plant owned by Union Carbide when a tank valve apparently malfunctioned after an increase in pressure. The plant was opened in 1977 and produces about 2,500 tons of pesticides per year. The gas produces heavy discharge from the eyes and is extremely irritating to the skin and internal organs. Exposure can apparently lead to enough fluid accumulation to cause drowning. Local authorities arrested five factory officials and  charged with criminal negligence in the disaster. Indian government sued Union Carbide in a civil case and settled in 1989 for $470 million.

April 2, 1985 - Drug maker A. H. Robins set aside $615 million to settle claims brought by users of its contraceptive device, Dalkon shield; company had filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from lawsuits brought by hundreds of thousands of women who claimed that the Dalkon Shield caused infertility or infections.

April 8, 1985 - India files suit against Union Carbide over Bhopal disaster.

November 19, 1985 - Pennzoil won a $10.53 billion verdict in case against Texaco; stemmed from Pennzoil's attempted acquisition of Getty Oil (had agreed to pay $5.3 billion for the family-run oil company without a written contract signed by both parties; Texaco doubled Pennzoil's bid, Getty accepted, Pennzoil sued); state-court jury ruled that Pennzoil and Getty had engaged in a binding contract, handed down the single biggest civil verdict in court history.

June 3, 1986 - Alabama jury awarded $150 million in punitive damages to Alex Hardy against General Motors in a Chevy Blazer accident; truck spun out of control, its axle snapped, door latch failed to stay shut, driver Alex Hardy was ejected from the vehicle as it tumbled over, left paralyzed. Though Hardy would likely never walk again, the auto giant's general council, Thomas Gottschalk, dismissed the "completely outrageous" decision as "the crowning example of a state tort system gone berserk." However, during the trial, Hardy's legal team presented seemingly damning evidence against GM, including internal documents in which the company's own engineers conceded that the Blazer's latch was " substandard" and was prone to failure. Moreover, the documents revealed that GM had decided against recalling and repairing the vehicles with the defective latches because it deemed the $916 million price tag for such measures to be too hefty.

August 22, 1986 - Kerr-McGee Corp. agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million, settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit.

February 12, 1987 - A Texas court upheld the initial 1985  decision against Texaco ($10.5 billion fine) for having initiated an illegal takeover bid for Getty Oil after Pennzoil had already made a $5.3 billion bid for the company, a legally binding  contract to which Getty had consented (despite never signing a formal contract). 

May 9, 1988 - Jury found Stella Nickell guilty of murder; first person to be tried and convicted for committing murder using product tampering; June 17, 1988 - sentenced to 90 years; June 11, 1986 - 40-year-old Washington state bank manager, Sue Snow, woke up with a headache at 6 a.m., went to her kitchen and took two Extra-Strength Excedrin capsules; after a few hours, she died, from cyanide poisoning; Bristol-Myers nationally recalled the product to avert any more deaths; FBI crime lab in Washington, DC discovered tainted capsules contained minute specks of a green crystal-like substance, Algae Destroyer; law enforcement officials discovered that Stella Nickell not only owned a fish tank but had also bought Algae Destroyer from a pet store prior to the murders; also learned that Stella took out three life insurance policies on her husband in the year prior to his death.

July 6, 1988 - A fire on Occidental Petroleum's Piper Alpha drilling platform, 120 miles off the north-east coast of Scotland, killed 167 workers; largest and oldest platform in the North Sea oilfield; 300 deaths on Britain's 123 oil installations (often caused by bad weather) since drilling began in the North Sea in the 1970s.

October 13, 1988 - U.S. district court handed down a record-setting $115 million settlement for fraud against Sundstrand Corp., an aerospace and industrial parts company (over-billing on sales of parts to the Pentagon); pleaded guilty to padding their bills by "millions of dollars," used the money to pay for "unallowable" expenses like sauna sessions and servants hired for company officials; Sundstrand also confessed to improperly wining and dining defense workers as a ploy to "improve (the company's) ability to market its products to the Defense Department."

February 14, 1989 - Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the government of India in a court-ordered settlement of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.

March 24, 1989 - Worst oil spill in U. S. territory occurred as the supertanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Alaska's Prince William Sound and began leaking 11 million gallons of crude; wind and currents spread the oil more than 100 miles from its source, eventually polluted more than 700 miles of coastline. Hundreds of thousands of birds and animals were adversely affected by the environmental disaster.

January 29, 1990 - Former Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges stemming from the nation's worst oil spill.

February 27, 1990 - Exxon Corp and Exxon Shipping are indicted on 5 criminal counts (Valdez).

March 22, 1990 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, found former tanker captain Joseph Hazelwood innocent of three major charges in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill, but convicted him of a minor charge of negligent discharge of oil.

March 23, 1990 - Former Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood was sentenced by a judge in Anchorage, Alaska, to help clean up Prince William Sound and pay $50,000 in restitution for his role in the 1989 oil spill.

February 9, 1991 - Japan's worst nuclear accident happened at Mihama when a pipe in the steam generator burst, leaked 55 tons of radioactive primary (reactor) coolant water into the secondary steam-generating circuit; radiation into the atmosphere was kept to a small amount; no deaths resulted.

March 13, 1991 - Exxon pays $1-billion dollars in fines and cleanup of Valdez oil spill.

July 10, 1992 - The Alaska court of appeals overturns the conviction of Joseph Hazelwood, the former captain of the oil tanker Exxon Valdez. Hazelwood, who was found guilty of negligence for his role in the massive oil spill in Prince William Sound in 1989, successfully argued that he was entitled to immunity from prosecution because he had reported the oil spill to authorities 20 minutes after the ship ran aground.

February 8, 1993 - General Motors sued NBC, alleged that the program ''Dateline NBC'' had rigged two crashes to show that GM pickups were prone to fires. NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.

June 13, 1994 - A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blamed recklessness by Exxon Corp. and Capt. Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the nation's worst oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.

February 17, 1995 - Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming U.S. tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive and manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked.

June 3, 1996 - Alex Hardy and his wife claimed that General Motors, maker of Chevy Blazer, had knowingly sold vehicles with defective door latches (fell asleep at wheel, car turned over, axle snapped and door latch failed to stay shut, he was thrown, paralyzed); brought their case to Alabama's courts; jury slapped GM with $150 million in punitive damages. Internal GM documents showed company's own engineers conceded that Blazer's latch was " substandard", prone to failure; revealed that GM had decided against recalling, repairing vehicles with defective latches because it cost too much - estimated $916 million.

November 12, 1996 - Reverend Jesse Jackson threatened to lead potentially crippling boycott against Texaco if company failed to settle a lingering racial-discrimination lawsuit; 1994 - six Texaco employees filed $520 million suit; mushroomed into complaint backed by some 1,400 workers; Jackson's involvement and revelation of "secret" audio tape that captured Texaco executives making racial slurs and plotting to derail lawsuit helped bring case to a close; November 15 - Texaco announced what was believed to be a $ 175 million settlement to the case, which included a one-time salary boost for minority employees, establishment of "diversity training and sensitivity programs".

January 8, 1997 - Texaco Inc. takes action against David Keough (assistant treasurer at Texaco's finance insurance subsidiary), one of the executives surreptitiously caught on tape making racist jokes and admitting to destroying potentially incriminating documents; 1996 - discovery of the tape had helped a group of 1,400 employees win a $175 million settlement in a racial discrimination suit brought against the company; 1996 - Richard Lundwall and Robert Ulrich, two of the other executives captured on the tape, stood trial on charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice (acquitted of those charges in 1998).

March 20, 1997 - Liggett Group, the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, settled 22 state lawsuits by admitting the industry markets cigarettes to teenagers and agreeing to warn on every pack that smoking is addictive.

May 6, 1997 - Hemophiliacs who contracted AIDS between 1978 and 1985 from tainted blood products accepted a $600 million settlement from four health-care companies.

June 20, 1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to a massive settlement in exchange for major relief from mounting lawsuits and legal bills.

August 25, 1997 - The tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.

October 8, 1997 - A Federal jury ordered Chrysler to pay  $260 million to the Jiminez family, whose son, Sergei, was killed after being jettisoned from the third seat of a Chrysler minivan; 1987 - accident happened when the Jiminez's Dodge Caravan was hit by another vehicle (at five miles per hour),  minivan's rear liftgate malfunctioned, back door flew open, boy ejected on to the pavement; 1984-1994 - thirty-seven deaths traced to faulty liftgate latches on Chrysler's minivans; 100 lawsuits filed; day before the ruling Chrysler recalled 1.1 million minivans, a decision estimated to have cost roughly $30 million.

June 10, 1998 - Mitsubishi Motor Manufacturing of America, Inc. (MMMA) agreed to settle a nasty and long-festering sexual harassment lawsuit (its second). Acting on behalf of 300 female workers at Mitsubishi's Normal, Illinois, plant, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed the suit against the carmaker in the spring of 1996. According to the EEOC, the female employees were not only groped by their male counterparts at the plant, but were forced to trade sexual favors for job security. The ensuing settlement, which called for MMMA to pay an unprecedented $34 million to its female workers, left officials for the EEOC feeling guardedly optimistic; 1997 - company paid $9.5 million to settle a private suit filed by twenty-nine female plant workers at Mitsubishi's Normal, Illinois, plant.

March 30, 1999 - A jury in Portland, OR ordered Philip Morris to pay $81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades.

July 7, 1999 - A jury in Miami held cigarette makers liable for making a defective product that causes emphysema, lung cancer and other illnesses.

October 7, 1999 - American Home Products Corp. agreed to pay up to $4.83 billion to settle claims that the fen-phen diet drug combination caused dangerous heart valve problems.

August 9, 2000 - Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced it was recalling 6.5 million tires that had been implicated in hundreds of accidents and at least 46 deaths.

May 19, 2003 - WorldCom Inc. agreed to pay investors $500 million to settle civil fraud charges.

June 9, 2004 - The Federal Communications Commission agreed to a record $1.75 million settlement with Clear Channel to resolve indecency complaints against Howard Stern and other radio personalities.

June 22, 2004 - A federal judge approved a class-action sex-discrimination lawsuit representing 1.6 million female workers against Wal-Mart.

August 19, 2005 - A Texas jury found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who'd taken the once-popular painkiller Vioxx, awarding his widow $253.4 million in damages. (Texas caps on punitive damages reduced that figure to about $26 million; Merck plans to appeal.).

October 11, 2005 -  Bridgestone/Firestone agreed to pay $240 million to Ford Motor Company in a settlement for claims related to a 2000 recall of defective tires (6.5 million, especially on Ford Explorer sport utility vehicles); at least 271 persons were reported killed, hundreds injured in accidents involving Firestone AT and ATX tires; Bridgestone blamed Ford for vehicle defects vs. Ford's maintaining that the tires were at fault; Bridgestone severed its 50-year business relationship with Ford.

May 15, 2007 - Tyco International agreed to pay almost $3 billion to settle class-action lawsuits filed by investors by actions of L. Dennis Kozlowski (former CEO), Mark H. Schwartz (former CFO), PricewaterhouseCoopers (auditor); largest payment ever by company in this kind of litigation (fourth in terms of total payments to investors in multiple defendant suits - Enron, World-Com, Cendant).

(American Home Products), Alicia Mundy (2001). Dispensing with the Truth: The Victims, the Drug Companies, and the Dramatic Story Behind the Battle over Fen-Phen. (New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 402 p.). Washington Bureau Chief for Mediaweek, Contributing Editor at Washingtonian magazine. American Home Products Corporation--Trials, litigation, etc.; Wrongful death--Massachusetts; Fenfluramine--Side effects.

(Dow), Peter H. Schuck (1986). Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 347 p.). Simeon E. Baldwin Professor of Law (Yale University). Reutershan, Paul, d. 1978 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Dow Chemical Company -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Products liability -- Agent Orange -- United States; Trials (Products liability) -- United States.

(Exxon), Bruce M. Owen ... [et al.] (1995). The Economics of a Disaster: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. (Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 200 p.). Exxon Valdez (Ship); =Water--Pollution--Economic aspects--Alaska--Prince William Sound; Oil spills--Economic aspects--Alaska--Prince William Sound; Tankers--Accidents. 

(Exxon), David Lebedoff (1997). Cleaning Up: The Story Behind the Biggest Legal Bonanza of Our Time. (New York, NY: Free Press, 321 p.). Hazelwood, Joseph Jeffrey, 1946- --Trials, litigation, etc.; Exxon Corporation--Trials, litigation, etc.; Exxon Shipping Company--Trials, litigation, etc.; Exxon Valdez (Ship); Oil spills--Law and legislation--Alaska; Oil spills--Alaska--Prince William Sound; Liability for oil pollution damages--Alaska--Prince William Sound Region. =

(Exxon), John Keeble (1999). Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound. (Cheney, WA: Eastern Washington University Press, 363 p. [2nd ed.]). Exxon Valdez (Ship); Alyeska Pipeline Service Company; Oil spills--Environmental aspects--Alaska--Prince William Sound Region; Oil spills--Economic aspects--Alaska--Prince William Sound Region; Tankers--Accidents--Environmental aspects--Alaska--Prince William Sound Region.

(Ford), James S. Kunen (1994). Reckless Disregard: Corporate Greed, Government Indifference, and the Kentucky School Bus Crash. (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 379 p.). Ford Motor Company--Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder)--Kentucky--Carrollton; Criminal liability of juristic persons--United States; School buses--Safety regulations--United States; Corporations--Corrupt practices--United States; Drinking and traffic accidents--United States.

(Ford), Adam L. Penenberg (2003). Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle with the Auto Industry over the Dangers of SUVs. (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 342 p.). Turner, Clyde "Tab"; Ford Motor Company--History; Firestone Tire and Rubber Company--History; Products liability--Automobiles--United States; Sport utility vehicles--Defects--Law and legislation--United States; Sport utility vehicles--Defects--United States--History; Automobiles--Tires--Defects--United States--History; Explorer sport utility vehicle.

(General Public Utilities), Mark Stephens (1980). Three Mile Island. (New York, NY: Random House, 245 p.). Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.); Nuclear power plants--Accidents.

(General Public Utilities), Daniel F. Ford (1982). Three Mile Island: Thirty Minutes to Meltdown. (New York, NY: Penguin, 271 p.). Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.).

(General Public Utilities), Mike Gray and Ira Rosen (1982). The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island. (New York, NY: Norton, 287 p.). Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.); Nuclear power plants--Pennsylvania--Harrisburg Region--Accidents.

(General Public Utilities), Edward J. Walsh (1988). Democracy in the Shadows: Citizen Mobilization in the Wake of the Accident at Three Mile Island. (New York, NY: Greenwood Press, 227 p.). Associate Professor of Sociology (Pennsylvania State University). Metropolitan Edison Company; Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.); Nuclear power plants--Pennsylvania--Public opinion; Public opinion--Pennsylvania; Antinuclear movement--Pennsylvania.

(General Public Utilities), J. Samuel Walker (2004). Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 303 p.). Historian of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.); Nuclear power plants--Accidents. Worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States.

(W. R. Grace), Jonathan Harr (1995). A Civil Action. (New York, NY: Random House, 500 p.). Teacher, Nonfiction Writing (Smith College). Anderson, Anne, 1936?- --Trials, litigation, etc.; Schlichtmann, Jan; W.R. Grace & Co.--Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Toxic torts)--Massachusetts--Boston; Groundwater--Pollution--Law and legislation--Massachusetts--Woburn; Drinking water--Contamination--Massachusetts--Woburn; Liability for water pollution damages--Massachusetts--Woburn.

(W. R. Grace), Andrea Peacock (2003). Libby, Montana: Asbestos and the Deadly Silence of an American Corporation. (Boulder, CO: Johnson Books, 244 p.). W.R. Grace & Co.; Asbestosis--Montana--Libby; Vermiculite--Health aspects--Montana--Libby; Asbestos--adverse effects--Montana--Personal Narratives; Asbestos--adverse effects--Montana--Popular Works; Aluminum Silicates--adverse effects--Montana--Personal Narratives; Aluminum Silicates--adverse effects--Montana--Popular Works; Asbestosis--etiology--Montana--Personal Narratives; Asbestosis--etiology--Montana--Popular Works; Mining--Montana--Personal Narratives. 

(W. R. Grace), Andrew Schneider and David McCumber (2004). An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal. (New York, NY: Putnam, 440 p.). W.R. Grace & Co.; Asbestos--Toxicology--Montana--Libby; Asbestosis--Montana--Libby; Vermiculite--Health aspects--Montana--Libby; Mineral industries--Corrupt practices--Montana--Libby.

(Great Northern), Gary Krist (2007). The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America’s Deadliest Avalanche. (New York, NY: Holt, 315 p.). Great Northern Railway Company (U.S.)--History--20th century; Avalanches--Washington (State)--History--20th century; Railroad accidents--Washington (State)--History--20th century. February 1910 - one of worst rail disasters in U.S. history - two trains full of people, trapped high in Cascade Mountains, hit by devastating avalanche.

(Kerr-McGee), Richard Rashke (1981). The Killing of Karen Silkwood: The Story Behind the Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 407 p.). Silkwood, Bill; Silkwood, Karen, 1946-1974; Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corporation; Negligence -- United States; Plutonium -- Safety regulations -- United States.

(Manville Corporation), Paul Brodeur (1985). Outrageous Misconduct: The Asbestos Industry on Trial. (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 374 p.). Manville Corporation -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Corporate reorganizations -- United States; Products liability -- Asbestos -- United States; Asbestos industry -- Employees -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- United States.

(Mobil Oil), William Tavoulareas (1985). Fighting Back The Story of How the President of Mobil Took on The Washington Post in One of the Most Sensational Libel Cases.. (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 253 p.). Tavoulareas, William--Trials, litigation, etc.; Washington Post Company--Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Libel)--Washington (D.C.).

(Pittston Company), Gerald M. Stern (1977). The Buffalo Creek: How the Survivors of One of the Worst Disasters in Coal-Mining History Brought Suit Against the Coal Company--and Won. (New York, NY: Random House, 274 p.). Prince, Dennis; Pittston Company; Floods--West Virginia--Buffalo Creek (Logan County).

(Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey), Henry S. Cohn and David Bollier (1991). The Great Hartford Circus Fire: Creative Settlement of Mass Disasters. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 207 p.). Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows--Trials, litigation, etc.; Torts--Connecticut--Hartford--History--20th century; Dispute resolution (Law)--Connecticut--Hartford--History--20th century; Receivers--Connecticut--Hartford--History--20th century; Hartford Circus Fire, Hartford, Conn., 1944. 

(Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey), Stewart O’Nan (2000). The Circus Fire: A True Story. (New York, NY: Doubleday, 370 p.). Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows--History; Hartford Circus Fire, Hartford, Conn., 1944; Fires--Connecticut--Hartford--History--20th century; Hartford (Conn.)--History--20th century.

(Rohm and Haas), Willard Sterne Randall and Stephen D. Solomon (1977). Building 6: The Tragedy at Bridesburg. (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 317 p.). Rohm and Haas Company; Dichloromethyl ether--Physiological effect; Lungs--Cancer--Pennsylvania--Bridesburg; Chemical workers--Diseases--Pennsylvania--Bridesburg.

(Shell Chemical Company), Ronnie Greene (2008). Night Fire: Big Oil, Poison Air, and One Woman’s Fight To Save Her Town. (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 288 p.). Miami Herald journalist. Richard, Margie Eugene; Shell Chemical Company; Petroleum industry and trade--Social aspects--Louisiana--Norco; Pollution--Louisiana--Norco; African American neighborhoods--Louisiana--Norco--Environmental conditions; Environmental health--Louisiana--Norco--Citizen participation. 15 year quest (two court cases) to  demand that Shell compensate Norco, LA neighborhood for decades of steady poisoning; formed Norco Relocation Committee  to wrest realistic relocation funds; Shell capitulated in 2002.

(Shell UK), Meena Ahmed (2006). The Principles and Practice of Crisis Management: The Case of Brent Spar. (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 269 p.). PhD - London School of Economics,. Brent Spar (Offshore oil platform); Crisis management --Case studies. How corporations can and do respond, in very sophisticated ways, to threats to their political and ideological perspectives, and so advance their interests.

(Texaco), James Shannon (1988). Texaco and the $10 Billion Jury. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 545 p.). Pennzoil Company--Trials, litigation, etc.; Texaco, inc.--Trials, litigation, etc.; Getty Oil Company; Petroleum industry and trade--Mergers--United States; Consolidation and merger of corporations--Law and legislation--United States.

(Texaco), Thomas Petzinger, Jr. (1999). Oil & Honor: The Texaco-Pennzoil Wars: Inside the $11 Billion Battle for Getty Oil (Washington, DC: Beard Books, 495 p. [orig. pub. 1987]). Reporter (Wall Street Journal). Texaco, inc.; Getty Oil Company; Petroleum industry and trade--Mergers--United States; Consolidation and merger of corporations--United States.

(Union Carbide), Martin Cherniack; foreword by Phillip J. Landrigan and Anthony Robbins (1986). The Hawk's Nest Incident: America's Worst Industrial Disaster. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 194 p.). Union Carbide Corporation; Quartz fibers--Toxicology--West Virginia--Gauley Bridge; Silicosis--West Virginia--Gauley Bridge; Construction workers--Diseases--West Virginia--Gauley Bridge; Hawks Nest Tunnel (W. Va.).

(Union Carbide), Dan Kurzman (1987). A Killing Wind: Inside Union Carbide and the Bhopal Catastrophe. (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 297 p.). Union Carbide Ltd. (India); Bhopal Union Carbide Plant Disaster, Bhopal, India, 1984; Pesticides industry--Accidents--India--Bhopal; Methyl isocyanate--Environmental aspects--India--Bhopal.

(Union Carbide), Dominique Lapierre, Javier Moro; translated from the French by Kathryn Spink (2002). Five Past Midnight in Bhopal. (New York, NY: Warner Books, 403 p.). Bhopal Union Carbide Plant Disaster, Bhopal, India, 1984; Pesticides industry--Accidents--India--Bhopal.

(United States Industrial Alcohol), Stephen Puleo (2003). Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 263 p.). Floods--Massachusetts--Boston--History--20th century; Industrial accidents--Massachusetts--Boston--History--20th century; Molasses industry--Accidents--Massachusetts--Boston--History--20th century; Alcohol industry--Accidents--Massachusetts--Boston--History--20th century; Boston (Mass.)--History--1865-. 

(U. S. Steel), L. Stephen Cox (2005). The Cedarville Conspiracy: Indicting U.S. Steel. (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 278 p.). Cedarville (Steamship)--Trials, litigation, etc.; United States Steel Corporation--Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials--Ohio--Cleveland; Liability for marine accidents--United States; Merchant mariners--Legal status, laws, etc.--United States; Collisions at sea--Michigan--Straits of Mackinac; Shipwrecks--Law and legislation--Michigan--Straits of Mackinac. 

(Unocal), Thomas D. Beamish (2002). Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 220 p.). Assistant Professor of Sociology (University of Georgia). Oil spills--Environmental aspects--California--Guadalupe Region--Public opinion; Petroleum industry and trade--Environmental aspects--California--Guadalupe Region--Public opinion; Pollution--California--Guadalupe Region--Public opinion; Public opinion--California--Guadalupe Region; Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge (Calif.)--Environmental conditions--Public opinion. Author examines organizational culture of the Unocal Corporation (whose oil fields produced the leakage), interorganizational response of regulatory agencies, local interpretations of the event.

Max H. Bazerman and Michael D. Watkins (2004). Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming, and How To Prevent Them. (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 317 p.). Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration (Harvard); Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit (Harvard). Disasters--Prevention. 

Jamie L. Bronstein (2008). Caught in the Machinery: Workplace Accidents and Injured Workers in Nineteenth-Century Britain. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 240 p.). Associate Professor of History (New Mexico State University). Industrial accidents--Great Britain--History--19th century; Workers’ compensation--Great Britain--History; Workers’ compensation--United States--History. Dangers facing working people in Great Britain between 1800, first British Employer's Liability Act of 1880; cultural meanings of workplace accidents, workers' compensation in response to very different sets of pressures.

Charles McKean (2006). Battle for the North: The Tay and Forth Bridges and the 19th-Century Railway Wars. (London, UK: Granta Books, 390 p.). Railroads--Scotland--Design and construction--History; Tay Bridge Disaster, Dundee, Scotland, 1879; Forth Bridge (South Queensferry, Scotland : Railroad bridge)--History; Tay Bridge (Dundee, Scotland : Railroad bridge)--History. 1879 - longest railway bridge in the world collapsed in a violent storm; folly of trusting in market forces to run railways.

Ian I. Mitroff (2005). Why Some Companies Emerge Stronger and Better from a Crisis: 7 Essential Lessons for Surviving Disaster. (New York, NY: American Management Association, 238 p.). Professor in both the Marshall School of Business and the Annenberg School for Communications (University of Southern California). Crisis management; Emergency management; Leadership. 7 distinct competencies to handle crises effectively.

Ian I. Mitroff and Ralph H. Kilmann (1984). Corporate Tragedies: Product ampering, Sabotage, and Other Catastrophes. (New York, NY: Praeger, 1450 p.). Organizational effectiveness.

Robert E. Mittelstaedt (2004). Will Your Next Mistake Be Fatal?: Avoiding the Chain of Mistakes That Can Destroy. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Wharton School Pub., 309 p.). Dean and Professor of the W. P. Carvey School of Business (Arizona State University). Organizational effectiveness; Crisis management; Errors--Prevention.  Catch mistakes early, keep them cheap, learn from them.

__________________________________________________

Business History Links