The city of London breathed in the heat of summer, 1858. But it was not merely the sun that scorched the metropolis. An even more unpleasant force infested its very heart: the River Thames. Years of industrial waste had transformed London's lifeblood into a foul-smelling mire. The stench was oppressive, a miasma that clung to every cobblestone and

On a blustery January in that fateful year, disaster struck Boston. A massive holding filled with sticky, sweet molasses burst sending a wall of of the thick liquid crashing through the streets. The force was catastrophic, smashing buildings and burying people in a sticky mass. Scores of people were fatally injured, and many more were wounded. Au