12. 585 people died at a fire at the Iroquois Theatre in 1903
Many of us enjoy the Christmas period by going to the theatre or watching a movie. In December 1903, Chicago residents were eager to do just that at the brand-new Iroquois Theatre, which had been officially opened only in October that year. 1700 people in all crammed themselves in to see the zany, family-friendly musical comedy, Mr Bluebeard. But just as the wait was over and the show started, a single spark from a stage light lit the surrounding drapery. The star, Eddie Foy, tried to keep things together as Iroquois employees struggled in vain to put the curtains out.
However, even the spectacle of a Windy City-native in drag couldn’t stop the terrified crowd stampeding for the few exits. These, preposterously, were concealed by curtains, and utterly inadequate in number. When the actors opened their own exit door to escape, a gust of wind sent a fireball through the congested theatre, meaning that hundreds died before the fire service were even called. In all, 585 people died, either suffocated, burned alive, or crushed. The scene was described in a 1904 account as worse than that ‘pictured in the mind of Dante in his vision of the inferno’.