1944 port chicago disaster near the san francisco bay two ships 07 17
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1944 82 years ago Selected Events July 17 2 sources

Laden with munitions for World War II, two ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, killing 320 people and injuring more than 400 others.

On July 17, in the year 1944, Laden with munitions for World War II, two ships exploded at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in California, killing 320 people and injuring more than 400 others. This event is recorded as a Selected Events event in the history of July 17, one of 417 recorded events on this date across all of history.

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations detonated, killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring at least 390 others.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on July 17, 1944 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Selected Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 2 Wikipedia articles.
  • The event is associated with a specific geographical location (see map below).
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 2 July 2026.

On This Date in History 417

Type Year Date Event
Notable Deaths 2025 Jul 17 Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil (born 1969)
Notable Deaths 2025 Jul 17 Alan Bergman, American songwriter (born 1925)
Notable Deaths 2025 Jul 17 Joanna Kołaczkowska, Polish cabaret performer (born 1966)
Notable Deaths 2024 Jul 17 Cheng Pei-pei, Chinese actress (born 1946)
Notable Deaths 2024 Jul 17 Mary Gibby, British botanist and professor (born 1949)
Notable Deaths 2024 Jul 17 Bernice Johnson Reagon, American singer, songwriter and scholar (born 1942)
Notable Deaths 2024 Jul 17 Pat Williams, American basketball player (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2020 Jul 17 John Lewis, American civil rights activist and politician (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2020 Jul 17 Ekaterina Alexandrovskaya, Russian-Australian pair skater (born 2000)
Notable Deaths 2019 Jul 17 Marie Sophie Hingst, German historian and blogger who falsely claimed to be descended from Holocaust survivors
Historical Events 2015 Jul 17 At least 120 people are killed and 130 injured by a suicide bombing in Diyala Governorate, Iraq.
Notable Deaths 2015 Jul 17 Bill Arnsparger, American football player and coach (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2015 Jul 17 Jules Bianchi, French race car driver (born 1989)
Notable Deaths 2015 Jul 17 Owen Chadwick, English rugby player, historian, and academic (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2015 Jul 17 Van Miller, American sportscaster (born 1927)
Notable Deaths 2015 Jul 17 John Taylor, English pianist and educator (born 1942)
Historical Events 2014 Jul 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, a Boeing 777, crashes near the border of Ukraine and Russia after being shot down. All…
Historical Events 2014 Jul 17 A French regional train on the Pau-Bayonne line crashes into a high-speed train near the town of Denguin, resulting in…
Historical Events 2014 Jul 17 Eric Garner is killed by police officer Daniel Pantaleo in New York City, after the latter put him in a prohibited…
Notable Deaths 2014 Jul 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 victims:
Notable Deaths 2014 Jul 17 Henry Hartsfield, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2014 Jul 17 Otto Piene, German sculptor and academic (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2014 Jul 17 Elaine Stritch, American actress and singer (born 1925)
Selected Events 2014 Jul 17 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 Henri Alleg, English-French journalist and author (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 Peter Appleyard, English-Canadian vibraphone player and composer (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 Vincenzo Cerami, Italian screenwriter and producer (born 1940)
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 Don Flye, American tennis player (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 Ian Gourlay, English general (born 1920)
Notable Deaths 2013 Jul 17 David White, Scottish footballer and manager (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2012 Jul 17 Richard Evatt, English boxer (born 1973)
Notable Deaths 2012 Jul 17 Forrest S. McCartney, American general (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2012 Jul 17 İlhan Mimaroğlu, Turkish-American composer and producer (born 1926)
Notable Deaths 2012 Jul 17 William Raspberry, American journalist and academic (born 1935)
Notable Deaths 2012 Jul 17 Marsha Singh, Indian-English politician (born 1954)
Notable Deaths 2011 Jul 17 David Ngoombujarra, Australian actor (born 1967)
Notable Deaths 2011 Jul 17 Taiji Sawada, Japanese musician (born 1966)
Notable Deaths 2010 Jul 17 Larry Keith, American actor (born 1931)
Notable Deaths 2009 Jul 17 Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (born 1916)
Notable Deaths 2009 Jul 17 Leszek Kołakowski, Polish historian and philosopher (born 1927)
Historical Events 2007 Jul 17 TAM Airlines Flight 3054, an Airbus A320, crashes into a warehouse after landing too fast and missing the end of the…
Notable Deaths 2007 Jul 17 Grant Forsberg, American actor and businessman (born 1959)
Notable Deaths 2007 Jul 17 Júlio Redecker, Brazilian politician (born 1956)
Notable Deaths 2007 Jul 17 Paulo Rogério Amoretty Souza, Brazilian lawyer and businessman (born 1945)
Selected Events 2007 Jul 17 TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overran the runway at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil, killing 199 people.
Historical Events 2006 Jul 17 The 7.7 Mw Pangandaran tsunami earthquake severely affects the Indonesian island of Java, killing 668 people, and…
Notable Deaths 2006 Jul 17 Sam Myers, American singer-songwriter (born 1936)
Notable Deaths 2006 Jul 17 Mickey Spillane, American crime novelist (born 1918)
Notable Births 2005 Jul 17 Connor Bedard, Canadian ice hockey player
Notable Deaths 2005 Jul 17 Geraldine Fitzgerald, Irish-American actress (born 1913)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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