LONDON'S RIVER TURNED MURKY: A SUMMER OF FILTH, 1858

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

On a blustery morning in that fateful year, disaster unfolded Boston. A massive holding filled with sticky, sweet molasses ruptured sending a tidal wave of the thick liquid flowing through the streets. The power was catastrophic, smashing buildings and entombing residents in a sticky mire. Hundreds of people were fatally injured, and many more su