Heysel Stadium, Brussels, Belgium

Author / Creator

Thomson, Andrew, producer

Available as

Online

Summary

Heysel Stadium, Brussels: Of all the tragedies that have taken place in sporting arenas, one of the most ignominious would have to be the Heysel Stadium disaster of the 29th of May 1985. This is fo...

Heysel Stadium, Brussels: Of all the tragedies that have taken place in sporting arenas, one of the most ignominious would have to be the Heysel Stadium disaster of the 29th of May 1985. This is for the simple reason that it was triggered not by an accident or an act of god, but by hooliganism. With around 60,000 fans in attendance the ground had been cordoned off to keep the fans of the opposing teams separate. One section, however, had been reserved for neutral supporters and, with the tickets acquired by travel agents and touts; this resulted in a number of Juventus fans finding themselves in close proximity to their sworn enemies. With just a flimsy fence dividing them, the Liverpool supporters rushed the barrier an hour before kick-off. Yugoslavia Earthquake: The capital city of the Republic of Macedonia felt the first tremor at five am on the morning of the 26th of July, 1963. It measured 6.1 on the Richter scale and killed more than 1000 people. Eighty percent of the city was destroyed and 120,000 citizens lost their homes. At the time the population was only around 200,000 in total. Baghdad Coup: One of the bloodiest coups in Iraq's history took place on the 8th of February 1963. It was a coup d'état orchestrated by the Ba'athist party, which included Saddam, to topple President Abdul Karim Kassim. In the fighting 5000 Iraqis were killed, with the Ba'athists numbering their own losses at 80.

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