Goiania Radiation Leak: Stolen Source Contaminates City
A discarded cesium-137 source stolen from an abandoned clinic in Goiânia, Brazil, ignited a silent crisis that contaminated hundreds of residents and claimed several lives through acute radiation poisoning. This tragedy forced Brazil to overhaul its medical waste protocols and exposed how easily radioactive materials can escape containment when oversight fails.
September 13, 1987
39 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on September 13
A triumph was Rome's ultimate military honor — a procession through the city, a general on a chariot, the crowd roaring. Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, Rome's fifth…
The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus took over 100 years to build — started under Rome's Etruscan kings and finished just as the Republic began. Dedicating it …
Michelangelo began carving his David from a massive, neglected block of Carrara marble that two previous sculptors had abandoned as unworkable. By transforming …
Hadrian ordered the wall built after visiting Britain himself — one of the few emperors who actually toured the frontiers. The structure ran 73 miles coast to c…
Emperor Constantine the Great consecrated the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, officially identifying the site as the location of Jesus’s crucifixion …
Yax Nuun Ayiin I ascended the throne of Tikal, initiating a far-reaching era of Teotihuacan influence in the Maya lowlands. By integrating central Mexican icono…
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