December 24, 1953

1953Timothy Carhart, American actor^[†]

Timothy Carhart is an American actor. He starred in the CBS drama Island Son (1989–90) and has had recurring roles in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–03) and 24 (2002). He also starred in the 1992 Broadway revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. His film appearances include Ghostbusters (1984), Pink Cadillac (1989), Thelma & Louise (1991), Beverly Hills Cop III (1994), and “Motocrossed” (2001).

1953Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.^[†]

The Tangiwai disaster was a railway accident that occurred at 10:21 p.m. on 24 December 1953, when a railway bridge over the Whangaehu River collapsed beneath an express passenger train at Tangiwai, North Island, New Zealand. The locomotive and the first six carriages derailed into the river, killing 151 people. The subsequent board of inquiry found that the accident was caused by the failure of the tephra dam holding back nearby Mount Ruapehu's crater lake, creating a rapid mudflow (lahar) in the Whangaehu River which destroyed one of the bridge piers at Tangiwai only minutes before the train reached the bridge. The volcano at Mount Ruapehu was not erupting at the time. The disaster remains New Zealand's worst rail accident.