# Tragedies that were overshadowed by other tragedies **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 21, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282 "2013-04-21T03:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/21 "2013-04-22T06:37:59Z")
C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day as JFK. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/22 "2013-04-22T07:26:59Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There was more to the story, for those who were paying attention. (I live in Condit’s district, but I didn’t back then.) Levy had been a campaign worker for Condit back in their home district, so they knew each other from there. He was having an affair with her. But he was also going to extensive (some would say extreme) contrived lengths to keep hidden the fact that he was catting around. He had been one of the first (THE first?) of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats to call on Clinton to fess up during the “Monicagate” scandal. He refused to step into an elevator with a female worker, to “prove” he was never up to something. All the usual sorts of holier-and-above-reproach overly self-righteous kind of stuff. > > But there was another side too: All the sensational news stories said he was playing around with one of his staff assistants. SHE WASN’T WORKING IN CONDIT’S OFFICE! She was an assistant in some office at the Pentagon. Condit no doubt got her the job there, as a typical patronage thing. But she wasn’t working for him in his office. > > And wasn’t it a long long time later (like, a year or more) that Guandique got arrested for it? > > Condit did get screwed over by that affair, but I guess he mostly had it coming. A nitpick but Levy was interning at the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department. I agree Condit had some ethical problems. He was cheating on his wife (and Levy was not the only woman he was cheating with) and he hounded Clinton for adultery, which makes Condit a massive hypocrite. But it’s a big leap from being an adulterer to being a murder suspect. As for Guandique, he was apparently a suspect in 2001. But he wasn’t officially charged until 2009 and convicted until 2010. (Guandique was in prison all this time on a conviction for a different crime.) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/23 "2013-04-22T07:40:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > A classic example is Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis both dying on November 22, 1963. Their deaths were completely overshadowed by President Kennedy’s assassination. > > And Orville Wright died on January 30, 1948, the day Gandhi was assassinated. > [@robert\_columbia](#): > > C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day as JFK. **Little Nemo** ’s post got completely overshadowed by **robert\_columbia** ’s post. The tragedy? They both posted what _I_ came in to post! You bastards! As I recall, summer of 2001 was pretty dead, news-wise. It was the “Summer of the Shark” as per TIME magazine, due to a largely imaginary up-tick in shark-related fatalities, but beyond that the Chandra Levy story was the biggest thing going. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/24 "2013-04-22T11:24:01Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Right after Sept. 11 there was a [bridge collapse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Isabella_Causeway) in South Padre Island, Texas. Eight people died, but it barely merited any attention outside Texas. What I came in to mention. I go to Padre Island about once a year, and every time I drive over the new part of the bridge, I think of the cars rusting in the ocean below, their drivers nothing but skeletons in the front seat. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/25 "2013-04-22T12:57:04Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Jonestown Massacre, November 18, 1978. 900+ mass suicides at People’s Temple compound in Guyana. \*900+ suicides and murders ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/26 "2013-04-22T13:48:15Z")
Slightly precis-ing Donnerwetter’s post: “Worst mining disaster in German history on Feb. 20th 1946 at Bergkamen. 405 miners lost their lives; however, the tragedy largely forgotten – probably because WW2 had jsut ended 9 minths before / few German media outlets then / people had other htings on their minds / this was an unusually harsh winter.” > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > A similar example would be the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff. 9400 people died and it was the worst maritime disaster in history. (For comparison, 1532 died on the Titanic.) > > But the Gustloff was sank by a submarine on January 30, 1945 (it was evacuating Germans from East Prussia). So many other people were dying around the same place and time that the sinking of the ship went almost unnoticed. And in that time-window: as well as the abovementioned factors, the likely reaction of many people on the Allied side – if they heard of the events concerned – would have been have been to comment, “Serves them right for being German – pity the death-tolls weren’t a hundred times the actual number”; and then to dismiss the matters from their minds. Am not suggesting that such reactions were praiseworthy; it’s just that many at that time, held sentiments of acute hatred and bitterness. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/27 "2013-04-22T14:05:04Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > This isn’t a “disaster”, but hardly anyone seems to recognize the anniversary of James Brown’s death, since it happened on Christmas day. The (Bergen County NJ) Record newspaper had the story of Brown’s death on the front page, and an ad for his New Year Eve’s appearance at the Performing Arts Center on page 2! They apologized in next day’s edition. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/28 "2013-04-22T15:03:11Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Another example is the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin which occurred the same night as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and killed a couple of times as many people. But few people today know about it. By all measures, the Pestigo Fire was the worst in US history (most people killed, most damage). Chicago overshadowed it because it was a big city and news of Peshtigo didn’t get out until a few days after the fire, by which time Chicago had the headlines. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/29 "2013-04-22T16:01:14Z")
Not a tragedy (unless you were on the Axis side) but another example of a major news story being overshadowed was the capture of Rome during World War II. Normally, the capture of one of the Axis capitals would have been a huge news story. But Rome was captured just a few hours before the troops began landing in Normandy for the D-Day invasion and that was the lead story. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/30 "2013-04-22T16:52:59Z")
It was not overshadowed at the time, but _today_ more Americans consider April 15th Tax Day than the day Abraham Lincoln died. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/31 "2013-04-22T17:02:14Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, assassinated in his office on November 27, 1978. Big news nationwide, and especially around the Bay Area. Funnily enough, this in of itself is another example, at least when considering a certain subsection of the populace, because of the person who is NOT mentioned. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/32 "2013-04-22T17:22:44Z")
Lyndon Johnson’s death and funeral in January 1973 were completely overshadowed by the announcement and signing of the Paris peace accords for Vietnam the same week. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/33 "2013-04-22T19:23:47Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died on the same day as JFK. And this coincidence has me thinking (this is, after all, the “Pointless Stuff” sub-forum): suppose Lewis’s take on life and the world in general, were right: he and Huxley would presumably be going after death, in diametrically-opposite directions. And JFK re the same matter – seemingly a case of “the jury is out / who knows?”. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/34 "2013-04-22T20:47:18Z")
> [@Small\_Hen](#): > > What I came in to mention. I go to Padre Island about once a year, and every time I drive over the new part of the bridge, I think of the cars rusting in the ocean below, their drivers nothing but skeletons in the front seat. _shudder_ Pretty sure they recovered the bodies, and may have even got the cars out as well. The water’s not that deep there, unless they landed smack dab in the middle of the main channel, and even that’s not really _that_ deep. But the Chandra Levy murder was the thing that instantly came to mind when I read the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@Ambihelical\_Hexnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambihelical_Hexnut)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/35 "2013-04-22T20:56:48Z")
Two pairs of sports tragedies: On April 30, 1994, Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. It was the first time in 8 years that a Formula One driver was killed in a racing accident. The following day, Ayrton Senna crashes and is killed during the race itself. Ratzenberger was a rookie driving in just his third Grand Prix; Senna was arguably the greatest Formula One driver ever - his death totally overshadowed Ratzenberger’s. On March 16, 2007, Bangladeshi cricketer Majural Islam Rana died in a motorcycle accident. At just 22 years old, his death was the youngest of any test cricketer in history. Two days later, Pakistan’s coach Bob Woolmer was allegedly murdered in his hotel room at the Cricket World Cup that was taking place in the Caribbean - Manjural had been forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/36 "2013-04-22T21:12:12Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Funnily enough, this in of itself is another example, at least when considering a certain subsection of the populace, because of the person who is NOT mentioned. 🙂 I’d agree with this. Until the movie Milk came out a few years ago, I think most people had completely forgotten he was killed with Moscone in the murders that inspired the phrase “Twinkie defense”. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/37 "2013-04-22T21:38:08Z")
Johnny Unitas died on the 1st anniversary of 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/38 "2013-04-23T00:00:11Z")
All school shootings are forgotten once a terrorist bomb goes off. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/39 "2013-04-23T00:39:28Z")
I don’t get exposed to much news other than on her or, like, Facebook. Today I saw tv news out of the corner of my eye and it turns out there’s a [hell of a flood](http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2013/04/22/midwest-flooding/2104323/) happening in the midwest, along the Mississippi River. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282/40 "2013-04-23T05:23:25Z")
Well, in Nov 2001 a commercial jet crashed into a New York City neighborhood in Queens, killing more than 250 people and destroying several homes. It happened after Sept 11, but when it was pretty soon found to be mechanical failure and not terrorism the story just kinda went away. No one really remembers that anymore since it was right on the heels of 9/11. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tragedies-that-were-overshadowed-by-other-tragedies/656282.md?page=3)