Date in year · 1949 · The 1940s

August 17, 1949

On August 17, 1949, the 6.7 Ms  Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead. Spencer Haywood, Tommy Mottola, Holly Near would arrive in the same year.

Events

2

Births

0

Deaths

0

Year

1949

1940s

Featured · August 17, 1949

The 6.7 Ms  Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead.

The 1949 Karlıova earthquake occurred at 18:44 UTC on 17 August with an epicenter near Karlıova in Bingöl Province, Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. 7, a maximum felt intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and caused 320–450 casualties and destroyed 3,500 buildings.

Browse all of August 17

Around 1949

The year in brief

1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1949th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 949th year of the 2nd millennium, the 49th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1940s decade.

Read the full year of 1949 →

What happened

On August 17, 1949

  1. 1949 The 6.7 Ms  Karlıova earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 320–450 dead.

    Earthquake in Turkey

    The 1949 Karlıova earthquake occurred at 18:44 UTC on 17 August with an epicenter near Karlıova in Bingöl Province, Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. 7, a maximum felt intensity of X (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale, and caused 320–450 casualties and destroyed 3,500 buildings.

  2. 1949 Matsukawa derailment: Unknown saboteurs cause a passenger train to derail and overturn in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, killing three crew members and igniting a political firestorm between the Japanese Communist Party and the government of Occupied Japan that will eventually lead to the Japanese Red Purge.

    Railway accident caused by sabotage

    The Matsukawa derailment occurred at 03:09 AM on August 17, 1949 when a Tōhoku Main Line passenger train derailed and overturned between Kanayagawa and Matsukawa stations in Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, killing three crew members. Together with the Mitaka and Shimoyama incidents, it was one of three major criminal cases involving allegations of sabotage blamed by the government on the Japanese Communist Party and the Japan National Railway Union in the immediate post-war era. Twenty people were arrested and seventeen were convicted in 1953, but eventually all were acquitted on appeal, and the case was closed without determining the real cause in 1970.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1949

The class of 1949

Others born in 1949

Spencer Haywood 1949– American basketball player
Tommy Mottola 1949– American businessman and music publisher
Holly Near 1949– American folk singer and songwriter
Emanuel Ax 1949– Polish-American pianist and educator
Hildegard Falck 1949– German runner
Billy Joel 1949– American singer-songwriter and pianist

Step through

Nearby

The year 1949 1949 retrospective Every august 17 The calendar date One year earlier 1948

Keep going

More to explore

The full year 1949 Every august 17, through history August 17 One year earlier 1948