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Speaker 1: Welcomed Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is full

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Speaker 1: of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,

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Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

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Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Wars are not often fought for trivial reasons.

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Speaker 1: World War One started after the assassination of Archduke Fronts

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Speaker 1: Ferdinand of Austria Hungary, while World War Two officially began

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Speaker 1: after Hitler invaded Poland in nineteen thirty nine. Wars are

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Speaker 1: messy for both sides, so a cause must be justified.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't the case, however, when two Italian city states

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Speaker 1: went head to head in their reason was flimsy, nothing

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Speaker 1: more than a drop in a bucket. Since eleven medieval

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Speaker 1: Italy had been a battle ground between two factions, the

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Speaker 1: Guelfs and the Ghibellines. The Guelfs supported the Pope, while

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Speaker 1: the Ghibillines were on the side of the Holy Roman Empire,

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Speaker 1: both of whom desired to rule over all Christendom. The

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Speaker 1: Guelfs and the Ghibillines fought for over three hundred years,

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Speaker 1: during which time things came to a head between the

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Speaker 1: capital city of Bologna and the municipality of Modena and

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Speaker 1: northern Italy. This region was well educated and well off,

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Speaker 1: but the surplus of money and high literacy rates didn't

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Speaker 1: stop the two sides from fighting. The future of Christianity

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Speaker 1: was at stake, as was the land between them. Bologna

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Speaker 1: was firmly on the side of the Guelfs, while Modena

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Speaker 1: was Ghibilline territory, and both regions fought regularly over their borders.

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Speaker 1: One night, a group of Modanese soldiers crossed over into

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Speaker 1: Bologna without anyone noticing. With no one around a fight,

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Speaker 1: and not wanting to stir up any trouble, they absconded

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Speaker 1: with a bucket from a well in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the city. It was made of oak with iron bands

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Speaker 1: around it and a metal handle at the top. The

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Speaker 1: next morning, the Bolonese people noticed the bucket missing and

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Speaker 1: looked out only to see it on full display by

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Speaker 1: the enemy. They demanded it be returned at once and order,

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Speaker 1: which the Modonese ignored. The bucket was now a trophy,

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Speaker 1: a symbol of their superiority, and the Bolonese were out

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Speaker 1: of options. With no other course of action available, Bologna

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Speaker 1: declared war on Modena. The offended city raised an army

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Speaker 1: of over thirty thousand against Modana's paltry seven thousand men.

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Speaker 1: To make matters worse for the Modonese, they were stuck

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Speaker 1: on flat ground while the Bolony surrounded them from a

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Speaker 1: higher ground. And yet despite their weaker numbers and disadvantaged position,

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Speaker 1: Modana's army fought valiantly, pushing back against Bologna's forces and

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Speaker 1: forcing them to retreat. As the Bullonese fled back to

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Speaker 1: their home territory with their tails between their legs and

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Speaker 1: no bucket, Modena was close behind. They weren't about to

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Speaker 1: victory go to waste. They attacked Bologna, tearing down castles

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Speaker 1: and restricting its water supply, but that was about all

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Speaker 1: they did. Rather than burn the city to the ground,

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Speaker 1: Modenese soldiers chosen instead to carry out a humiliating display

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Speaker 1: of athletic prowess just outside its walls, an act that

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Speaker 1: was meant to shame the Bolonese for their defeat. Modena

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Speaker 1: also stole another bucket. About three thousand people died in

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Speaker 1: the Battle of Zeppolina, with Modena losing five men and

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Speaker 1: Bologna suffering a loss of It was a bloody fight

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Speaker 1: over nothing more than an absurd prank, or was it?

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Speaker 1: You See, that story is often told because of how

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Speaker 1: unlikely it seems, and that's exactly the problem with it.

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Speaker 1: It's too good to be true. Well, Dana did take

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Speaker 1: a bucket from Bologna, but that didn't spark a battle,

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Speaker 1: it ended it. What had really caused the skirmish was

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Speaker 1: a steady escalation of attacks on both sides. Bologna went

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Speaker 1: after Medana's territory in July. In August, and Modena retaliat

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Speaker 1: it in the fall. The two factions met in the

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Speaker 1: village of Zappollino, which resided in Bolognese territory. Their armies

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Speaker 1: varied wildly in size and skill. Modina may have only

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Speaker 1: had about seven thousand soldiers, but they were far better

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Speaker 1: trained than Bologna's massive force, which was why they were

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Speaker 1: able to defeat them so swiftly. The fight lasted about

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Speaker 1: two hours, and by the end Bologna had been beaten.

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Speaker 1: Modina then destroyed a sluice on the Reno River, which

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Speaker 1: cut off Bologna's water supply, and then Modina left, but

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Speaker 1: not before snatching the wooden bucket from a well outside

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Speaker 1: the city. After all, what was Bologna going to do

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Speaker 1: without water anyway. Today, a replica of the bucket hangs

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Speaker 1: in the bell tower at the Cathedral of Modena. Another

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Speaker 1: replica is kept under glass at city Hall. The real bucket, however,

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Speaker 1: is stored deep in the basement of the cathedral, and

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Speaker 1: the people of Bologna haven't stopped trying to steal it

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Speaker 1: back all these years later. Maybe they want to make

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Speaker 1: their city whole again, or maybe they're just itching for

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Speaker 1: a rematch. Halloween is considered the spookiest time of the year.

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Speaker 1: Children dress up as ghouls and goblins, terrorizing their neighborhoods

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Speaker 1: in search of candy, and knife wielding mannekins wearing hockey

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Speaker 1: masks during the lawns of homeowners looking to scare the

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Speaker 1: socks off of unsuspecting trick or treaters. It's a fun

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Speaker 1: time for everyone, or at least it's supposed to be.

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Speaker 1: The scares to be had at Halloween are meant to

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Speaker 1: be harmless fun, but in one small town in Pennsylvania

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Speaker 1: experienced a Halloween fright unlike any other, and it killed

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Speaker 1: almost two dozen people in the process. The borough of

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Speaker 1: Dinorah sits along the western edge of the state, about

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Speaker 1: fifty miles from the Ohio border. Though only two square

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Speaker 1: miles in size, Donora was once the hotbed of industrial activity.

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Speaker 1: It also claims Ken Griffey Senior and Junior as hometown heroes.

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Speaker 1: The burgeoning steel, coal, and agricultural industries brought thousands of

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Speaker 1: people to Donora in search of work. As of nineteen ten,

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Speaker 1: it was home to over eight thousand residents. That number

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Speaker 1: almost doubled once US Steel opened a zinc works facility

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Speaker 1: and a steel and wire plant in nineteen fifteen. But

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Speaker 1: with those jobs came something else, something deadly. It appeared

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Speaker 1: over the town on October twenty seven, nineteen forty eight,

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Speaker 1: only a few days before Halloween. The annual Children's Halloween

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Speaker 1: Parade was already under way, with kids of all ages

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Speaker 1: dressed up marching down the main street to show off

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Speaker 1: their costumes to parents and spectators lining the road. It

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Speaker 1: was a yellow cloud, almost like a mist, that covered everything,

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Speaker 1: and unlike a morning fog, which tends to dissipate after sunrise,

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Speaker 1: The sickening smug stuck around for days. The local high

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Speaker 1: school football game on October was almost unplayable, with neither

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Speaker 1: teen throwing any passes. The whole time. Someone would punt

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Speaker 1: the ball or kick it across the field and it

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Speaker 1: would be swallowed by the smog. People in the stands

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Speaker 1: had a hard and enough time getting to the field.

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Speaker 1: With such poor visibility on the roads, they couldn't see

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Speaker 1: anything happening on the field. Donora, by the way, lost

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Speaker 1: the game to seven. October also marked the first death

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Speaker 1: as a result of the smog. The victim died at

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Speaker 1: Donora Hospital around two o'clock in the morning of acute asthma.

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Speaker 1: In fact, nineteen more residents, including several from the next

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Speaker 1: town over, died from asthma or a related condition. The

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Speaker 1: smog had made it impossible for people to breathe. Those

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Speaker 1: who were still alive checked themselves into the hospital, which

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Speaker 1: quickly filled up with coughing and wheezing patients. A short

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Speaker 1: time later, the hospital had no choice but to turn

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Speaker 1: people away, and Dr William Rongauss walked the streets with

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Speaker 1: a lantern in his hand and guided ambulances to the

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Speaker 1: homes where they were needed. The most critical patients were

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Speaker 1: then carefully driven back to the hospital for oxygen. Fire

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Speaker 1: Department Chief Russell Davis navigated the dense cloud by scraping

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Speaker 1: his wheels along the curb as he drove. Anyone who

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Speaker 1: was still healthy enough to get out of Donora was

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Speaker 1: encouraged to do so. Unfortunately, the haze was so thick

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Speaker 1: it was impossible for anyone to see more than a

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Speaker 1: few inches in front of themselves, so driving out was

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Speaker 1: out of the question. Instead, many locals just hunkered down

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Speaker 1: indoors and waited it out. By Halloween Day, the smog

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Speaker 1: still hadn't lifted, It felt like it might never leave,

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Speaker 1: and the body count was rising. Finally, just before sunset

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Speaker 1: on Sunday, October thirty one, the cloud suddenly disappeared, just

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Speaker 1: as unceremoniously as it had arrived. So what had caused it? Well,

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Speaker 1: the same zinc plant that had brought jobs to Dinora

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Speaker 1: had also brought a lot of pollution as well. Local

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Speaker 1: farmers had actually sued U S Steel for killing their

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Speaker 1: crops and livestock back in the nineteen twenties, but the

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Speaker 1: company had fought back, and one in October of all

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Speaker 1: those zinc and metal pollutants were in the air as usual,

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Speaker 1: but this time other nature threw a wrench into the

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Speaker 1: mix in the form of a temperature inversion. Normally, as

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Speaker 1: the air rises into the atmosphere, it cools. The higher

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Speaker 1: it goes, the colder that air gets. However, in a

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Speaker 1: temperature inversion, a layer of cold air is covered by

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Speaker 1: a layer of warm air, trapping the cold air close

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Speaker 1: to the Earth's surface. For Donora, Pennsylvania, that cold air

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Speaker 1: was full of toxic gases and particulates, which formed a

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Speaker 1: yellow fog that covered the town. Experts believed that had

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Speaker 1: the smog stuck around any longer, thousands more would have died.

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Speaker 1: But despite the depths and the toxicity of the mills,

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Speaker 1: u S Steel was not run out of Donora. The

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Speaker 1: people there depended on the company for their livelihoods. Even

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Speaker 1: a government investigation refused to blame them for the twenty

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Speaker 1: deaths and the six thousand six, instead declaring the temperature

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Speaker 1: inversion as one of the main causes. The press, on

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Speaker 1: the other hand, was much less forgiving the story of

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Speaker 1: the Donora smog disaster of spread far and wide. A

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Speaker 1: piece was even published in the New Yorker magazine that

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Speaker 1: went into detail about the ordeal DeNora residents had gone through,

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Speaker 1: with some subtle hints as to what really caused it.

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Speaker 1: Some claim that the event kicked off the country's focus

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Speaker 1: on clean air and emissions, which in turn sparked the

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Speaker 1: enactment of the Clean Air Act in nineteen sixty three.

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Speaker 1: With a nationwide goal to reduce air pollutions signed into law,

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Speaker 1: the people of Donora could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

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Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet

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Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn

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Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.

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Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show

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Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,

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Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the

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Speaker 1: World of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay

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Speaker 1: curious as m