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Eastland victims not forgotten
24-Jul-10 – (Above) A Coast Guardsman lays a bouquet of flowers in the Chicago River at the site of the 1915 Eastland disaster. Saturday was the 95th anniversary. On July 24, 1915, the S.S. Eastland – docked at the Clark Street Bridge with more than 2,500 passengers – rolled over, killing 844 people including 22 entire families. (Click on image to view larger version.) The Eastland Disaster Historical Society hosted the commemoration for the tenth consecutive year. Co-founder Susan Decker, whose grandmother survived the disaster, says it was a day that history has tried to forget. “Even though our outreach efforts have educated several million people about the Eastland disaster during this past decade,” she told an audience gathered on the south bank of the river early Saturday afternoon, “the disaster oddly remains as the most obscure part of Chicago’s history.”
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