I just read about this on wikipedia. I find it kind of weird that I have never heard about this case before. Considering that record shows more than 20,000 dead/wounded, it would seem like a big deal in any era.
The suspected meteor strike took place in Beijing, 9:00 AM, May 30th 1626, just one day after the midsummer festival. It was Ming Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Tianqi. The explosion that followed created a crater 1,500 meters wide, with an area of 2.25 square km, killing and wounding 20,000 people. The explosion is estimated to be equivalent to 10,000 tons to 20,000 tons of TNT. The Nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima was 13,000 tons.
One of the most bizarre thing about the explosion is that it stripped its victims naked. The explosion apparently blasted away people’s clothes in a flash, and the clothes were found miles out scattered over the hills.
The suspected meteor couldn’t have picked a worse place to strike. It hit the Wang-Gong Imperial Armory located at the south west corner of Beijing city (back then also the capital of Ming dynasty). The said armory was responsible for producing the most advanced firearms for the elite Ming forces, and also responsible for stockpiling black powder.
Historical accounts never directly point to a meteor strike, but descriptions certainly fits:
It was a clear day. Suddenly there was a roaring sound travelling from the north east towards south west side of the capital. Following a rush of grey dust cloud, buildings shook. Moments later, a great boom was heard. It was like the sky fell and the earth collapsed. The sky turned pitch dark like night time.
Tens of thousands of houses laid flat. An area 3~4 Li long, east from Shuen-Cheng Gate, north from Department of Punishment Street, west to Ping-Zhe gate and further south turned into ashes. About ten thousand houses and 20,000 people were gone. The area near Wang-Gong Imperial Armory was the worst hit… Roof tiles were raining from the sky. There was no way to tell where streets or houses used to be.
Even those who weren’t killed in the capital have their houses cracked. People were wandering the streets mindlessly. The whole place was in chaos. The elephant stable also collapsed. Elephants ran wild in the streets. Strange clouds hang in the sky. Some looks like messy hair, some were colorful, some were black, shaped like a mushroom shooting up into the sky and didn’t disperse for a while.
There was a 900 kilo stone lion that was blasted and flew over to the other side of the city wall.
I won’t quote the rest in too much detail. Basically it rained body parts for hours.
Tianqi Emperor himself was eating breakfast at the time. When the explosion went off, the Emperor took off for his dear life. Most his servants were too stunned to follow, only one bodyguard chased behind the emperor. That bodyguard was hit by falling debris and killed on site.
Tianqi Emperor, pretty much one of the worst emperors ever in history (though an awesome carpenter with talents that could have rivalled Leonardo da Vinci) escaped from harm. But his subjects declared the disaster as a sign from the heavens pointing out that he is doing a piss poor job. The emperor was forced to declared himself as responsible and that he will repent and improve himself and the government.
After reading it I suspect this explosion doomed the Ming dynasty. The army never recovered from the lost of its most important armory. The country probably never recovered from the devastation. Tianqi was the second to last emperor for Ming dynasty. He died an year later at the age of 23. His half brother took the throne, and ended up hanging himself on one of the hills 17 years later when the Manchus sacked Beijing.
For those who can read Hanji, this is the wiki entry http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/王恭廠大爆炸
