A postcard that was printed and published by Photo Precision Lrd. of St. Alnans. The image is a glossy real photograph.
The card was posted in Minehead using a 2d. stamp on Tuesday the 7th. August 1956. It was sent to:
Mr. M. R. Dillon, 12, Bridge Road, Elstow Road, Bedford, Beds.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Mick, We are having it nice this week. We went to Porlock Weir yesterday, and are going to Cheddar tomorrow. Hoping you are well. May."
Porlock Weir is 7 miles by road from Minehead, and Cheddar is 44 miles away.
A $5,000 Dollar Fine
So what else happened on the day that May posted the card to Mick?
Well, on the 7th. August 1956, US baseball player Ted Williams spat at a mocking fan during a game. He was fined $5,000 for his conduct.
Suez
Also on that day, Maurice Bourgès-Maunoury, France's Defence Minister, obtained support from Israel for a joint attack on Suez.
A Deadly Explosion in Columbia
Also on the 7th. August 1956, a huge explosion occured in Cali, Colombia.
It was caused by the explosion of seven army ammunition trucks loaded with 1053 boxes of dynamite weighing 42 tons, parked in Cali overnight.
Death estimates ranged from 1,300 to 10,000, in a city that at the time had merely 120,000 inhabitants. Over 4,000 people were injured.
The fully-loaded vehicles were parked in an old railway station. The explosion occurred in the early hours of the morning, destroying 41 blocks and leaving a crater 50 meters wide and 25 meters deep. The blast destroyed buildings, homes and businesses.
Six districts were affected: San Nicolás, El Porvenir, El Hoyo, El Piloto, Fátima and Jorge Isaacs.
The blast was equivalent to an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.3. The noise of the blast was heard many miles away.
Hypotheses at the time for the explosion include trucks overheating, or a soldier accidentally firing his gun.
The incident occurred while Gustavo Rojas Pinilla was president. He attributed the tragedy to the opposition, who had recently signed the Benidorm covenant.
-- Initial Reactions to the Explosion
In the early hours following the explosion, priest Alfonso Hurtado Galvis attended. He said of the incident:
"The mushroom cloud left by the explosion resembled that formed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Mutilated body parts including legs, arms, and torsos could be seen. The scene was horrific.. dead and wounded everywhere."
Some people committed suicide when they arrived at what was left of the station and saw the mutilated bodies of their loved ones.
The explosion was of such magnitude that the bodies of the deceased could not be immediately transferred to the Central Cemetery, because the cemetery itself was completely devastated. Human remains were blown out of some of the vaults.
Eventually 3725 skulls and body parts were buried in a mass grave at the cemetery.
-- Later Reactions to the Explosion
An iron cross near streets 25 and 26 was erected in order to commemorate the incident.
The 1983 Columbian horror film Bloody Flesh (Spanish: Carne de tu carne, "Flesh of Your Flesh") was written and directed by Carlos Mayolo based upon the explosion.
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