On May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg arrived over Lakehurst, New Jersey, after a three-day journey across the Atlantic. The passengers could see the ground. The landing lines were down. Their journey was almost over.

Then fire appeared near the stern.

Within roughly half a minute, the largest passenger aircraft in the world was destroyed. Yet of the 97 people aboard, 62 survived.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we follow the Hindenburg's final flight from its departure in Germany through the weather delays over New Jersey, the final approach, the desperate escapes from the burning airship, and the investigation into what started the fire. We also examine the famous Herbert Morrison recording, the myths that grew around the disaster, and the probable sequence of events that brought the era of transatlantic passenger Zeppelins to an end.

The Hindenburg had crossed an ocean. It had reached its destination. It was only minutes from completing the journey.

Then the final links in the chain came together.

On January 27, 1967, astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee climbed aboard Apollo’s Command Module 012 for what should have been a routine ground test. The rocket wasn’t fueled. There would be no launch. The spacecraft wasn’t going anywhere.

Hours later, a voice came over the communications circuit: there was a fire in the cockpit.

Within seconds, all three astronauts were dead.

In this episode of Chain of Events, we reconstruct the Apollo 1 fire, the desperate attempt to escape, and the investigation that revealed something more complicated than a single spark or failed component. Apollo 1 was a disaster built from multiple hazards—each one survivable on its own, but catastrophic when they came together.

It was the mission that never left the ground, and it forced NASA to reconsider how Apollo would reach the Moon.

On January 15, 1919, an enormous steel tank in Boston’s North End suddenly came apart.

In seconds, approximately 2.3 million gallons of molasses surged through Commercial Street, destroying buildings, sweeping away people and horses, and leaving rescuers struggling through a disaster unlike anything they had encountered before.

Twenty-one people would die. Around 150 would be injured.

But the Great Molasses Flood didn’t begin when the tank ruptured.

For more than three years, it had leaked. Workers had raised concerns. Repairs had been made. The tank had never received a proper full-load test.

And yet it kept standing.

In Episode 4 of Chain of Events, we follow the Great Molasses Flood from the construction of the Commercial Street tank through the terrifying minutes of January 15, the rescue effort, the years-long fight to determine responsibility, and the engineering evidence that eventually revealed what went wrong.

Because sometimes the most dangerous warning is the one that keeps happening without a disaster.

Until it does.