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Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages through 1963 sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
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Also, see the Directory of U.S. Newspapers in American Libraries, a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since 1690, which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.
“Fires of inferno, stirred by the demons of death!” reports the August 30, 1883 Wheeling Daily Intelligencer describing the cataclysmic eruption of the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait. One of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters in recorded history. Read more about it!
The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.
The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.
| May - August 1883 | Shaking, heavy rains, and ash felt in the Sunda Strait. |
|---|---|
| August 27, 1883 | Krakatoa erupts in a series of violent explosions, causing a tidal waves up to 120 ft. high. |
| November - December 1883 | Blood red sunsets and green/blue sun and moon reported throughout the world. |
| February 12, 1884 | Britain's Royal Society establishes Krakatoa Committee. |
| 1884 - 1887 | Geologists discover change to the Earth’s surface. |
| 1888 | Krakatoa Committee publishes report. |
| 1900 - 1925 | Scientists begin to unravel mysterious effects on the Earth’s geography and atmosphere. |
