In Martinique, Mount Pelée erupts, destroying the town of Saint-Pierre and killing over 30,000 people. Only a handful of residents survive the blast.
Mount Pele or Mont Pele ( p-LAY; French: Montagne Pele, [mta ple]; Antillean Creole: Montann Pl, meaning "bald mountain" or "peeled mountain") is an active volcano at the northern end of Martinique, an island and French overseas department in the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc of the Caribbean. Its volcanic cone is composed of stratified layers of hardened ash and solidified lava. Its most recent eruption was in 1932.The stratovolcano's 1902 eruption destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing 29,000 to 30,000 people in the space of a few minutes, in the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The main eruption, on 8 May 1902, left only two survivors in the direct path of the blast flow: Ludger Sylbaris survived because he was in a poorly ventilated, dungeon-like jail cell, and Lon Compre-Landre, living on the edge of the city, escaped with severe burns.
Martinique ( MAR-tin-EEK, French: [maʁtinik] (listen); Martinican Creole: Matinik or Matnik; Kalinago: Madinina or Madiana) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It has a land area of 1,128 km2 (436 sq mi) and a population of 376,480 inhabitants as of January 2016. One of the Windward Islands, it is directly north of Saint Lucia, northwest of Barbados and south of Dominica. Martinique is also an Outermost Region (OMR) of the European Union and a special territory of the European Union; the currency in use is the euro. Virtually the entire population speaks both French (the sole official language) and Martinican Creole.