A closer look
Brescia suffered a catastrophic disaster in 1769 when a totally random lightning strike hit the Bastion of San Nazaro, which the Republic of Venice was brilliantly using to store ninety thousand kilograms of highly explosive gunpowder. The blinding flash of electricity instantly detonated the massive stockpile of explosives, triggering a shockwave so incredibly violent that it essentially erased a sixth of the entire Italian city off the map in less than a second. Heavy stone blocks, shattered glass, and massive iron cannons rained down from the sky, crushing hundreds of houses and killing over three thousand terrified residents who literally never saw it coming. This terrifying act of God directly inspired Benjamin Franklin's widespread implementation of lightning rods in Europe, as local governments finally realized that stacking mountains of gunpowder in tall, ungrounded stone towers was a spectacularly stupid idea. The tragic event remains one of the most explosive reminders that ignoring basic safety regulations usually ends with your entire neighborhood being permanently vaporized
