NIST Twin Towers fireproofing fires collapse

Fires weakened the Twin Towers after fireproofing was stripped away

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded that plane impacts removed much of the steel’s fireproofing, and fires then weakened the towers’ structures. The agency said the towers likely would have remained standing if the fireproofing had not been removed.

Abandoned siege gear helped build Rhodes’s Colossus

After Demetrius Poliorketes gave up his year-long siege of Rhodes in 304 BC, the Rhodians sold the equipment he left behind. They used the money to build a statue of their sun god Helios, later counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

A trench held off a much larger force

At the Battle of the Trench in Medina in 627, about 3,000 Muslim defenders used a trench across approaches open to cavalry. They held off a coalition of about 10,000 for two weeks, until it withdrew.

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NIST Twin Towers fireproofing fires collapse

Fires weakened the Twin Towers after fireproofing was stripped away

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