A good date for things blowing up
1863 Union forces bombard Fort Sumter
The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in 1861 marked the beginning of the American Civil War. In 1863 Union forces returned to Charleston harbour but failed in numerous attempts to destroy or capture the fort which remained in Southern hands until 1865.
1943 The Schweinfurt Raid
In an attempt to disable the German aircraft industry, the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force launched massive attacks on Schweinfurt and Magdeburg. The simultaneous raid was designed to disperse Luftwaffe fighter attacks but bad timing and lack of fighter protection made the raid a disaster. 60 bombers and their crews were lost plus several of their escorts. The folly of long-range penetration without fighter coverage persisted until another raid on Schweinfurt later in the year proved even more catastrophic.
1958 Failure of Pioneer 0
The Space Race between the USA and the USSR was just getting started and rocket technology was still unreliable when an ambitious unmanned lunar expedition was launched. The Pioneer craft was to go into orbit around the moon with a camera and various instruments but less than four minutes into the flight the Thor rocket carrying the payload exploded.
2005 Terror bombing in Bangladesh
Inspired by the success of the Islamic jihad in Afghanistan, the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (the Awakened Muslim Masses of Bangladesh) and the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen (the Assembly of Holy Warriors) combined forces in 2005 to set off 500 bombs all across Bangladesh. The groups wish to replace the secular state with a sharia-ruled government and force stricter observance of Islam. Though leaders of the groups were tried and executed, fundamentalist violence continues to plague the country.