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Wikipedia readers turned to Halifax Explosion at 51x the usual rate

Halifax Explosion drew 90,369 views on 2026-10-04, 51x more than the usual 1,771 a day over the previous 60 days.

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Halifax Explosion

1917 maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

51x
90,369 views
usually 1,771 a day
Daily Wikipedia pageviews for Halifax Explosion025K50K75K100K90,36923 Aug14 Sep6 Oct
Wikipedia pageviews, 4 Oct 2026 wikispikes.com
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Daily Wikipedia pageviews for Halifax Explosion
DateViews
2026-10-062,036
2026-10-052,801
2026-10-0490,369
2026-10-031,551
2026-10-022,211
2026-10-011,729
2026-09-302,048
2026-09-291,746
2026-09-281,779
2026-09-272,240
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2026-09-252,113
2026-09-241,401
2026-09-231,454
2026-09-221,797
2026-09-211,850
2026-09-202,194
2026-09-191,596
2026-09-181,645
2026-09-172,558
2026-09-162,131
2026-09-151,739
2026-09-143,356
2026-09-132,403
2026-09-121,457
2026-09-111,394
2026-09-101,412
2026-09-091,386
2026-09-081,516
2026-09-071,906
2026-09-061,812
2026-09-051,509
2026-09-041,410
2026-09-031,507
2026-09-021,483
2026-09-011,577
2026-08-311,548
2026-08-301,699
2026-08-291,634
2026-08-281,410
2026-08-271,702
2026-08-262,537
2026-08-253,791
2026-08-241,760
2026-08-231,794

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What this article is

On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian vessel SS Imo collided in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Laden with high explosives, Mont-Blanc caught fire and detonated, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, were killed by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ).

Summary text from the Wikipedia article "Halifax Explosion", available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the full article.

How this was measured

Views are Wikimedia's own pageview counts for en.wikipedia, filtered to agent=user so automated traffic is excluded. The baseline is the median of the previous 60 days, which is used instead of the mean so that an earlier surge cannot flatten a later one. The multiple is the day's views divided by that median.

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