Near Island 16 in the Mississippi, a riverboat is destroyed by fire and twenty-five lives lost

The riverboat Sunny Side sailed from Memphis upriver to St Louis with ninety cabin passengers and a sizeable load of baled cotton.  During the night, near Carruthersville, Missouri, sparks from the boiler blew into the cotton and by five in the morning the vessel was afire. As the crew attempted to steer the Sunny Side to shore, passengers took to the river to escape the fire and many were drowned.  Of thirteen women aboard nine died from fire catching their clothing or drowning.  In total twenty-five lives were lost.  (By John Osborne)