A Day That Shook The World: Hindenburg airship crash

Friday 06 May 2011 00:01 BST

(Hulton Archive/Getty)

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On 6 May 1937, the Hindenburg airship, one of the largest flying machines ever created, suddenly caught fire as it was coming in to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey.

The crash killed 35 of the 97 people aboard, and shattered public confidence in airships as a viable means of travel, effectively ending the age of the airship.

It also had the effect of propelling newsreels to sudden popularity, as dramatic pictures of the crash circulated across America.

Watch original footage from the crash in this British Pathé video, above.

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