Wednesday · November 11, 2026
Edited daily
American history, reported as it happened
Made for the 250th
19961776 Club

ValuJet 592 rolls onto its side and dives into the Everglades; all 110 aboard are dead

Smoke reached passengers six minutes after Miami departure; fire in the cargo hold, traced to mislabeled oxygen generators, left Kubeck and Hazen less than four minutes to turn back.

Six minutes after departing Miami on the afternoon of May 11, 1996, passengers aboard ValuJet Flight 592 began smelling smoke. The fire had started below them, in the Class D cargo hold, ignited by 144 expired chemical oxygen generators that a maintenance contractor had mislabeled as empty and tossed in cardboard boxes sealed with duct tape and bubble wrap. Captain Candi Kubeck and First Officer Richard Hazen had less than four minutes to attempt a return to Miami before the plane rolled onto its side and nosedived into the Everglades at more than 500 miles per hour. There were no survivors…

1776 Club

This story is held for members.

Members read every story of the day — and tomorrow's, and the next.

Join the 1776 Club
$17.76 your first year · then $39.99/yr · cancel anytime
More from May 11
1858

Minnesota enters the Union as the 32nd state; the Dakota name, the French motto, the New England soul

Nine years after Ramsey stepped off a riverboat to govern 5,000 settlers, the eastern half of the old territory takes its place on the map.
1910

Taft signs Glacier into law; a million Montana acres become a national park

George Bird Grinnell, who first rode into the region in 1885 and spent two decades lobbying Congress, calls it "the Crown of the Continent."
1889

Gunmen behind a boulder hit Wham's paymaster convoy; eight Buffalo Soldiers wounded, $28,345 gone

A dozen riflemen firing from pre-built breastworks above an Arizona gorge stripped the Army payroll; Frankie Campbell's horse was still picking around the obstacle when the ambush opened.
19631776 Club
Two blasts hours after the truce agreement; 2,500 fill the streets, businesses burn, and Washington moves toward its first modern military deployment for domestic unrest.
Read this as a member →
Read the full May 11 edition →Everything that happened on May 11 →
More from Modern America
2020

Biden accepts the nomination alone in a Delaware ballroom, no crowd, no roar

A pandemic convention ends with the nominee speaking to a camera instead of a stadium.
1994

Thirty-three years after his death, the Air Force finally makes Eugene Bullard an officer

France called him a hero and gave him a pilot's license in 1917; his own country waited until 1994 to make it official.
2012

Voyager 1 leaves the Sun's bubble; no craft has gone farther

Thirty-five years after launch, its instruments detect the plasma signature of true interstellar space.
2005

Katrina comes ashore at Buras; hours later, New Orleans is drowning

Fifty-three levee and floodwall breaches put 80 percent of the city underwater by nightfall.
The Daily Record · free by email

Tomorrow's edition in your inbox — one featured story, one quote, and today's flag status. Free, every morning.

The full experience

Read every story, narrated, in the app.

Take this story with you.

The complete daily edition, the deep-cut narration, and a library that's yours — the 1776 Club lives in the app.

Your membership comes with you — every event, narrated, with flag alerts, CarPlay, and your saved library.

Download on the App Store