On this day in 1968, a West Virginia Coal mine exploded from the build up of methane gas, killing 78 men. The damage to the mine was so extensive that the mine had to be sealed with the bodies still inside.

The Consol No. 9 mine was located about 10 miles from the town of Monongah, between Farmington and Mannington in West Virginia. It was a large mine, approximately eight miles by six miles wide, with untapped oil and natural gas beneath the coal. At midnight on November 20, the workers descended 600 feet below the surface to begin the late night shift. Around 5:30 a.m., a large explosion sounded, quickly followed by three smaller ones. The explosions were so powerful that the lamp house near the entrance to the mine was demolished completely.

21 men were able to escape before the smoke and dust got too dense. As rescue and relief workers arrived on the scene, it was unclear how many men remained in the mine, as the list of late shift workers had been stored in the now destroyed lamp house. Since it was still impossible to enter the mine, the rescuers surveyed the families of the mine workers to get a complete list of the trapped miners.

At 10 p.m., as the rescuers waited for an opportunity to enter the mine, there was another explosion. Given that the mine had only two working vents and the fire was spreading rapidly, it became clear that it was unlikely the mine workers were still alive. Furthermore, the only way that the fire could be extinguished was to cut off its air supply, which would suffocate any miners on the off chance that any were still alive.  The rescuers decided to drill a hole down to the area of the mine that was the only possible location of survivors.