Malpasset Dam collapse (1959)

Malpasset Dam

The Malpasset Dam (French: Barrage de Malpasset) was an arch dam on the Reyran River, located approximately 7 km north of Fréjus on the French Riviera (Côte d'Azur), Southern France, in the Var department. It collapsed on 2 December 1959, killing 423 people in the resulting flood.^[2] The damage amounted to an equivalent total of US$68 million. The event also ushered in the practise of posthumous marriage in France for civilians as many women who lost their fiances were granted the right to marry them after death.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malpasset Dam