The city of Toronto, Canada, is battered with its worst-ever
snowfall on this day in 1944. Twenty-one people died as a result
of the record storm, in which nearly 20 inches of snow fell in a
single day. The storm began hundreds of miles to the south near
the Gulf of Mexico; it stalled after moving north over Toronto.
In addition to the tremendous amount of snow, the winds from the
storm were so high that visibility was reduced to nothing. The
blizzard also created huge drifts that trapped people inside
their homes. A streetcar on Queen Street was knocked over by the
wind and snow, trapping 170 people and killing one person. All
traffic and businesses in the city were shut down. Perhaps most
importantly, as the storm took place during World War II, the
city's ammunition factory was forced to close. Thirteen of the
21 storm-related deaths came as a result of heart attacks caused
by overexertion as people shoveled snow to dig themselves out of
their homes. The Toronto Daily Star's headline the next day was
"Whol