What was the "Delft Thunderclap" that occurred in 1654?

The "Delft Thunderclap" or "Delft Explosion" was the detonation of nearly 30 tons of gunpowder stored in the Dutch city of Delft. Cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the gunpowder store (also known as a magazine), opened the store to check a sample of the powder, and a huge explosion followed. The explosion that occurred October 12, 1654 destroyed a large portion of the city, killing over 100 people and causing several thousand injuries. Among the noted residents killed, Rembrandt's most promising student Carel Fabritius died during the explosion. Most of Fabritius' paintings were lost as a result of the disaster.

Following the explosion, the gunpowder store was located outside the city, approximately a "cannonball's distance away".

In the 1560s, Delft had approximately 14,000 inhabitants, second in population only to Amsterdam with 28,000. Other cities of the Netherlands of comparable size to Delft included Leiden and Haarlem. Today, the city has a population of approximately 101,000. Delft has a long association with science and technology, with noted scientists from the Dutch Golden Age such as Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to today as the home of Delft University of Technology a center of technology and research & development.