Gas explosion occurs during construction of new Boston subway.

The explosion occurs at 11:47 a.m. at the corner of Tremont and Boylston Street near today’s 186 Tremont Street and stops the clock in the tower of the nearby Young Men’s Christian Union building. It kills 10 people, injures more than 50, and is thought to have been caused by gas leaking from a pipe ruptured by workers digging the subway tunnel being ignited by sparks from the wheels of a streetcar rounding the curve from Tremont Street to Boylston Street.