1887 Yellow River Flood, China

The 1887 flooding of the Yellow River in China killed between 900,000 and 2 million people, submerging 11 cities and hundreds of villages under up to 20 feet of water. The Yellow River — called "China's Sorrow" for its catastrophic flooding history — has changed course 26 times in recorded history. The 1887 disaster was partly caused by decades of deforestation and poor levee maintenance that left millions vulnerable to the inevitable breach.