The PEPCON disaster was an industrial disaster that occurred in Henderson, Nevada on May 4, 1988 at the Pacific Engineering Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) plant. The chemical fire and subsequent explosions claimed two lives, injured 372 people, and caused an estimated US$100 million of damage. A large portion of the Las Vegas Valley 10 miles (16 km) away was affected, and several agencies activated disaster plans.

The PEPCON plant, located in Henderson, Nevada, was one of only two American producers of ammonium perchlorate, an oxidizer used in solid fuel rocket boosters, including the Space Shuttle and military weapons. The other producer, Kerr-McGee, was located less than 1.5 mi (2.4 km) away from the PEPCON facility, within the area that suffered some blast damage. In addition to ammonium perchlorate, the facility also had a 16-inch (410 mm) high-pressure natural gas transmission line running underneath the plant.

With the space shuttle program frozen as a result of the 1986 Challenger disaster, there was no government instruction dictating where to ship the product, and no mandated storage procedure or proper storage facilities existed for such large quantities of the product. PEPCON stored almost all manufactured ammonium perchlorate on-site. After all of the regular aluminum storage bins had been filled, HDPE plastic drums were used for additional storage and placed on campus parking lots. An estimated 4500 tons of the finished product were stored at the facility at the time of the disaster.

The Cure are an English alternative rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member. The Cure first began releasing music in the late 1970s with its debut album Three Imaginary Boys (1979); this, along with several early singles, placed the band as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s, the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre.

After the release of Pornography (1982), the band's future was uncertain and Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had acquired. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to place a pop sensibility into the band's music (as well as a unique stage look). The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Hot 100 chart. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world. The band is estimated to have sold 27 million albums as of 2004. The Cure have released thirteen studio albums, 10 EPs and over thirty singles during the course of their career. Since 2010, they have been working on a fourteenth studio album.

Ned Day (April 5, 1945-September 3, 1987) was a Las Vegas television journalist who was known for taking on mobsters who dominated Las Vegas casinos in the 1970s and '80s.

Ned moved to Las Vegas in the mid 1970s and worked as a reporter for the now-defunct North Las Vegas Valley Times newspaper. He later wrote columns for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. In the late 1970s he became the managing editor and a reporter for KLAS-TV.

In 1986 Ned's car was torched (he wasn't in it, only his precious golf clubs). Ned reportedly described it as, "the happiest day in my life, when the mob firebombed my car."

On September 3, 1987, Ned died on vacation while snorkeling in Hawaii. The coroner's office ruled it a natural death from a heart attack.