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Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Henderson, Clark County, Nevada.
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Overview
Henderson, officially the City of Henderson, is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about 16 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It is the second-largest city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with an estimated population of 302,539 in 2017. The city is part of the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which spans the entire Las Vegas Valley. Henderson occupies the southeastern end of the valley, at an elevation of 1,864 feet (568 m).
Henderson is known for its supply of magnesium during World War II. With the decline of magnesium production, the Nevada legislature approved a bill that gave Nevada's Colorado River Commission the authority to purchase the industrial plants, and Henderson was incorporated in 1953.
In 1988, the Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) rocket fuel factory, in the modern-day Gibson Springs neighborhood of Henderson, caught fire. The blaze quickly engulfed the factory, spewing rocket fuel, smoke, and toxic fumes from the building, eventually obliterating it in a massive explosion, followed by six smaller explosions. Smoke was seen from 100 miles away, and two major blasts measured 3.0 and 3.5, respectively, on the Richter magnitude scale at observatories in California and Colorado. These explosions sent shockwaves throughout Henderson and parts of the Las Vegas Valley that shattered glass and damaged buildings. Two people were killed and 372 were injured. Investigators surveying the damage in the surrounding communities estimated the blast as similar to a 1-kiloton airblast nuclear detonation.
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