Today marks the 94th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion and people gathered at the Fort Needham Bell Tower in Halifax today to commemorate the event.

Dozens of people, including survivors and city officials, gathered to remember the events of December 6, 1917.

Canadians served in the First World War and wartime ships would stop in Halifax Harbour. On that morning, a French cargo ship loaded with explosives accidentally collided with a Norwegian ship, triggering a massive explosion that was heard as far away as Truro.

Hundreds of Halifax homes were destroyed in the blast, 1,900 people lost their lives and thousands more were inured.

Mary Murphy and George Sim were both small children at the time but they survived the explosion and remember the day vividly.

"I think my mother was doing her breakfast dishes or something and she woke up in the hospital and she thought it was just something that happened in her own house," says Murphy.

"I was eating my breakfast at the time and all of the windows came in on me," recalls Sim.

The Halifax Explosion remains the world's largest man-made accidental explosion.