Tragedies that have led to inventions?

Question

I am currently working on a paper that focuses on inventions being created in the midst of tragedy. For example, as President James Garfield lay dying of an assassin's bullet, Alexander Graham Bell hurriedly invented a crude metal detector in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the fatal slug. Garfield’s assassination also gave birth to a rudimentary air conditioner. As he was dying, naval engineers constructed a box-like structure containing cloths saturated with melted ice water, where a fan blew hot air overhead.

The canning process is another example, as it is a product of the Napoleonic wars. Malnutrition was rampant among the 18th century French armed forces. As Napoleon prepared for his Russian campaign, he searched for a new and better means of preserving food for his troops and offered a prize of 12,000 francs to anyone who could find one. Nicolas Appert, a Parisian candy maker, was awarded the prize in 1809.

Any other examples would greatly help. Thanks so much!

Answer 1

Nuclear weapons led to Nuclear Power - cheap, clean, efficient, powerful... ect, unlike previous and many other current forms of power.

Answer 2

If you consider WWII a tragedy, you could include:
Radar
Radio and radar navigation systems
Bomb sights
Aircraft design
Piston aircraft engine design
Torpedo guidance systems
Underwater breathing apparatus
Refining of uranium
Everything associated with nuclear weapons
Jet engines
Pulse jet engines
Incendiary bombs
Rocket technology
Development of monoplanes and the end of military biplanes
Blood plasma
Synthetic rubber
The first crude computers (US + British)

Answer 3

A kidnapping led to the Amber Alert system used across North America today (which has saved many lives)

Answer 4

STD and unwanted newborns led to the invention of condom.