Interesting question!
I was also impacted by a WWII bomb being discovered in London several years ago while they were building for the upcoming Olympics. We got diverted to another airport with significant delays. The locals were not surprised by this and said it happens frequently. Living in the US, I never considered this as a normal occurrence.
About 40 years ago (on our honeymoon!), we were delayed in the Rome airport as all the banks were on strike. ATM’s weren’t a thing - only cash and traveler’s checks. We couldn’t get money converted to pay for a cab. (At the time, cabs only accepted cash.) We were at a loss until my husband begged a bartender to exchange money for us. He reluctantly agreed and gave us the worst exchange rate ever, but we were able to finally get out of the airport.
There have been transportation strikes in Europe that are scheduled and seem to be common, but not anything we were used to. We had to make quick plans to take another form of transportation to get to the airport in time.
Finally, someone died while snorkeling on a shore excursion in Mexico. Luckily, we weren’t on that excursion, but it was horrible. Man in floating in the water face down in full snorkel gear for quite a while before somebody figured out he wasn’t moving. Anyway, our ship was delayed several hours while this was handled.
Happy travels!