troubleshooting electrical outlet problem

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My friend had a loose electrical outlet and she pushed the end of a plug into one of the outlets and the outlet sparked and the breaker kicked. She tried to reset the breaker and when she did she said a loud noise came from the breaker like a firecracker going off.The breaker did reset and she has power to everything in the house except to that outlet. I replaced the outlet with a new one and placed the two wires on the new outlet the same way they were on the old outlet. There are only two wires coming to the outlet, one looks black and one looks white. This is an old house but it does have a breaker box. After replacing the outlet I still could not get the outlet to work. My question is how do I find out why I can't get power to the outlet and how do I test or replace the breaker? There doesn't seem to be any power coming into the outlet.