THIS DAY IN HISTORY: APRIL 18, 1906
At 5: 12 a. m. on April 18, 1906, the 400,000 residents of San Francisco were jarred awake by a violent earthquake. The shaking lasted 45 to 60 seconds, reducing many buildings to rubble and setting off fires that lasted for three days and laid waste to much of the city. Three thousand people are believed to have died in the disaster, 225,000 people were left homeless, and 28,000 buildings were destroyed. Because the earthquake happened so early in the morning, Vancouver’s newspapers were able to bring news of the quake out by the afternoon. “Earthquake Shakes San Francisco Into Fire- Swept Ruins,” read the banner headline in The World. “Terrible Catastrophe Overwhelms the City; A Thousand Lives Lost.” “San Francisco was practically wrecked by an earthquake at 5: 10 this morning,” read one story, written in the short, clipped sentences of someone rushing to deliver the facts. “The shock lasted three minutes. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed. There is no water and fires are breaking out all over the city. All the wires with the exception of one are gone. The city hall, costing seven millions, is in ruins. “Modern buildings suffered less than those of brick and frame. The terror and excitement are indescribable. Most of the people were asleep and rushed into the streets undressed. The buildings swayed and crashed, burying many occupants. Panic reigned in downtown hotels.” Another story said: “It was as though the end of all things had come. Tottering edifices of brick and stone — the rising cloud of dusty murkiness blotting the clean light of early morning — the savage, sullen roar of crashing buildings transforming peace into pandemonium — the shrieking and the more ominous silence of proud humanity utterly impotent before the greater weight of nature — the situation in its terrific multitude was not such as news tellers may successfully cope with.” The earthquake dominated The World’s pages for a week. On April 18, the paper reported 300 bodies had been taken to a makeshift morgue in the Mechanics pavilion; the next day, it reported the building had been consumed by fire. Another story said that 103 people had been killed at a lunatic asylum in Santa Clara, and “the more dangerous patients were tied to the trees out on the lawn in lieu of a safer place.” Still, only two days after the disaster, The World was predicting “Shorn of its Glories, City Will Rise Again.” And it did.