April 18 San Francisco Earthquake
At 5:13 a.m. on this day in 1906, San Franciscans were awoken by the roar and rumble of the worst earthquake to ever hit the United States. Before the quake and subsequent fire were over four days later, over 3,000 people would die. If you have ever experienced a good earthquake, the length of this one, 48 seconds, is impressive; ten seconds of shaking is enough to reduce most people to near-tears.
When I was living in San Francisco (I wrote about this a little somewhere--wearing Indian bedspread dresses, etc.) in 1969, Mayor Alioto had an earthquake party at 5 a.m. on April 18. Someone has had the good sense to put a copy of the program for that event online: I didn't attend. I am kicking myself now, but as I recall, I woke up and then went back to sleep. A scene from the movie "San Francisco" was projected onto a building during part of the ceremony. I like that movie even though Jeanette MacDonald sings "open your golden gate" a full ten years before construction on it began.* Knowing
San Francisco as I do, someone, many someones, are right now planning
a real spectacular for April 18, 2006, and I am not going to miss
this one. *Alright. I don't know everything about San Francisco. I just received the following:
1906 San Francisco Earthquake Links: Some good individual stories here
On
to April 19
|
