The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck early in the morning on the San Andreas Fault and was felt along the coast of Northern California and into Oregon and Nevada. Its shaking broke water mains and gas lines, and fires then burned for several days across much of the city, destroying large districts and leaving a large share of the population homeless. The death toll is uncertain and was long underestimated, with modern estimates in the thousands. The city was rebuilt rapidly. The disaster led to the first detailed scientific study of an earthquake in the United States and gave rise to the elastic rebound theory of fault movement.
Before and after
- 19 March 1906Birth of Adolf Eichmann
- 31 March 1906Birth of Shinichiro Tomonaga
- 13 April 1906Birth of Samuel Beckett
- 14 April 1906Birth of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud
- 18 April 19061906 San Francisco earthquake
- 28 April 1906Birth of Kurt Gödel
- 23 May 1906Death of Henrik Ibsen
- 3 June 1906Birth of Josephine Baker
- 28 June 1906Birth of Maria Göppert Mayer
More in Earth & climate
- 1816The Year Without a Summer
- 25 November 1885Establishment of Banff National Park
- 1906Establishment of Mesa Verde National Park
- 14 September 1907Establishment of Jasper National Park
- 11 May 1910Establishment of Glacier National Park
- 6 June 1912Eruption of Novarupta
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.