Today in History

[dropdeadfred]

Oct 16, 1989 - Millions were watching the third game of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, when much to their horror, the seats at Candlestick Park began to rock, light towers swayed, and 58,000 fans became eerily quiet. An earthquake, measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale, had hit the San Francisco Bay area at 5:04 p.m. Homes crumbled, gas lines ruptured, ‘earthquake-safe’ structures fell and the upper section of a two-tiered freeway collapsed onto the lower level at the height of rush hour -- trapping commuters in flattened cars. The tremor and its aftershocks reached north to Sacramento and south to Los Angeles, causing an estimated 270 deaths, 3,000 injuries, and damages up to $3 billion. TV audiences stayed glued to their sets as fires burned, rescue workers went about their jobs and real stories unfolded. At the World Series game (postponed because of earth shaking), the fans cheered when the tremor stopped. They were the victors of nature’s game.