• 1908, Messina

What Happened:

"Between 5:20 and 5:30 AM on December 28, 1908, the Monday after Christmas weekend, a major earthquake and tsunami (tidal

wave) totally destroyed Messina (pop. 150,000), Reggio Calabria (pop. 50,000), and dozens of nearby towns. With about 100,000 fatalities in

total (though estimates vary greatly), this was the deadliest earthquake in European history. Even larger numbers were left injured or

homeless, losing everything. In the most severely affected towns, roughly half the population perished, with most victims either entombed in

the rubble of their homes or struck down in the streets by collapsing three- to five-story buildings. (Despite a long history of destructive

earthquakes in the area every century or two, including comparable catastrophes in 1693 and 1783, no precautions had been taken until the

cities were finally rebuilt from the ground up, in the years following 1908.) "