San Francisco’s “Great Quake” – at least until the 7.8 magnitude quake of April 18,1906 — strikes at 7:53 a.m. on October 21, 1868. The 6.8 magnitude earthquake along the Hayward Fault kills 30 and destroys property throughout the Bay Area, whose population numbers 260,000. Damage is reported from Gilroy and Santa Cruz in the south to Santa Rosa in the north.
The City of Hayward, population 500, has nearly every building either destroyed or extensively damaged. The adobe church at Mission San Jose crumbles.
Describing the scene in San Francisco, the Morning-Call says on October 22, 1868, “the oscillations were from east to west and were very violent. Men, women, and children rushed into the streets—some in a state of semi-nudity—and all in the wildest state of excitement. Many acted as if they thought the Day of Judgment had come.”
U.S. Geological Survey scientists describe the Hayward Fault as a “tectonic time bomb” that could cause “hundreds of deaths, leave thousands homeless, and devastate the region’s economy.”