On April 18, 1906, San Francisco phonograph dealer Peter Bacigalupi’s day began like none other.
“I was awakened from a sound slumber by a terrific trembling, which acted in the same manner as would a bucking broncho [sic],” he wrote of the historic earthquake that seemed to toss his bed “up and down in all four directions at once.”
Across town, missionary Donaldina Cameron jolted awake at 5:12 a.m. to a surreal scene in which “the solid earth took on the motions of an angry ocean while chimneys crashed on to our roof, while plaster and ornaments strewed the floors.”
