Charleston is nearly destroyed by an earthquake…

Charleston is nearly destroyed by an earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, leaving forty thousand homeless, on August 31, 1886,

It is felt as far away as Boston, Massachusetts to the north, Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin to the northwest, as far west as New Orleans, Louisiana as far south as Cuba, and as far east as Bermuda.

It damages two thousand buildings in Charleston and causes six million worth of damage ($133 million (2006 USD), while in the whole city the buildings are only valued at approximately twenty-four million dollars ($531 million (2006 USD).