Knowledge Base

Answers and Guides

The Earthquakes of 1865: What Happened in San Francisco

The 1865 earthquakes were a series of strong shocks that struck the San Francisco Bay Area in the fall of that year, most notably…

The Gold Rush: What It Was and Why It Mattered

The California Gold Rush began in 1848, after gold was discovered in California, and it turned San Francisco from a small settlem…

General San Francisco History: Key Eras and Events to Know

San Francisco's history is best understood as a sequence of booms, disasters, and reinventions — from a small settlement to an ov…

Where to Find 1989 Loma Prieta, 1991 Oakland Firestorm, and Black History Materials on sfmuseum.org

The Museum of the City of San Francisco website (sfmuseum.org) hosts dedicated online exhibits for both the 1989 Loma Prieta eart…

History of the San Francisco 1906 Earthquake and Fire

The 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck on the morning of April 18, 1906, and the fires that followed burned for days, destroyin…