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Historical calendar/ What happened on September 19?

2023-09-19 10:44:00, Blog CNA

Historical calendar/ What happened on September 19?

Illustrative photo

1985 - A strong earthquake hits the capital of Mexico

A powerful earthquake hits Mexico City, killing 10,000 people, injuring 30,000 others, leaving tens of thousands more homeless.

At 7:18 a.m. on September 19, residents of the Mexican capital were awakened by a magnitude 8.1 earthquake, one of the strongest to ever hit the area.

The effects of the earthquake were extremely devastating due to the type of land on which the city lies. Mexico is on a plateau surrounded by mountains and volcanoes. In ancient times the plateau region was covered by lakes.

As the aquifer beneath the city has slowly dried up, it has been discovered that the city sits on a mixed soil and sand terrain, making it much less stable during an earthquake than rocky terrain.

The epicenter of the earthquake was about 400 km west of the city. But due to the relatively unstable terrain, the strong shaking lasted for almost 3 minutes. This brought about the collapse of some old hotels but also many residential buildings.

A building at the National College of Vocational Education collapsed, trapping hundreds of students attending early morning lectures. Meanwhile, many factories in the city, built with poor materials, could not stand.

Strong seismic tremors caused gas mains to break, causing fires and explosions throughout the city. When a full damage assessment was later done, 3,000 buildings in Mexico City had been completely destroyed and another 100,000 had suffered serious damage.

Other important events:

1783 - In France, the Mongolfier brothers raised a balloon into the sky by placing a rooster, a duck and a sheep in the basket. That success spurred further aeronautical experiments.

1796 - The farewell address of George Washington, the first president of the USA, is published. He implored his country to maintain neutrality and avoid entering into alliances with Europe.

1876 ??- American inventor Melville Beezel filed a patent for a floor cleaner, now known as an electric vacuum cleaner.

1893 - New Zealand becomes the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.

1946 - The Council of Europe is founded after a speech delivered by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich.

1955 - Argentine President Juan Peron is ousted and flees to Paraguay after a navy revolt led by democratically inclined officers.

1991- In the Ötztal Alps on the Italian-Austrian border, 2 German tourists accidentally discover the mummified body of a man (later known as the Iceman). The body belongs to a man between 25 and 35 years old, 1.6 meters tall and weighing about 50 kg. Analyzes revealed that he had died in 3300 BC./ Adapted from CNA