This Day in History: The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China on this day in 1556. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000. This, along with the the Great Comet of 1556 has led some to believe that this was the sign of the antichrist.
The Shaanxi earthquake is just one of many deadly earthquakes that have happened over the centuries. One such earthquake happened on October 11, 1138 in Allepo, Syria with a death toll of 230,000. On December 22, 856, a deadly earthquake hit Damghan, Iran, killed 200,000 people. On December 28, 1908 in Messina, Italy, an earthquake and tsunami claimed up to 200,000 lives. Another one in Sicily, Italy killed 60,000 in an estimated 7.4 magnitude earthquake on January 11, 1693. On September 27, 1290, 100,000 people were killed by an earthquake in Chihli, China. Shemakha, Azerbaijan, lost 80,000 people with an earthquake on November 1667. Up to 250,000 died in an earthquake in Tabriz, Iran on April 26, 1721. Lisbon, Portugal lost up to 100,000 with an earthquake that took place on November 1, 1755. Nankaido, Japan lost 31,000 to a 1498 earthquake.
The most recent deadly earthquake was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on January 12, 2010 with 316,000 deaths, 300,000 injured and 1,000,000 people homeless thanks to poor infrastructure and structurally unsound dwellings.
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