The Mexico City Earthquake

At 7.19 in the morning a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck off the Pacific coast. Four hundred kilometres away, the soft lake bed under Mexico City amplified the waves and several hundred buildings collapsed, among them hospitals and schools.

The official death toll was around 5,000; independent estimates run far higher. With the government slow to act, ordinary people organised the rescue themselves, digging with their hands — a civic awakening that changed Mexican politics for a generation.