Tangshan Earthquake Kills Over 240,000 (1976): Early in the morning of July 28, 1976, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit the Chinese city of Tangshan. At 3:42 a.m., most people in the city were asleep, shocked into wakefulness by the shifting earth and falling debris. The 14 to 16 seconds of shaking destroyed nearly the entire city. Although many people who were trapped alive in the rubble were saved, the death toll reached over 240,000. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake was the deadliest earthquake of the 20th century.
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