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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1863 | 1 |
| 1871 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 15 |
| 1877 | 10 |
| 1878 | 5 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 12 |
| 1884 | 2 |
| 1885 | 17 |
| 1886 | 10 |
| 1887 | 10 |
| 1888 | 8 |
| 1889 | 30 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 8 |
| 1892 | 27 |
| 1893 | 35 |
| 1894 | 17 |
| 1895 | 21 |
| 1898 | 1 |
| 1899 | 16 |
| 1900 | 2 |
| 1903 | 15 |
| 1904 | 14 |
| 1905 | 2 |
| 1909 | 15 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1912 | 2 |
| 1914 | 3 |
| 1915 | 2 |
| 1916 | 5 |
| 1917 | 2 |
| 1923 | 3 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1929 | 1 |
327 stories matching shock
- Thirty Thousand Volts Killed Him. The Wall Brought Him Back.
A Seattle power-plant hand was dead for fifteen seconds in 1909 — until the shock hurled him into a cement wall and the impact restarted his heart.
- The Morning the Earth Shook in Seattle
An unusually violent tremor rattles early risers in 1886, marking a moment of shared alarm in the developing town.
- The Great Sound Earthquake
A violent, multi-shock tremor sends Tacoma, Seattle, and Everett residents into the streets, rattling buildings and nerves across the Puget Sound region.
- The Shocking State of the Port Townsend Courthouse
A dangerous electrical grounding issue in the county building leaves water pipes charged with current.
- The Deadly Call: A Streetcar Worker Electrocuted on Duty
A faulty telephone circuit, intended for transit operations, turned fatal when a Seattle conductor went to report off his shift.
- The Science of the Double Shock
Kennewick housewives master a high-stakes food preservation method to support the wartime conservation effort.
- The Electrified Watchman
When the Seattle Electric Railway’s infrastructure turned the city into a hazard, a local watchman learned the hard way that his job required handling more than just time.
- The Great Earthquake of 1892
A morning tremor rattles Central Washington, stirring memories of the catastrophic 1874 quakes that reshaped the Columbia River valley.
- Trolley Conductor Survives High-Voltage Shock
A conductor working the Spanaway line narrowly escaped death after receiving a severe electric shock during a routine repair.
- Hail, Snow, Thunder and a Shock Down the Telephone Wire
For two and a half hours Seattle gets a storm almost no climate can produce — and a businessman on Second Street gets knocked against the door by lightning on the line.
- Mount Baker Wakes: Smoke, a New Rent, and an Earthquake at Dawn
Smoke rises a thousand feet from the Twin Sisters and Mount Baker, a fresh quarter-mile crack opens in the mountain, and a predawn shock rattles Whatcom County residents.
- A Seattle Hotel Fire Reaches a Family in California
Already recovering from a shipwreck, a Santa Ana woman learns that her mother and teenage brother were killed in Seattle’s recent West Street hotel fire.
- A False Shock of Hair, a Slouch Hat, and $10 at Maplewood Station
A Tacoma department-store clerk steps off the Puyallup car and is stopped in the dark by a masked man in a false wig, who takes her money and orders her home on foot.
- A Sunday Earthquake Rattles Olympia, Stopping Clocks and Startling Diners
At 3:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 1891, a sharp tremor shook the city, rattled windows, swayed chandeliers, and sent one hotel guest diving for the stairs.
- A Mountain Fell Into the Columbia
Twin earthquakes rattle Oregon and the Yakima agency — and old settlers recall 1874, when sixty-four shocks tore a mountainside into the great river and buried Chief Wapato John's ranch.
- A Railroad Man's Fatal Fall: The Organizer of Newport's First Commercial Club Dies After a Deer Park Train Accident
Great Northern passenger agent Edward Furness, newly widowed and well known across the district, fell beneath a moving freight train near Deer Park and died at Sacred Heart hospital. He had organized Newport's first Commercial Club.
- The Scandal of the Relief Committee
When Spokane city officials were caught raiding the relief pantry, the resulting arrests shocked the community and exposed a deep-seated culture of graft.
- The Great Sewer Brawl of Washington Street
A minor street scuffle turned into an unintended construction project when a crowd of onlookers broke through the sidewalk into the city sewer.
- One Coal-Oil Dealer Is Holding Olympia's New Electric Railway Hostage for $10,000
The streetcar line is contracted, the rails are shipped and the crews are ready — but George Marvin Savage's outfit sits squarely in the middle of Main Street, and he will not budge for less than ten thousand dollars.
- The Governor-Candidate Who Handed Out His Own Petitions
In a display of political informality that shocked Olympia, a candidate for territorial governor took to the streets to personally solicit signatures, defying the expected decorum of the era.
- A Tragic Railroad Accident
A young man loses both feet after falling between train cars while riding illegally.
- The Street-Grading Graft
A shocking report from Tacoma reveals that city street foremen were shaking down laborers for job security.
- A Life Cut Short by the Rails
A superintendent at the Stetson & Post Mill dies in a horrific workplace accident involving a runaway freight car.
- A Shaking Coast: Earthquake Strikes Port Townsend
Residents of the seaside town were startled late Wednesday night by a sharp, twenty-second seismic tremor.
- The 'White Slavery' Panic: A Lecture That Shocked the Tri-Cities
In April 1914, a visiting reverend used sensationalized rhetoric to warn Kennewick residents about the dangers of moral corruption, reflecting the era's intense anxiety over women's safety and autonomy.