This week in weather and science history

Here is a brief look at a few of the events that happened the final week of January. In this history throwback, we take a look at a major blizzard, windstorm and a gold rush.

On this day in 1848, gold was found along the south fork of the American River near present day Sacramento. The gold, found by a worker constructing a water-powered sawmill, started the California Gold Rush that brought hundreds of thousands of people to the state and made San Francisco a boom town.

On this day in 1890, Nellie Bly, an American journalist writing for the New York World newspaper, completes her round the world journey. Inspired by the Jules Verne’s book, Around the World in Eighty Days, the woman completes the trip in 72 days, utilizing steamships and railroads for most of her journey.

On this day in 1700, a major earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.7 to 9.2 M hit offshore of the Pacific Northwest. This earthquake, part of the Cascadia subduction zone, caused a major tsunami along the North America and Japanese coast. In fact, the timing of the earthquake is based on tsunami records, Native American oral history, and tree ring records.

The Knickerbocker Blizzard began on this day in 1922. This winter storm buried the South and Middle-Atlantic in heavy snow with Washington, D.C., receiving 28 inches of snow. It was reported that 3 feet of snow accumulated on rail lines between Washington and Philadelphia.

On the next day, the weight of the snow caused the flat roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre to collapse during a movie intermission, killing 98 movie-goers.

The beginning of the Great Blizzard occurred on this day in 1977. The blizzard hit Buffalo and western New York and southern Ontario the hardest. Up to 100 inches of snow was recorded from the storm while sustained winds of 40 mph with higher gusts caused major snowdrifts, creating 30 to 40 foot drifts.

Cleanup was slowed by the deep snow, bitterly cold temperatures and frequent wind gusts that would cause once cleared roads to become snow-covered again.

Hurricane force winds, with some gusts estimated to reach 120-plus mph, hit the Washington Coast and the state’s Olympic Peninsula on this day in 1921. Called the “Great Olympic Blowdown,” the windstorm knocked down billions of board feet of forests while toppling smokestacks and damaging buildings. Several people were killed. For reference, a board foot of lumber is the volume of wood measuring 1 foot by 1 foot by 1-inch thick.

A major flood hit western England and southwestern Wales on this day in 1607. This flooding inundated about 200 square miles of farmland, causing about 2,000 deaths, and killing countless livestock.