British festival turns to tragedy
May 24, 1913: When thousands of people converged on the Long Beach Auditorium for Empire Day, a portion of the pier’s upper deck collapsed, killing 34 and injuring nearly 150 more, The Times said.
“Like a cloud that blots the sun and will not let it shine again, the hand of Death had overshadowed the largest celebration Long Beach had ever known,” the newspaper said the day after. “It was as if a world had been dependent on one star for light and that dim orb had suddenly swum from out of sight into the bleak abysmal chasm of interstellar space.”
Empire Day marked Queen Victoria’s birthday and celebrated the British Empire. According to The Times, 40,000 current and former British subjects lived in the county, and 50,000 people came to Long Beach for the festivities. “News of the disaster quivered over the singing wires in a thousand directions the moment after it occurred,” the newspaper said. The death toll later rose to 39.
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