San Francisco is an old, iron safe filled with gold, glory, disaster, and secrets. SFCentric History is a new column, by SF writer V. Alexandra de F. Szoenyi, that digs in the vaults of local history and shares the sensational people, places, and things that rocked San Francisco. Harry Houdini (born Erik

Muhammed Ali. Joe Louis. Larry Holmes. Mike Tyson. George Foreman. These incredible fighters are household names and legends in the boxing world. But do you now who the first African-American heavyweight champion of the world was? The man Ali called the greatest? His name was John Arthur “Jack” Johnson, and he trained, fought, and won right here in San Francisco.

Step into a world of adventure with the San Francisco Beer Passport. There’s no better way to explore San Francisco than to literally drink it in. This passport is amazing! Each one contains 27 coupons to buy one beer, get a second beer FREE at 27 of the finest locally

Fire Chief Dennis T. Sullivan’s cautionary words proved prophetic, as the city was thrown into a disaster which destroyed over 80% of the city and killed about 3,000 people–including Sullivan.

Ah, the hanky: Our community’s polychromatic tradition of flagging the way we like to fuck. Being a perv and a nerd, I’m obviously a fan, with it’s origins supposedly going back in the mists of time to square dances full of randy forty-niners and wayward sailors out for a hot

Get this — SF Mayor Ed Lee was once a radical tenants’ rights activist back in the 1970s. Yes, I said tenants’ rights activist. The same Ed Lee who currently presides over a stratospheric real estate boom that’s evicting unprecedented numbers of ethnic working class families and elderly people once dedicated his life