Seattle in this period attracted widespread attention as home to these many companies , but also by hosting the 1990 Goodwill Games and the APEC leaders conference in 1993 , as well as through the worldwide popularity of grunge , a sound that had developed in Seattle 's independent music scene . Another bid for worldwide attention — hosting the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 — garnered visibility , but not in the way its sponsors desired , as related protest activity and police reactions to those protests overshadowed the conference itself . The city was further shaken by the Mardi Gras Riots in 2001 , and then literally shaken the following day by the Nisqually earthquake
Nisqually earthquake
2001 Nisqually earthquake
Seattle