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1991 35 years ago Historical Events October 20 3 sources

A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people.

On October 20, in the year 1991, A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people. This event is recorded as a Historical Events event in the history of October 20, one of 439 recorded events on this date across all of history.

The moment magnitude scale is a measure of an earthquake's magnitude based on its seismic moment. Mw was defined in a 1979 paper by Thomas C. Hanks and Hiroo Kanamori. Before Hanks and Kanamori (1979), Kanamori (1977) developed Mw scale for large earthquakes above 7.5. Thus Mw and M are not the same mathematically even though they are considered the same. Similar to the local magnitude/Richter scale (ML) defined by Charles Francis Richter in 1935, it uses a logarithmic scale; small earthquakes have approximately the same magnitudes on both scales. Despite the difference, news media often use the term "Richter scale" when referring to the moment magnitude scale.

Key Facts

  • This event took place on October 20, 1991 (AD era).
  • It is categorised as a Historical Events event in recorded history.
  • Referenced in 3 Wikipedia articles.
  • Wikipedia source last updated on 11 September 2026.

On This Date in History 439

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Notable Deaths 2016 Oct 20 Kaneta Kimotsuki, Japanese actor, voice actor, and theater director (born 1935)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 20 Makis Dendrinos, Greek basketball player and coach (born 1950)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 20 Arno Gruen, German-Swiss psychologist and psychoanalyst (born 1923)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 20 Kazimierz Łaski, Polish-Austrian economist and academic (born 1921)
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 20 Michael Meacher, English academic and politician, Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions…
Notable Deaths 2015 Oct 20 Ian Steel, Scottish cyclist and manager (born 1928)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 20 René Burri, Swiss photographer and journalist (born 1933)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 20 Oscar de la Renta, Dominican-American fashion designer (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2014 Oct 20 Christophe de Margerie, French businessman (born 1951)
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 20 Jovanka Broz, Croatian-Serbian colonel (born 1924)
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 20 Don James, American football player and coach (born 1932)
Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 20 Lawrence Klein, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1920)
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Notable Deaths 2013 Oct 20 Larri Thomas, American actress and dancer (born 1932)
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Notable Deaths 2012 Oct 20 Przemysław Gintrowski, Polish poet and composer (born 1951)
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Notable Deaths 2012 Oct 20 Dave May, American baseball player (born 1943)
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Notable Deaths 2008 Oct 20 Gene Hickerson, American football player (born 1935)
Notable Deaths 2007 Oct 20 Max McGee, American football player and sportscaster (born 1932)

This article draws on content from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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