On 26 April 1966, at 5:24 a.m., an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 shook the city.

It changed Tashkent”s appearance forever. Half of the city’s inhabitants were left without a roof over their heads and had to live in tents. The earthquake had had its epicentre at a depth of 10 km right under the central blocks of Tashkent, in about the place where the ‘Monument of Courage’ was erected.