| Year | Day | Notes | Richter | MM |
| 1769 | July 28 | The Sacred Expedition is shaken by an earthquake as it travels near Los Angeles. This is California's first historical earthquake. | 6.0 | X |
| 1812 | December 8 | An earthquake demolishes Mission San Juan Capistrano. Forty people die while attending early morning mass. The epicenter is in the Cajon Pass near Wrightwood. | 7.0 | IX |
| 1812 | December 21 | A tsunami washes over Santa Barbara. The earthquake epicenter lies somewhere beneath the Santa Barbara Channel. | 7.0 | X |
| 1836 | June 10 | Hayward Valley Earthquake. The ground cracks all the way from Mission San Jose to San Pablo. | 6.75 | X |
| 1838 | June | A large earthquake ruptures the ground on the San Francisco Peninsula. | 6.25 | X |
| 1852 | November 22 | The waters of San Francisco's Lake Merced abruptly sink 30 feet after an unexplained, earthquake-like shock. | n/a | n/a |
| 1856 | July 1 | First public discussion of earthquakes at a San Francisco lecture by Dr. W.O. Ayers. | n/a | n/a |
| 1857 | January 9 | Fort Tejon Earthquake. The ground broke near where modern Interstate 5 enters the Grapevine. This shock was felt all over the state, throwing down buildings and uprooting trees. The bells at Mission San Gabriel are reported to have been thrown to the ground. The Los Angeles River changes course. | 8.25 | XI |
| 1865 | October 8 | A respectable earthquake shakes the city of San Francisco, giving many newcomers, including Mark Twain, their first taste of seismic activity. Damage was greatest on the newly filled ground along the City's waterfront. | 6.25 | IX |
| 1868 | October 21 | Hayward Earthquake. A rupture on the east side of the Bay jars San Francisco, San Leandro, and Oakland. Thirty people die. | 7.0 | X |
| 1869 | August 9 | Following the request of Archbishop Joseph Alemany, Pope Pius IX sets the feast of St. Emidius as a day for prayers for protection against earthquakes. | n/a | n/a |
| 1872 | March 26 | Owens Valley Earthquake. Two quakes hit the area on the same day. Twenty seven people die in Lone Pine. A seven foot fault scarp appears. | 7.6 6.75 | X XI |
| 1872 | April 3 | Aftershock of Owens Valley Quake. | 6.25 | n/a |
| 1872 | April 11 | Aftershock of Owens Valley Quake. | 6.25 | n/a |
| 1899 | December 25 | San Jacinto Earthquake. Hemet and San Jacinto wrecked. Six killed. Chimneys fall in Riverside. | 6.4 | IX |
| 1906 | April 18 | The Great Earthquake and Fire. Twelve minutes after five a.m., the earth shook for forty seconds, beginning three days of tragedy that marked one of the most memorable disasters in U.S. history. | 8.25 | XI |
| 1906 | April 19 | San Francisco jail inmates moved to Alcatraz for safekeeping as the fire approaches the Civic Center. | n/a | n/a |
| 1906 | April 20 | 16 enlisted and 2 officers, crew of the U.S.S. Chicago, supervise the evacuation of 20,000 refugees from burning San Francisco. This will be the largest evacuation by sea until Dunkirk. | n/a | n/a |
| 1906 | April 20 | Two Japanese earthquake scientists are attacked by angry San Franciscans. | n/a | n/a |
| 1906 | May 11 | Appointment of special subcommittee by Governor to assist the reconstruction of San Francisco. | n/a | n/a |
| 1906 | n/a | Burnt Records Act. | n/a | n/a |
| 1906 | n/a | The City of Los Angeles receives permission for the Owens Valley Water Project on the grounds that the water will be needed to fight post-earthquake fires. | n/a | n/a |
| 1912 | n/a | Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of continental drift in a paper. | n/a | n/a |
| 1915 | June 22 | Imperial Valley Earthquake. Six die in a quake which cracks buildings and causes $1,000,000 damage in the newly reclaimed agricultural district. | 6.0 5.9 | VIII |
| 1918 | April 21 | San Jacinto Earthquake. An even stronger event shakes the scene of the 1899 tragedy. | 6.9 | n/a |
| 1925 | June 29 | Santa Barbara Earthquake. Thirteen die as the rippling earth ruins 70 buildings and causes $6,000,000 in damage. | 6.3 | IX |
| 1926 | n/a | The theory of continental drift is laughed out of the American Association of Petroleum Scientists meeting in New York, closing the book on the theory for forty years. | n/a | n/a |
| 1933 | March 10 | Long Beach Earthquake. Though fires are quickly contained, at least 120 people (many of whom are never identified) die. $41,000,000 in property damage, mostly in the city of Long Beach. | 6.3 | IX |
| 1935 | n/a | Cal Tech scientist Charles Richter devises the Richter Scale, a mathematical measurement of earthquake intensity. | n/a | n/a |
| 1935 | n/a | The California State Legislature passes The Field Act which calls for public schools and other public buildings to be substantially earthquake resistant. | n/a | n/a |
| 1936 | n/a | The film San Francisco (starring Jeanette MacDonald, Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy) depicts the 1906 Great Earthquake and Fire and its effect on the Barbary Coast. | n/a | n/a |
| 1940 | May 18 | Imperial Valley. A sixty five kilometer long fault appears in the desert, causing displacements of up to 4.5 meters (or about 16 feet!). Eight are killed. $6,000,000 in damage to the sparsely populated agricultural district. | 7.1 | X |
| 1941 | June 30 | Carpinteria. This mild quake causes $100,000 damage. | 5.9 | VIII |
| 1941 | November 14 | Torrance/Gardena Earthquake. Fifty buildings are severely damaged. Citizens must come up with $1,000,000 to clean up after the shock. | 5.8 6.0 | VIII |
| 1952 | July 20 | Kern County Earthquake. Rails are bent into S-shapes and rail tunnels collapse as the ground runs up $41,000,000 in repair costs. Fault displacement of two feet in both vertical and horizontal directions is observed. | 7.7 6.4 | X |
| 1952 | July 21 | Aftershock of Kern County Quake. | 6.1 | n/a |
| 1952 | July 28 | Bakersfield Earthquake. Two killed and $10,000,000 more in damage. | 6.1 | VIII |
| 1957 | March 22 | Daly City Earthquake. Tombstones in Colma are flung to the ground once more. | 5.3 | VIII |
| 1964 | March 27 | Crescent City disaster. A series of tsunamis generated by Alaska's Good Friday Earthquake reaches this northern California town and wipes out the main business district, killing 11 in the city and one man in the nearby Klamath River. (Outside of Alaska, there are 16 victims of tsunamis from this earthquake.) A few hours later, 10,000 San Franciscans rush down to the waterfront to observe the tsunami's arrival. | n/a | n/a |
| 1967 | n/a | Beginning of scientific acceptance of the theory of plate tectonics. | n/a | n/a |
| 1969 | April 14 | Seers (perhaps inspired by the new theory of plate tectonics) predict a major earthquake that will topple everything west of the San Andreas Fault into the ocean. Some California politicians, including Governor Reagan, arrange to be out of the state on this day. | n/a | <I |
| 1971 | February 9 | Sylmar (San Fernando) Earthquake. The quake hits early in the morning, before rush hour. 65 people die, mostly in a newly constructed Veteran's Hospital. Freeway overpasses collapse. Half a billion dollars in damage. | 6.5 | VIII- XI |
| 1975 | n/a | Original deadline for full implementation of the Field Act. | n/a | n/a |
| 1977 | July 1 | New date set by State Legislature for full compliance with the Field Act. | n/a | n/a |
| 1983 | May 2 | Coalinga Earthquake. Several buildings in this Central Valley town collapse. | 6.7 | XI |
| 1987 | October 1 | Whittier Narrows Earthquake. Los Angeles area residents are shaken up by a relatively moderate quake which does some damage in the city of Whittier. Witnesses in skyscrapers report heavy shaking. | 5.8 | IX |
| 1989 | October 17 | Loma Prieta Earthquake. The ground breaks at Loma Prieta, near Santa Cruz. The resulting earthquake attracts national attention to the demolished city of Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and the Cypress Overpass near Oakland. | 7.1 | XI |
| 1992 | April 25 | Cape Mendocino. Weekend festivals are disrupted by this tremor. Historic Victorians in the area south of Eureka, California are damaged. | 7.2 | IX |
| 1992 | June 28 | Landers/Big Bear Two earthquakes happen on the same day in Southern California. Some regions feel the shocks from both quakes, which are separated by about one hundred and fifty miles. | 7.3/6.2 | IX/VII |
| 1994 | January 17 | Northridge Earthquake | 6.7 | IX |
| 1999 | October 16 | Hector One day before the 10th anniversary of Loma Prieta, Los Angeles area residents are awoken at 2:45 a.m. by a shock originating in a sparsely settled part of the Mojave Desert. Twenty cars of an Amtrak train are derailed near Ludlow. Parts of Los Angeles are left without power or water. An oil main bursts. | 7.0 | n/a |