Original: On January 12, 2010, at 21:53 UTC, (4:53 pm local time) Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7 .0 earthquake, the country's most severe earthquake in over 200 years.
Simplified: On January 12, 2010, at 21:53 UTC, the island was struck by a magnitude-7 .0 earthquake, the country's most severe earthquake in the past 200 years.