20th Century Timeline

Year	Government, Politics, & War	Art & Culture	Science & Technology	Religion & Philosophy	Daily Life & Health	Year
1900				German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche dies		1900
1901		(1) U.S. President William McKinley dies after being shot in Buffalo by Leon Czolgosz; Theodore Roosevelt becomes the 26th President of the United States. (2) Australia unified as a Dominion of the British Empire		Picasso begins his Blue Period		1901
1902	(1) President Theodore Roosevelt offers pardon and amnesty to all Filipinos who participated in the Philippine-American War. Considered the official end of the conflict. (2) Second Boer War ends			Auguste Rodin's sculpture The Thinker		1902
1903			Orville and Wilbur Wright make first successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina	Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild		1903
1904	Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War; First victory of an Asian state over a European one in modern era	1904 - 1914 Second wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine	United States begins construction of Panama Canal			1904
1905	The First Moroccan Crisis; Germany disputes status of French protectorate in Morocco	Russian Revolution of 1905; Widespread unrest throughout Russian Empire leads to creation of the Duma	Theory of Special Relativity by Albert Einstein			1905
1906			HMS Dreadnought is launched. This first all-big gun battleship revolutionizes the navies of the world.		With support of President Theodore Roosevelt, Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug Act to provide federal regulation of the food packaging	1906
1907				Cubist Exhibition in Paris; Demoiselles d'Avignon by Picasso		1907
1908	Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina leads to the Bosnian Crisis	Young Turk Revolution of 1908 attempts to reform government institutions of the Ottoman Empire			First Model-T car produced by Ford	1908
1909			Robert Peary allegedly reaches the North Pole; Controversy remains over accuracy of his claim	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded in the United States		1909
1910		Mexican Revolution begins in opposition to the autocratic rule of Porfirio Díaz		First Jewish kibbutz -- Kibbutz Degania -- is founded		1910
1911		Nationalist revolution against the Qing Dynasty in China leads to establishment of the Republic of China				1911
1912		Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson defeats Progressive Theodore Roosevelt and Republican William Taft in the United States Presidential election of 1912	The Royal Flying Corps is organized in Great Britain with naval and military wings and a central flying school.	Titanic sinks in the North Atlantic		1912
1913	Treaty of Bucharest confirms territorial acquisitions of Serbia, Greece, and Bulgaria at the expense of Ottoman Empire during the First and Second Balkan Wars					1913
1914	(1) The First World War (World War I) begins after Germany declares war on Russia (2) Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia. (3) The German Schlieffen Plan fails when French forces defeat the German army at the First Battle of the Marne; Four years of trench warfare ensue on the Western Front					1914
1915	The Ottoman government and military systematically deport and kill over 1 million Armenians		Theory of General Relativity by Albert Einstein			1915
1916	(1) British forces invade Mesopotamia (Iraq) (2) British suffer over 50,000 casualties in first day of the Battle of the Somme (3) Battle of Verdun begins as German General Erich von Falkenhayn attempts to bleed the French Army white		Percival Lowell dies	Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce		1916
1917	(1) Battle of Cambrai; First use of tanks in warfare (2) United States formally declares war against Germany. (3) The Balfour Declaration expresses official British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine	(1) Czar Nicholas II abdicates his throne as a result of the February Revolution in Petrograd (2) In the October Revolution, Bolshevik forces overthrow the Russian Provisional Government. Civil war ensues in Russia.				1917
1918	(1) Bolshevik government of Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, surrenders large territories to Germany, and formally withdraws from World War I. (2) Germany requests armistice; World War I ends (3) German Army begins the Great March Offensive and drives the Allied army back 40 miles before losing momentum	(1) Wilhelm II abdicates German throne; Socialist leader Philip Scheidemann declares the establishment of a German Republic (2) Mutiny breaks out among German sailors in Kiel, eventually spreading throughout much of Germany		Leonard Bernstein born		1918
1919	(1) The Treaty of Versailles is signed, blaming Germany for World War I and creating a League of Nations (2) Turkish War of Independence begins					1919
1920	Mesopotamia becomes a British mandated territory under Article 22 of the League of Nations	The 18th Amendment is ratified banning the sale, manufacture, and transport of alcoholic beverages; Beginning of Prohibition				1920
1921				(1) Three Musicians by Picasso (2) Wall Street bomb explodes		1921
1922		(1) Formal creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by the First Congress of Soviets (2) Benito Mussolini's Fascist Black Shirts march on and occupy Rome				1922
1923	(1) Turkish War of Independence ends (2) Charles G. Dawes presents a plan for restructuring Germany's war debt	Adolf Hitler's Nazis unsuccessfully attempt to overthrow the German government in the Beer Hall Putsch				1923
1924		(1) Ramsay MacDonald forms Britain's first Labour government (2) The U.S. Congress grants citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. (3) Lenin dies; Stalin assumes power in the Soviet Union	Oil exploration begins in Oman			1924
1925		(1) World War I general Paul von Hindenburg elected president of the Weimar Republic in Germany (2) Reza Kahn establishes the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran and institutes a policy of modernization, secularization, and anti-communism		John Scopes, a Tennessee high school teacher, is indicted for teaching the theory of evolution to students of his science classes.		1925
1926	Germany is admitted to the League of Nations	2.5 million trade workers call a general strike in Britain		Claude Monet dies		1926
1927				The Jazz Singer debuts as first talking film		1927
1928		Agriculture collectivized in USSR		(1) First appearance of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse in the silent cartoon Plane Crazy (2) The Representation of the People Act grants British women electoral equality with men		1928
1929	Independent State of Vatican City comes into existence.			(1) A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (2) Lateran Treaty	The Dow Jones drops over 20% in 2 days during the Wall Street Crash of 1929; Often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression	1929
1930			(1) Construction begins on the Hoover Dam (originally known as the Boulder Dam) (2) Pluto discovered			1930
1931	Japan invades Manchuria		Thomas Edison dies	(1) Surrealist Salvador Dali's The Persistence of Memory (2) Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali (3) John Le Carre born		1931
1932	Iraq becomes an independent country	Franklin D. Roosevelt elected President of the United States				1932
1933	Hitler withdraws Germany from the League of Nations	(1) Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany (2) Fire destroys the Reichstag in Berlin (3) German Reichstag passes the Enabling Act giving Hitler dictatorial powers until April 1, 1937	Construction begins on Golden Gate bridge	God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell		1933
1934		(1) Adolph Hitler succeeds Hindenburg as leader of Germany (2) Communists' Long March in China				1934
1935	(1) Germany regains possession of the Saar (2) Italy invades Ethiopia (3) Anglo-German Naval Treaty signed			Nuremburg Racial Laws limiting Jewish rights announced at Nazi Party Rally		1935
1936	(1) Germany occupies the Rhineland (2) Spanish Civil War breaks out between Republican and Nationalist forces (3) 1936 - 1939 Arabs revolt across Palestine	(1) Franklin D. Roosevelt reelected as President of the United States in a landslide (2) Socialist Leon Blum leads the first Popular Front ministry composed of socialists and radical socialists (3) Somoza seizes power in Nicaragua				1936
1937	(1) Japan invades China; Sino-Japanese War begins (2) Nanking Massacre (3) Italy withdraws from the League of Nations	(1) Neville Chamberlain becomes the new British Prime Minister (2) Purges begin in the Soviet Union		Guernica by Picasso		1937
1938	(1) Germany invades and annexes Austria (Anschluss) (2) Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier, and Mussolini sign the Munich Agreement, which transfers the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany			Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass); Jewish synagogues and businesses destroyed throughout Germany		1938
1939	(1) Germany occupies Moravia and Bohemia (2) Soviet Union invades Poland (3) Britain and France declare war on Germany (4) Italian forces invade Albania (5) Signing of the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (6) World War II begins when Germany invades Poland		Sigmund Freud dies	The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck		1939
1940	(1) Russo-Finnish war ends; Finland cedes land to the Soviet Union (2) Battle of Britain begins in earnest as the first large air offensive begins with almost 500 bombing sorties by Germany (3) Italian Tenth Army commanded by Marshal Rodolpho Graziani invades Egypt (4) German forces invade Denmark and Norway (5) Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact (6) Italy declares war on Britain and France (7) France under Petain signs armistice with Germany at Rethondes	(1) Franklin D. Roosevelt reelected to a historic third term as President of the United States (2) Winston Churchill become Prime Minister of Great Britain		For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway		1940
1941	(1) Germany invades Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa (2) United States declares war on Japan (3) Germany and Italy declare war on United States (4) The US Congress passes the Lend-Lease Bill which will provide billions of dollars of war materials to the Allied powers (5) Britain and US sign the Atlantic Charter (6) Japanese launch surprise attack on U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor	Reza Shah abdicates; his son Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi becomes ruler	(1) The Messerschmitt ME163A rocket aircraft sets a new speed record of 623 mph (2) Manhattan Project begins	Orson Welle's film Citizen Kane		1941
1942	(1) Battle of Stalingrad begins (2) Americans destroy 4 Japanese aircraft carriers at the battle of Midway (3) Allies sign the UN Declaration (4) American forces at Corregidor in the Philippines surrender (5) United States Marines land on Guadalcanal (6) The British 8th Army under General Bernard Montgomery defeats Axis army at the Second Battle of El Alamein (7) Allied forces land in North Africa					1942
1943	(1) Remnants of the German 6th Army surrender at Stalingrad (2) Allied forces launch amphibious invasion of Sicily (3) Italy surrenders to the Allies (4) Teheran Conference (5) The North African campaign of WWII ends as German forces surrender (6) The Combined Bomber Offensive launches Operation Pointblank, a strategic bombing campaign against German industry and civilian morale (7) American forces defeat remaining Japanese forces on Guadalcanal		Penicillin first used successfully to treat a patient			1943
1944	(1) Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes) begins (2) D-Day, the Allied Invasion of Normandy, France (3) Allied armored and airborne forces fail to secure Rhine crossing in Operation Market-Garden (4) Dumbarton Oaks Conference (5) Allied forces launch amphibious invasion of the Philippines	Franklin D. Roosevelt wins presidential election for fourth time		Lucien Pissarro dies		1944
1945	(1) U. S. Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima (2) Germany surrenders (V-E Day) (3) Potsdam Conference begins (4) Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan (5) Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan (6) Japanese sign surrender terms on board the USS Missouri	(1) Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes President of the United States after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt (2) Adolf Hitler commits suicide in Berlin; Karl Dönitz appointed leader of Germany	(1) First successful test detonation of a nuclear weapon at Alamogordo, New Mexico (2) Percy Spencer patents the microwave oven			1945
1946	Viet Minh forces launch rebellion against French authority in Vietnam; Beginning of the First Indochina War	Communists under Ho Chi Minh win elections in northern part of Vietnam				1946
1947	UN takes over Palestinian issue from Britain. UN votes to divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state; Jerusalem is to be an international city.		Henry Ford dies	Dead Sea Scrolls found		1947
1948	First Arab-Israeli Wars begins	The State of Israel is officially created; David Ben Gurion becomes first Prime Minister.		(1) Abstract-Expressionist Jackson Pollock's Number 5 (2) Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar named Desire debuts on Broadway		1948
1949	Egypt, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Syria sign armistice agreement with Israel	Communists under Mao assume power in China	(1) The Soviet Union successfully detonates an atomic weapon (2) Orville Wright dies			1949
1950	Korean War begins when North Korean forces invade South Korea			George Bernard Shaw dies		1950
1951		Julius and Ethel Rosenburg convicted of espionage and transmitting nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union				1951
1952	Turkey becomes a member of NATO		The first airplane lands at the geographic North Pole.			1952
1953	Korean War ends	Elizabeth II of Britain is crowned at Westminster Abbey.			Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) are the first people to climb Mt. Everest (the climbing party was led by Colonel John Hunt).	1953
1954	(1) The Algerian War of Independence: French forces fight Algerian guerrilla forces for 8 years before granting independence to Algeria (2) French forces of the French Far East Expeditionary Corps surrender to Viet Minh forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu			(1) William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies (2) Henri Matisse dies (3) The Supreme Court unanimously outlaws racial segregation in public schools in Brown vs. BOE		1954
1955			Jonas Salk announces the development of a vaccine for polio	(1) Disneyland theme park opens in Anaheim, California (2) Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and His Comets becomes the first Rock & Roll song to top the U.S. record charts		1955
1956	(1) Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Spontaneous revolt against Soviet-installed government in Hungary; Soviets crush rebellion militarily (2) Sudan granted independence by Great Britain	(1) Cuban Revolution begins (2) Gamal Abdel-Nasser Becomes President of Egypt		Elvis Presley's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show		1956
1957	The Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community; West Germany, Italy, France, and the Benelux nations are founding members		USSR launches Sputnik--Space race begins			1957
1958			USS Nautilus sails to North Pole	Guggenheim Museum opens		1958
1959			Frank Lloyd Wright dies			1959
1960	Chad gains independence from France			Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird		1960
1961	East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall	Lumumba murdered in Congo	(1) Yuri Gagarin first person in space, Soviet Union (2) Alan Shepard first American in space	Ernest Hemingway dies		1961
1962	Cuban Missile Crisis	Nelson Mandela jailed in South Africa	Mariner 2 launched			1962
1963	(1) OAU formed (2) Kenya becomes independent from Great Britain; Jomo Kenyatta's Kenya African National Union (KANU) party forms the first independent government	US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas; Vice President Lyndon Johnson becomes President				1963
1964		Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964, outlawing racial segregation in the United States				1964
1965	First U.S. ground combat forces arrive in South Vietnam		(1) first human space walks (2) Albert Schweitzer dies (3) First woman in space, Tereshkova from Soviet Union			1965
1966	President Charles de Gaulle withdraws French military forces from NATO's integrated military command					1966
1967			(1) China enters the nuclear age (2) Robert Oppenheimer dies (3) Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee die in the NASA Apollo 1 fire.	(1) Massive riot erupts in Detroit after confrontation between police officers and African American bar patrons. In 5 days, 43 people dead, 467 injured, and thousands of buildings destroyed. (2) Montreal Expo		1967
1968	North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces launch Tet Offensive throughout South Vietnam	(1) Republican Richard M. Nixon elected 36th President of the United States (2) After poor performance in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, Lyndon Johnson announces he will not seek reelection	Yuri Gagarin dies			1968
1969		Yasser Arafat becomes head of the Palestine Liberation Organization	Apollo 11 lands on the moon	Hurricane Camille		1969
1970	President Gamal Abdel-Nasser Dies, Anwar Sadat becomes president of Egypt					1970
1971	(1) Indo-Pakistan War begins (2) Bahrain declares its independence from Britain		Apollo 15 lands on the moon; first use of Lunar Rover.			1971
1972			(1) Venus 8 lands on Venus (2) Andrei Tupolev dies (3) Apollo 17 lands on the Moon			1972
1973	(1) Iraq joins Arab coalition against Israel during the October War (2) Yom Kippur War		(1) Skylab launched (2) Pioneer 10 reaches Jupiter	(1) Pablo Picasso dies (2) Noel Coward dies		1973
1974	Turkey starts occupying northern Cyprus to prevent Greek takeover of island	Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, resigns from office as a result of the Watergate Scandal		(1) All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (2) Patty Hearst kidnapped		1974
1975	(1) The last group of Americans are evacuated from Saigon, South Vietnam during North Vietnamese invasion (2) Under the Alvor Agreement, Portugal grants independence to Angola; anti-Communist UNITA, Communist MPLA, and other factions engage in civil war for control of Angola (3) Civil war breaks out in Lebanon		U S. & Soviet spacecraft dock in space	(1) Patty Hearst caught (2) Elizabeth Seton canonized		1975
1976			Viking 2 lands on Mars; marks second automated visitor to land successfully	(1) Agatha Christie dies (2) Episcopal Church ordains women		1976
1977				(1) Elvis Presley dies (2) Philip of Macedon's tomb found (3) Singer/actor Bing Crosby dies		1977
1978	Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.			John Paul II becomes Pope		1978
1979	Soviet-Afghan War begins as Soviet forces invade and occupy important locations throughout Afghanistan	(1) Iran declared an Islamic republic by Ayatollah Khomeini (2) Saddam Hussein Becomes President of Iraq (3) Shah of Iran flees country (4) Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female prime minister of Great Britain.				1979
1980			Titanic found			1980
1981	Israeli troops bomb the PLO headquarters in Beirut	Anwar Sadat assassinated; Mohamed Hosni Mubarak becomes president of Egypt	(1) Voyager 2 reaches Saturn (2) Personal Computer introduced (3) First reported case of AIDS	Pope John Paul II shot		1981
1982	(1) Falklands War (2) Israel invades Lebanon		Mary Rose raised			1982
1983			Sally Ride first American woman in space			1983
1984		United States President Ronald Reagan wins reelection in a landslide over Democrat Walter Mondale	First release of Apple's Macintosh computers; First successful personal computer with graphical interface			1984
1985		Mikhail Gorbachev elected by the Politburo as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R.	Hole in the Ozone layer discovered			1985
1986			(1) Chernobyl nuclear plant accident (2) Voyager 2 reaches Uranus (3) Marlin Perkins dies	(1) Cary Grant dies (2) Sultan Qaboos University founded		1986
1987	(1) Iraqi Exocet missile hits American Destroyer USS Stark; 37 crewmen are killed. (2) Palestinian uprising 'Intifada' breaks out in Gaza strip			Andy Warhol dies		1987
1988	The USS Vincennes shoots down Iranian Airbus Flight #655; 290 civilians are killed		A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking			1988
1989		(1) In response to massive protests, the East German government allows East Berliners to cross into West Berlin. The dismantling of the Berlin Wall begins shortly after (2) Solidarity wins landslide victory over the Communist Party in first free elections in Poland (3) Hungarian parliament adopts democratic reforms and pressures Soviet Union to remove military forces (4) During the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia, protesters force the Communist government to adopt democratic reforms		(1) Globe Theatre found (2) Salvador Dali dies (3) Laurence Olivier dies (4) U. S. actress Bette Davis dies.		1989
1990	Iraq invades Kuwait, beginning the Persian Gulf War	German reunification officially completed according to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany				1990
1991	U.S. led coalition defeats Iraqi military forces and liberates Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm	(1) Communist hard-liners launch a failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in the U.S.S.R. (2) Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as President of the Soviet Union; Effective legal dissolution of the U.S.S.R.				1991
1992		Democratic candidate Bill Clinton elected 42nd President of the United States				1992
1993	(1) The European Community establishes a unified European market by removing trade barriers (2) 19 American soldiers die during the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia			(1) Steven Spielberg's film Schindler's List (2) President Bill Clinton announces "don't ask, don't tell" policy concerning gays serving in the U.S. military		1993
1994	Hutu militias kill 500,000-1,000,000 Tutsis during Rwandan Genocide		Shoemaker-Levy Comet strikes Jupiter			1994
1995	Dayton Agreement ends Bosnian War and confirms Bosnian independence.			(1) O.J. Simpson acquitted (2) Timothy McVeigh bombs the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 and wounding 450		1995
1996			(1) IBM's Deep Blue chess computer defeats world champion Gary Kasparov (2) Dolly the sheep is born, becoming the first cloned mammal	George Burns dies		1996
1997			Mars Pathfinder lands on Mars	Mother Teresa dies	Collapse of the currency of Thailand sparks the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis	1997
1998		Suharto forced to resign as president of Indonesia after 31-year reign		U.S. singer Frank Sinatra dies	Decline in commodity prices triggers financial crisis in Russia and discredits the government of President Boris Yeltsin	1998
1999	NATO engages in 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia for occupation of Kosovo	Vladimir Putin becomes acting President of the Russian Federation after Boris Yeltsin resigns				1999
Year	Government, Politics, & War	Art & Culture	Science & Technology	Religion & Philosophy	Daily Life & Health	Year

web samisdat digest

leonard red herring
submarine derby
red marron vs. red baron