1891

EUROPE: establishment of Peace Bureau at Berne (pan-European, leading to Int'l Court of the Hague)

1891 NE CONJ PL Ge Ge

1891 UR Sc

+

OTTOMANS: atrocities against Armenians (1890-7) (discrediting Ottomans); Young Turk Movement

1891 CH -SQR UR Le Sc

1891 CH Le

+

RUSSIA: construction of trans-Siberian railway (1891-1904); famine in Russia

+

INNOVN: wireless telegraphy started; zipper devel'd; Langley's 'Experiments in Aerodynamics'

+

* ARTS: Gaugin in Tahiti, Toulouse-Lautrec's posters, Monet, Cezanne, Beardsley; Art Nouveau

+

1892

WORLD: Giolitti Ital Premier; Prince Ito, Jap Premier; Cleveland, US Pres; Gladstone, Eng PM

1892 NE CONJ PL Ge Ge

1892 CH Vi

+

* RUSSIA: modern'n & industrial'n under Count Witte ('hotbed of capitalism', peasant hardship)

1892 UR +qcx NE Sc Ge

+

* USA: economic & indust'l growth (tycoons Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Astor)

1892 UR +qcx PL Sc Ge

+

E EUROPE: Pan-Slavic Conference at Cracow; BRITAIN: Keir Hardy becomes first Labour MP

+

INNOVN: Diesel motor, viscose (rayon), auto telephone switchboard, canned pineapples introduced

+

1893

* EUROPE: Euro powers compete for world power (1890-1914); German growth; French banking

1893 CH +SQR NE Vi Ge

1893 CH Vi

+

BRITAIN: est of Ind Labour Party (MP Keir Hardie); Irish Home Rule Bill fails; Mc'r Ship Canal

1893 CH +SQR PL Vi Ge

+

* WORLD: large scale emigration from Europe (Poland, Italy, Scand) to USA, Aust'lia, colonies

1893 UR +qcx NE Sc Ge

+

INNOVN: Benz (Germany) & Ford (USA) construct their first motor cars

1893 UR +qcx PL Sc Ge

+

1893 CH -sxt UR Vi Sc

+

1894

ASIA: Sino-Japanese war (1894-5): Japan takes Taiwan; Korea independent; foreign infl in China grows

1894 UR +qcx NE Sc Ge

1894 CH Li

+

EUROPE: Franco-Russian alliance; BRITAIN: intro of death duties (inheritance tax)

1894 UR +qcx PL Sc Ge

+

N AFRICA: Italian expansion in NE Africa (Abyssinia & Somalia) (fails in Abyssinia)

1894 CH -ssq UR Vi Sc

+

INNOVN: identification of plague bacillus; Sven Hedin in Tibet; Edison's Kinetoscope Parlor NY

+

ARTS: Kipling's 'Jungle Book'; HG Wells' 'Time Machine'

+

1895

INNOVN: Roentgen discovers X-rays; Marconi radio telegraphy; Isiolkovsky rocket propulsion

1895 CH Peri 5Li

+

INNOVN: 1st public showing of motion pictures in Paris (Lumiere); Gillette's safety razor

1895 UR +qcx NE Sc Ge

+

C AMERICA: Cuban uprising against Spain (supported by USA, seeking econ domination in S Amer)

1895 CH +tri PL Li Ge

+

MIDEAST: massacres of Armenians in Turkey (envy of Armenian business abilities)

1895 CH -ssx UR Li Sc

+

ARTS: Sibelius 'Finlandia'; Tchaikovsky 'Swan Lake'; Mahler No 2; H Wood's Promenade Concerts

+

1896

N AFRICA: Bt of Adowa: Abyssinians defeat Italians (40 years' independence; Italian colonialism fails)

1896 CH +sqt NE Sc Ge

1896 CH Sc

+

IDEAS: Herzel publishes 'The Jewish State', calling for a Jewish national home

1896 CH +sqt PL Li Ge

+

RUSSIA: strikes & revolts against absolutist rule of Nicholas II (1894-1917) (fuelling revol'n)

1896 CH -ssx UR Li Sc

+

+

N AMERICA: Klondike Gold Rush; EUROPE: first modern Olympic Games, Athens; Nobel Prizes est'd

+

1897

CHINA: Russia & Germany occupy ports in N China; expansion of British Hong Kong (Kowloon)

1897 Sa CONJ UR Sc Sc

1897 UR Sg

+

EUROPE: first Zionist Conference, Basel; IDEAS: Webbs' 'Industrial Democracy'

1897 CH +qcx PL Sc Ge

+

INNOVN: electron & radioactivity discovered; cathode rays researched; malaria bacillus ident'd

+

* ARTS: Shaw, Kipling, Wells, Hardy, Wilde, Chekhov, Strindberg, Ibsen, Tolstoi, Gide at work

+

+

1898

CHINA: abortive 100 Days Reform; intrusion of capitalism; growth of new Chinese working class

1898 CH CONJ UR Sg Sg

1898 UR Sg

+

RUSSIA: establishment of Social Democratic Workers' Party

1898 Sa OPPN PL Sg Ge

1898 CH Sg

+

FRANCE: religious & political strife in France (Dreyfus affair); Fashoda crisis, UK & France

+

USA: USA annexes Guam, P Rico & Philippines; end of Spanish empire; begn of USA expansionism

+

INNOVN: the Curies observe radioactivity and isolate radium in France

+

1899

S AFRICA: Boer War (1899-1902, British overcome Afrikaners at great cost)

1899 CH OPPN PL Sg Ge

+

IDEAS: Howard's 'Garden Cities of Tomorrow' initiates modern city planning

1899 Sa OPPN NE Sg Ge

+

GERMANY: Germany expands its navy (beginning of major German world expansion)

+

EUROPE: Peace Conference at the Hague (also 1907) (pacifists fail to curb imperialism & war)

+

+

1900

CHINA: Boxer rebellion in N China (against foreign powers); Europeans force 'open door policy'

1900 CH OPPN NE Sg Ge

+

C AFRICA: Copper mining begins in Katanga, Congo; C ASIA: oil drilling in Persia & Azerbaijan

1900 Sa OPPN NE Sg Ge

+

IDEAS: Planck evolves Quantum Theory; Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams' (psychoanalysis)

+

JAPAN: reinstatement of Shinto (to counterbalance Buddhism); MED'N: discovery of Minoan civiln

+

INNOVN: first transmission of speech by radio waves by Fessenden

+

1901

OCEANIA: unification of Australia as a commonwealth; BRITAIN: death of Q Victoria (end of era)

1901 UR OPPN PL Sg Ge

1901 NE Cn

+

AMERICAS: USA gains control of Cuba & Panama Canal; Theodore Roosevelt US President (1901-08)

1901 Ju CONJ CH Cp Cp

1901 CH Cp

+

INNOVN: BEGINNING OF THE AGE OF ELECTRICITY

1901 CH OPPN NE Cp Cn

+

INNOVN: Trans-Siberian Rly reaches China; Lake Victoria-Mombasa Rly, Kenya; Aswan Dam, Egypt

1901 UR on S Node

+

IDEAS: Anthroposophy started by Rudolf Steiner; Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan school

+

1902

WORLD: British Colonial Conference, London (power shift in empire);

1902 UR OPPN PL Sg Ge

1902 NE Cn

+

S AMERICA: Argentina gains Patagonia (develops as economic leader in S America)

+

S AFRICA: Boer War ends -- Boers lose independence; British rule over South Africa

+

RUSSIA: Social Revolutionary Party founded; USA: coal miners' strike (workers' movements grow)

+

* ARTS: M Gorky, H Belloc, Masefield, Beatrix Potter, Conan Doyle, H Hesse, Chesterton at work

+

OCEANIA: 'White Australia Policy' starts, lasting 60 years

1903

INNOVN: AGE OF FLIGHT: Wright Brothers fly a petrol-powered aircraft, USA

1903 CH -qcx PL Cp Ge

+

RUSSIA: pogroms against Jews; Soc Dem Party splits (reformist Mensheviks, revolnry Bolsheviks)

+

INNOVN: motor taxis (London); teddy bears (USA); ECG (Holland); Tour de France; drink laws (UK)

+

C EUROPE: unrest and nationalism in Serbia

+

+

1904

INDIA: partition of Bengal; nat'list agitation in India; Brit expedition to Tibet (anti-China)

1904 UR Cp

+

E ASIA: Russo-Japanese war (against Russ expansion; Jap success stimulates Asian nationalism)

1904 CH +ssx UR Cp Sg

+

EUROPE: Entente (1904-14): European alliances of Germany + Austria, Britain + France + Russia

+

C EUROPE: Serbs & Croatians bury differences, form 'Yugoslavian solidarity' against Aust-Hung

+

INNOVN: Rutherford's Theory of Radioactivity; photoelectric cells; UV lamps; phonographs

+

1905

RUSSIA: 1st Russian revolution (defused by pseudo-reforms & subversion); rise of Rasputin

1905 CH +ssx UR Aq Cp

1905 CH Aq

+

SCANDNVA: Norway ind of Sweden (dissolution of Scand'n Union); ITALY: liberal reforms & growth

1905 CH -qcx NE Aq Cn

+

IDEAS: Einstein's Theory of Relativity; INNOVN: deep underground railways (London & New York)

1905 CH -sqt PL Aq Ge

+

CHINA: Kuomintang formed under Sun Yat-sen (for Chinese autonomy, democracy & econ rights)

+

WORLD: revolts in Crete, Thailand, Poland, Finland, SW Africa (Hottentots) against empires

+

1906

PERSIA: revolution in Persia; INDIA: Aga Khan founds All-India Moslem League

1906 UR OPPN NE Cp Cn

+

N AFRICA: France & Spain control & divide Morocco; CHINA: Britain agrees to cut opium trade

1906 CH -qcx NE Aq Cn

+

USA: San Francisco earthquake

1906 CH -sqt PL Aq Ge

+

INNOVN: Patents Act (UK); Pure Foods & Drugs Act (USA); 'Lusitania' crosses Atlantic in 5 days

+

ARTS: Strauss, Delius, Elgar, Hammerstein, Mahler, Rimski-Korsakov, Bartok, Schonberg, at work

+

1907

WORLD: Peace Conference at the Hague (diplomatic precedent); internat'l financial panic

1907 UR OPPN NE Cp Cn

+

OCEANIA: New Zealand acquires dominion status; ASIA: Japan gains control of Korea

1907 CH -qcx NE Aq Cn

+

ARTS: exhibition of cubist paintings in Paris: Picasso, Braque

+

INNOVN: Pavlov on reflexes; colour photography; tissue culture techniques; Boy Scouts founded

+

+

1908

E EUROPE: Bulgaria independent; Austria annexes Bosnia & Herzegovina (unpopular in Balkans)

1908 UR OPPN NE Cp Cn

+

OTTOMANS: revolt of Young Turks (seeking const'l rights & suffrage, to halt Ottoman decline)

1908 Ju OPPN CH Le Aq

+

S AFRICA: Union of S Africa estd; Crete unites with Greece; EUROPE: travels of Edward VII

+

GERMANY: Zeppelin disaster; INNOVN: 1st steel-glass building; bakelite; Model-T Ford; ammonia

+

+

1909

1909 UR OPPN NE Cp Cn

+

INNOVN: Peary reaches North Pole; Bleriot flies Eng Channel; genetics research (Morgan)

1909 CH -tri PL Aq Ge

+

C AMERICA: civil war in Honduras

+

* ARTS: development of abstract painting: Kandinsky, Mondrian

+

+

1910

E ASIA: Japan (by now a modern power) annexes Korea (until 1945)

1910 UR OPPN NE Cp Cn

1910 CH Pi

+

S AFRICA: formation of Union of South Africa (Boer general Botha first PM)

1910 HALLEY'S COMET

+

WORLD: Mexican Revolution begins; republican revolution in Portugal; revolt in Albania

1910 CH -tri PL Aq Ge

+

ARTS: Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Epstein, Monet, Kandinsky at work; architect F Lloyd Wright

+

INNOVN: devel of plastics; Rutherford's Theory of Atomic Structure; research in oceanography

+

1911

CHINA: CHINESE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION (Sun Yat-sen); end of Manchu dynasty (1644-1911)

1911 UR -qcx PL Cp Ge

1911 CH Pi

+

N AFRICA: Italy conquers Libya (Turkish-Italian war) (1st use of airplanes in warfare)

1911 CH -sqt NE Pi Cn

+

BRITAIN: suffragettes (Emily Pankhurst) seek women's votes & rights; also many labour strikes

+

BRITAIN: Lloyd George's Nat Insurance Bill & Official Secrets Act

+

C ASIA: independence of Tibet & Mongolia; WORLD: Amundsen reaches South Pole (Scott 1912)

+

1912

SE EUROPE: Balkan Crisis (1912-13): Balkan states unify against Turkey & Austria

1912 UR -qcx PL Cp Ge

1912 UR Aq

+

* EUROPE: armaments race between European powers; BRITAIN: RAF founded

1912 CH -sqt NE Pi Cn

+

BRITAIN: miners', dock & transport strikes; USA: textile workers' strikes (IWW)

+

IDEAS: Adler, Jung, Jaspers on psychanalysis; Taussig, Mitchell, Oppenheimer on social economy

+

RUSSIA: Lenin & Stalin join forces, Lenin edits Pravda; ATLANTIC: sinking of the Titanic

+

INNOVN: vitamins, protons & electrons identified; cellophane prodn; FW Woolworth & Co founded

1913

INNOVN: Henry Ford develops conveyer-belt production of Model-T car, Detroit USA

1913 CH -sqt NE Pi Cn

1913 PL Cn

+

SE EUROPE: Balkan states fight over land & sovreignty; Balkans 'powder-keg of Europe'

+

INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi (Passive Resistance Mvmnt) arrested; BRITAIN: Mrs Pankhurst jailed

+

* IDEAS: Bertrand Russell, Nils Bohr, J Jeans, R Steiner, Albert Schweizer, Einstein at work

+

* ARTS: Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B de Mille, Irving Berlin, Rutland Boughton; jazz popular

+

1914

E ASIA: Germany yields islands in Pacific to Japan, Australia & NZ, and concessions in China

1914 CH -sqt NE Pi Cn

1914 PL Cn

+

EUROPE: OUTBREAK OF FIRST WORLD WAR (fuelled by Balkan crisis & intransigent Euro powers)

1914 NE Le

+

EUROPE: Battles of Namur, Mons, Ypres, Tannenberg, Marne; AMERICAS: strife between US & Mexico

+

WORLD: French & British annex German colonies except Ger E Africa; UK takes Egypt (Suez Canal)

+

C AMERICA: Panama Canal opens; AFRICA: uniting of Nigeria

+

1915

EUROPE: devastating war in Belgium, Poland, North Sea, Aegean, Armenia, Persia, Balkans

1915 Ju CONJ CH Pi Pi

1915 NE Le

+

EUROPE: airborne & submarine war, zeppelins bomb London; Joffre, Haig & Nicholas II commanders

1915 Sa CONJ PL Cn Cn

+

USA: Pres W Wilson's 'New Freedom' (against corruption, trusts, protectionism & unfair taxes)

+

INNOVN: Ford's farm tractor & millionth car; 1st transcontinental telephone call (Bell)

+

+

1916

INNOVN: 1st birth control clinic opens, NY USA; blood transfusion; USA: alcohol prohibition

1916 NE +ssx PL Le Cn

1916 NE Le

+

INDIA: Hindus & Muslims join to call for Indian autonomy; EUROPE: M Buber 'Spirit of Judaism'

1916 UR -sqt PL Aq Cn

+

EUROPE: expensive stalemate in war provokes political crises in all countries

+

IRELAND: Sinn Fein Easter Rebellion; MIDEAST: TE Lawrence supports Arabs against Turks

+

AMERICAS: USA expands in Caribbean (buying Danish & Dutch islands)

+

1917

MIDEAST: Balfour Declaration promises Jews a national home in British-occupied Palestine

1917 Sa CONJ NE Le Le

+

RUSSIA: OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA: 1st socialist state; peace, land reform, democracy

1917 NE +ssx PL Le Cn

+

USA: USA joins world war; EUROPE: Finland & Albania gain independence

1917 UR -sqt PL Aq Cn

+

EUROPE: Germany, Austria & Turkey in retreat; starvation in Germany

+

+

1918

EUROPE: Germany, Austria & Turkey sue for armistice: end of First World War; 8.5m dead

1918 Sa OPPN UR Le Aq

1918 CH Ar

+

RUSSIA: minority Bolsheviks take over; widespread civil war; famine & disease spread

+

USA: Pres W Wilson announces 'Fourteen Points' (progressive treaty proposals for world)

+

ASIA: Japanese advance into Siberia; BRITAIN: women over 30 become voters

+

EUROPE: Czechoslovakia (Masaryk), Yugoslavia, Poland & Iceland independent

+

MIDEAST: Woolley excavates Babylon; INNOVN: Shapley researches Milky Way galaxy

1919

WORLD: nationalist movements & revolts in India, Egypt, China

1919 CH -SQR PL Ar Cn

1919 UR Pi

+

WORLD: Paris Peace Conference; map of Europe & Middle East redrawn; USA leading world power

1919 Sa OPPN UR Vi Pi

1919 CH Ar

+

EUROPE: influenza epidemic (millions die); unrest in Germany; Weimar Rep; White Russian defeat

+

INNOVN: Rutherford's research on atom, Cambridge UK; ARTS: Bauhaus school of design in Germany

+

INNOVN: first crossing of Atlantic by air (Alcock & Brown, 16 hrs); advances in meteorology

+

USA: race riots & strikes; MIDEAST: Syria independent; EUROPE: Hungary independent

1920

MIDEAST: Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk) leads Turkish nationalist movement & resistance to partition

1920 CH -SQR PL Ar Cn

1920 UR Pi

+

WORLD: League of Nations established, HQ Geneva (unsuccessful after 1924; USA does not join)

1920 NE on N Node

+

* WORLD: end of Euro dominance; rise of USA & USSR; disarmament fails; slow econ recovery;

1920 Sa OPPN UR Vi Pi

+

fragile new democratic states; antipathy to USSR; Third World nat'lism; Br & Fr divide M East

1920 CH Aph 7Ar

+

INNOVN: 1st public radio broadcasts, USA and UK (BBC); Int'l Court of Justice, Hague, founded

1920 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

* WORLD: rise of Ghandi, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin; RUSSIA: end of Civil War

1921

PERSIA: Reza Khan becomes leader in Persia, becomes Shah 1925 (bringing reform)

1921 UR -tri PL Pi Cn

+

E AFRICA: Washington conference attempts to regulate situation in East Asia

1921 CH -SQR PL Ar Cn

+

N AFRICA: Battle of Anual: Spanish army defeated by Moroccans

1921 Ju OPPN CH Li Ar

+

USA: USA restricts immigration (maturing of nation); trade protectionism, stock-market boom

1921 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

GERMANY: galloping inflation in Weimar Rep; PERSIA: Reza Khan takes power

+

IDEAS: Arthur Waley & WY Evans-Wentz, orientalists;

1922

MIDEAST: Greek army expelled from Turkey; last Ottoman sultan deposed; republic decl'd 1923

1922 UR -tri PL Pi Cn

+

USSR: formation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP); ITALY: Mussolini takes power

1922 Ju OPPN CH Li Ar

+

IRELAND: Irish Free State, Eire, created; BRITAIN: Marie Stopes advocates birth control

1922 Sa OPPN CH Li Ar

+

INNOVN: research on heredity (Morgan), white corpuscles, diabetes, physics, sound movies, stars

1922 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

* ARTS: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington; TS Eliot, Brecht, James Joyce, V Woolf, DH Lawrence

+

1923

EUROPE: French occupy Ruhr (on Ger failure to pay reparations); Pan-Europa Movement founded

1923 Sa OPPN CH Li Ar

+

USA: General Motors established (world's largest manufacturing company); racist Ku Klux Klan

1923 UR -qcx NE Pi Le

+

JAPAN: Tokyo & Yokohama destroyed in earthquake; WORLD: exploration in Tibet, Gobi & Poles

1923 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

EUROPE: dictatorships: de Rivera in Spain, Mussolini in Italy

+

MIDEAST: Transjordan independent; Turkish capital moves to Ankara

+

IDEAS: Schweitzer 'Philosophy of Civil'n'; Webbs' 'Decay of Capitalism'; Mauthner 'Atheism'

1924

USSR: death of Lenin (rise of Stalin); * SCANDNVA: rise of Social Democracy (Hjalmar Branting)

1924 UR -qcx NE Pi Le

+

BRITAIN: 1st Labour gov't (Ramsey MacDonald) (short-lived); INDIA: Ghandi fasts 21 days

1924 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

INNOVN: Imperial Airways; Time Mag; electric razor; Hubble Effect; theory of acids & bases

+

+

+

1925

EUROPE: Locarno treaties stabilise frontiers in the West; MIDEAST: Hebrew University, Jerusalem

1925 UR -qcx NE Pi Le

+

GERMANY: Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' published; BRITAIN: Unemployment Insurance Act

1925 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

IDEAS: Quantum Mechanics (Heisenberg, Bohr & Jordan)

+

JAPAN: general suffrage for males; MED'N: Cyprus becomes British colony

+

+

1926

CHINA: Chiang Kai-shek reunites China; MIDEAST: reform & modern'n in Turkey

1926 UR -qcx NE Pi Le

1926 CH Ta

+

BRITAIN: general strike in Britain (against unemployment & gov't policies)

1926 CH -tri NE Ar Le

+

IBERIA: Salazar takes power in Portugal; N AFRICA: revolt crushed in Morocco by Spain

+

* ARTS: Talking movies, great film-makers: Griffith, Disney, Eisenstein, Hitchcock, Chaplin

+

ARTS: Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh'; INNOVN: Goddard (US) fires first rocket

+

1927

WORLD: economic conference of 52 nations at Geneva

1927 UR -qcx NE Pi Le

1927 UR Ar

+

GERMANY: 'Black Friday' collapse of economy; foreign troops leave; Nazi Party program publ'd

1927 CH Ta

+

INNOVN: 1st electronic musical instrument; ARTS: Gershwin & Hammerstein at work in NYC, USA

+

INNOVN: Lindbergh's NY-Paris flight in 'Spirit of St Louis' (33 hrs)

+

+

1928

USSR: first Five Year Plan and collectivisation of agriculture in USSR (command economy')

1928 UR Ar

+

WORLD: Briand-Kellogg Pact (15+54 states sign) bans war as a means to settle conflicts

1928 NE Vi

+

BRITAIN: suffrage for women over 21; ATLANTIC: Amelia Earhart flies Atlantic

+

INNOVN: Fleming discs penicillin; 1st organ transplants; 1st TV broadcasts, NY; teleprinters

+

S AMERICA: collapse of Brazilian economy

+

1929

WORLD: Wall Street Crash precipitates world economic depression (unemployment, loss, poverty)

1929 Ju CONJ CH Ta Ta

1929 NE Vi

+

BRITAIN: Labour gov't (R MacDonald); OCEANIA: Labour gov't; RUSSIA: Trotsky exiled (killed 39)

+

C EUROPE: dictatorship in Yugoslavia; MIDEAST: Palestinians attack Jews (over Wailing Wall)

+

USA: construction of Empire State Building (1929-31); * growth of comic strips; gangsterism

+

INNOVN: isol'n of estrone (fem hormone); quartz-crystal clock; Einstein's Unified Field Theory

+

1930

S AMERICA: military revolution in Brazil & Argentina; * GERMANY: rise of Nazi Party & sponsors

1930 PL on N Node

+

WORLD: naval disarmament treaty (US UK Japan France Italy); * int'l drive against narcotics

1930 NE +ssq PL Vi Cn

+

INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi stats campaign of non-violent civil disobedience against British

+

INNOVN: planet Pluto discovered by Tombaugh; devel of cyclotron; photo flash bulbs

+

AFRICA: Ras Tafari becomes Ethiopian Emp Haile Selassie; trans-Africa Benguela Rly completed

+

IDEAS: Adler, Freud, Keynes, Planck, Trotsky, Laski, Einstein, Heidegger, Vienna Circle

1931

E ASIA: Japanese annex Manchuria; INDIA: anti-British unrest, Congress banned, Ghandi arrested

1931 Sa OPPN PL Cp Cn

+

IBERIA: Spain becomes a republic

1931 NE +ssq PL Vi Cn

+

BRITAIN: Gold Standard abandoned (econ downfall); EUROPE: bank crises in Germany & Austria

1931 CH -sxt PL Ta Cn

+

+

+

1932

MIDEAST: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia formed by Ibn Saud; USSR: 2nd Five Year Plan; famine

1932 UR -SQR PL Ar Cn

+

S AMERICA: Chaco War, Bolivia & Paraguay; USA: FD Roosevelt Pres (32-45) (reconstruction)

1932 NE +ssq PL Vi Cn

+

GERMANY: Nazi majority in Reichstag; emigration of artists; JAPAN: export price undercutting

1932 UR -sqt NE Ar Vi

+

INNOVN: devel of radio astronomy; Piccard's balloon flight to 17.5 miles up; vitamin research

1932 CH -sxt PL Ta Cn

+

+

1933

GERMANY: Hitler Chancellor (33-45): Nazi revolution: Reichstag fire, dictatorship, Jew-hunts

1933 UR -SQR PL Ar Cn

1933 CH Ge

+

USA: Roosevelt's 'New Deal'; US abandons Gold Standard; recognises USSR; repeals prohibition

1933 UR -sqt NE Ar Vi

+

FRANCE: Stavisky corruption scandal; MIDEAST: massacre of Assyrian christians in Iraq

+

INNOVN: Arctic warming discovered (9°C in 30 yrs); ARTS: 'King Kong'

+

+

1934

* CHINA: Long March of Communists begins, with Mao Tse-dong; USSR: Stalin's purges begin

1934 UR -SQR PL Ar Cn

1934 UR Ta

+

N AFRICA: Italian suppression of Senussi resistance in Libya

1934 UR -sqt NE Ar Vi

1934 CH Ge

+

EUROPE: revolution in Austria; Hitler & Mussolini meet; gen strike in France

+

WORLD: USSR joins League of Nations, Japan leaves, renounces various treaties

+

BRITAIN: regional planning & driving tests introduced; Churchill warns of war

+

IDEAS: Toynbee's 'A Study of History'; ARTS: Gershwin's 'Porgy & Bess'; Fred Astaire

1935

N AFRICA: Italy invades Ethiopia

1935 CH -SQR NE Ge Vi

1935 UR Ta

+

C AMERICA: land redistribution & oil nationalisation in Mexico; USA: Social Security Act

1935 UR -sqt NE Ar Vi

+

GERMANY: Saarland annexed, breaking of treaties, social pressures; USSR: political show trials

1935 CH -ssq PL Ge Cn

+

INNOVN: Alcoholics Anonymous, NYC; radar; Hammond Organs

+

BRITAIN: Oswald Mosley's Fascism

+

1936

MIDEAST: Palestinian revolt against Jewish immigration; oil pipeline Iraq-Levant

1936 Ju OPPN CH Sg Ge

+

GERMANY: German reoccupation of Rhineland; Japan signs anti-Comintern pact with Germany

1936 CH -SQR NE Ge Vi

+

IBERIA: Spanish Civil War begins (Franco); N AFRICA: British occupy Suez Canal by alliance

1936 Sa OPPN NE Pi Vi

+

AMERICAS: Pan-American Congress; USA proclaims good-neighbour policy; USA: 'Swing' music

1936 CH +ssq UR Ge Ta

+

IDEAS: Keynes' 'Theory of Employment, Interest & Money'; INNOVN: BBC regular TV transmissions

+

1937

ASIA: Japan invades China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking); Chiang Kai-Shek & Mao Tse-Dong unite

1937 CH -SQR NE Ge Vi

1937 PL Le

+

MIDEAST: separate Arab & Jewish Palestinian states suggested; WORLD: Germany-Italy-Japan pact

1937 Sa OPPN NE Pi Vi

1937 CH Cn

+

1937 CH +ssq UR Ge Ta

+

USA: neutrality declared; econ recession; 'Hindenberg' zeppelin disaster; Ford Foundation estd

1937 CH -ssx PL Ge Cn

+

INNOVN: jet engine first built in UK; 1st worldwide radio broadcast; nylon patented (du Pont)

+

1938

EUROPE: Germany occupies Austria; Munich conference; dismemberment of Czechoslovakia

1938 CH +ssq UR Ge Ta

1938 PL Le

+

USSR: pogroms & trials, rapid industrialisation; EUROPE: Roosevelt urges European amicability

1938 CH -ssx PL Ge Cn

1938 CH Cn

+

+

+

+

1939

EUROPE: Germany invades Poland: SECOND WORLD WAR begins; war at sea, USSR fights in Poland

1939 UR -tri NE Ta Vi

1939 PL Le

+

IBERIA: fascist dictator Franco in power, Civil War ends; alliance with Germany-Italy

+

USA: economic boom (war trade from Europe); WORLD: Pan-Am & BOAC founded

+

E ASIA: Japanese friction with USA & UK in China

+

INNOVN: polyethylene; Sikorsky's helicopter; DDT; research on splitting atom; FM radio

+

1940

EUROPE: Germany overruns Norway, Belgium, France, Denmark, Netherlands

1940 UR -tri NE Ta Vi

1940 CH Le

+

W EUROPE: air Battle of Britain; Brit night bombing of Germany; U-boat warfare

1940 CH +sxt UR Cn Ta

+

CHINA: UK reopens Burma Road to supply Chinese against Japan

1940 CH -sxt NE Cn Vi

+

+

FRANCE: Lascaux prehistoric wall paintings discovered (20,000 yrs old)

+

1941

WORLD: Japan attacks USA in Hawaii: USA enters Second World War

1941 UR -tri NE Ta Vi

1941 UR Ge

+

WORLD: Germany invades Russia & Egypt; Japan invades Hong Kong & Philippines

1941 CH CONJ PL Le Le

1941 CH Le

+

WORLD: USA begins lend-lease to Britain (end of British capital dominance in world)

1941 CH -ssq NE Le Vi

+

INNOVN: 'Manhattan Project' (atomic research); plutonium discovered

1941 CH -sxt NE Cn Vi

+

+

1942

ASIA: Japan overruns SE Asia; PACIFIC: Battle of Midway: USA halts Japanese expansion

1942 UR -tri NE Ta Vi

1942 UR Ge

+

N AFRICA: Battle of El Alamein, German defeat and retreat (turning-point)

1942 Sa CONJ UR Ta Ta

1942 NE Li

+

EUROPE: German VIth army surrenders at Stalingrad; Italian capitulation; Jewish Holocaust

1942 CH -ssq NE Le Vi

+

INNOVN: Fermi splits the atom; 1st electronic computer; magnetic tape-recording; Oxfam founded

+

INDIA: Ghandi demands Indian independence

+

1943

EUROPE: German retreat begins; Warsaw ghetto massacre; bombing of Germany; Italy surrenders

1943 UR -tri NE Ge Li

1943 NE Li

+

ASIA: US forces take Pacific islands; Chinese push back Japanese

1943 UR -sxt PL Ge Le

1943 CH Vi

+

USA: race riots; wage, salary & price freeze (against inflation)

1943 CH +SQR UR Vi Ge

+

1943 CH +ssx PL Vi Le

+

1943 CH -ssx NE Le Vi

+

1944

EUROPE: Allied landings in Normandy (D-Day); Russian advance in E Europe; Warsaw uprising

1944 UR -sxt PL Ge Le

1944 CH Li

+

ASIA: Vietnam (Ho Chih Minh) decl ind of France & Japan; Japanese losses; US bombs Japan

1944 CH +ssq PL Vi Le

+

S AMERICA: rise of Peron in Argentina; FRANCE: de Gaulle takes power

+

+

+

1945

WORLD: Yalta Conference (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill; begn of 'Cold War'; world map redrawn)

1945 Ju CONJ CH Li Li

1945 CH Li

+

EUROPE: defeat of Germany, suicide of Hitler; Germany divided into 4 zones; Nuremburg trials

1945 CH CONJ NE Li Li

+

INNOVN: ATOMIC BOMB FIRST DETONATED, NM, USA; atomic energy research, Harwell, UK

1945 UR on N Node

+

WORLD: USA drops atom bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki (forcing surrender); WW II ends, 45m dead

1945 CH Peri 7Li

+

WORLD: UNITED NATIONS established, HQ New York; WORLD BANK founded (reconstr'n & devel't)

1945 CH +sxt PL Li Le

+

MIDEAST: Arab League formed; C EUROPE: People's Rep of Yugoslavia declared (Tito)

1945 CH +tri UR Li Ge

1946

CHINA: Civil War in China (1945-9) (between Kuomintang & Communists)

1946 CH +sqt UR Sc Ge

1946 CH Sc

+

* SE ASIA: Vietnamese struggle against France (1946-54); MIDEAST: Br & Fr leave Lebanon

1946 CH +tri UR Li Ge

+

EUROPE: Paris Peace Conference; general devastation & chaos; Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech

+

GERMANY: Communists gain gov't in E Germany; SCANDNVA: Tage Erlander, PM of Sweden (46-69)

+

INNOVN: pilotless missile; discovery of 'solar wind'; xerography process (photocopying)

+

1947

S ASIA: India (Hindu) & Pakistan (Islamic) independent (Ghandi & Nehru); Burma independent

1947 CH +SQR PL Sc Le

+

WORLD: intensification of Cold War (1945-89): Truman Doctrine; formation of NATO alliance

1947 Sa CONJ PL Le Le

+

SE EUROPE: Greek Civil War (1947-9); USA: first UFOs reported

1947 CH +sqt UR Sc Ge

+

EUROPE: US Marshall Plan for econ reconstruction in Europe; Benelux customs union (seed of EC)

1947 CH +ssx NE Sc Li

+

INNOVN: supersonic flight, USA; transistor invented; Thor Heyerdahl sails Pacific on Kon Tiki

+

1948

MIDEAST: establishment of state of Israel (Ben Gurion): first Arab-Israeli war

1948 CH +qcx UR Sc Ge

1948 UR Cn

+

E EUROPE: Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary; Berlin airlift

1948 CH +ssq NE Sc Li

1948 CH Sg

+

AMERICAS: Organisation of American States established; WORLD: World Health Assembly, Geneva

+

EUROPE: Hague Conference on European Unity; INNOVN: LP record, Mt Palomar telescope

+

IDEAS: Kinsey on sexology; Big Bang theory of origin of universe

+

ARTS: Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'

1949

CHINA: Communist victory; PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA declared (Mao Tse-Dong, Chou En-lai)

1949 UR -ssq PL Ge Le

1949 UR Cn

+

SE ASIA: Indonesia independent; CHINA: Chiang Kai-Shek removes to Formosa (Taiwan)

+

EUROPE: Council of Europe founded, Strasbourg; German Federal Republic founded

+

S AFRICA: apartheid program inaugurated; USA: anti-Communist trials (McCarthyism)

+

INNOVN: US missile reaches 250 miles into space; USSR first atomic bomb

+

BRITAIN: nationalisation & establishment of 'welfare state'

1950

E ASIA: Korean War (1950-53) (communists against capitalists); US aids Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia

1950 NE +sxt PL Li Le

+

C ASIA: Chinese forces occupy Tibet; S AFRICA: race riots against apartheid, Jo'burg

1950 UR -ssq PL Cn Le

+

USA: McCarthyite anti-Communist & Korea paranoia; Fuchs (UK) & Gold (US) atomic secrets trials

1950 CH +sxt NE Sg Li

+

WORLD: UN reports 450m children undernourished; world population 3.2 billion

1950 CH +tri PL Sg Le

+

+

1951

PACIFIC: Australia, NZ & USA sign Anzas Pact

1951 NE +sxt PL Li Le

1951 CH Cp

+

INNOVN: first nuclear power stations in USA & UK; colour TV (US)

1951 CH +sqt PL Cp Le

+

WORLD: Cold War: defections (Burgess & Maclean); spy trials in US & Czech'ia; E Berlin escapes

+

+

+

1952

E AFRICA: Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya

1952 NE +sxt PL Li Le

+

N AFRICA: military revolt against Britain in Egypt; proclamation of republic by Nasser 1953

1952 CH OPPN UR Cp Cn

+

INNOVN: contraceptive pill developed (US); hydrogen bomb (US); isotopes in medicine & industry

1952 Sa CONJ NE Li Li

+

GERMANY: economic revival, Germany joins World Bank; Israeli-German restitution agreement

1952 CH +sqt PL Cp Le

+

N AMERICA: 1st major nuclear accident & leak, Canada

+

1953

USSR: end of Stalinist period in USSR; Kruschev First Secretary; E ASIA: Korean Armistice

1953 NE +sxt PL Li Le

+

WORLD: Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of UN (1953-61); Hillary & Tenzing climb Mt Everest

1953 CH OPPN UR Cp Cn

+

AFRICA: unrest in Kenya, Rhodesia & Nyasaland; WORLD: 1st Commonwealth Conference, London

1953 Sa CONJ NE Li Li

+

INNOVN: lung cancer attributed to cigarette smoking; structure of DNA molecule identified, UK

1953 CH +qcx PL Cp Le

+

* ARTS: Britten, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, K Amis, Som't Maugham, Wm Golding, Priestley, Picasso

+

1954 NE +sxt PL Li Le

1954

SE ASIA: Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam become independent of France (Geneva Conference)

1954 UR -SQR NE Cn Li

+

N AFRICA: beginnings of nationalist revolt in Algeria

1954 Ju OPPN CH Cn Cp

+

WORLD: agreements France-W Germany, Japan-Burma, US-Taiwan, US-Japan

1954 CH OPPN UR Cp Cn

+

USA: McCarthyism tempered; physicist Oppenheimer demoted; Distant Early-Warning System (radar)

1954 CH +SQR NE Cp Li

+

INNOVN: Bannister runs 4-minute mile; WORLD: World Council of Churches convenes; Billy Graham

1954 UR -ssx PL Cn Le

+

1954 CH +qcx PL Cp Le

1955

ASIA: Bandung conference

1955 NE +sxt PL Li Le

1955 UR Le

+

E EUROPE: Warsaw Pact signed (Soviet & E European defence pact)

1955 UR -SQR NE Cn Li

1955 NE Sc

+

W EUROPE: European Union (France, Italy, W Germany); BRITAIN: rail & dock strikes

1955 Ju OPPN CH Le Aq

1955 CH Aq

+

WORLD: Universal Copyright Convention; INNOVN: UHF broadcasting; artificial diamonds

1955 CH OPPN UR Aq Le

+

USA: black civil rights agitation, Alabama; rise of Martin Luther King; AFL-CIO merger

1955 CH +SQR NE Cp Li

+

INNOVN: hovercraft & optical fibres

1955 UR -ssx PL Cn Le

1956

MIDEAST: Second Arab-Israeli war; N AFRICA: Suez crisis: Anglo-French invasion of canal zone

1956 UR -SQR NE Le Sc

1956 UR Le

+

E EUROPE: Polish revolt, Gomulka in power; Hungarian revolt crushed by Russia (mass arrests)

1956 NE Sc

+

S ASIA: Pakistan becomes an Islamic Republic; AFRICA: Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco independent

1956 PL Vi

+

* ARTS: rock'n'roll: Elvis Presley's 'Blue Suede Shoes'; AMERICAS: Fidel Castro & Che Guevara

+

INNOVN: transatlantic telephone cable; neutrino discd; antibiotic research; FORTRAN devised

+

IDEAS: dawn of mass Peace Movement (CND marches, Aldermaston, UK); INNOVN: 1st video recording

1957

SE ASIA: Civil war in Vietnam

1957 PL Vi

+

EUROPE: Treaty of Rome: FORMATION OF EUROPEAN COMMUNITY; EFTA 1959

1957 NE Sc

+

* AFRICA: decolonisation in W Africa: Ghana independent

+

INNOVN: FIRST SPACE SATELLITES LAUNCHED, Sputniks I & II, USSR

+

WORLD: 71 cities with 1m+ people (16 in 1914)

+

1958

FRANCE: Fifth Republic in France, under Gen de Gaulle

1958 PL Vi

+

WORLD: Communist influence (USSR-China coop'n, USSR aid to Egypt & Cuba; Chinese in Indochina)

+

AMERICAS: West Indies Federation; anti-USA feeling in S America; USA: 'Explorer' satellite

+

WORLD: Beatnik movement in Europe & USA; nuclear submarine passes under Arctic icecap

+

INNOVN: Van Allen belt discovered; stereo recording; IDEAS: Galbraith's 'Affluent Society'

+

1959

C AMERICA: Cuban Revolution (Fidel Castro)

+

WORLD: World Refugee Year; USSR sends 2 monkeys into space & Lunik satellites to moon

+

MED'N: Cyprus becomes republic under Archbishop Makarios

+

ARTS: Gunther Grass, Ionesco, Norman Mailer, J Updike, Ian Fleming, Philip Roth, Graham Greene

+

C ASIA: flight of Dalai Lama from Chinese-occd Tibet (gov't in exile in N India)

+

1960

ASIA: Sino-Soviet disputes begin (end of cooperation); USA-USSR: U-2 spyplane crisis

1960 CH Pi

+

AFRICA: 'Africa's Year': many states independent; outbreak of civil war in Congo

+

USA: JF Kennedy, Pres (60-63); USSR: Leonid Brezhnev Pres; WORLD: US-USSR-UK-Fr summit fails

+

S AMERICA: Brasilia becomes capital of Brazil; GERMANY: neo-Nazism grows, is banned

+

INNOVN: 1st communications & weather satellites, USA; laser device; carbon-14 dating

+

1961

SE ASIA: Increasing US involvement in Vietnam (against Communist growth)

1961 CH OPPN PL Pi Vi

1961 UR Vi

+

EUROPE: East Germans build Berlin Wall (height of 'Cold War'; AMERICAS: 'Bay of Pigs' fiasco

1961 CH Pi

+

S AFRICA: South Africa becomes independent republic; UN condemns apartheid

+

INNOVN: FIRST MAN IN SPACE, Gagarin, USSR; structure of DNA molecule determined, UK

+

AFRICA: Tanganyika Conference (on protecting African wildlife)

+

ARTS: Heller's 'Catch-22', Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'

1962

ASIA: Sino-Indian war (in Himalayas)

1962 Ju CONJ CH Pi Pi

1962 UR Vi

+

AFRICA: Algeria independent (after uprising against France); Uganda & Tanganyika independent

1962 CH OPPN PL Pi Vi

+

WORLD: Cuba missile crisis (threat of nuclear war); U Thant UN Secretary-General

+

ROME: Second Vatican Council reforms catholic liturgy & dogma

+

INNOVN: Telstar, Venus probe, orbiting astronauts; thalidomide scandal

+

* WORLD: decline of 19th C industries (coal-based) & rise of Third World industry (SE Asia)

1963

USA: civil rights unrest, Alabama, 'Freedom Marches', DC; Kennedy assassinated

1963 CH OPPN PL Pi Vi

+

USSR-USA 'Hot Line'; Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (USA, USSR, UK); BRITAIN: Gt Train Robbery

1963 CH +tri NE Pi Sc

+

BRITAIN: Profumo Affair; Philby spy scandal; UK application to join EC rejected by de Gaulle

+

INNOVN: first woman in space (V Tereshkova, 3 days); quasars discovered; artificial heart used

+

SE ASIA: military coup in S Vietnam (USA aided); AFRICA: Kenya independent (Jomo Kenyatta)

+

1964

USA: Civil Rights Bill inaugurates Pres Johnson's Great Society program; BRITAIN: H Wilson, PM

1964 CH OPPN PL Pi Vi

+

CHINA: publication of 'Thoughts of Chairman Mao'; SE ASIA: escalation of Vietnam war

1964 CH +tri NE Pi Sc

+

AFRICA: Tanzania formed (Nyerere); Zambia (Kaunda), Malawi & Congo (Tshombe) independent

+

MIDEAST: Arafat becomes leader of Palestinian Al Fatah (PLO)

+

BRITAIN: Harold Wilson, PM; Mods & Rockers; 'Brain Drain'; emergence of Beatles & Mersey sound

+

1965 CH OPPN PL Pi Vi

1965

INDIA: Indo-Pakistan War (over Kashmir); SE ASIA: military takeover in Indonesia

1965 CH OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

AFRICA: Rhodesia declares UDI; Gambia independent; socialist revolution in Algeria

1965 UR CONJ PL Vi Vi

+

USA: black civil rights marches (Alabama), anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, LA race riots

1965 Sa OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

SE ASIA: full-scale war in Vietnam - Cold War proxy conflict

1965 Sa OPPN PL Pi Vi

+

WORLD: earthquake in Chile; tornadoes in US; cyclones in E Pakistan

1965 CH +tri NE Pi Sc

+

USA: Ralph Nader fights for consumer rights

1966 UR CONJ PL Vi Vi

1966

* CHINA: Cultural Revolution (Red Guard, purges, forced reforms, 'words of Chairman Mao')

1966 UR -sxt NE Vi Sc

+

USA: black discontent & growth of Black Power; WORLD: Int'l Days of Protest (anti-Vietnam War)

1966 Sa CONJ CH Pi Pi

+

* WORLD: 'Flower Power' & use of LSD grows amongst young (San Fran, London, Goa, A'dam, Med'n)

1966 CH OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

BRITAIN: econ downfall & standstill; IBERIA: loss of 4 unarmed US H-bombs (retrieved)

1966 Sa OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

SE ASIA: political massacres of 1m progressives in Indonesia (Suharto)

1966 Sa OPPN PL Pi Vi

+

INNOVN: * int'l spread of the supermarket & mass tourism; Surveyor 1 sends pictures from moon

1966 CH +tri NE Pi Sc

1967

MIDEAST: Six Day War, between Israel & Arabs (Israel gains Jerusalem, closes Suez Canal)

1967 UR -sxt NE Vi Sc

+

AFRICA: Biafra Civil War in Nigeria (67-70) (much death & famine); EUROPE: milit coup in Greece

1967 CH OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

CHINA: China-UK friction over Hong Kong; MIDEAST: pan-Arab solidarity grows

1967 Sa OPPN UR Pi Vi

+

N AMERICA: de Gaulle's 'Quebec Libre' speech; EUROPE: military coup in Greece

1967 CH +tri NE Pi Sc

+

ARTS: Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper', Dylan, Clapton, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Joplin, G Dead, Airplane

+

INNOVN: devel of genetic engineering (synthesis of DNA); Expo 67, Montreal; heart transplants

1968

C EUROPE: liberal 'Prague Spring' (Dubcek) halted by USSR intervention; unrest in Warsaw

1968 Ju OPPN CH Vi Pi

1968 UR Li

+

USA: assassination of Martin Luther King & Robert Kennedy; CANADA: Pierre Trudeau, liberal PM

1968 CH OPPN UR Pi Vi

1968 CH Ar

+

WORLD: student & political protest (near anarchy in Germany, France, UK); USA: draft-dodging

+

BRITAIN: curbs on immigration from India, Africa, W Indies (repatriation suggested)

+

INNOVN: growth of worldwide satellite communications; pulsars discovered

+

* JAPAN: now 3rd largest ind'l state in world; ARTS: 'Monty Python', K Clark's 'Civilisation'

1969

IRELAND: violence breaks out in Ulster (between Cath nationalists & Prot unionists)

1969 Ju OPPN CH Li Ar

1969 CH Ar

+

INNOVN: FIRST MAN LANDS ON THE MOON (Armstrong, USA); supersonic Concorde airliner

1969 CH OPPN UR Ar Li

+

MIDEAST: growth of Palestine Lib'n Front (Y Arafat); C EUROPE: public suicide of Jan Palach

+

WORLD: Rome convention on marine pollution; first banning of DDT & cyclamate food additives

+

* IDEAS: influential Feminist, Green, New Left, Black, inner growth mvmnts; Woodstock festival

+

WORLD: world inflation, high interest rates; Nixon, Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, W Brandt, Heath

1970

E EUROPE: Polish-German treaty (recognition of post-WW2 frontiers); German 'Ostpolitik'

1970 CH OPPN UR Ar Li

1970 NE Sg

+

S AMERICA: socialist Allende elected president of Chile, assassinated 1973

1970 CH Aph 8Ar

+

WORLD: growth of airplane hijacking; low financial confidence; SE ASIA: Vietnam de-escalation

+

S AMERICA: world's 1st elected Marxist president, Allende, Chile

+

USA: Kent State deaths, 450 colleges close; Charles Manson; 'Jesus Movement' (fundamentalism)

+

MIDEAST: Palestinians fight Jordan for space to live & operate; IDEAS: G Greer 'Female Eunuch'

1971

WORLD: US-China detente, China joins UN; first US-USSR nuclear test ban treaty (ocean floor)

1971 CH OPPN UR Ar Li

1971 PL Li

+

S ASIA: Indo-Pak war leads to breakaway of Bangla Desh; SE ASIA: war spreads to Laos & Cambodia

1971 Sa OPPN NE Ge Sg

+

AFRICA: Idi Amin, Uganda dictator (71-79) (terror); Algeria nationalises Fr gas & oil interests

+

EUROPE: end of 400-year dispute between Catholic & Anglican churches (ecumenicalism)

+

BRITAIN: postal strike; internment without trial in Ulster

+

INNOVN: 'Intel' microprocessor silicon chip developed

1972

* WORLD: DÉTANTE (relaxing of Cold War); USA: 'Watergate Affair' (secrecy & corruption)

1972 CH OPPN UR Ar Li

1972 PL Li

+

SE ASIA: Marcos, dictator in Philippines; OCEANIA: Whitlam's Labour govt, Australia (anti-USA)

1972 Sa OPPN NE Ge Sg

+

INNOVN: discover of Tasaday stone-age tribe, Philippines; 'homo habilis' (R Leakey, Kenya)

1972 UR -ssq NE Li Sg

+

S ASIA: Ceylon becomes Sri Lanka republic

+

+

1973

SE ASIA: USA failing in IndoChina, VietCong, Pathet-Lao & Khmer Rouge gaining; 2m dead (65-73)

1973 CH OPPN UR Ar Li

+

MIDEAST: Yom Kippur, fourth Arab-Israeli war; Arab oil embargo of ind'l world

1973 UR -ssq NE Li Sg

+

EUROPE: Britain, Eire & Denmark join EC; E & W Germany recognise each other

1973 CH +sqt NE Ar Sg

+

WORLD: major recession in world (oil prices & econ instability; decline of Euro-USA dominance)

+

S AMERICA: military coup, Chile (Allende dies, CIA involvement); return of Perons, Argentina

+

INNOVN: US Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter; IDEAS: Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful'

1974

IBERIA: end of dictatorship in Portugal; AFRICA: Mozambique & Angola soon independent

1974 CH +sqt NE Ar Sg

1974 UR Sc

+

MED'N: Turkish invasion of E Cyprus (partition); return of democracy in Greece

+

USA: Nixon resigns in Watergate affair; protests over pardoning of Nixon; corruption trials

+

SE ASIA: Communists take over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; ARTS: ABBA (pop)

+

AFRICA: drought & famine; H Selassie of Ethiopia deposed by Marxist junta; Eritrean lib'n war

+

INNOVN: Skylab; USSR lands on Mars; research on quarks; WORLD: worldwide econ inflation

1975

MIDEAST: war between Christians & Muslims in Lebanon starts

1975 CH +sqt NE Ar Sg

1975 UR Sc

+

EUROPE: 35 nations sign Helsinki Accords on Security & Cooperation; WORLD: Int'l Women's Year

+

ASIA: India annexes Sikkim; Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces terror 'reforms'; end of Vietnam War

+

WORLD: independence of Angola, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Surinam; military coup in Peru

+

WORLD: growing Arab solidarity against Isreal; OPEC raises oil prices 10%; Suez Canal reopens

+

WORLD: US Apollo & USSR Soyuz craft meet in space; Europe & US liberalisation on homosexuality

1976

AFRICA: Morocco & Mauritania partition Span Sahara; Angola civil war starts; Soweto riots

1976 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

1976 CH Ta

+

IBERIA: liberalisation in Spain on death of Franco; WORLD: destruction of ozone layer noted

1976 Ju CONJ CH Ar Ar

+

WORLD: USA-USSR nuclear test treaty; USA: Bicentennial; 'Moonies'; Jimmy Carter, President

1976 CH +sqt NE Ar Sg

+

CHINA: Mao dies; Hua Kuo-Feng begins liberalisation; 'Gang of Four' coup attempt

+

SCANDNVA: Swedish Soc Dem party (Olof Palme) lose 1st election for 44 years

+

WORLD: earthquakes in China, Italy, Turkey, Mindanao, Bali, Guatemala; EUROPE: riots in Poland

1977

WORLD: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES (Carter, Sakharov, Amnesty Int'l); energy crisis & conservation

1977 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

1977 CH Ta

+

WORLD: two jumbo jets collide at Tenerife, killing 575 people

1977 CH +sqt NE Ta Sg

+

MIDEAST: PLO calls for independent Palestinian nation; Egypt-Israel agreements

+

ASIA: military coups in Pakistan (Zia) & Thailand; S AFRICA: ind black 'homelands' created

+

INNOVN: space shuttle; neutron bomb; disc'y of Chiron & Uranus' rings; genetics breakthroughs

+

USA: blackouts in NYC (disruption & looting); WORLD: volcanic eruptions in Japan, Italy, Hawaii

1978

WORLD: unrest in Nicarague, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bolivia; war in Lebanon complexifies

1978 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

+

INNOVN: Soviet cosmonauts 20 weeks in space; 'test-tube baby' (UK); ARTS: A Lloyd-Webber

1978 UR +ssx PL Sc Li

+

EUROPE: Red Brigades (Italy), Baader-Meinhof (Ger), IRA (UK) bombings

1978 UR -ssx NE Sc Sg

+

AFRICA: Katanga invaded by rebels (repulsed); S AMERICA: 'People's Temple' suicide of 917

1978 CH +sqt NE Ta Sg

+

* SE ASIA: beg of migration of Vietnamese 'boat people' (escaping communist regime)

+

ROME: Polish Pope John Paul II (1st non-Italian since 1522)

1979

C ASIA: Soviet forces occupy Afghanistan (79-89) (fight between Soviets & Islamic fundmntlism)

1979 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

+

MIDEAST: Shah deposed; Ayatollah Khomeini returns to found fundamentalist Islamic republic

1979 UR +ssx PL Sc Li

+

AFRICA: Uganda invaded by expatriots, Idi Amin deposed (end of genocide, corruption, torture)

1979 UR -ssx NE Sc Sg

+

SE ASIA: Vietnam invades Kampuchea (against Pol Pot Kh Rouge regime)

+

BRITAIN: Margaret Thatcher beomces PM; IRAN: students take US hostages (seeking return of Shah)

+

* WORLD: growth of influential New Age, complementary medicine, womens' and green movements

1980

MIDEAST: Iran-Iraq war (80-89, deadlocked, costly); US abortive attempt to rescue hostages

1980 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

+

C AMERICA: ruthless civil wars in San Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America

+

E EUROPE: Solidarity (Lech Walesa) focuses dissent in Poland (seed of later revolutions)

+

AFRICA: Zimbabwe independent (Mugabe)

-

+

1981

* ASIA: rise of Islamic Fundamentalism (Khomeini); Sadat (Egypt) killed; Muhajedin fighters

1981 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

1981 UR Sg

+

WORLD: assassination attempts on US Pres Ronald Reagan & Pope John Paul II

1981 CH +qcx NE Ta Sg

+

MIDEAST: Israeli planes destroy nuclear plant in Iraq (preventing bomb making)

1981 CH -qcx PL Ta Li

+

BRITAIN: IRA Maze hunger strike; inner city riots, unemployment 2m+

+

USA: R Reagan accuses USSR of being 'Evil Empire'; moral-majority conservatism

+

1982

MIDEAST: Israel invades troubled Lebanon (evacuation of PLO by sea)

1982 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

+

S AMERICA: Falklands War (UK 'Iron Lady' vs Argentine junta) over Malvinas islands

1982 Ju OPPN CH Sc Ta

+

IBERIA: socialist Gonzalez, PM (reform & econ growth); ARTS: Attenborough's film 'Ghandi'

1982 Sa CONJ PL Li Li

+

S ASIA: Tamil separatists unleash unrest in Sri Lanka

1982 CH +qcx NE Ta Sg

+

* WORLD: peak of nuclear war fears ('Star Wars', cruise missiles, Greenham Common women)

1982 CH -qcx PL Ta Li

+

1983

MIDEAST: 239 US Marines killed by Islamic Jihad terrorists (US withdraw from Lebanon)

1983 NE +sxt PL Sg Li

1983 PL Sc

+

INDIA: Bengalis massacred in Assam in civil riots

1983 Ju OPPN CH Sg Ge

1983 CH Ge

+

E ASIA: USSR Mig's shoot down stray Korean airliner over Kamchatka

1983 CH +qcx NE Ta Sg

+

INNOVN: Pioneer 10 passes Neptune and leaves solar system

1983 CH -qcx PL Ta Li

+

* WORLD: int'lising of finance grows almost to cult proportions (takeovers, junk-bonds)

+

1984

INDIA: Bhopal Union Carbide toxic gas disaster (2500 die)

1984 NE +sxt PL Cp Sc

1984 NE Cp

+

INDIA: gov't invasion of Sikh Golden Temple, Kashmir; Sikhs kill Indira Ghandi

1984 UR on S Node

1984 PL Sc

+

AFRICA: disastrous famine in Ethiopia (weather, war + gov't restrictions)

1984 CH +qcx NE Ge Cp

1984 CH Ge

+

INNOVN: identification of AIDS virus; retrieval & repair of satellite by space shuttle

1984 CH -qcx PL Ge Sc

+

BRITAIN: coal miners' strike (against ind'l decline & gov't); WORLD: AIDS scares

+

C AMERICA: civil war in Nicaragua (Sandinista gov't vs right-wing, US-backed Contras)

1985

WORLD: Live Aid (Geldof, raises money for Ethiopian famine, swings awareness worldwide)

1985 CH OPPN UR Ge Sg

+

WORLD: international terrorism (mainly Islamic) threatens order & security

1985 CH -qcx PL Ge Sc

+

WORLD: Fr agents sink Greenpeace 'Rainbow Warrior' (to prevent protest against nuclear test)

+

S AFRICA: black township unrest, state of emergency declared

+

USSR: rise to power of Mikhael Gorbachev, perestroika & glasnost (new era in USSR)

+

1986

USA: 'Irangate' affair; explosion of space-shuttle 'Challenger'; support of right-wing Contras

1986 CH OPPN UR Ge Sg

+

WORLD: explosion of Chernobyl nuclear plant (Ukraine) brings fear & opinion swing worldwide

1986 HALLEY'S COMET

+

SE ASIA: dictator Marcos ousted by Mrs Aquino in Philippines ('people power' against dictators)

1986 UR +ssq PL Sg Sc

+

N AFRICA: US bombing of Libya (against int terrorism & Col Ghadafi)

1986 CH -sqt PL Ge Sc

+

* WORLD: International pressure groups: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Peace groups, Amnesty Int'l

+

1987

WORLD: growing atmosphere for disarmament: Reagan (US) & Gorbachev (USSR) summits

1987 CH OPPN UR Ge Sg

+

USSR: Gorbachev starts major liberal reforms (social & economic restructuring & openness)

1987 Sa OPPN CH Sg Ge

+

MIDEAST: Iran-Iraq war intensifies (endangering Persian Gulf, oil interests & neighbours)

1987 UR +ssq PL Sg Sc

+

WORLD: 'Black Monday' Stock Market crash ends period of world economic growth & speculation

1987 CH -sqt PL Ge Sc

+

WORLD: Japan now dominates world financial markets; ecological priorities grow (ozone-layer)

+

BRITAIN: 'Spycatcher' secrets trials; hurricane hits England

1988

WORLD: USA-USSR DISARMAMENT TALKS END THE COLD WAR

1988 Sa OPPN CH Sg Ge

1988 UR Cp

+

USA: 'Irangate' trials (over clandestine military deals between USA & Iran)

1988 CH OPPN UR Ge Sg

1988 CH Cn

+

WORLD: rise of threat of chemical warfare (Iraqi use against Kurdish minority & Iran)

1988 Sa CONJ UR Sg Sg

+

C ASIA: Tibetan revolts against Chinese government

1988 CH -sqt PL Ge Sc

+

SE ASIA: ascendancy of the Asian 'tiger economies' – Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia

+

WORLD: rise of threat of chemical warfare (Iraqi use against Kurdish minority & Iran)

1989

EUROPE: Communist governments topple in E Europe (non-violent velvet revolutions, ex Rumania)

1989 CH OPPN UR Cn Cp

+

WORLD: awakening of nationalist feeling worldwide (USSR, E Europe, Asia)

1989 CH OPPN NE Cn Cp

+

WORLD: Salman Rushdie affair (awakens old shadows of European-Islamic strife)

1989 Sa CONJ NE Cp Cp

+

WORLD: FALL OF IRON CURTAIN & BERLIN WALL (changes in world power and in Europe)

1989 Sa OPPN CH Cp Cn

+

WORLD: campaign to create a World Park in Antarctica

1989 PL Peri 14Sc

+

CHINA: Tienanmen Square democracy movement crushed (human rights)

1989 CH -tri PL Cn Sc

1990

S AFRICA: liberalisation and ending of apartheid (Pres de Klerk)

1990 Ju CONJ CH Cn Cn

+

MIDEAST: Iraq occupies Kuwait (threatening world economy & oil supplies)

1990 Sa OPPN CH Cp Cn

+

WORLD: global corporate power (Microsoft, News Int'l, McDonalds, corporate takeovers)

1990 CH OPPN NE Cn Cp

+

USSR: separatist movements (Baltics, Georgia, Caucasus; disintegration, threat of civil war)

1990 CH -tri PL Cn Sc

+

EUROPE: reunification of Germany begins new era in 1990s Germany (Chancellor Kohl)

+

1991

MIDEAST: Gulf War (Desert Storm, against Iraq); Shia & Kurdish rebellions; major relief operations in Iraq

1991 Sa OPPN CH Aq Le

1991 CH Le

+

AFRICA: famine in Ethiopia/Sudan (changes in aid operations, growth of large aid organisations)

+

MIDEAST: Lebanese civil war (1976-91) ends in national exhaustion (reconstruction follows)

+

RUSSIA: rapid end of USSR, Gorbachev & Communist party (coup attempt); rise of Yeltsin's Russia, with

+

Western business invasion & growth of Russian business-mafia; Ukraine & Baltic states independent

+

C ASIA: new states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kirgyzstan, Turkmenistan

1992

WORLD: growth of World Wide Web, brings Internet into widespread popular use

1992 Sa OPPN CH Aq Le

+

WORLD: noticeable major global climatic changes; UN Rio Earth Summit (on global ecological questions)

1992 CH -SQR PL Le Sc

+

EUROPE: European Union integration (Maastricht Treaty, harmonisation, social & economic)

1992 CH -qcx UR Le Cp

+

AFRICA: failed UN/US intervention in Somalia (peacekeeping & aid fail; African power-politics low-point)

+

SE EUROPE: breakup of Yugoslavia into small states, war between Serbia & Croatia

+

W EUROPE: rise of the mysterious phenomenon of crop formations

1993

EUROPE: Bosnian civil war (between Muslim, Croat & Serb Bosnians, atrocities & concentration camps)

1993 UR CONJ NE Cp Cp

1993 CH Vi

+

MIDEAST: Israel-Palestine peace accords (mediated in Norway, plans for a Palestinian state)

1993 CH -SQR PL Le Sc

+

* WORLD: political, religious & institutional corruption exposed in many countries

1993 CH -qcx UR Le Cp

+

USA: Pres Bill Clinton (US period of wealth, technol growth & sole world superpower)

1993 CH -sqt NE Vi Cp

+

RUSSIA: Mafiosi-businessmen beome the dominant power in Russia

1993 CH -sqt UR Vi Cp

+

1994

AFRICA: Rwanda massacres (of Tutsi by Hutu; genocidal horror, Hutus flee, refugee camps)

+

S AFRICA: multi-racial elections in S Africa (ANC, Pres Nelson Mandela, multiracial society)

+

RUSSIA: Chechen war (94-97, Chechens declare independence, Russian invasion, destruction of Grozny)

+

* CHINA: rise of China as a world economic/manufacturing power (rebuilding of Shanghai)

+

+

1995

EUROPE: NATO intervention in Bosnia, war ends (NATO/UN occupation, Serb loss; UN peacekeeping)

1995 UR +sxt PL Cp Sc

1995 PL Sg

+

MIDEAST: Israeli PM Rabin assassinated (by right-wing Jew, Israeli peace process fails, right-wing gov't)

1995 CH -tri UR Vi Cp

1995 UR Aq

+

WORLD: furore over French nuclear testing in Pacific Ocean (growing world pacifism)

1995 CH -tri NE Vi Cp

1995 CH Li

+

WORLD: UN Women's Conference, Beijing (Third World women's influence and role in world change)

1995 UR +sxt PL Aq Sg

+

1995 CH -sxt PL Vi Sc

+

1996

1996 UR +sxt PL Aq Sg

1996 UR Aq

+

ASIA: decline of Japan as economic power (loans crises, lack of reform, competition from Tiger economies)

1996 CH -SQR NE Li Cp

1996 CH Sc

+

C ASIA: fundamentalist Taliban militia take Afghanistan (oppression of women)

+

INNOVN: a computer beats chess-master Kasparov at chess

+

* MIDEAST: Kurdish campaigns for independence (Turkey, Syria, raq)

+

1997

CHINA: Hong Kong rejoins China (last major British colony; 'one country, two systems' in China)

1997 UR +sxt PL Aq Sg

1997 CH Sc

+

ASIA: Asian Tiger economies' market crash (collapse of economies, social distress)

1997 CH -SQR NE Li Cp

+

INNOVN: Dolly the sheep, world's first cloned animal, Scotland (rising public fear of genetic biotech)

1997 CH -ssx PL Sc Sg

+

BRITAIN/INDIA: death of Princess Diana & Mother Theresa (mass emotional release, shifts of values)

1997 CH -SQR UR Sc Aq

+

BRITAIN: rise to power of Tony Blair's New Labour gov't ('Middle Way' politics, Ulster peace process)

+

1998

WORLD: climatic extremes & disasters, forest fires, marked global warming, Antarctic ice melting (el Nino)

1998 NE Aq

+

WORLD: global economic uncertainty (decline of Japan, econ crisis in SE Asia, Brazil, Russia)

+

USA: internal political/constitutional crisis (pres Clinton's moral stature, Starr, Lewinsky)

+

SE EUROPE: unrest in Kosovo (Albanian majority seek independence, Serb-Albanian atrocities escalate)

+

MIDEAST: beginnings of liberalisation in Iran (President Khatami, rise of new generation)

+

W AFRICA: reforms and democracy begin in Nigeria (decline of military dictatorship & kleptocracy)

1999

SE EUROPE: Kosovo Crisis (ethnic cleansing, NATO intervention, Kosovans return, Serb loss & isolation)

1999 CH -sxt NE Sg Aq

+

WORLD: peace processes (India-Pakistan, Israel, Ulster, Sierra Leone); civil wars in Angola, Afghanistan

1999 CH CONJ PL Sg Sg

1999 CH Sg

+

INNOVN: genetically modified crops (public pressures over food politics, corporate power, biotechnology)

+

WORLD: growing anticipation of Y2K technological breakdowns (much investment in fixing)

+

GERMANY: return of national capital to Berlin

+

2000

2000 CH -sxt UR Sg Aq