|
|
1914–1917
|
|
United States invades Mexico
|
|
|
1915–1917
|
|
Turkish massacres of Armenians
|
|
|
1916
|
|
Battles of Verdun and the
Somme
|
|
|
1916
|
|
Russia: Grigory
Rasputin murdered
|
|
|
1917
|
|
February and October
Revolutions in Russia; Russia exits World War
I; USSR established
|
|
|
1917
|
|
United States enters World War I
|
|
|
1917
|
|
Mexican Revolution ends with new constitution
|
|
|
1918
|
|
U.S. president Woodrow
Wilson proposes Fourteen
Points to end World War I
|
|
|
1918–1920
|
|
Russian Civil War
|
|
|
1918
|
|
Armistice ends war on Western
front
|
|
|
1919
|
|
Treaty of Versailles between Allies and
Germany
|
|
|
1920
|
|
France: League of
Nations formed
|
|
|
1920
|
|
Women’s suffrage in United
States
|
|
|
c. 1920
|
|
India: Gandhi leads Satyagraha
campaigns
|
|
|
1921
|
|
Hyperinflation in Germany
|
|
|
1922
|
|
Benito Mussolini rises to power in
Italy
|
|
|
1922
|
|
Joseph Stalin rises to power in
USSR
|
|
|
1926
|
|
Japan: Emperor Hirohito takes
power
|
|
|
1926–1927
|
|
Iraq and Saudi
Arabia become independent
|
|
|
1929
|
|
U.S. stock market crashes; United States
plunges into decade-long Great Depression that
spreads worldwide
|
|
|
1931
|
|
Japanese invade China
|
|
|
1932
|
|
United States: Franklin D.
Roosevelt elected president; launches New
Deal in 1933
|
|
|
1932–1933
|
|
USSR: Severe famine
|
|
|
1933
|
|
Germany: Nazi Party leader Adolf
Hitler gains power, declares Third
Reich
|
|
|
1934
|
|
China: Red Army under Mao
Zedong begins Long
March
|
|
|
1935
|
|
Germany: Nuremberg Laws further
persecution of Jews
|
|
|
1936–1939
|
|
Spanish Civil War
|
|
|
1938
|
|
Germany annexes Austria; Munich
Pact results in policy of appeasement
|
|
|
1938
|
|
Mexico nationalizes oil
|
|
|
1939
|
|
World War II begins with German invasion
of Poland
|
|
|
1940
|
|
Germany invades Holland, Norway, France; bombs Britain
|
|
|
1941
|
|
Japanese attack Pearl Harbor; United
States enters War
|
|
|
1941-1942
|
|
Germany invades Russia; begins “final solution” to exterminate
Jews in Holocaust
|
|
|
1942
|
|
United States: Japanese internment
camps established on West Coast
|
|
|
1943
|
|
Allies defeat Italy
|
|
|
1944
|
|
Allied D-Day invasion
of Normandy, France
|
|
|
1944
|
|
United States: Bretton
Woods conference
|
|
|
1945
|
|
United States: Roosevelt dies; Harry
Truman becomes president
|
|
|
1945
|
|
Germany surrenders; Potsdam
Conference
|
|
|
1945
|
|
United States drops atomic bombs at
Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japan surrenders, ending World War
II
|
|
|
1945
|
|
United Nations founded
|
|
|
1945-1946
|
|
Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war
criminals
|
|
|
1946
|
|
Juan Perón elected president
of Argentina
|
|
|
c.1947
|
|
Cold War begins between United States
and Soviet Union
|
|
|
1947
|
|
Communist control of Eastern Europe
|
|
|
1947
|
|
United States announces Marshall Plan for
European recovery
|
|
|
1947
|
|
India gains independence from Britain; partition creates Muslim
nation of Pakistan
|
|
|
1948-1949
|
|
Berlin airlift
|
|
|
1948
|
|
Israel established as state
|
|
|
1949
|
|
North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) formed with twelve charter
nations
|
|
|
1949
|
|
Maoist Revolution establishes People’s Republic of
China
|
|
|
1950-1953
|
|
Korean War results in split between
capitalist South Korea and
Stalinist North Korea
|
|
|
c.1951
|
|
United States: McCarthyism takes
hold
|
|
|
1953
|
|
USSR: Stalin dies; Khrushchev takes
power
|
|
|
1953
|
|
United States: Dwight
Eisenhower president
|
|
|
c.1955-1956
|
|
Postwar independence movements and decolonization sweep
Africa
|
|
|
1954
|
|
Algeria battles for independence
|
|
|
c.1955
|
|
United States: Civil Rights
movement begins
|
|
|
1955
|
|
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of nonaligned
countries established in Indonesia
|
|
|
1955
|
|
Warsaw Pact signed
|
|
|
1956
|
|
USSR represses rebellions in Hungary, Poland
|
|
|
1956
|
|
Egypt: President Gamal Abdel
Nasser nationalizes Suez Canal; Israel invades
Sinai
|
|
|
1956
|
|
Chinese take control of Tibet; Dalai Lama
flees in 1959
|
|
|
1959
|
|
Fidel Castro takes power
in Cuban Revolution
|
|
|
1959
|
|
Alaska and Hawaii become U.S. states
|
|
|
1960
|
|
Soviet-Chinese alliance dissolves
|
|
|
1960
|
|
United States: John F.
Kennedy elected
|
|
|
1960
|
|
OPEC formed
|
|
|
1961
|
|
South Africa leaves British Commonwealth
|
|
|
1961
|
|
United States supports failed invasion of Cuba at Bay
of Pigs
|
|
|
1961
|
|
Berlin Wall constructed
|
|
|
1962
|
|
Jamaica and British West Indies gain independence
|
|
|
1962
|
|
Cuban missile crisis
|
|
|
1963
|
|
Organization of African
Unity founded
|
|
|
1963
|
|
United States: Kennedy assassinated; Lyndon
Johnson becomes president
|
|
|
1964
|
|
United States escalates involvement in Vietnam
after Gulf of Tonkin incident
|
|
|
1964
|
|
Military dictatorship takes power
in Brazil
|
|
|
1966
|
|
China: Mao begins Cultural
Revolution
|
|
|
1967
|
|
Israel victorious in Six-Day
War
|
|
|
1967
|
|
Civil war in Nigeria
|
|
|
1968
|
|
United States: Martin Luther King
Jr. assassinated; height of protest movements
|
|
|
1968
|
|
Student-led rebellions in France and Germany
|
|
|
1968
|
|
North Vietnamese Tet
Offensive
|
|
|
1968
|
|
Soviets invade Czechoslovakia
|
|
|
1969
|
|
Violence erupts in Northern
Ireland
|
|
|
1970-1971
|
|
Vietnam War spreads to Laos and Cambodia
|
|
|
c.1970-1980
|
|
United States supports “Dirty Wars” in
South America
|
|
|
1971
|
|
Eastern Pakistan breaks with Western Pakistan,
becomes Bangladesh
|
|
|
1972
|
|
United
States: Watergate scandal
|
|
|
1972
|
|
Northern Ireland: “Bloody
Sunday”
|
|
|
1973
|
|
United States withdraws from Vietnam
|
|
|
1973
|
|
Israel repels Arab invasion
|
|
|
1973
|
|
OPEC precipitates energy
crisis
|
|
|
1973
|
|
Chile: Augusto Pinochet becomes dictator
in U.S.-supported coup
|
|
|
1975
|
|
Khmer Rouge takes power in
Cambodia
|
|
|
1975
|
|
North Vietnamese take Saigon; end of Vietnam
War
|
|
|
1976
|
|
South Africa: Schoolchildren killed
in Soweto uprising
|
|
|
1978
|
|
Camp David peace accords
|
|
|
1979
|
|
USSR invades Afghanistan
|
|
|
1979
|
|
Sandinistas take power in
Nicaragua
|
|
|
1979-1980
|
|
Iran: Ayatollah Khomeini takes power; U.S.
hostage crisis
|
|
|
1980-1988
|
|
Iran-Iraq War
|
|
|
c.1980-1989
|
|
United States supports
right-wing contras in Central America
|
|
|
1982
|
|
Israel invades Lebanon
|
|
|
1982
|
|
Falkland Islands War between Great
Britain and Argentina
|
|
|
1983-1985
|
|
Famine in Ethiopia
|
|
|
1985
|
|
USSR: Mikhail Gorbachev takes power,
begins glasnost and perestroika reforms
|
|
|
1986
|
|
United States bombs Libya
|
|
|
1987
|
|
New York: Stock market crash
|
|
|
1989
|
|
China: Tiananmen
Square massacre
|
|
|
1989
|
|
Destruction of Berlin Wall heralds end of Soviet domination of
Eastern Europe
|
|
|
1990
|
|
South Africa: End of apartheid racial
segregation policies; Nelson
Mandela freed
|
|
|
1990-1991
|
|
Persian Gulf War
|
|
|
1991
|
|
Gorbachev turns over power in USSR to Boris
Yeltsin; country dissolves into republics
|
|
|
1992
|
|
North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) established
|
|
|
1993
|
|
European Economic Community forms common
European market
|
|
|
1995
|
|
NATO intervention
in Bosnia-Herzegovina
|
|
|
1995
|
|
Israeli prime minister Yitzhak
Rabin killed
|
|
|
1996
|
|
Civil war in Rwanda
|
|
|
1997
|
|
British return Hong Kong to
China
|
|
|
2000
|
|
Mexico: End of PRI’s one-party rule
|
|
|
2001
|
|
United States: Al Qaeda militants
destroy World Trade Center in New York
City
|
|
|
2001
|
|
U.S. president George W.
Bush initiates war on terror with
invasion of Afghanistan
|
|
|
2001
|
|
Economic crisis in Argentina leads to
widespread riots
|
|
|
2002
|
|
Euro currency introduced in
Europe
|
|
|
2003
|
|
United States invades Iraq, deposes
ruler Saddam Hussein
|
|
|
2004
|
|
Railway bombings in Madrid kill nearly
200
|
|
|
2004
|
|
Tsunami kills at least 200,000 in
Southeast Asia
|
|
|
2005
|
|
Militia violence in Darfur region of
Sudan
|
|
|
2005
|
|
Terrorist bombings in London kill more
than 50
|
|
|
2005
|
|
Israel withdraws settlers from Gaza
Strip
|
1914–Present: Political & Military
