Year | Key Events |
1896 | William Jennings Bryan [D] loses U.S. election to William McKinley [R] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeTkT5-w5RA
|
1896 | Large-scale gold mining in South Africa's Witwatersrand http://www.mindat.org/photo-158996.html
|
1899 | Start of the Boer War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rvz6O1vPWU
|
1901 | Assassination of McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt becomes President of the United States http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a00000/3a08000/3a08600/3a08686r.jpg
|
1905 | U.S. Supreme Court decides Lochner case: Constitution held to enact Herbert Spencers's “social statics” http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/landmark_lochner.html
|
1910 | Start of Mexican Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbUw_GCskog&feature=PlayList&p=BF8C75DD02E5CE25&index=0&playnext=1
|
1911 | Overthrow of the Qing Dynasty; declaration of the Chinese Republic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Xh1.jpg
|
1912 | Theodore Roosevelt splits Republican Party; Woodrow Wilson [D] elected President of the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb30L-NmKjo
|
1914 | Start of World War I: France, Britain, Italy (from 1915), Russia (until 1917), and America (from 1917) vs. Germany, Austria, Turkey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZPiaSYmj_4&feature=related
|
1917 | Kerensky's Russian Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMGrIwLj7gU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdpEaPxNW0g&feature=related
|
1917 | Lenin's Russian Revolution in October (really November) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGE6T3SRNAs
|
1918 | End of World War I; overthrow of the German Emperor (“Kaiser”); establishment of the “Weimar Republic” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABZcclM38jo&feature=PlayList&p=240BAFEB607EFFE1&index=27 http://www.history.stir.ac.uk/img/site-images/flagofweimar.jpg
|
1919 | Communist uprising in Germany: “Spartikist Rebellion” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00540A,_Berlin,_Revolutionskämpfe.jpg
|
1919 | Treaty of Versailles to settle affairs after World War I http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/11/13/VersaillesLeaders460.jpg
|
1919 | Jallianwala Bagh Massacre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-wKcDkpqHE
|
1921 | Lenin adopts the “New Economic Policy”: a small-scale return to the market http://faculty.unlv.edu/pwerth/NEP-Lenin.jpg
|
1922 | Mussolini marches on Rome; establishes first fascist regime http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mF4ZjJ88wU
|
1923 | French and Belgian troops occupy Germany's Ruhr Valley to try to force reparations payments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUa5h6C4-j4
|
1923 | End of German hyperinflation: $1 = 4,000,000,000,000 RM http://dakiniland.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/inflation-1923.jpg
|
1923 | German World War I General Erich Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler attempt coup--”Beer Hall Putsch” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-BjUFV-aPs&feature=PlayList&p=7C19E39CBB61FAE2&index=8
|
1924 | Death of Lenin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJU5H7sqQTc
|
1925 | Death of Sun Yatsen http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/2001_p6/baker_js_p6/Intro.jpg
|
1925 | Great Britain returns to the gold standard http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wmz32xeNKtU/SpldujLl5vI/AAAAAAAABJE/FP0tn7TdKkg/s400/British+Pound+1900-1939+chart.PNG
|
1926 | General Strike in Great Britain http://unionbadges.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/british_worker.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOal1HYlRag
|
1927 | Chiang Kaishek's Kuomintang double-crosses his Communist allies; massacres in Shanghai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sa3qY4m1Ps
|
1927 | Stalin expels Trotsky, Zinoviev, and Kamenev from the Communist Party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfmSPYDb0FQ
|
1928 | Chiang Kaishek launches “Northern Expedition” http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/time/563-1.jpg
|
1928 | Launching of first Five Year Plan in the Soviet Union
|
1929 | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXGThPeOJu4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S69s8YyJMlM Drive to “collectivize” agriculture in the Soviet Union: start of terror-famine in the Ukraine http://pmeyer.web.wesleyan.edu/206/Derevnia.jpg http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/RM3.S.FACE.OF.FAM.JPG http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2sugMM9y3Q&feature=related
|
1929 | The Wall Street stock market crash; start of the Great Depression http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWrX6kC9Nhs
|
1930 | Gandhi's “Salt March” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsBHeBXt5Qk
|
1931 | German Social Democratic Party rejects proposals to plan a “New Deal” for Germany http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhilferding.JPG
|
1932 | Election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oblTN1ojsAA&feature=PlayList&p=89F9180242B853AD&index=2
|
1933 | Adolf Hitler becomes the last Chancellor of Germany's Weimar Republic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q-6H4xOUrs
|
1933 | Worst year of the Great Depression http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZHEkU__Ijw
|
1934 | Start of Mao Zedong's “Long March” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_civil_way_map_03.jpg
|
1935 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposes and congress passes the Social Security Act http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZijG4WSOw
|
1935 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposes and congress passes the National Labor Relations Act http://explorepahistory.com/displayimage.php?imgId=4594
|
1936 | Francisco Franco attempts to overthrow Spanish Republic: start of Spanish Civil War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atynzDwSbuo&feature=related http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/PicassoGuernica.jpg
|
1937 | U.S. Supreme Court surprisingly declares NLRA constitutional: “the switch in time that saved nine” http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/12/04/supreme_switch/
|
1937 | Marco Polo Bridge “incident”; start of World War II in Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lugou_battle.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB2qDwAlxw4
|
1939 | Final victory by Franco in Spanish Civil War http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBhejsi9Z1c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX_-faiNTVU
|
1939 | Start of World War II in Europe; Nazi Soviet pact; Nazi invasion of Poland http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CmFT0YA2nY
|
1940 | Fall of Denmark, Norway, France to Nazis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq4RwuWnK_k
|
1941 | Nazi invasion of Soviet Union http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BNucqbm_ZY
|
1941 | Imperial Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqQAf74fsE
|
1942 | “The End of the Beginning”: Battles of Midway, Guadalcanal, El Alamein, “Operation Torch”, and—most of all--”Operation Uranus”: Stalingrad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhdHZIj76WE&feature=related http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/NatIdentity/images/stalingrad_5.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXNrYoO-7qU&feature=related
|
1944 | Bretton Woods conference: agreement to found the IMF and World Bank http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/fa/BWC/s5.htm
|
1945 | Yalta and Potsdam Conferences shape post-World War II world; Germany partitioned http://students.umf.maine.edu/~devkota/Yalta%20Conference.jpg
|
1945 | Labour Party first wins majority in British House of Commons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Attlee_BW_cropped.jpg
|
1945 | Death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; Harry S Truman becomes President of the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kQZQAAEBFU&feature=PlayList&p=F4FA9C7B6C60E4DA&index=16&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
|
1945 | U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/47/91847-004-669368AC.jpg
|
1947 | Harry S Truman begins the Cold War with the “Truman Doctrine” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmQD_W8Pcxg
|
1947 | Britain grants independence to India and Pakistan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5X7LzTrLYU
|
1947 | George Marshall proposes the “Marshall Plan” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUd2W6aMng4
|
1948 | Stalinist coup in Czechoslovakia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edvard_Beneš.jpg
|
1948
1948 | Israel founded. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNWgfei6wO8 Stalin expels Yugoslavia from the Cominform http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1955/1101550606_400.jpg
|
1949 | Proclamation of the People's Republic of China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PRCFounding.jpg
|
1950 | Stalin slips Kim Il Sung's leash: the Korean War begins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4hkUFriyFU http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Korean_War_bombing_Wonsan.jpg
|
1951 | Treaty of Paris creates the European Coal and Steel Community http://ec.europa.eu/avservices/download/photo_download_en.cfm?id=13630&type=4
|
1954 | U.S. Supreme Court decides Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTGHLdr-iak&feature=related
|
1956 | Khruschchev's "Secret Speech" denouncing Joseph Stalin http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/22/85222-004-B1564EDD.jpg
|
1956 | Israel, France, and Britain attack Egypt http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in_N6gv_CWU
|
1956 | Hungarian revolt against the Soviet Union http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKcm4OqzpwU
|
1957 | Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community of “the six” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptJqwWqKq4M
|
1958 | Mao Zedong launches Great Leap forward http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efBQKHOfW60
|
1959 | Lushan Plenum in China: “Disgrace” of Marshal Peng Dehuai http://www.paulnoll.com/Korea/War/Marshal-Peng-Dehuai.jpg
|
1961 | Construction of Berlin Wall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nch5MbnvTqY
|
1962 | Cuban Missile Crisis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W50RNAbmy3M
|
1963 | Assassination of John F. Kennedy; Lyndon Johnson becomes President of the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpicOfFajNE&feature=related
|
1964 | Civil Rights Act in the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q11kvbJy0cs
|
1964 | Overthrow of Nikita Khrushchev; replacement by Leonid Brezhnev http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfpKYWY_zg8
|
1964 | Gulf of Tonkin “incident” off coast of Vietnam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd6zKqGcaOM
|
1964 | Barry Goldwater runs for President on a non-RINO platform: destruction of Republican congressional power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7kdLEjb9gM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf-MEdAPhYA&feature=related
|
1965 | Lyndon Johnson uses overwhelming congressional majorities for Medicare, Medicaid, Voting Rights Act http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opFYzLnC9hs
|
1965 | Overthrow of Sukarno in Indonesia; massacres of Indonesian Communists (and many others); rise of Suharto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-07wttSEx4
|
1966 | Mao Zedong launches Cultural Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_44Q_k2WxvE
|
1973 | First “Oil Shock”: Syria and Egypt attack Israel on Yom Kippur http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-66seomf2K4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M22osf0vzrI http://www.theoildrum.com/uploads/12/oil_price_1945_2005.png
|
1974 | Resignation of U.S. President Richard Nixon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7dtRDQrV6c
|
1975 | Fall of South Vietnam http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVDF2aQpYZc
|
1975 | Indira Gandhi declares “emergency” http://www.indianexpress.com/ie/daily/20000713/e1.htm
|
1975 | Death of Mao Zedong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XeegyVkGm0
|
1978 | The “Southern Expedition” of Deng Xiaoping http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0lwKlMFmZY
|
1979 | Margaret Thatcher becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK3eP9rh4So http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEPTjLl2Af8&feature=related
|
1979 | Khomeini's Iranian Revolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVOLSVS8yI
|
1981 | Ronald Reagan becomes President of the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpPt7xGx4Xo
|
1982 | The “Volcker Deflation”: deepest post-World War II global recession (until now) http://econ161.berkeley.edu/movable_type/2003_archives/002736.html http://dailycandor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/paul-volcker.jpg
|
1985 | Mikhail Gorbachev comes to power in the Soviet Union: “glasnost” and “perestroika” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=595W4JJHa2U
|
1985 | Rajiv Gandhi takes first steps toward dismantling the License Raj http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2007/may/09/india?picture=329818396
|
1989 | Fall of the Berlin Wall http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnYXbJ_bcLc
|
1989 | Tien an Men Square massacre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJBnHMpHGRY&feature=PlayList&p=9EB1A4E767FD73C7&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
|
1991 | End of the Soviet Union http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2kx549Mf0
|
1993 | William J. Clinton becomes President of the United States—only the second Democratic president since 1968 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SWjIPwm954
|
1993 | U.S., Canada, and Mexico ratify NAFTA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX8An-jSfFU
|
1994 | Mexican peso crisis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWLEhlq1cQ
|
1998
1999 | East Asian financial crisis http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/images2/2002-09-26-Asia_cap_flows.gif Vladimir Putin becomes Acting President of the Russian Federation http://www.topnews.in/files/putin_0.jpg
|
2000 | Collapse of the dot-com bubble http://www.stock-market-crash.net/images/nasdaq-bubble.gif
|
2001 | George W. Bush becomes President of the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXzgMdj5urs
|
2008 | Failures of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG; start of largest post-World War II economic recession http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNUILhofHNA
|