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U.S. President William McKinley Assassinated
U.S. President William McKinley spent the morning visiting Niagara Falls with his wife before returning to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in the afternoon to spend a few minutes greeting the public. -
First Silent Movie: The Great Train Robbery
Produced by Thomas Edison but directed and filmed by Edison Company employee Edwin S. Porter, the 12-minute-long silent film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), was the first narrative movie, one that told a story. The Great Train Robbery's popularity led directly to the opening up of permanent movie theaters and the possibility of a future film industry. -
San Francisco Earthquake
At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, a large earthquake hit San Francisco. Even greater than the damage caused directly by the earthquake, the city was ravaged by fire for four days. -
Mona Lisa Is Stolen
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of the most famous paintings in the world, was stolen right off the wall of the Louvre. The crime was inconceivable and the police had no leads. The Mona Lisa turned up in Italy two years later. -
Sinking of the Titanic
The world was shocked when the Titanic sank. The "unsinkable" ship Titanic sank on its maiden voyage, losing at least 1,517 lives (some accounts say even more), making it one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history. After the Titanic sank, safety regulations were increased to make ships safer, including ensuring enough lifeboats to carry all on board and making ships staff their radios 24 hours a day. -
The Versailles Treaty
The Versailles Treaty, signed on June 28, 1919, was the peace settlement between Germany and the Allied Powers that officially ended World War I. However, the conditions in the treaty were so punitive upon Germany that many believe the Versailles Treaty laid the groundwork for the eventual rise of Nazis in Germany and the eruption of World War II. -
Prohibition Begins in the U.S.
Beginning in the 19th century, many people, especially women, blamed many of society's problems upon alcohol. With the hope of bettering society, organizations were formed to advocate against the consumption of alcohol. By the beginning of the 20th century, many states had already created state laws banning alcohol. On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Exactly one year later (January 16, 1920), this Amendment went into affect, making the manufacture, sal -
Flapper Dresses in Style
Flappers were young women in the 1920s whose dress, hair style, and attitude were much different than the Gibson Girl, the image of the ideal woman just a generation earlier. Flappers dressed somewhat like a boy; they tightly wound their chest with strips of cloth in order to flatten it and chopped off most of their hair. The waists of flapper clothes were dropped to the hipline. The hem of the skirts also started to rise in the 1920s. At first the hem only rose a few inches, but from 1925 to 19 -
The Jazz Singer
Before The Jazz Singer, there were silent films. Yet despite their name, these films were not silent for they were accompanied by music. Often, these films were accompanied by a live orchestra in the theater and from as early as 1900, films were often synchronized with musical scores that were played on amplified record players. -
Empire State Building Completed
When the Empire State Building opened on May 1, 1931, it was the tallest building in the world - standing at 1,250 feet tall. This building not only became an icon of New York City, it became a symbol of twentieth century man's attempts to achieve the impossible. -
Dachau
Auschwitz might be the most famous camp in the Nazi system of terror, but it was not the first. The first concentration camp was Dachau, established on March 20, 1933 in the southern German town of the same name (10 miles northwest of Munich). Although it was initially established to hold political prisoners of the Third Reich, only a minority of whom were Jews, Dachau soon grew to hold a large and diverse population of people targeted by the Nazis. Under the oversight of Nazi Theodor Eicke, Dac -
The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht)
In retaliation for the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris, SS Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels announced a government-sactioned pogrom against Jews. In Germany and Austria on the night of November 9-10, mobs beat, raped, arrested, and murdered Jews. The mobs also ransacked Jewish-owned stores and burned down synagogues. Firefighters and other government officials stood by and watched the destruction, only helping if non-Jewish businesses or homes were threatened. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was the intense air battle between the Germans and the British over Great Britain's airspace from July 1940 to May 1941, with the heaviest fighting from July to October 1940. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships* had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed. -
Slinky Toy Hits Shelves
In 1943, the idea for the Slinky toy originated when engineer Richard James dropped a tension spring on the ground and saw how it moved. Thinking he might be on to something a bit more fun and universal than a tension spring, he took the spring home to his wife, Betty, and the two of them tried to come up with a name for this potential toy. After searching and searching, Betty found the word "slinky" in the dictionary which meant sinuous and stealthy. The first Slinky toys were sold in 1945. -
The First Peanuts Cartoon Strip
When Schulz sold his first strip to the United Feature Syndicate in 1950, it was the Syndicate that changed the name from Li'l Folks to Peanuts - a name that Schulz himself never liked. -
The First Playboy Magazine
In December 1953, 27-year-old Hugh Hefner published the very first Playboy magazine. This first edition of Playboy was 44-pages long and had no date on its cover because Hefner wasn't sure there would be a second edition. In that first run, Hefner sold 54,175 copies of Playboy magazine at 50 cents each. The first edition sold so well because Marilyn Monroe was the "Sweetheart of the Month" (which was thereafter termed "playmate"). -
Disneyland Opens
On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened for a few thousand specially invited visitors; the following day, Disneyland officially opened to the public. Disneyland, located in Anaheim, California on what used to be a 160-acre orange orchard, cost $17 million to build. The original park included Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. -
The Beatles
he Beatles shaped not only music but also an entire generation. People mimicked all that they did, including haircuts, clothing, and outlook. Their style and innovative music set the standard for all musicians to follow. -
President John F. Kennedy's Assassination
On November 22, 1963, the youth and idealism of America in the 1960s faltered as its young President, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Two days later, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby during a prisoner transfer. -
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was hit by a sniper's bullet. King had been standing on the balcony in front of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when, without warning, he was shot. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King's right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. -
Kent State Shootings
Ohio National Guardsmen were on the Kent State college campus to maintain order during a student protest against the Vietnam War. For a still unknown reason, the National Guard suddenly fired upon the already dispersing crowd of student protesters, killing four and wounding nine others. -
Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich
Early in the morning on September 5, 1972, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization, Black September, snuck into the Olympic Village at the XXth Olympic Games which were held in Munich, Germany. -
Ebola Outbreaks in Sudan and Zaire
the very first person to contract the Ebola virus began to show symptoms. Ten days later he was dead. Over the course of the next few months, the first Ebola outbreaks in history occurred in Sudan and Zaire*, with a total of 602 reported cases and 431 deaths. -
Pac Man
the Pac-Man video game was released in Japan and by October of the same year it was released in the United States. The yellow, pie-shaped Pac-Man character, who travels around a maze trying to eat dots and avoid four mean ghosts, quickly became an icon of the 1980s. To this day, Pac-Man remains one of the most popular video games in history. -
Reagan Assassination Attempt
On March 30, 1981, 25-year-old John Hinckley Jr. opened fire on U.S. President Ronald Reagan just outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. President Reagan was hit by one bullet, which punctured his lung. Three others were also injured in the shooting. -
The History of Cabbage Patch Kids
During the 1983 Christmas season, parents in the United States frantically searched everywhere for the coveted Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. While many stores had extremely long waiting lists, others had a first-come first-serve policy, which led to shocking, vicious fights between potential buyers. By the end of the year, approximately three million Cabbage Patch Kids dolls had been "adopted." -
Oklahoma City Bombing
Timothy McVeigh drove a truck containing a home-made bomb up to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. When the bomb exploded at 9:02 a.m., the building was decimated and 168 people were left dead. -
Yitzhak Rabin Assassination
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was shot and killed by Jewish radical Yigal Amir at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv. -
Princess Diana Dies in Car Crash
Diana, Princess of Wales died after being involved in a car accident. Diana had been riding in the Mercedes-Benz with her boyfriend (Dodi Al Fayed), bodyguard (Trevor Rees-Jones), and chauffer (Henri Paul) when the car crashed into a pillar of the tunnel under the Pont de l'Alma bridge in Paris while fleeing from paparazzi. -
Apple launches the iPod
iPod was a new line of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple. The first generation was launched on 10th November 2001. With its user-friendly interface and gigabytes of storage capacity, the iPod went on to become phenomenally successful. The introduction of the iTunes store, with millions of songs available to download, substantially boosted Apple's fortunes. -
The Euro enters circulation
To participate in the currency, Member States were required to meet strict criteria, such as a budget deficit of less than 3% of GDP, a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP, low inflation, and interest rates close to the EU average. The euro was introduced to world financial markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999, with Euro coins and banknotes entering circulation on 1 January 2002. The euro became the second largest reserve currency and the second most traded currency in the world, -
The deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 people, 152 of whom were foreign nationals (including 88 Australians), and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 240 people were injured.