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First Modern Credit Card Introduced
First Organ Transplant
First "Peanuts" Cartoon Strip
Korean War Begins
Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb -
.
Color TV Introduced
South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race
Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain -
.
Car Seat Belts Introduced
The Great Smog of 1952
Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship
Polio Vaccine Created
Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25 -
.
DNA Discovered
First Playboy Magazine
Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest
Joseph Stalin Dies
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage -
.
Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman
First Atomic Submarine Launched
Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S. -
.
Disneyland Opens
Emmett Till Murdered
James Dean Dies in Car Accident
McDonald's Corporation Founded
Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus
Warsaw Pact Signed -
.
Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show
Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
Hungarian Revolution
Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
Suez Crisis
T.V. Remote Control Invented
Velcro Introduced -
.
Dr. Seuss Publishes The Cat in the Hat
European Economic Community Established
Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Enter Orbit -
.
Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize
Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the "Great Leap Forward"
Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian
Hula Hoops Become Popular
LEGO Toy Bricks First Introduced
NASA Founded
Peace Symbol Created -
.
Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve
Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev
The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed -
.
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released
Brazil's Capital Moves to Brand New City
First Televised Presidential Debates
Lasers Invented
Lunch Counter Sit-In at Woolworth's in Greenboro, NC
Most Powerful Earthquake Ever Recorded Hits Chile
Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa
The Birth Control Pill Is Approved by the FDA
Walsh and Piccard Become the First to Explore the Deepest Place on Earth -
.
Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Berlin Wall Built
Freedom Riders Challenge Segregation on Interstate Buses
JFK Gives "Man on the Moon" Speech
Peace Corps Founded
Soviets Launch First Man in Space
Stalin's Body Removed From Lenin's Mausoleum
The Antarctic Treaty Goes Into Force
Tsar Bomba, the Largest Nuclear Weapon to Ever Be Exploded -
.
Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can
Cuban Missile Crisis
Famous Escape From Alcatraz
First James Bond Movie
First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
First Wal-Mart Opens
James Meredith Admitted Into the Segregated University of Mississippi
Johnny Carson Takes Over the Tonight Show
Marilyn Monroe Found Dead
Rachel Carson Publishes Silent Spring -
.
16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
Betty Friedan Publishes The Feminine Mystique
Buddhist Monk Sets Himself on Fire in Protest
First Dr. Who Episode Airs
First Woman in Space
Great Train Robbery in England
"Hot Line" Established Between U.S. and U.S.S.R.
JFK Assassinated
March on Washington
Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His "I Have a Dream" Speech
Medgar Evers Is Murdered -
.
Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion
Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S.
Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure
Italy Asks for Help to Stabilize the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Japan's First Bullet Train Line Opens
Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
Warren Report on JFK's Assassination Issued -
.
British Sea Gem Oil Rig Collapses
Los Angeles Riots
Malcolm X Assassinated
Miniskirt First Appears
Nicolae Ceausescu Comes to Power in Romania
New York City Great Blackout
The Rolling Stones’ Mega Hit Song, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”
U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam -
.
Nazi Albert Speer Released From Spandau Prison
Black Panther Party Established
First Kwanzaa Celebrated
Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
National Organization for Women (NOW) Founded
Star Trek T.V. Series Airs
Two Multi-Ton Chunks of the Mundrabilla Meteorite Found -
.
Australian Prime Minister Disappears
Che Guevara Killed
First Heart Transplant
First Super Bowl
Six-Day War in the Middle East
Stalin's Daughter Defects
Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
Thurgood Marshall Becomes the First African-American U.S. Supreme Court Justice -
.
Japan's 300 Million Yen Robbery
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
My Lai Massacre
Nerve Gas Leak in Utah Kills 6,000 Sheep
Prague Spring
Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated
Spy Ship USS Pueblo Captured
Tet Offensive
Zodiac Killer Strikes -
.
ARPANET, the Precursor of the Internet, Created
Manson Family Murders
Neil Armstrong Becomes the First Man on the Moon
Rock-and-Roll Concert at Woodstock
Senator Edward Kennedy Leaves the Scene of an Accident
Sesame Street First Airs
Yasser Arafat Becomes Leader of the PLO -
.
Aswan High Dam Completed
Beatles Break Up
Computer Floppy Disks Introduced
Palestinian Group Hijacks Five Planes
Kent State Shootings -
.
London Bridge Brought to the U.S.
United Kingdom Changes to Decimal System for Currency
VCRs Introduced -
.
M*A*S*H T.V. Show Premiers
Mark Spitz Wins Seven Gold Medals
Pocket Calculators Introduced
Terrorists Attack at the Olympic Games in Munich
Watergate Scandal Begins -
.
Roe vs Wade Legalizes Abortion in the U.S.
Paul Getty Kidnapped
Sears Tower Built
U.S. Pulls Out of Vietnam
U.S. Vice President Resigns -
.
Halie Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Deposed
Mikhail Baryshnikov Defects
Patty Hearst Kidnapped
Terracotta Army Discovered in China
U.S. President Nixon Resigns -
.
Arthur Ashe First Black Man to Win Wimbledon
Cambodian Genocide Begins
Civil War in Lebanon
Microsoft Founded
Pol Pot Becomes the Communist Dictator of Cambodia -
.
First Ebola Virus Outbreaks Strike Sudan and Zaire
Nadia Comaneci Given Seven Perfect Tens
North and South Vietnam Join to Form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Tangshan Earthquake Kills Over 240,000 -
.
Elvis Found Dead
Miniseries Roots Airs
South African Anti-Apartheid Leader Steve Biko Tortured to Death
Star Wars Movie Released -
.
First Test-Tube Baby Born
John Paul II Becomes Pope
Jonestown Massacre -
.
Ayatollah Khomeini Returns as Leader of Iran
Iran Takes American Hostages in Tehran
Margaret Thatcher First Woman Prime Minister of Great Britain
Mother Teresa Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island
Sony Introduces the Walkman -
.
Failed U.S. Rescue Attempt to Save Hostages in Tehran
John Lennon Assassinated
Mount St. Helens Erupts
Pac-Man Video Game Released
Rubik's Cube Becomes Popular
Ted Turner Establishes CNN -
.
Assassination Attempt on the Pope
Assassination Attempt on U.S. President Reagan
First Woman Appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court
Millions Watch Royal Wedding on T.V.
New Plague Identified as AIDS
Personal Computers (PC) Introduced by IBM -
.
E.T. Movie Released
Falkland Islands Invaded by Argentina
King Henry VIII's Ship the Mary Rose Raised After 437 Years
Michael Jackson Releases Thriller
Reverend Sun Myung Moon Marries 2,075 Couples at Madison Square Garden
Vietnam War Memorial Opened in Washington, DC -
.
Cabbage Patch Kids Are Popular
Reagan Announces Defense Plan Called Star Wars
Sally Ride Becomes the First American Woman in Space
Soviets Shoot Down a Korean Airliner
U.S. Embassy in Beirut Bombed -
.
Huge Poison Gas Leak in Bhopal, India
Indira Gandhi, India's Prime Minister, Killed by Two Bodyguards
PG-13 Movie Rating Created -
.
Famine in Ethiopia
Hole in the Ozone Layer Discovered
Mikhail Gorbachev Calls for Glasnost and Perestroika
New Coke Hits the Market
Wreck of the Titanic Found -
.
Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes
Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster
Ferdinand Marcos Flees the Philippines
Iran-Contra Scandal Unfolds
U.S. Bombs Libya
U.S.S.R. Launches Mir Space Station -
.
DNA First Used to Convict Criminals
Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Butcher of Lyons, Sentenced to Life in Prison
New York Stock Exchange Suffers Huge Drop on "Black Monday"
West German Pilot Lands Unchallenged in Russia's Red Square -
.
Pan Am Flight 103 Is Bombed Over Lockerbie
U.S. Shoots Down Iranian Airliner -
.
Berlin Wall Falls
Exxon Valdez Spills Millions of Gallons of Oil on Coastline
Students Massacred in China's Tiananmen Square
U.S. President Bush Announces That He Doesn't Like Broccoli -
.
Hubble Telescope Launched Into Space
Lech Walesa Becomes First President of Poland
Nelson Mandela Freed -
.
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Copper Age Man Found Frozen in Glacier
Operation Desert Storm
South Africa Repeals Apartheid Laws -
.
Official End of the Cold War
Riots in Los Angeles After the Rodney King Verdict -
.
Cult Compound in Waco, Texas Raided
Lorena Bobbitt Takes Brutal Revenge
Use of the Internet Grows Exponentially
World Trade Center Bombed -
.
Channel Tunnel Opens, Connecting Britain and France
Nelson Mandela Elected President of South Africa
O.J. Simpson Arrested for Double Murder
Rwandan Genocide -
.
Sarin Gas Attack in Tokyo Subway
Oklahoma City Bombing
Yitzhak Rabin Assassinated -
.
Mad Cow Disease Hits Britain
Two Royal Divorces
Unabomber Arrested -
.
British Au Pair on Trial for Murder
Hale-Bopp Comet Visible
Hong Kong Returned to China
Pathfinder Sends Back Images of Mars
Princess Diana Dies in Car Crash
Scientists Clone Sheep
Tallest Buildings in the World Built in Kuala Lumpur
Tiger Woods Wins Masters -
.
India and Pakistan Test Nuclear Weapons
Titanic Most Successful Movie Ever
U.S. President Clinton Impeached
Viagra on the Market -
.
The Euro the New European Currency
Fear of Y2K Bug
JFK Jr. Dies in Plane Accident
Killing Spree at Columbine High School
NATO Attacks Serbia
Panama Canal Returns to Panama -
.
Elian Gonzalez Goes Home
Mapping the Human Genome
"ILOVEYOU" Virus Hits Thousands of Computers
Microsoft Ordered to Split
Russian Submarine Sunk in Barents Sea
Unclear Winner in U.S. Presidential Election
USS Cole Bombed -
.
Wikipedia is launched
George Bush is sworn in as the 43rd President of the USA
Space station Mir is deorbited
The world's first space tourist
A devastating terrorist attack leaves 3,000 dead in America
Apple launches the iPod -
.
The Euro enters circulation
Apple introduces the iMac G4
The world's first cyborg
The dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered
The deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia -
.
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
The invasion of Iraq
The Human Genome Project is completed
Record heatwaves kill tens of thousands in Europe
MySpace is launched
China launches its first manned space mission -
.
The emergence of Web 2.0
George W. Bush is re-elected
Athens hosts the Olympic Games
Mars Exploration Rovers
Facebook is launched
World's first 1 gigabyte SD card -
.
Huygens probe reveals images of Titan's surface
YouTube is launched
The Deep Impact probe collides its impactor with comet 9P/Tempel
USB flash drives replace floppy disks
Hurricane Katrina floods New Orleans -
.
Twitter is launched
Saddam Hussein is executed -
.
Global economic downturn
Apple debuts the iPhone
Amazon releases the Kindle
Google Street View is launched -
.
Beijing hosts the Olympic games -
.
Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th president of the USA
Major breakthrough in cancer research
Water is discovered on the Moon
Mercury is 98% mapped -
.
Apple debuts the Ipad -
.
The death of Osama bin Laden
The world's first synthetic organ transplant
The Space Shuttle fleet is retired
Global population reaches 7bn -
.
Economic turmoil continues
Mars Science Lab explores the Red Planet
Windows 8 is released Quad-core smartphones and tablets
Nintendo launches the Wii U -
.
Birth of a royal baby
China overtakes the USA in scientific research
Launch of the PS4 and Xbox 720