Modern Period

  • First Flight

    First Flight
    The Wright brothers powerd and sustained the first heavier-than-air human flight.
  • Period: to

    Fauvism Art Movement

    Fauvism was a relatively short, yet highly influential movement based around anti-realism and the use of very bold, vibrant colors.The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain.
  • Expressionism Art Movement

    Expressionism Art Movement
    Expressionism was an art form that became prominent starting in 1905 and is still continued today. It focuses heavily on expression through bold brush strokes and depictions of altered reality. It was started in Germany and was largely inspired by Edvard Munch.
  • Cubism Art Movement

    Cubism Art Movement
    Cubism was a movement that was both pioneered and led by Pablo Picasso. It was largely considered as the most influential movement of th 20th century. In Cubist art, the subject is broken down into abstract geometric shapes, and drawn from a collection of angles, creating an image that only slightly resembles the origional subject.
  • Arnold Schoenerg's The Book of the Hanging Gardens

    Harmony and tonality are replaced with dissonance.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rGUov3Adlk
  • Ford Produces Model-T

    Ford Produces Model-T
    Ford produced the Model T beginning in 1908, the first car to be mass-produced for popularization.
  • Futurism Art Movement

    Futurism Art Movement
    Futurism was both an art movement as well as a social movement that originated in Italy. The futurist artists strove to reject the past and instead emphasize themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence.
  • In Search of Lost Time

    Mercel Proust's In Search of Lost Time begin publication. (expirimental style/themes. exploration of individual consciousness specifically memory. involuntary memory)
  • Dada Art Movement

    Dada Art Movement
    Dada was an anti-art movement that originated in New York in 1914. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature, poetry, art theory, theatre, and graphic design,as well as an emphasis on anti-war politics. Dada artists created pieces to shock and disturb.
  • Wordld War I begins

    World War One begins in Europe
  • The Metamorphosis

    Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis is published (surrealist, absurd, magical realism)
  • DE STIJL MEDIA

  • Period: to

    De Stijl Art Movement

    De Stijl was an abstract dutch artistic movement that primarily revolved around the use of straight lines, squares and rectangles as well as the sole use of primary colors, along with black and white.
  • Zimmerman Telegram

    Zimmerman Telegram
    A proposal from Germany to Mexico, which marks the USA's entrance into the first World War.
  • World War One Ends

    World War ends, leading to the treaty of Versailles.
  • Ratification of the 19th Ammendment

    Ratification of the 19th Ammendment
    This Ammendment guaranteed women the right to vote in America.
  • Ulysess

    James Joyce's Ulysses is published. (arguably most important modernist work, stream of consciousness, allusions)
  • Ravel's Bolero opens in Paris

  • Surrealism Art Movement

    Surrealism Art Movement
    Surrealism was an art movement that started in the early 1920s and took a large bit of inspiration from the Dada activities during World War I. Its primary goal was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality." Artists strove to create illogical and unnerving scenes from fictional creatures to everyday objects.
  • George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premieres in New York.

    Expressive music. Often rubato or at will.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLTManObB40
  • The Cantos

    Ezra Pound's The Cantos is published.
    Considered one of/the most important modernist poem. (assimilation of languages [chinese etc], chaotic, expirimental structure, fragmented)
  • Black Tuesday

    Black Tuesday
    The Dow Jones industrial Average declines by about 12 percent, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
  • Social Realism Art Movement

    Social Realism Art Movement
    Social Realism was an art movement that started in the 1930s, and payed special attention to the artists realistic rederings and everyday conditions of the working class.
  • Ellington records "It Don't Mean a Thing"

  • The Glenn Miller Band debuts in New York

  • Nausea

    Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea is published. (One of most important works of existential literature, "nausea" "existential angst")
  • German invasion of Poland

    Germany invades Poland, violating treaties, and beginning the Second World War.
  • Japanese attack Pearl Harbor

    Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
    Imperial Japanese Navy sends a surprise attack on US naval base at Pearl Harbor. The US responds with a declaration of war on Japan.
  • The Myth of Sisyphus

    Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus is published. Outlines his absurdist philosophy
  • D-day

    D-day
    Allied Powers invade Europe.
  • Germany Surrenders

    Germany surrenders unconditionally, giving the Allied Powers victory in Europe.
  • U.N. Charter signed

    U.N. Charter signed
    Creation of the United Nations
  • Atomic Bombing of Japan

    Atomic Bombing of Japan
    First atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, leading to Japan's surrender.
  • Abstract Expressionism Art Movement

    Abstract Expressionism Art Movement
    A vital predecessor to surrealism, abstract expressionism focuses heavily on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. It was started in New York and became the first strictly American movement to achieve global recognition.
  • Pop Art

    Pop Art
    Pop art was a movement that rose to prominence in the 1950s, with pioneers such as Andy Warhol. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc. Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects.
  • Start of Korean war

    This marks the beginning of the Korean war, in which the US provided South Korea with about 300,000 troops, and the Soviet Union rovided North Korea and China with material aide.
  • John Cage's "4'33"" premiers in New York

    John Cage's "4'33"" premiers in New York
  • Waiting for Godot

    Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot premiers. (Theatre of the Absurd)
  • McCarthy Hearings

    A senate hearing derived from Joseph McCarthy's hunt for Communists in the US, lasted until June 17, 1954.
  • Decision on Brown vs, The Board of Education

    Decision on Brown vs, The Board of Education
    "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal."
  • On the Road

    Jack Keroauc's On the Road is published. (spontaneous prose, beat generation)
  • Launch of Sputnik

    Launch of Sputnik
    The first artificial earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union. This begins the Space Age, and triggers the Space Race.
  • Minimalist Art Movement

    Minimalist Art Movement
    Minimalism was an art movement that was based off of stripping a subject down to its essence and then basing a painting off of that. It was often very simplistic. It is often interpreted as a reaction against abstract impressionism.
  • Lunch Counter Sit-ins

    Lunch Counter Sit-ins
    Started with a sit-in at Woolworth's in Greensboro. This begins the Civil Rights Movement.
  • Cinstruction of the Berlin wall

    Cinstruction of the Berlin wall
    The Berlin wall is constructed to seperate East and West Berlin.
  • Cuban Missile Crisis

    A 13-dau confrontation with the USSR and Cuba on one side and the USA on the other. Generally considered the moment at which the Cold War came closest to Nuclear conflict.
  • Kennedy Assassination

    John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
  • Gulf of Tonkin Incident

    A US destroyer was engaged by North Vietnamese torpedo boats, leading to heavier US involvement in Vietnam.
  • Watts Riots

    Horrible race riots in a neighborhood in LA, led to race riots in other major cities.
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

    Tom Stoppard's play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, premiers. (Theatre of the Absurd)
  • Supreme Court Justice Marshall

    President Johnson appoints Thurgood Marshall as the first black supreme court justice.
  • MLK Assassination

    Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
  • Slaughterhouse Five

    Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse Five, is published (black humor, satire, bizarre, unexpected narrative shifts, untraditional storytelling, addressing the reader)
  • Neo Expressionism Art Movement

    Neo Expressionism Art Movement
    Created in reaction against minimalist art of the 1960s, Neo Expressionism was seen highly as " a revival of traditional themes of self-expression in European art after decades of American dominance."
  • Grendel

    John Gardner's Grendel is published (existentialism, stream of consciousness)
  • End of Vietnam war

    The Vietnam war ends after years of conflict.
  • 60 Stories

    Donald Barthelme's 60 Stories is published (focus on incident rather than entire narrative [flash fiction], accumulate unrelated deatails, heavy irony)
  • House of Leaves

    Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves is published. (footnotes to footnotes of works that don't exist, some pages only have a few words, expirimental layout)
  • Peter Graham's Harrison's Dream awarded ABA/Ostwald Award for original composition

    Dissonance. Not traditional in musicality. Atonal.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysU2QvgX9k