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Jun 15, 1215
Signing of the Magna Carta
Magna Carta was issued in 1215 and was the first document to put into writing that the king and his government was not above the law. -
Sep 3, 1492
Columbus' First Voyage
Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, sparking European exploration. -
Founding of Jamestown
The Founding of Jamestown in 1607 was the first permanent English settlement in North America. Established in Virginia by the Virginia Company, it faced early challenges like disease, famine, and conflict with Native Americans. -
Louisiana Purchase
The U.S. doubled its size by buying land from France. -
The California Gold Rush Begins
Sparked mass migration and economic growth in the U.S. -
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of a Serbian nationalist group, the Black Hand. Thus sparking World War I. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
Contributed to the U.S. entering WWI. -
Stock Market Crash
This event triggered the Great Depression. This day also became known as "Black Tuesday". -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Attack on Pearl Harbor happened when the Japanese military launched a surprise air strike on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii. It shocked the nation and led the United States to officially enter World War II the next day by declaring war on Japan. -
D-Day
D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history during World War II. Allied forces, Britain and Canada landed on the beaches of Normandy, France to begin liberating Western Europe from Nazi control. It marked a major turning point in the war, leading to the defeat of Nazi Germany. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people, eventually ending WWll. -
Sputnik 1 Launched
This sparked the Space Race. The space race was a period of competition between the Soviet Union and the United States over who could conquer space exploration first -
First Human in Space
Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union was the first human in space. His vehicle, Vostok 1 circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour with the flight lasting 108 minutes. -
The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)
A standoff in 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union, where the Soviets secretly deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba, prompting the US to enact a naval blockade of the island and brink the world to the edge of nuclear war -
First Moon Landing
Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. -
Personal Computers Go Mainstream (mid-1980s)
Apple, IBM, and Microsoft revolutionized home and office tech. -
Chernobyl Disaster
The Chernobyl Disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former Soviet Union. Within 10 days, trace amounts of radiation were detected across the U.S., especially in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. -
Y2K Scare
This was the fear that computers would crash as the year turned to 2000. -
9/11 Attacks
9/11 was a terrorist attack by the terroirst group al-Qaeda, where four hijacked planes were used as weapons. Two planes hit the World Trade Center towers in New York City, one hit the Pentagon, and one crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back. Nearly 3,000 people died, making it the deadliest terrorist attack in history. -
COVID-19 Pandemic Declared
Widespread illness and death. Millions infected, entire countries shut down schools, businesses, and travel to slow the spread.