Timeline 6 (1900-2010)

By Laynie Lenz

  • The lyrics to the Black National Anthem "Lift Every Voice and Sing" are completed.

  • The first electric bus becomes operational in New York City.

  • Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" makes its US debut.

  • President William McKinley places Alaska under military governance.

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" premieres.

  • Gold Standard Act: Establishes gold as the sole basis for redeeming paper currency.

  • The Irish guards are founded by Queen Victoria.

  • The Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

  • Leslie Stuart and Paul Reubens' musical "Florodora" makes its Broadway debut.

  • Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert and Sullivan fame dies at 58.

  • A large stone at Stonehenge falls over.

    This is the most recent occurrence of such an event.
  • Period: to

    Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches are published.

  • In Texas, oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont.

  • US Steel is incorporated by industrialist JP Morgan, marking the first billion-dollar business deal.

  • The Platt Amendment is passed: outlined the role of the US in Cuba and the Caribbean, limiting Cuba's rights to make treaties with other nations and restricting Cuba in the conduct of foreign policy and commercial relations.

    Source of this information:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platt_Amendment

  • New York becomes the first U.S. state to require license plates on cars.

  • Panic of 1901: The Stock Market crashes.

  • Cuba becomes controlled by the US.

  • Within the US Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Chemistry is created.

  • Silliman University is founded in the Philippines.

    It is the first US private school in the Philippines.

  • President William McKinley is shot. He dies 6 days later.

  • Michigan schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor goes over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

    She survives.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 is performed for the first time.

    Rachmaninoff performed this piece himself.

  • The first Nobel Prize ceremony is held.

  • Scott Joplin's famous ragtime piece "The Entertainer" is published.

  • "In the Good Old Summer Time", an American Tin Pan Alley song, is published.

  • The Carnegie Institution is founded in Washington, DC.

  • The two U.S. Senators from South Carolina, Benjamin Tillman and John L. McLaurin, get into a fistfight during a heated debate while the Senate is in session.

  • The first national meeting of the American Philosophical Association begins.

  • US merchant JC Penney opens its first store.

  • Cuba gains its independence from the US.

  • The Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, originally formed in 1882, was renewed.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first president to ride in an automobile.

  • The first science fiction film, the silent "A Trip to the Moon", premieres in France.

  • The Hanoi exhibition, a world's fair, opens in French Indochina.

  • Carl Nielsen conducts the premiėre of his Symphony No. 2, The Four Temperaments, in Copenhagen.

  • Period: to

    British expedition to Tibet.

  • Period: to

    Claude Debussy composes his orchestral composition "La Mer".

    "La Mer" was premiered in Paris in October of 1905.
  • Period: to

    Ralph Vaughan Williams's "A Sea Symphony" is written.

  • Giuseppe Verdi's opera Ernani is performed in New York for the first time.

  • Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States.

  • The University of Puerto Rico is founded.

  • A partial lunar eclipse takes place.

  • A Cuban-American Treaty of Relations is signed.

  • The Ford Motor Company is founded.

  • An explosion at a United States Cartridge Company in Massachusetts kills 22 and injures an additional 70.

  • During a Philadelphia Phillies home game, a balcony collapses and kills 4 people and injures many more.

  • A solar eclipse takes place.

  • Period: to

    The first modern World Series occurs.

  • Near Kitty Hawk, NC, the Wright brothers test the engines of their "Wright Flyer".

  • The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India opens its doors to visitors.

  • The Louvre Hotel in Chicago is destroyed by fire.

  • The Great Baltimore Fire destroys over 1,500 buildings in 31 hours.

  • Period: to

    The Russo-Japanese War.

    War between Russia and Japan.

  • Northern Securities Company vs. the United States ruling.

    Ruled that the creation of the Northern Securities Company was illegal.

  • 1904 Kresna Earthquakes: 2 earthquakes strike near Kresna, Bulgaria.

    At least 200 people are killed.

  • US Army engineers begin work on the Panama Canal.

  • The International Alliance of Women is founded.

  • The third Modern Olympic Games opens in St. Louis, Missouri, United States as part of the World's Fair.

  • Panama and Uruguay establish diplomatic relations.

  • The first successful caterpillar track is made.

  • The stage play "Peter Pan" premieres in London.

  • Period: to

    The Russian Revolution.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's symphonic poem "Pelleas und Melisande" premieres in Vienna.

  • Rotary International is founded in Chicago, IL.

  • Theodore Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as US president.

  • Grover Shoe Factory disaster: An industrial explosion, building collapse, and fire that killed 58 people and injured 150.

  • Lochner vs. New York: New York's 8-hour day is invalidated by the United States Supreme Court.

  • Kappa Delta Rho fraternity is founded.

  • Bert Williams's popular song "Nobody" is recorded.

  • Mutiny breaks out on the Russian ironclad Potemkin.

  • The Taft-Katsura Secret Agreement.

    The US and Japan meet to discuss their respective positions regarding Korea and the Philippines.

  • The Ancient Order of Druids initiate Neo-Druidic rituals at Stonehenge in England.

  • The Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan are established.

  • The Institute of Musical Art, which was the predecessor to Juliard, opens

  • Claude Debussy's "La Mer" premieres in Paris.

  • SOS (Save Our Selves) becomes a national distress signal.

  • The Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 makes Korea a protectorate of Japan.

  • Charles-Marie Widor's opera "Les Pecheurs de Saint-Jean" premieres in Paris.

  • The operetta "The Merry Widow" is first performed.

  • Xerox, the global digital office machine brand, is founded.

  • The Second Geneva Convention meets.

  • An 8.2 magnitude earthquake hits Valprasio, Chile.

  • A typhoon and tsunami kill an estimated 10,000 in Hong Kong.

  • A US diplomatic crisis with Japan arrives when San Francisco orders that Japanese students be taught at different schools than non-Japanese students.

  • The first radio broadcast is made.

  • A magnitude 6.4 earthquake hits Kingston, Jamaica.

  • The French warship Jean Bart sinks off the coast of Morocco.

  • At the opening of the new State Duma in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 40,000 demonstrators are dispersed by Russian troops.

  • The popular hymn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" is published.

  • Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, by Paul Dukas by the libretto based on the play by Maurice Maeterlinck, premieres at the Paris Opéra-Comique.

  • The Second Hague Peace Conference opens at The Hague.

  • The SS Columbia sinks.

  • The United Postal Service is founded in Seattle, WA.

  • New Zealand and Newfoundland become dominions.

  • J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, James Stillman, Henry Clay Frick and other Wall Street financiers create a $25,000,000 pool to invest in the shares on the plunging New York Stock Exchange, ending the bank panic of 1907.

  • The Church of God in Christ is formed.

  • The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.

  • Charles Ives's "The Unanswered Question" is composed.

    It would go on to premiere in 1946.

  • "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is written.

  • Period: to

    Reinhold Glière's "Symphony No. 3" is written.

  • Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority is created.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Symphony No. 2" receives its première.

  • Japanese immigration to the US is forbidden.

  • Maurice Ravel's "Rapsodie espagnole" receives its première.

  • French aviator Henri Farman makes the world's first flight with a passenger, Léon Delagrange.

  • Carl Nielsen's tone poem "Saga-Drøm" is performed for the first time.

  • Spyridon Samaras's opera "Rhea" premieres.

  • Frederick Cook claims to have reached the North Pole on this day.

  • The first major commercial oil discovery in the Middle East is made.

  • An annular solar eclipse was visible from Central America, North America, Atlantic Ocean and Africa, and was the 33rd solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.

  • Robert Peary sets sail for the North Pole

  • Wilbur Wright flies in France for the first time.

  • Thomas Selfridge becomes the first person to die in a plane crash.

  • Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 7" premieres.

  • The Bosnian Crisis begins.

  • The Christian Science Monitor is first published.

  • A mine explosion in Marianna, Pennsylvania, kills 154 men, leaving only one survivor.

  • Young Emperor Puyi of China ascends the Chinese throne at age 2.

  • Edward Elgar's "Symphony No. 1" premieres in Manchester.

  • Alexander Scriabin's "The Poem of Ecstasy" premieres.

  • Claude Debussy's "Children's Corner" premieres.

  • Period: to

    Arnold Schoenberg's "Drei Klavierstücke" is composed.

  • The first pilot's licenses were issued in France, by the Aero-Club de France.

  • The Paris Film Congress opens.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Feu d'artifice" premieres.

  • The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is created

  • The first production of Bedrich Smetana's opera "The Bartered Bride" in the US.

  • International Women's Day is celebrated for the first time.

  • William Howard Taft is sworn in as US president.

  • The city of Tel Aviv is created.

  • The musical "A Persian Princess" opens.

  • Jules Massenet's opera "Bacchus" premieres.

  • Leopold Stokowski makes his debut as a conductor.

  • With 55 dancers, including Vaslav Nijinsky, the Ballets Russes opened a new era in ballet dancing, bringing the Russian ballet to the Western world.

  • Alice Huyler Ramsey set off from New York to become the first woman to drive across the United States.

  • "The Ziegfeld Follies of 1909" opens.

  • Period: to

    Tragic Week.

    Worker's uprising in Barcelona.

  • A. M. Willner and Fritz Grünbaum's musical "The Dollar Princess" opens.

  • The Indianapolis Motor Speedway opens in the US.

  • The National Library of China is created.

  • The world's first passenger airline, DELAG (DEutsche Luftschiffahrt AktienGesellschaft), was founded in Frankfurt, Germany.

  • The US Armed Forces loses its only airplane when the Army's Wright Military Flyer is damaged.

  • The Boston Opera House opens.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 3" premieres.

  • The National Hockey Association, forerunner of the National Hockey League, was founded.

  • Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's opera "Il segreto di Susanna" premieres.

  • The musical "Fallen Fairies" premieres.

  • Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni reconcile after their 1905 fight.

  • The Orphéal is invented.

  • Period: to

    Carl Nielsen's "Symphony No. 3" is written.

  • The first junior high school classes begin in the US.

  • The Boy Scouts of America is founded.

  • Halley's Comet is visible from Earth.

  • Woolworth's became the first large retail chain to sell ice cream cones, test-marketing the treat at counters at several sites that had been supplied with modern refrigerator-freezers.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird" premieres and brings Stravinsky international fame.

  • African-American boxer Jack Johnson defeats white boxer James J. Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match.

    This leads to race riots across the nation.

  • The National Association of Rotary Clubs is created.

  • The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's music was recorded commercially for the first time.

  • The first public demonstration of color movies, in the United States, took place at the meeting room of the New York Electrical Society.

  • The musical comedy "Naughty Marietta" opens.

  • Giacomo Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" premieres.

  • New York City's Ritz-Carlton Hotel broke a gender barrier when it permitted a woman to smoke in its dining room.

  • The Society of Women Musicians is created.

  • 16-year-old Carl Orff makes his first compositions.

  • Cecil Macklin's "Too Much Mustard" is written.

  • "Sarnia Cherie", the unofficial anthem of Guernsey, is written.

  • Sir Harry Lauder's popular love song "Roamin' in the Gloamin'" is written.

  • The ragtime love song "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" is written.

  • The United States and Canada announce the successful negotiation of their first reciprocal trade agreement.

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Der Rosenkavalier" premieres.

  • The first "quasi-official" airmail flight occurs, when Fred Wiseman carries three letters between Petaluma and Santa Rosa, California.

  • Gustav Mahler conducts his final concert.

  • The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City kills 146 people.

  • Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity; he presents his findings on April 28.

  • Standard Oil is dissolved by the Supreme Court of the United States into 34 separate oil companies including Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, and others due to violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

  • The U.S. State Department gave permission for at least 1,500 Mexican soldiers to cross into the United States so that a rebellion in Baja California could be suppressed.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" premieres in Paris.

  • Hiram Bingham rediscovers Machu Picchu in Peru.

  • Period: to

    Britain's National Railway Strike of 1911.

  • Italy declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

  • The Society of American Indians held its organizing convention, at a hotel in Columbus, Ohio.

  • The world's first combat aerial bombing mission takes place in Libya, during the Italo-Turkish War.

  • The musical "The Marriage Market" opens.

  • A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee kills 84 miners, despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.

  • The Republic of China is established.

  • Charles Cuvillier's operetta "Der Ilia Domino" (the lilac domino) premieres.

    It is a failure, but has a successful US run in 1914.

  • Arizona becomes a US state.

  • The Edwardian musical comedy "The Sunshine Girl" premieres.

  • Carl Nielsen's "Violin Concerto" is premiered.

  • The Girl Scouts of America is founded by Juliette Gordon Low.

  • Reinhold Glière's "Symphony No. 3" premieres.

  • Period: to

    The RMS Titanic sinks.

  • Alaska becomes a US Territory.

  • Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to pass a law authorizing a guaranteed minimum wage.

  • Paramount Pictures is created.

  • The first Eagle Scout earns his rank.

  • Frank Bridge's orchestral suite "The Sea" premieres.

  • W.C. Handy publishes "The Memphis Blues" in the US.

  • Period: to

    The First Balkan War.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's "Pierrot Lunaire" premieres.

  • Albania declares independence from the Ottoman Empire.

  • Merck files patent applications in Germany for synthesis of the entactogenic drug MDMA (Ecstasy), developed by Anton Köllisch.

  • The term "jazz" first appears in print.

  • Parcel post is inaugurated in the US.

  • "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ral", a famous Irish-American song, is written

  • The famous Irish air "Danny Boy" is published.

  • Claude Debussy's "Syrinx" for solo flute is composed.

  • Period: to

    The Muscat Rebellion

    The Muscat rebellion was an uprising in 1913 led by Sālim bin Rāshid al-Kharūṣī against the authority of the Sultans of Muscat and Oman.

  • Former First Lady of the United States Frances Cleveland, widow of Grover Cleveland, became the first President's widow to remarry.

  • Woodrow Wilson is sworn in as US president.

  • Gabriel Fauré's opera "Pénélope" is premiered in Monte Carlo.

  • Jean Sibelius's tone poem "The Bard" premieres.

  • Manuel de Falla's opera "La vida breve" premieres.

  • The United States Soccer Federation is formed.

  • The operetta "The Girl on the Film" premieres.

  • Jules Massenet's opera "Panurge" premieres.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" premieres.

    A riot breaks out during the performance.

  • Women's suffrage is enacted in Norway.

  • Period: to

    The Second Balkan War.

  • Romania declares war on Bulgaria

  • Stainless steel is invented.

  • "Adele", a musical by Adolf Philipp, premieres.

  • The musical "Sweethearts" opens on Broadway.

  • Jean Sibelius's tone poem "Luonnotar" premieres at the Three Choirs Festival in England.

  • The Anti-Defamation League is founded.

  • The Edwardian musical "The Girl from Utah" opens at the Adelphi Theater in London.

  • The Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across the United States, is dedicated.

  • Period: to

    The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 claims 19 ships, and more than 250 lives.

  • The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.

  • The Stoessel lute is invented

  • The copyright on Parsifal expires allowing it to be staged outside of Bayreuth.

  • "La Cucaracha" (the cockroach) is published.

  • Maurice Ravel's "Piano Trio in A Minor" is composed.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams's "The Lark Ascending" is completed.

  • Irving Berlin's song "Follow the Crowd" is published.

  • Period: to

    Manuel de Falla's ballet "El Amor Brujo" is composed.

  • Phi Beta Sigma, an African-American fraternity, is formed.

  • First public performance of Leoš Janáček's piano cycle In the Mists.

  • Charlie Chaplin stars in his first film, titled "Making a Living".

  • Riccardo Zandonai's opera "Francesca da Rimini" premieres.

  • Jules Massenet's opera "Cléopâtre" premieres.

  • Victor Jacobi's operetta "Szibill" premieres.

  • Green beer is invented.

  • The Afrikaans language is officially recognized.

  • Woodrow Wilson signs a Mother's Day proclamation.

  • Henri Rabaud's opera "Mârouf, savetier du Caire" premieres.

  • Jean Sibelius's tone poem "The Oceanides" premieres.

  • Period: to

    World War 1

  • Baseball legend Babe Ruth makes his baseball debut.

  • The New York Stock Exchange is closed because of the outbreak of war in Europe, where nearly all stock exchanges were already closed.

  • Rutland Boughton's opera "The Immortal Hour" premieres.

  • The last known passenger pigeon "Martha" dies in the Cincinnati Zoo.

  • Joseph Kennedy, a prominent American businessman, marries Rose Fitzgerald.

  • Joaquín Turina's opera "Margot" premieres.

  • Alpha Phi Delta is founded as a Greek social fraternity at Syracuse University in the United States.

  • Egypt becomes a British protectorate.

  • Claude Debussy's 12 Etudes are composed

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's "String Quartet No. 1" is composed in Brazil.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's "Scythian Suite" is composed.

  • Alfred Wegener publishes his theory of Pangaea.

  • Period: to

    The ukulele becomes popular.

  • The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to give women the right to vote.

  • The controversial film The Birth of a Nation, directed by D. W. Griffith, premieres.

  • Pluto is photographed for the first time.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's "All Night Vigil" premieres.

  • Charlie Chaplin's film "The Tramp" is released in the US.

  • Baseball player Babe Ruth hits his first career home run (off Jack Warhop), for the Boston Red Sox.

  • Tom Brown's band from New Orleans begin performing in Chicago, Illinois and start advertising themselves as a "Jass Band".

  • A royal decree from Denmark allowed Iceland, still a Danish colony, to get its own flag.

  • New York City establishes in the Child Welfare Board.

  • The first French ace, Adolphe Pégoud, was killed in combat. He had scored six victories.

  • The prototype military tank is first tested by the British Army.

  • France declared war on Bulgaria.

  • Richard Strauss's "An Alpine Symphony" is premiered.

    The performance received mixed reviews, but Strauss was proud of the performance.

  • "Die Csárdásfürstin", an operetta by Emmerich Kálmán, premieres.

  • The 1 millionth Ford car rolls off the assembly line, at the River Rouge Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

  • Gustav Holst completes composition of his orchestral suite The Planets, Op. 32, in England.

  • The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled.

  • The toggle light switch is invented.

  • The song "Li'l Liza Jane" is published.

  • Billy Murray's "I Love a Piano" is published.

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Symphony No. 1" is published.

  • Henrique Oswald's Sonata-Fantasia in E♭ major, Op. 44 is composed

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's "String Quartet No. 3" is published.

  • Period: to

    George Enescu's "String Quartet No. 1" is composed.

  • Carl Nielsen conducts the premiere of his "Symphony No. 4".

  • Emma Goldman was arrested for lecturing on birth control under the Comstock laws, which prohibited the spread of any information about any material deemed "obscene".[43]

  • Saskatchewan becomes the second Canadian province to let women vote.

  • The Professional Golfer's Association of America is formed

  • The US Marines invade the Dominican Republic.

  • President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America.

  • U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Aid Road Act, which introduced the first federal funding to build interstate highways.

  • Max Reger's "Requiem" premieres.

  • U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signs legislation, creating the National Park Service.

  • The first true self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was founded in Memphis, Tennessee, by Clarence Saunders, opening 5 days later.

  • The first PGA Championship is held.

  • The American Tennis Association was established in Largo, Maryland as an African-American alternative to the whites-only United States Lawn Tennis Association, and remains the oldest operating African-American sports organization in the U.S.

  • The Walnut Canyon National Monument was established near Flagstaff, Arizona by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to preserve the ancient cliff dwellings located in the canyon.

  • The Hampton Terrace Hotel in North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the United States at the time, burns to the ground.

  • Jazz music is created.

  • The banjo ukulele is invented.

  • The Budapest String Quartet is formed.

  • The popular Vaudeville song "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is published.

  • Arnold Bax's "November Woods" is written.

  • "Visions fugitives, Op. 22", a piano cycle by Sergei Prokofiev, is written

  • Maurice Ravel's piano suite "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is completed.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's opera "The Gambler" is completed.

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Die Frau ohne Schatten" is completed.

  • The musical "Oh, Boy" premieres.

  • First African American jazz recordings made by Wilbur Sweatman's Band

  • The United States ends its search for Pancho Villa.

  • Alexander vom Zemlinsky's opera "Eine florentinische Tragödie" premieres.

  • The musical The Maid of the Mountains, by Harold Fraser-Simson and Frederick Lonsdale, premiered at the Daly's Theatre in London for an initial run of 1,352 performances.

  • The U.S. government releases the text of the Zimmermann Telegram to the public.

  • "Livery Stable Blues", recorded with "Dixie Jazz Band One Step" on February 26, by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in the United States, becomes the first jazz recording commercially released.

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "La Rondine" premieres.

  • Famous ragtime composer Scott Joplin dies.

  • Carl Neilsen's piano piece "Chaconne" premieres

  • The National Music Publishers' Association is established in the USA to "protect its members' property rights on the legislative, litigation, and regulatory fronts."[48]

  • Béla Bartók's ballet The Wooden Prince is premiered in Budapest

  • The United States enacts the Espionage Act.

    The Espionage Act was intended to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment, to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent the support of United States enemies during wartime.

  • The Lions Clubs International is formed in the United States.

  • The New York Guard is founded.

  • Modest Mussorgsky's opera "The Fair at Sorochyntsi" premieres.

  • Women gain the right to vote in the US!

  • The United States declared war on Austria-Hungary.

  • Franz Lehár's operetta "Where the Lark Sings" premieres in Budapest.

  • The documented racially integrated jazz recording session occurs.

  • "God Bless America" is written

  • The Native American Church is formally founded in Oklahoma.

  • The musical "Oh, Lady Lady!!" premieres.

  • The musical "Sinbad" premieres.

  • Moscow becomes the capital of Soviet Russia.

  • The United States Congress establishes time zones, and approves daylight saving time.

  • An earthquake shook southern California, causing $200,000 in damage, one death, and several injuries.

  • The US Congress approves the Sedition Act.

    The Sedition Actmade it a crime for American citizens to "print, utter, or publish...any false, scandalous, and malicious writing" about the Government.

  • The Spanish Flu becomes a pandemic.

  • Victor Records releases the Marion Harris single "After You've Gone"

  • The Sopwith Buffalo aircraft was first flown.

  • The musical "Sometime" premieres.

  • The "Better 'Ole" Broadway production opens.

  • The American National Standards Institute was established to oversee standardization processes in products, services, processes and personnel in the United States.

  • Italo Montemezzi's opera "La Nave" premieres.

  • The operetta "Phi-Phi" opens.

  • U.S. Navy cargo ship USS Tenadores ran aground off the coast of France.

  • The popular American song "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" is published.

  • Theodore Roosevelt dies.

  • Period: to

    The First Red Scare

  • The first American fighter plane, the Thomas-Morse MB-3, made its first test flight for the United States Army Air Service.

  • Women in Missouri were granted the right to vote in the United States Electoral College.

  • The Original Dixieland Jazz Band brings jazz to England.

  • The opera "Monsieur Beaucaire" premieres.

  • The Bauhaus architectural and design movement is founded in Weimar, Germany.

  • The U.S. Navy battleship Tennessee was launched from the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City and would play an important role in the Pacific War during World War II.

  • May Day Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested.

  • The National Association of Negro Musicians is established in Washington, D.C.

  • "Ihre Hoheit, die Tänzerin", an operetta by Walter Goetze, premieres.

  • Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the states for ratification.

  • Red Summer.

    A race riot in Longview, Texas resulted in its sole fatality, when 60-year old Marion Bush, a black public worker, was shot dead. Conflicting accounts suggested Bush was shot fleeing local police on a perceived arrest while others suggested he had been attacked by a white lynch mob.

  • Friedrich Ebert becomes the first president in Germany.

  • The play "Eastward, Ho!" holds its first London production.

  • Charles Cuvillier's opera "Afgar" opens.

  • The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States.

  • he Capitol Theatre in New York City became one of the largest cinemas in the world with 4,000 seats.

  • Felix the Cat debuts in Feline Follies.

  • Hakon Børresen's opera "The Royal Guest" premieres.

  • The Broadway musical "Irene" premieres.

    It includes the hit song "Alice Blue Gown".

  • Victor Dolidze's opera "Keto and Kote" premieres.

  • The fictional characters Harold Hamgravy and Olive Oyl made their first appearance in the Thimble Theatre comic strip by E. C. Segar. The strip evolved into Popeye when Segar debuted the super-powered sailor in 1929.

  • Max Bruch's "String Octet" is composed.

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos composes his "Symphony No. 5"

  • Albert William Ketèlbey's "In a Persian Market" is composed.

    It is published the next year in 1921.

  • "I Belong to Glasgow" is written by Will Fyfe.

  • The popular song "Avalon" is written

  • Perry Bradford's song "Crazy Blues" is released.

  • Gabriel Fauré retires from the Paris Conservatoire, and is awarded the Grand-Croix of the Légion d'Honneur.

  • The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.

  • The Salzburg Festival is revived.

  • The musical "The Night Boat" premieres.

  • The operetta "Der letze Walzer" premieres.

  • The League of Women Voters is founded in Chicago.

  • On Palm Sunday, 380 people in the United States were killed by a series of 37 tornadoes that swept through the eastern half of the United States, from Illinois to Georgia.

  • The first overseas airplane flight from the United States took place when a flying boat carried freight from Miami to Nassau in the Bahamas.

  • The first game of Negro National League baseball is played, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

  • The United States Post Office Department rules that children may not be sent via parcel post.

  • Two all-metal airplanes departed from New York for the first trans-continental postal flight.

  • The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage.

  • The National Football League is established, as the American Professional Football Association.

  • The musical "A Night Out" premieres.

  • The Scholastic Corporation, founded by journalist Maurice R. Robinson in Pittsburgh and now one of the world's leading publishers of popular educational magazines and books for children and teenagers, introduced its first publication.

  • In the United States, KDKA AM of Pittsburgh (owned by Westinghouse) starts broadcasting as a commercial radio station. The first broadcast is the results of the presidential election.

  • The opera "Die tote Stadt" premieres

  • U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in establishing the League of Nations.

  • The musical comedy "Sally" opens

  • Albert Ketèlbey's "Bells Across the Meadows" is published.

  • The United States Figure Skating Association is formed.

  • Luxury goods brand Gucci is founded in Florence, Italy.

  • "All by Myself", a popular song by Irving Berlin, is published.

  • Women win the right to vote in Sweden.

  • Vearl J. Manwill and some associates located the Timpanogos Cave in northern Utah near Provo and close to the town of Highland.

  • Warren G. Harding is inaugurated as president of the US.

  • "Black Friday" in Britain: transport union members of the 'Triple Alliance' refuse to support national strike action by coal miners.

  • Pietro Mascagni's opera "Il piccolo Marat" premieres.

  • Period: to

    e major May 1921 geomagnetic storm occurs.

  • The death penalty is abolished in Sweden.

  • Paul Hindemith's operas "Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen" and "Das Nusch-Nuschi", are first performed together.

  • The Communist Party of China is created.

  • The first radio baseball game is broadcast.

  • An earthquake measuring 7.6 occurred in Indonesia, causing minor damage on Java and a small tsunami.

  • Dave Ringle and Fred Heineken's "Wabash Blues" is published.

  • James P. Johnson's "Carolina Shout" is recorded

  • The Chicago Theatre, now the oldest surviving grand movie palace in the United States, opened with The Sign on the Door, starring Norma Talmadge and Lew Cody.

  • In the United States, the Sheppard–Towner Act is signed by President Harding, providing federal funding for maternity and child care.

  • Káťa Kabanová, an opera by Leoš Janáček, premieres.

  • Rising prices cause riots in Vienna.

  • "Sakùntala", an opera by Franco Alfano, premieres,

  • Composer Camille Saint-Saëns dies

  • Julián Carrillo's "Preludio a Colón" is written

  • Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues" is recorded in New York City.

  • The Gershwins' song "Stairway to Paradise" is composed.

  • A piano rendition of the popular British song "Limehouse Blues" is recorded.

  • The first commercial country record is made

  • Louis Armstrong leaves New Orleans for Chicago to join King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band.

  • Jean Cras's opera "Polyphème" premieres.

  • The Woodrow Wilson Foundation is launched at a meeting in Washington, D.C.

  • The novel Ulysses by James Joyce is published in Paris on his 40th birthday by Sylvia Beach.

  • The first radio is introduced to the White House.

  • The silent horror film Nosferatu premieres in Germany.

  • Jules Massenet's opera "Amadis" premieres.

  • The state of Massachusetts opens all public offices to women.

  • Ottorino Respighi's opera "La bella dormente nel bosco" (the sleeping beauty in the woods) is premiered.

  • The romantic drama film Beyond the Rocks starring Gloria Swanson is released.

  • Alexander Zemlinsky's opera "Der Zwerg" premieres.

  • The Detroit News Orchestra, the world's first radio orchestra (a symphonic ensemble organized specifically to play on radio), begins broadcasting from radio station WWJ in Detroit, Michigan.

  • Robert J. Flaherty's Nanook of the North, the first commercially successful feature-length documentary film, premières in the U.S.

  • Carl Nielsen's last major choral work "Fynsk Foraar" is premiered.

  • The Hollywood Bowl opens.

  • The U.S. Treasury said that the Balfour Note would have no effect on the American policy towards foreign debts.

  • Brazil celebrates its 100th birthday.

  • T. S. Eliot establishes The Criterion magazine, containing the first publication of his poem The Waste Land.

  • Maurice Ravel's orchestral arrangement of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition is premiered in Paris.

  • 79 workers are killed in a mine explosion in Spangler, Pennsylvania.

  • Antigone by Jean Cocteau appears on stage in Paris, with settings by Pablo Picasso, music by Arthur Honegger and costumes by Coco Chanel.

  • Béla Bartók's "Dance Suite" is written

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Nonet" is written

  • American troops withdraw from the Rhineland.

  • Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 6.

  • The American Law Institute is incorporated in the United States.

  • Greece adopts the Gregorian calendar.

  • The New Orleans Rhythm Kings's "Tin Roof Blues" is recorded

  • Frank Silver and Irving Cohn's novelty song "Yes! We Have No Bananas" is published.

  • Reynaldo Hahn's "Ciboulette" premieres.

  • Yankee Stadium opens its doors, as the home park of the New York Yankees baseball team, in The Bronx.

  • Hans Gál's "Die heilige Ente" premieres.

  • Mother's Day became an official holiday in Germany.

  • William Walton's Façade is performed for the first time.

  • The Hollywood Sign is inaugurated in California (originally reading Hollywoodland).

  • President Warren G. Harding dies of a heart attack.

    His Vice President, Calvin Coolidge, is inaugurated as president the next day.

  • The first American Track & Field championships for women are held in New Jersey.

  • Roy and Walt Disney form the Walt Disney Company.

  • Cecil Mack's "Charleston" is premiered.

  • Première of John Foulds's World Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall in London. It is repeated on that date each year until 1926.

  • The comedy play Meet the Wife, starring Mary Boland, opened on Broadway.

  • Earl Burtnett and Adam Geibel's song "Sleep" is released.

  • Calvin Coolidge addresses Congress in the first radio broadcast from a U.S. President.

  • First national anthem of Mongolia introduced.

  • Ma Rainey's "See See Rider" is written.

  • George Gershwin's "Somebody Loves Me" is published.

  • Vincent Youmans's song "Tea for Two" is written.

  • Irving Berlin's "What'll I Do" is released

  • Erik Satie's ballet "Relâche" premieres.

  • The first Winter Olympics, the 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, in the French Alps.

  • The United Kingdom recognizes the Soviet Union.

  • The swashbuckling film The Thief of Bagdad, starring Douglas Fairbanks, is released.

  • Jean Sibelius conducts the world première of his Symphony No. 7 in Stockholm.

  • BBC School Radio, aimed at primary schools, first aired.

  • In the United States, J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

  • Native Americans are granted US citizenship.

  • George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" is published.

  • Napalpí massacre: Around 400 indigenous people of Toba ethnicity are massacred in Argentina.

  • Vernon Dalhart's "The Prisoner's Song" is recorded.

    It is released in November 1924.
  • Period: to

    The Kohat riots break out in India.

  • The Alpha Delta Gamma fraternity is founded at the Lake Shore Campus of Loyola University, Chicago.

  • Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is elected as the first woman governor in the United States.

  • Leoš Janáček's opera "The Cunning Little Vixen" premieres.

  • George Gershwin's Lady Be Good and Fascinating Rhythm (book by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson, lyrics by Ira Gershwin) premiere in New York, NY.

  • Ottorino Respighi's "Pines of Rome" is premiered

  • Gerald Finzi's "By Footpath and Stile" is published

  • Blind Lemon Jefferson's recording career begins.

  • Ben Bernie's "Sweet Georgia Brown" is written.

  • Jean Sibelius's "Stormen" (The Tempest) is composed.

    it is finished in 1926

  • William Walton's "Portsmouth Point" is composed.

  • Jelly Roll Morton's "Black Bottom Stomp" is published.

  • Maurice Chevalier's song "Valentine" is released

  • Miriam A. Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas and the second in United States history.

  • Art Gillham records the first Western Electric masters to be commercially released.

  • Edgard Varèse's Intégrales is premiered in New York City.

  • The Phi Lambda Chi fraternity is founded on the campus of Arkansas State Teacher's College in Conway, Arkansas .

  • The National Forensic League is founded.

  • The Chrysler Corporation is founded.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's "Symphony No. 2" premieres.

  • Erik Satie dies

  • In Dublin, Ireland, Oonagh Keogh becomes the first female member of a stock exchange in the world.

  • The film "Parisian Love" starring Clara Bow is released.

  • Xavier University of Louisiana, the first Catholic university for African-Americans in the world, opens.

  • Mount Rushmore National Memorial is dedicated in South Dakota.

  • The operetta Princess Flavia opens on Broadway.

  • Reynaldo Hahn's comédie musicale "Mozart" premieres.

  • Carl Nielsen's "Symphony No. 6" is completed.

  • Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck is given its first complete performance.

  • Alpha Phi Omega, a National service fraternity, is founded at Lafayette College..

  • Blind Lemon Jefferson makes his first recordings.

  • Jelly Roll Morton & His Red Hot Peppers make their first recordings.

  • Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" is published.

  • Kid Ory's "Muskrat Ramble" is written.

  • Leoš Janáček's "Sinfonietta" is composed.

    It is dedicated to the Czechoslovak Army.

  • Harry M. Woods's "When the Red, Red, Robin (Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along)" is published.

  • Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates a mechanical television system at his London laboratory for members of the Royal Institution and a reporter from The Times.

  • Land on Broadway and Wall Street in New York City is sold at a record $7 per sq inch; it is only affordable for four more years.

  • Boyd Atkins's "Heebie Jeebies" is recorded.

  • The Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) is destroyed by fire.

  • The Harold Lloyd comedy film For Heaven's Sake premieres.

  • Giacomo Puccini's opera "Turandot" premieres.

  • Coal miners are locked out in Britain.

  • The British ballet A Tragedy of Fashion is first performed.

  • The National Bar Association incorporates in the United States.

  • Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel, from France to England.

  • The League of Nations Slavery Convention abolishes all types of slavery.

  • "Winnie the Pooh" is published.

  • Bing Crosby cuts his first record.

  • The Gershwins' "Someone to Watch Over Me" is recorded

  • Magician Harry Houdini dies.

  • Wanda Landowska gives the world première of Manuel de Falla's Harpsichord Concerto in Barcelona.

  • The Broadway production of the musical "Oh, Kay!" opens.

  • The United States Numbered Highway System, including U.S. Route 66, is established.

  • Béla Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin is premièred in Cologne.

  • Billy Rose and Lee David's "Tonight You Belong to Me" is recorded.

  • Agatha Christie, missing for 11 days, is found at a spa in Harrogate.

    Her husband Archie issued a statement claiming she had been suffering from amnesia.

  • Jean Sibelius's tone poem "Tapiola" is premiered.

  • Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo" is recorded.

  • Serge Prokofiev's opera "The Fiery Angel" is finished.

    It premieres years later, in 1955.

  • The Autumn Harvest Uprising occurs in China.

  • Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's "Alabama Song" is composed.

  • The Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team play their first ever road game in Hinckley, Illinois.

  • Alban Berg's "Lyric Suite" premieres in Vienna.

  • Ernst Krenek's opera "Jonny spielt auf" premieres.

  • In the United States, the silent romantic comedy film It starring Clara Bow, is released, popularising the concept of the "It girl".

  • Pan American World Airways is founded by Juan T. Trippe.

  • Period: to

    The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

  • Period: to

    Commander Richard E. Byrd, Bernt Balchen, George Noville and Bert Acosta take off from Roosevelt Field, New York, in the Fokker Trimotor airplane America, and cross the Atlantic to the coast of France, having to ditch there because of bad weather.

  • The Geneva Naval Conference came to an end after nine weeks, with no agreement on reduction of warship construction, and an increase in tension between the United States and the United Kingdom.

  • The musical drama film "The Jazz Singer" is released by Warner Brothers.

  • The George and Ira Gershwin musical "Funny Face" premieres in Philadelphia.

    It receives negative reviews.

  • The Rodgers and Hart musical A Connecticut Yankee, based on Mark Twain's novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, was first performed, at the Vanderbilt Theater on Broadway.

  • Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.

  • Leoš Janáček's "Glagolitic Mass" premieres in Brno.

  • Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's musical "Show Boat" premieres.

  • Cole Porter's "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" is written.

  • George Gerswhin's orchestra piece "An American in Paris" is composed.

    It premieres on December 13, 1928.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's ballet "The Prodigal Son" is completed.

    It premieres on May 21, 1929.

  • William Anthony McGuire's musical adaptation of "The Three Musketeers" premieres on Broadway.

  • Cole Porter's musical "Paris" premieres on Broadway.

  • Period: to

    Béla Bartók's "String Quartet No. 4" is written.

  • The volcanic island Anak Krakatau appears.

  • The Great Fall River fire breaks out in Fall River, Massachusetts, destroying much of the town.

  • Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for his first transatlantic flight.

  • Igor Stravinsky's ballet "Apollon musagète" premieres.

  • 28 inches of snow fall in southern-central Pennsylvania, United States.

  • Alban Berg meets George Gershwin.

  • The first regular schedule of television programming begins in Schenectady, New York, by General Electric's television station W2XB (the station is popularly known as WGY Television, after its sister radio station WGY).

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Die ägyptische Helena" premieres.

  • Period: to

    Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to make a successful transatlantic flight.

  • Louis Armstrong records "West End Blues"

  • The United States recalls its troops from China.

  • The Fort Pierce hurricane makes landfall in the United States.

  • Composer Leoš Janáček dies.

  • Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" premieres.

  • Penicillin is discovered.

  • The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (ICRM) is formally established.

  • Maurice Ravel's orchestral piece "Boléro" is performed for the first time.

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's "Tahiti Trot" premieres in Moscow

  • The United States Congress approves the construction of Boulder Dam, later renamed Hoover Dam.

  • Manuel de Falla relocates to Granada.

  • New York toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe popularizes Bingo.

  • Maurice Chevalier's song "Louise" is released.

  • Milton Ager and Jack Yellen's "Happy Days Are Here Again" is recorded.

  • Arnold Bax's "Symphony No. 3" is completed.

  • Period: to

    The Great Depression

  • Period: to

    The Great Depression.

  • Period: to

    John Ireland's song cycle "Songs Sacred and Profane" is composed.

  • Period: to

    Ferde Grofé's "Grand Canyon Suite" is composed.

  • Karol Syzmanowski's "Stabat Mater" premieres.

  • The comic strip hero Popeye first appears in "Thimble Theatre".

  • Grand Teton National Park is established by the United States Congress.

  • Herbert Hoover is sworn in as the 31st US President.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera "Sir John in Love" premieres.

  • The Buster Keaton silent comedy film Spite Marriage is released.

  • The musical comedy film The Cocoanuts, starring the Marx Brothers in their first feature-length movie, is released.

  • Bessie Smith's "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is recorded

  • Helen Kane's "He's So Unusual" is released

  • Fats Waller's "Aint Misbehavin'" is recorded.

  • The Geneva Convention addresses the treatment of prisoners of war.

  • The musical drama film "Say It with Songs", starring Al Jolson, was released.

  • The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaks at 381.17.

  • Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern's musical "Sweet Adeline" premieres.

  • Louis Armstrong records his hit song "When You're Smiling".

  • Period: to

    The Wall Street Crash of 1929 begins the Great Depression

  • The 1929 Grand Banks earthquake occurs.

  • Irving Berlin's "Puttin' On the Ritz" is published

  • Blues musician Blind Lemon Jefferson dies.

  • Guy Lombardo plays "Auld Lang Syne" for the first time.

  • The BBC Symphony Orchestra is formed.

  • Johnny Green's "Body and Soul" is written

  • George and Ira Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" is published.

  • E.Y. Harburg and Jay Gorney's song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" is written.

  • The steel pan is invented.

  • Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields's "On the Sunny Side of the Street" is composed.

  • Period: to

    The Dust Bowl

    A period of severe dust storms.

  • The musical talkie film "Applause" is released.

  • The "Mickey Mouse" comic strip makes its first appearance.

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's first opera "Hoc" ("The Nose") premieres.

  • While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh confirms the existence of Pluto, a celestial body considered a planet until redefined as a dwarf planet in 2006.

  • International Unemployment Day is observed in countries throughout the world.

  • Kurt Weill's opera "The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" premieres.

  • The musical film "Spring is Here" is released.

  • Neoprene is invented.

  • The National Pan-Hellenic Council, which consists of African-American fraternities and sororities, is founded.

  • The Pantages Theatre in Hollywood opens.

  • Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's "Opus clavicembalisticum" premieres.

  • The dedication of George Washington's sculpted head is held at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.

  • The first onscreen appearance of Betty Boop.

  • Béla Bartók's "Cantata Profana" is completed.

  • Scotch tape is sold by the 3M company for the first time.

  • Hoagy Carmichael's "Georgia on My Mind" is recorded.

  • Laura Ingalls becomes the first woman to fly across the United States.

  • The musical "Girl Crazy" opens at the Alvin Theater.

  • Ralph Benatzky's musical comedy "The White Horse Inn" premieres.

  • The United States and Britain extend formal recognition to the new Brazilian government.

  • President Herbert Hoover goes before the United States Congress to ask for a $150 million public works program, to help create jobs and to stimulate the American economy.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms" premieres.

  • Jazz standard "All of Me" is written by Gerald Marks and Seymour Simons.

  • The electric guitar is invented

  • Herman Hupfeld's hit song "As Time Goes By" is written and published.

    The song is best known for being in the movie "Casablanca".

  • The song "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is published.

  • Albert Ketèlbey's light classical music piece "In the Mystic Land of Egypt" is composed and published.

  • Paul Ladmirault's symbolist symphonic poem "En Fôret" is written.

  • Maurice Ravel's "Piano Concerto in G" is completed.

  • Warner Brothers releases the first Merrie Melodies cartoon.

  • Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.

  • Deems Taylor's opera "Peter Ibbetson" premieres.

  • The original film version of "Dracula" is released.

  • "The Star-Spangled Banner" is adopted as the United States' National anthem.

  • The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded.

  • The Empire State Building is completed.

  • Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.

  • Paul Abraham's operetta "The Flower of Hawaii" ("Die Blume von Hawaii") premieres.

  • The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses, at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

  • The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard.

  • Dick Tracy, the comic strip detective character, makes his debut appearance.

  • William Walton's oratorio "Belshazzar's Feast" is performed for the first time in London.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Violin Concerto in D" premieres

  • The film "Frankenstein" is released by Universal Pictures.

  • The Iron Front, an anti-fascist paramilitary organization, is formed in Germany.

  • Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest surviving Latino fraternity, is founded.

  • A farmers' revolt begins in the Midwestern United States.

  • Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

  • Aldous Huxley's novel "A Brave New World" is published.

  • The cosmetics brand Revlon is founded in New York City.

  • Famed bandleader John Philip Sousa dies.

  • The musical ling-comedy operetta When the Little Violets Bloom by Robert Stolz premieres.

  • Japan and China sign a ceasefire.

  • The Revenue Act of 1932 is enacted, creating the first gas tax in the United States at 1 cent per US gallon (0.26 ¢/L) sold.

  • Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first animated cartoon to be presented in full Technicolor, premieres in Los Angeles.

  • Mahatma Gandhi begins a hunger strike in Poona prison, India.

  • The famous Babe Ruth's called shot is made.

  • A typhoon causes heavy damage in Japan.

  • Radio City Music Hall opens in New York, New York.

  • Billie Holliday is "discovered"

  • Irving Berlin's "Easter Parade" is released.

  • Irving Berlin's song "Heat Wave" is written.

  • Jimmy Durante's theme song "Inka Dinka Doo" is written.

  • Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco.

  • Béla Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2 receives its première in Frankfurt.

  • The Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing Inauguration Day from March 4 to January 20, starting in 1937.

  • The singing telegram is introduced in New York.

  • The original film version of King Kong, starring Fay Wray, premieres at Radio City Music Hall and the RKO Roxy Theatre in New York City.

  • The United States officially goes off the gold standard.

  • Walt Disney's classic Silly Symphony cartoon The Three Little Pigs is first released by United Artists.

  • The Union Station Massacre.

  • Richard Strauss's opera "Arabella" premieres.

  • The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played.

  • Silvestre Revueltas's "Janitzio" premieres.

  • The National Labor Board is created.

  • The Columbia News Service, forerunner of CBS News, was incorporated by the CBS Radio Network in order to gather its own news stories.

  • Twentieth Century Pictures' first film,"The Bowery", is released in the US.

  • Zoltán Kodály's "Dances of Galánta" is premiered.

  • U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration.

  • Prohibition is repealed in the US.

  • Carlos Chávez's "Sinfonía de Antígona" is premiered.

  • Sun Ra's career begins.

  • The United States formally recognizes Cuba.

  • Gustav Holst's opera "The Wandering Scholar" premieres.

  • "Four Saints in Three Acts", an opera by Virgil Thomson, premieres.

  • The Share Our Wealth plan is announced.

  • Manchuria becomes Manchukuo

  • The Pope criticizes Nazi propaganda.

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Perséphone" is premiered.

  • The first Three Stooges short premieres.

  • Gustav Holst dies.

  • Donald Duck makes his debut.

  • The American film industry begins to rigorously enforce the Motion Picture Production Code.

  • The United States Marine Corps leaves Haiti.

  • The Soviet Union joins the League of Nations.

  • The musical film "The Gay Divorcee" is released.

  • The Chevrolet company produces its 10 millionth Chevrolet.

  • Cole Porter's musical "Anything Goes" premieres on Broadway.

  • Persia becomes Iran.

  • Swing music becomes popular.

  • Frank Sinatra begins his professional singing career as a member of the Hoboken Four.

  • Child star Shirley Temple records "On the Good Ship Lollipop".

  • Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to successfully complete a solo flight from Hawaii to California.

  • Coopers Inc. sells the world's first men's briefs, as "jockeys", in Chicago.

  • The board game Monopoly starts getting sold

  • Georges Bizet's Symphony in C (1855) is performed for the first time

  • Faithful dog Hachikō dies.

  • Reynaldo Hahn's opera "Le marchand de Venise" premieres.

  • Quetta Earthquake

  • The Gershwins's musical "Porgy and Bess" premieres.

  • A major heat wave hits the United States

  • The YMCA Youth and Government program is founded in Albany, New York.

  • Billboard magazine in the United States publishes its first music hit parade.

  • The jazz standard "Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" by Louis Prima is released

  • In Barcelona, Alban Berg's Violin Concerto is given its première.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" premieres.

  • First publication recognizing stress as a biological condition.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Dona Nobis Pacem" premieres.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to a 2nd term as US President.

  • Hank Williams begins his singing career.

  • Kurt Weill's opera "The Eternal Road" premieres.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt announces his plan to enlarge the US Supreme Court.

  • The Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrians.

  • Carl Orff's Carmina Burana premieres in Frankfurt, Germany.

  • The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.

  • Aaron Copeland's "El Salón México" premieres.

  • The jazz standard "Nice Work If You Can Get It" is recorded.

  • Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street is published by Vanguard Press.

  • The Andrews Sisters enjoy their first major hit with "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen".

  • Ella Fitzgerald records her version of "A Tisket A Tasket".

  • Walt Disney's first full-length film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", is released.

  • Huey, Dewey and Louie make their first appearance, in the Disney animated short Donald's Nephews.

  • Arthur Honegger's oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" premieres.

  • Louis Armstrong records "When the Saints Go Marching In"

  • Ernst Krenek's opera "Karl V." premieres.

  • Artie Shaw records "Begin The Beguine".

  • The musical "Knickerbocker Holiday" premieres.

  • The minimum wage is established by law in the United States.

  • DuPont announces a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".

  • Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, allegedly causing panic in various parts of the United States.

  • The musical "The Boys from Syracuse" premieres on Broadway.

  • The ballet Romeo and Juliet (with music by Prokofiev) receives its first full performance, at the Mahen Theatre in Brno, Czechoslovakia.

  • Samuel Barber's "Violin Concerto" is completed

  • Kirlian photography is invented by Semyon Kirlian.

  • Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade" is published.

  • Glenn Miller's "Tuxedo Junction" is released.

  • Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit"

    This jazz standard protests the lynching of Black Americans.

  • The beloved film "The Wizard of Oz" is released.

  • Period: to

    World War 2.

  • Period: to

    World War 2

  • The Broadway musical "Du Barry Was a Lady" premieres.

  • Sergei Prokofiev's cantata "Zdravitsa" premieres.

  • The pedal steel guitar is invented.

  • Glenn Miller's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" is published.

  • 16-year-old Doris Day joins Les Brown's band.

  • Walt Disney's second animated feature-length film "Pinocchio" premieres in American cinemas.

  • Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award.

  • William Walton's ballet "The Wise Virgins" premieres.

  • Cartoon character Daisy Duck debuts, in Mr. Duck Steps Out.

  • Billboard magazine publishes its first "Music Popularity Chart".

  • The popular song "You Are My Sunshine" is released.

  • Portuguese-born performer Carmen Miranda makes her American film debut in Down Argentine Way, one of the first films produced to promote the Good Neighbor policy.

  • Disney's "Fantasia" premieres.

  • Arnold Schoenberg's Violin Concerto is premièred.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat to the nation, declares that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."

  • Richard Addinsell's "Warsaw Concerto" is written for the film "Dangerous Moonlight".

  • Les Paul builds one of the first solid-body electric guitars

  • The Andrews Sisters record their hit song "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy".

  • The first commercial recording of the popular Billy Strayhorn jazz song "Take the 'A' Train" is made.

  • Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.

  • The Disney writer's strike.

  • Walt Disney's live-action/animated feature The Reluctant Dragon is released.

  • NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1.

    The first TV commercial premieres.

  • The song "Deep in the Heart of Texas" is recorded.

  • British forces capture Benghazi.

  • Bing Crosby records "White Christmas"

  • The jazz song "At Last" is released

  • "Jingle Jangle Jingle" is published.

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos writes his "String Quartet No. 7".

  • The United States Advertising Council, a predecessor of Ad Council, is founded.

  • Princess Elizabeth (who is now Queen Elizabeth) registers for war service in the U.K.

  • The Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) is established in the United States.

  • Aaron Copland's ballet "Rodeo" premieres at the Metropolitan Opera House.

  • The Times Square Ball in Times Square, New York City isn't dropped for the first time. Instead, there is a moment of silence at midnight, followed by the sound of bells playing from sound trucks at the base of One Times Square.

  • Benjamin Britten's "Rejoice in the Lamb" is written

  • Igor Stravinsky's "Ode" is written.

  • Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.

  • American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.

  • The musical "Oklahoma!" premieres on Broadway.

  • Perry Como signs with RCA.

  • Hans Krása's children's opera "Brundibár" premieres.

  • The Dutch famine ("Hongerwinter") begins, in the occupied northern part of the Netherlands

  • Aaron Copeland's "Appalachian Spring" premieres.

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of the United States Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.

  • "Metamorphosen", a composition by Richard Strauss, is completed.

  • The musical "Carousel" premieres on Broadway.

  • Benjamin Britten's opera "Peter Grimes" premieres.

  • The Nazi party is dissolved.

  • The motion picture The Lost Weekend, starring Ray Milland, is released. The most realistic film portrayal of alcoholism up to this time, it wins several Academy Awards the following year.

  • The United States Senate approves the entry of the United States into the United Nations by a vote of 65–7.

  • Period: to

    Cold War

  • The Space Age begins.

  • The League of Nations disbands.

  • The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigations into communism in Hollywood.

  • Global casual fashion brand H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) is founded, and a first Hennes outlet store opens in Västmanland, Sweden.

  • ackie Robinson becomes the first African American to play Major League Baseball since the 1880s.

  • The movie Miracle on 34th Street, a Christmastime classic, is first shown in theaters.

  • Rock music is invented.

  • The Christmas song "Sleigh Ride" is published.

  • Period: to

    Apartheid in South Africa.

  • The first color newsreel is made.

  • The World Health Organization (WHO) is founded by the United Nations.

  • The Organization of American States (OAS) is founded.

  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established.

  • The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is established.

  • The Cole Porter musical "Kiss Me, Kate" premieres.

  • Harry S. Truman is sworn in for a full term, as President of the United States.

  • The musical "South Pacific" Premieres on Broadway.

  • Richard Strauss dies.

  • The credit card is invented.

  • Karlheinz Stockhausen composes "Choral"

  • Rock and Roll becomes popular.

  • The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.

  • Teresa Brewer's records "Music! Music! Music!"

  • Sergei Prokofiev's "Cello Sonata" premieres.

  • Kurt Weill dies.

  • Richard Strauss's "Four Last Songs" premieres.

  • Period: to

    Mauna Loa starts erupting.

  • Walt Disney's first live-action film, "Treasure Island", is released.

  • Period: to

    Korean War

  • The novelty song "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy-Tat" is recorded

  • Crusader Rabbit, the first animated TV series, debuts on television in the United States.

  • John Cage's "String Quartet in Four Parts" premieres.

  • The game show Truth or Consequences debuts on television in the United States.

  • The comic strip "Peanuts" premieres.

  • The Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls" opens.

  • Little Richard begins recording for RCA.

  • The Recording Industry Association of America (or RIAA) is established

  • Sergei Prokofiev dies.

  • The musical "Can-Can" premieres on Broadway.

  • The Rose Bowl marks the first color television broadcast.

  • First Fender Stratocaster produced.

  • Period: to

    Civil Rights Movement.

  • Aaron Copeland's opera "The Tender Land" premieres in New York City.

  • Little Richard records "Tutti-Frutti", one of the first rock and roll songs.

  • The Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings" premieres.

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

  • Leonard Bernstein's opretta Candide first performed

  • Harry Belafonte has a big hit that reached number five on the Billboard charts with the calypso song "Day-O".

  • Alvin and the Chipmunks release "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)"

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams dies.

  • Buddy Holly dies.

  • 1st Grammy Awards are awarded

  • The musical "Gypsy" opens.

  • Billie Holiday dies

  • The musical "The Sound of Music" premieres.

  • The stage musical "Oliver!" premieres in London.

  • Oscar Hammerstein II dies

  • Debut of Elton John

  • Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" premieres.

  • The Beatles release their debut song "Love Me Do"

  • First cassette tapes made by Philips

  • Martin Luther King Jr. gives his famous "I Have A Dream" speech

  • Bill Lear invents 8-track tape cartridge.

  • The Beatles come to the US.

  • The musical "Man of La Mancha" premieres.

  • Nat King Cole dies.

  • Jean Barraqué's "Chant après Chant" is written

  • Krzystof Penderecki's "St. Luke Passion" premieres.

  • The musical "Mame" premieres.

  • The International Society of Bassists is founded by Gary Karr.

  • The first Super Bowl occurs

  • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles is released in Mono and Stereo LPs.

  • Otis Redding records "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" at Stax Records' studio in Memphis, Tennessee.

  • Release in Brazil of the album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis by Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and others, with arrangements by Rogério Duprat, inaugurates the Tropicália movement in music.

  • Louis Armstrong records "What a Wonderful World"

  • Johnny Cash records At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison, California.

  • Jean Barraqué's "Le Temps restitué" premières

  • Civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. is killed

  • The musical "Hair" opens on Broadway

  • Led Zeppelin performs for the first time, billed as The New Yardbirds.

  • John and Cynthia Lennon are divorced.

  • David Bowie records "Space Oddity"

  • Chutney music is first recorded.

  • Iannis Xenakis's "Persephassa" is composed.

  • "Sweet Caroline" is published

  • György Ligeti's composes "Ramifications"

  • The Who release "Pinball Wizard" as a single with a B-Side of "Dogs (Part Two)."

  • HPSCHD, an event conceived by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller as a highly immersive multimedia experience, received its premiere performance before an audience of 6000 at the Assembly Hall of the Urbana Campus, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

  • The Stonewall riots begin

  • Neil Armstrong becomes the first man on the moon.

  • The Beatles release their album "Abbey Road".

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 14 in G minor" premieres.

  • PBS (the Public Broadcasting Service) is created.

  • "Sesame Street" premieres on PBS.

  • The Beatles disband

  • Olivier Messiaen's "La Fauvette des jardins" is written.

  • the Irish bouzouki is invented.

  • The Beatles's last EP, "Let it Be" is released.

  • Rock star Jimi Hendrix dies.

  • Janis Joplin is found dead.

  • The Beatles officially and finally split up after 10 years.

  • Hans Werner Henze's secular oratorio "Das Floß der Medusa" premieres.

  • Davy Jones announces he is leaving the Monkees.

  • Queen performs their first public concert in London.

  • The musical "Godspell" opens

  • Dmitri Shostakovich's "Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141" is completed.

  • Heitor Villa-Lobos's opera "Yerma" premieres.

  • Walt Disney World opens

  • The first rock opera, "Jesus Christ Superstar", opens on Broadway.

  • VCR's are introduced

  • Steve Reich's "Clapping Music" is composed.

  • George Crumb's "Makrokosmos Volume 1" is composed.

  • Einojuhani Rautavaara's "Cantus Arcticus" is composed.

  • Elvis and Priscilla Presley separate.

  • Thomas Pasatieri's opera "Black Widow" premieres.

  • Official Beatles fan club closes down.

  • The Watergate Scandal.

  • Malcolm Arnold's "Symphony No. 7" is composed.

  • George Crumb composes "Makrokosmos, Volume 2"

  • Ben Johnston composes "I'm Goin' Away" for SATB choir

  • The musical "Gigi" premieres.

  • The musical "The Rocky Horror Show" opens on the West End.

  • Carl Orff's musical play/opera "De temporum fine commedia" premieres.

  • George Crumb composes Music for a Summer Evening (Makrokosmos III)

  • Steve Reich composes "Music for 18 Musicians"

  • Joni Mitchell releases her album Court and Spark, supported by the single "Help Me".

  • The musical "A Little Night Music" opens on Broadway.

  • Girls allowed to play in Little League Baseball

  • Patti Smith records "Hey Joe", her debut single, which arguably becomes the first punk rock single when released in August.

  • Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks join Fleetwood Mac.

  • Elliott Carter's "A Symphony of Three Orchestras" is composed.

  • John Rutter becomes Director of Music at Clare College, Cambridge.

  • "The Wiz", a retelling of 'The Wizard of Oz", opens on Broadway.

  • John Rutter's opera "Bang!" premieres.

  • Aulis Sallinen's opera "The Horseman" premieres.

  • The Texas Senate declares the Fourth of July "Willie Nelson Day".

  • Rock band Kiss earns publicity by playing the homecoming dance of Cadillac High School in Cadillac, Michigan.

  • Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Amour" is completed.

  • Peter Frampton releases his live album Frampton Comes Alive!

  • The Ramones release their eponymous debut studio album, Ramones.

  • Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is involved in a car accident northwest of London. Cocaine is found in his wrecked car.

    Richards is given a court date of January 12, 1977.

  • Philip Glass's "Einstein on the Beach" premieres.

  • The popular musical "Annie" premieres in Connecticut.

  • Hip hop music is established.

  • Henri Dutilleux's string quartet "Ainsi la nuit" premieres

  • Luigi Sagrati becomes president of the Unione Musicisti di Roma

  • John Adams's "Phrygian Gates" is composed.

  • Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Atmen gibt das Leben" is completed.

  • "Bohemian Rhapsody" named "The Best Single Of The Last 25 Years" by BPI

  • American Bandstand celebrates its 25th anniversary on television with a special hosted by Dick Clark.

  • Harrison Birtwistle's "Silbury Air" premieres.

  • Instruments made by all five members of the 17th- and 18th-century Guarneri family of violin makers are auctioned at Sotheby's, with the top price of £105,000 paid for an instrument made in 1738 by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù

  • The Nikikai Opera Foundation is founded in Japan.

  • Arvo Pärt's "Tabula Rasa" premieres.

  • Elvis in Concert, a TV concert special filmed during Elvis Presley's final tour, is aired on CBS; Canadian Channel CKND-DT simulcasts it. It got bad reviews.

  • Saturday Night Fever appears in movie theaters, igniting a new popularity for disco music.

  • Peter Maxwell Davies's ballet "Salome" premieres.

  • By request, Ted Nugent autographs his name into a fan's arm with a bowie knife in Philadelphia.

  • György Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" premieres.

  • The Buddy Holly Story, starring Gary Busey, is released.

  • The musical movie "Grease" is released

  • The musical "Evita" opens on the West End.

  • Dire Straits releases their self-titled debut album.

  • Def Leppard's permanent drummer Rick Allen joins the band at the age of 15.

  • George Crumb composes "Makrokosmos IV"

  • William Lloyd Weber's mass "Missa Sanctae Mariae Magdalenae" is composed.

  • Hossein Dehlavi composes his children's opera "Mana and Mani".

  • Stevie Wonder uses digital audio recording technology in recording his album Journey through the Secret Life of Plants.

  • Disco reigns supreme.

  • Steve Reich composes his "Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards".

  • Singer Donny Hathaway dies.

  • 43 million viewers watch "Elvis!" on ABC, a made-for-TV movie starring Kurt Russell as Elvis.

  • • Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island

  • The Cure release their debut album "Three Imaginary Boys" (Boys Don't Cry in US, Australia).

  • Three of the four ex-Beatles perform on the same stage, as Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr jam with Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Mick Jagger and others at a wedding reception for Clapton at his Surrey home.

  • Elton John becomes the first western solo pop artist to tour in the Soviet Union

  • The Walkman is introduced.

  • "My Sharona" by The Knack hits #1 on the Billboard charts. This is the first time in over a year that a song hits #1 that is not either a disco song or a ballad, signalling the potential resurgence of rock.

  • U2 enters the studio for the first time to record a locally released single.

  • The Sugarhill Gang release Rapper's Delight in the United States, the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

  • Donna Summer becomes the first female artist to have 5 top 10 hits in the same year.

  • Singer John Lennon is assassinated.

  • Period: to

    The AIDS epidemic

  • MTV is founded.

  • Michael Jackson releases his most popular album, "Thriller".

  • The Disney Channel is created.

  • Pop singer Michael Jackson moonwalks for the first time at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, a performance broadcast at the MTV Awards in May.

  • The musical "Sunday in the Park with George" opens on Broadway.

  • The "PG-13" rating for movies is added to existing rating classes used by the Motion Picture Association of America, and first applied to John Milius's "Red Dawn."

  • The R&B single "We Are The World" is recorded.

  • U2 releases its "Joshua Tree" album.

  • The musical "Into the Woods" opens on Broadway.

  • The Berlin Wall falls.

  • Carl Vine's "Piano Sonata No. 1" is completed.

  • Period: to

    Adult contemporary

  • Period: to

    Swing revival

  • Period: to

    intelligent dance music (IDM)

  • Period: to

    neo-soul

  • MTV's Unplugged is broadcast for the first time, on cable television.

  • Geffen Records is purchased by MCA Inc.

  • The musical film "Cry-Baby" premieres in theaters everywhere.

  • The Three Tenors give their first concert.

  • Iraq invades Kuwait.

  • Period: to

    The Gulf War

  • Leonard Bernstein conducts his final performance at Tanglewood.

  • James MacMillan's piano concerto "The Berserking" premieres in Glasgow.

  • The musical "Once on This Island" opens on Broadway.

  • Janet Jackson's song "Black Cat" is the first song to simultaneously peak atop the Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock chart.

  • Nirvana releases "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

  • R.E.M. release their seventh studio album, Out of Time. The album would serve as the band's breakthrough, catapulting the Georgia alternative rock band from cult status to a massive international act.

  • "...à la Fumée (...Into Smoke)", a composition by Kaija Saariaho, premieres.

  • The Mérida State Symphony Orchestra is founded in Venezuela.

  • Paul McCartney's classical composition, the Liverpool Oratorio, receives its première at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

  • The United Nations Security Council unanimously votes to adopt Resolution 721,.

  • Nirvana's Kurt Cobain marries Hole's Courtney Love.

  • Mariah Carey performs at MTV Unplugged, shows critics her 5-octave range, and gets rave reviews.

  • Billy Ray Cyrus releases his hit single "Achy Breaky Heart"

  • The musical "Falsettos" opens on Broadway.

  • Michael Jackson starts the Dangerous World tour, supporting his Dangerous album in Munich, Germany.

  • American pop-punk band Blink-182 form.

  • James MacMillan's "Veni, Veni, Emmanuel" is premiered.

  • "1492 epopea lirica d'America", an opera by Antonio Braga, premieres.

  • McTeague, an opera based on the Progressive Era-novel by Frank Norris, premieres at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

  • Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau announces his retirement from the stage to an audience at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

  • The long version of Alvin Curran's string quartet "VSTO" premieres.

  • Hugo Weisgall's opera "Esther" premieres.

  • Rick Astley retires from the music industry at the age of 27 after selling 40 million records in a five-year period.

  • The U.S. Postal Service issues an Elvis Presley stamp.

  • Whitney Houston's single "I Will Always Love You" posts its 14th week at number 1 in the US.

  • The Grateful Dead sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the San Francisco Giants' home opener at Candlestick Park.

  • "Shining Brow", an opera by Daron Hagen, premieres.

  • The Who's Tommy opens on Broadway

  • The musical "The Kiss of the Spider Woman" premieres

  • On his 35th birthday, Prince announces that he is changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol. This led to him being called The Artist Formerly Known as Prince until 2000.

  • Karl Jenkins's "Adiemus" is recorded.

  • Bryan Adams becomes the first major Western music star to perform in Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.

  • Selena releases her final Spanish album Amor Prohibido.

  • Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain dies.

  • The Broadway production of "Beauty and the Beast" opens.

  • Aerosmith becomes the first major band to premiere a new song on the Internet.

  • Decca releases a recording of the 1949 première of Benjamin Britten's Spring Symphony for the first time.

  • Stewart Wallace's opera "Harvey Milk" premieres.

  • Roxette play to a crowd of 12,000 in Beijing, China, becoming the first Western band to be allowed to perform in the Workers' Indoor Arena for ten years.

  • Tejano singer Selena is killed.

  • Luciano Berio's "Sequenza XII" premieres.

  • Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead passes away of a heart attack at age 53.

  • The Backstreet Boys release their debut single We've Got It Goin' On.

  • The Luminiş Villa, George Enescu Memorial House, becomes an official memorial to the composer.

  • The musical "Victor/Victoria" opens on Broadway.

  • Oasis releases their hit "Wonderwall".

  • The Beatles release "Free As A Bird" as their first new single in over 20 years.

  • Tobias Picker's opera "Emmeline" premieres.

  • Madonna receives death threats from Argentine Peronists who are enraged and insulted that she is playing Eva Peron in Evita.

  • La Fenice opera house in Venice, Italy, is destroyed by fire.

  • Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Freitag aus Licht" premieres.

  • Period: to

    The rise of teen pop.

  • The Red Hot Chili Peppers release their album "Californication".

  • The Y2K scare.

  • Mariah Carey becomes the Best-Selling Artist of the Millennium according to the World Music Awards.

  • Millennium Force opens at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio as the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster

  • Period: to

    The 2000 Summer Olympics are held in Sydney.

  • The United States Supreme Court rules that the recount of the 2000 presidential election in Florida should be halted and the original results be certified, thus making George W. Bush the winner of the U.S. presidential election.

  • John Adams's piano composition "American Berserk" is composed.

  • Apple, Inc. introduces iTunes.

  • George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States.

  • Jennifer Lopez becomes first female artist to have both a number one album (J.Lo) and a number one movie (The Wedding Planner) in the same week.

  • Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 replaces Max Bruch's violin concerto at #1 in the Classic FM Hall of Fame.

  • The musical "The Producers" opens on Broadway.

  • Period: to

    Tropical storm Allison hits Houston.

  • Electric Light Orchestra release Zoom, their first album in 15 years.

  • The world's first self-contained artificial heart is implanted in Robert Tools in the United States.

  • The piece As Slow as Possible, composed by John Cage, begins.

    It will last 639 years, finishing in the year 2640.

  • Britney Spears gives her famous-and controversial-MTV Video Music Awards performance.

  • The World Trade Center, along with other buildings, are attacked.

  • Period: to

    2001 Anthrax attacks

  • XM Satellite Radio is launched.

  • Apple introduces the first iPod.

  • Fergie joins The Black Eyed Peas.

  • Period: to

    The 2002 Winter Olympics are held.

  • Member of R&B group TLC, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes dies in a car accident in Honduras.

  • The dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered.

  • Kelly Clarkson becomes the first winner of the television talent contest, American Idol.

  • A riot broke out at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, protesting a scheduled talk by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien during which a Holocaust survivor and a rabbi were assaulted.

  • Johnny Cash dies

  • Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass is invented.

  • The War in Darfur begins

  • The popular Stephen Schwartz musical "Wicked" premieres in San Francisco.

    It opened on Broadway on June 10th of that year and starred Kristin Chenoweth as Galinda/Glinda and Idina Menzel as Elphaba. It is one of the most popular musicals of all time.

  • Tesla Inc., the American electric car company, is founded.

  • Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, is captured in the small town of Ad-Dawr by the U.S. Army.

  • Karl Jenkins's "In These Stones Horizons Sing" is composed.

  • Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake perform onstage at Super Bowl XXXVIII. The performance concludes with Jackson's right breast being exposed to the audience. The phrase "wardrobe malfunction" is coined during the ensuing controversy.

  • Mark Zuckerberg launches The Facebook, later renamed to Facebook, a social networking website for Harvard University students.

  • Blink-182 releases their hit song "I Miss You".

  • The musical "Assassins" comes to Broadway.

  • Deborah Voigt, sacked by Covent Garden for being too fat for an opera role, makes her recital debut to a rapturous reception at Carnegie Hall.

  • The chamber opera "The Io Passion" premieres.

  • Eric Clapton sells his famous guitar "Blackie" at a Christie's auction, raising $959,000 to benefit the Crossroads drug rehabilitation center that he founded in 1998.

  • Ashlee Simpson is accused of lip synching after an abortive live performance on the television show Saturday Night Live.

  • The world's tallest bridge, the Millau Viaduct over the Tarn in the Massif Central mountains, France, is officially opened.

  • UNESCO declares the Mongolian Long song one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

  • Fender Frank Bello Bass is invented.

  • George W. Bush is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.

  • After being silent since late 2004, Blink-182 announce that they will be taking an indefinite hiatus, the news comes as a big shock for fans. According to guitarist Tom DeLonge, the band will not come completely inactive.

  • The jukebox musical "All Shook Up" premieres.

  • Country music legend Kenny Rogers signs a major worldwide record deal with Capitol Records.

  • "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee", a musical by William Finn, premieres on Broadway.

  • The first ever YouTube video is uploaded, titled Me at the zoo.

  • Kingda Ka is opened for the first time to the public at Six Flags: Great Adventure, becoming the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster at the time.

  • Kelly Clarkson releases "Because of You"

  • Hurricane Katrina forms.

  • Rihanna releases her debut album Music of the Sun, which debuts at number 10 on the US Billboard 200.

  • A Concert for Hurricane Relief airs on NBC and its affiliates.

    Rapper Kanye West infamously states that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people"; this statement sparks controversy.

  • Amnesty International launches its "Make Some Noise" music initiative.

  • The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to establish the United Nations Human Rights Council.

  • Twitter is launched.

  • Partial lunar eclipse.

  • The Nintendo Wii released in Europe.

  • The original iPhone is announced

  • Tumblr is launched.

  • The iPhone is released in the US.

  • Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest queen of England.

  • Kosovo formally declares independence from Serbia, to a mixed response from the international community.

  • Period: to

    The 2008 Summer Olympics are held in Beijing.

  • Satoshi Nakamoto publishes "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System".

  • Period: to

    Gaza War

  • An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.

  • The first ("Genesis") block of the blockchain of the cryptocurrency and decentralized payment system Bitcoin is established by the creator of the system, known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

  • Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African-American president.

  • Karel Goeyvaerts's opera "Aquarius" is premiered.

  • The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as "swine flu", is deemed a global pandemic.

  • Famed pop star Michael Jackson dies.

  • Avatar is released in theaters, breaking many box-office records, including becoming the highest-grossing movie at the time.

  • Krzysztof Penderecki composes Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott for mixed choir, brass, percussion and string orchestra

  • A powerful earthquake hits Haiti.

  • Justin Bieber releases his hit song "Baby".

  • Period: to

    The 2010 Winter Olympics are held in Vancouver.

  • Protesters interrupt a concert by the Jerusalem Quartet at London's Wigmore Hall.

  • The first iPad is released.

  • Katy Perry releases "California Gurls".

  • Jazz singer Lena Horne dies at age 92

  • British-Irish boyband One Direction is formed.

  • The World Health Organization declares the H1N1 influenza pandemic over, saying worldwide flu activity has returned to typical seasonal patterns.

  • The first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Northern winter solstice and Southern summer solstice since 1638 takes place.