Sir George Trevelyan: memories and observations
World events, timeline 1906-1996
the wider context of Sir George's life
* denotes a general historic trend
Sir George's age is inserted once every decade
Birth
1906
+ PERSIA: revolution in Persia; INDIA: Aga Khan founds the All-India Moslem League
+ N AFRICA: France & Spain control & divide Morocco; CHINA: Britain agrees to cut opium trade
+ USA: San Francisco earthquake
+ INNOVATION: Patents Act (UK); Pure Foods & Drugs Act (USA); 'Lusitania' crosses Atlantic in 5 days
+ ARTS: Strauss, Delius, Elgar, Hammerstein, Mahler, Rimski-Korsakov, Bartok, Schönberg, at work
1907
+ WORLD: Peace Conference at the Hague (diplomatic precedent); international financial panic
+ OCEANIA: New Zealand acquires dominion status; ASIA: Japan gains control of Korea
+ ARTS: exhibition of cubist paintings in Paris: Picasso, Braque
+ INNOVATION: Pavlov on reflexes; colour photography; tissue culture techniques; Boy Scouts founded
1908
+ E EUROPE: Bulgaria independent; Austria annexes Bosnia & Herzegovina (unpopular in Balkans)
+ OTTOMANS: revolt of Young Turks (seeking constitutional rights & suffrage, to halt Ottoman decline)
+ S AFRICA: Union of S Africa established; Crete unites with Greece; EUROPE: travels of Edward VII
+ GERMANY: Zeppelin disaster; INNOVATION: first steel-glass building; bakelite; Model-T Ford; ammonia
1909
+ INNOVATION: Peary reaches North Pole; Bleriot flies English Channel; genetics research (Morgan)
+ C AMERICA: civil war in Honduras
+ * ARTS: development of abstract painting: Kandinsky, Mondrian
1910
+ EAST ASIA: Japan (by now a modern power) annexes Korea (until 1945)
+ S AFRICA: formation of Union of South Africa (Boer general Botha first PM)
+ WORLD: Mexican Revolution begins; republican revolution in Portugal; revolt in Albania
+ ARTS: Matisse, Cezanne, Picasso, Epstein, Monet, Kandinsky at work; architect F Lloyd Wright
+ INNOVATION: development of plastics; Rutherford's Theory of Atomic Structure; research in oceanography
1911
+ CHINA: CHINESE REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION (Sun Yat-sen); end of Manchu dynasty (1644-1911)
+ N AFRICA: Italy conquers Libya (Turkish-Italian war) (first use of airplanes in warfare)
+ BRITAIN: suffragettes (Emily Pankhurst) seek women's votes & rights; also many labour strikes
+ BRITAIN: Lloyd George's Nat Insurance Bill & Official Secrets Act
+ C ASIA: independence of Tibet & Mongolia; WORLD: Amundsen reaches South Pole (Scott 1912)
1912
+ SE EUROPE: Balkan Crisis (1912-13): Balkan states unify against Turkey & Austria
+ * EUROPE: armaments race between European powers; BRITAIN: RAF founded
+ BRITAIN: miners', dock & transport strikes; USA: textile workers' strikes (IWW)
+ IDEAS: Adler, Jung, Jaspers on psychoanalysis; Taussig, Mitchell, Oppenheimer on social economy
+ RUSSIA: Lenin & Stalin join forces, Lenin edits Pravda; ATLANTIC: sinking of the Titanic
+ INNOVATION: vitamins, protons & electrons identified; cellophane production; FW Woolworth founded
1913
+ INNOVATION: Henry Ford develops conveyer-belt production of Model-T car, Detroit USA
+ SE EUROPE: Balkan states fight over land & sovreignty; Balkans 'powder-keg of Europe'
+ INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi (Passive Resistance Movement) arrested; BRITAIN: Mrs Pankhurst jailed
+ * IDEAS: Bertrand Russell, Nils Bohr, J Jeans, R Steiner, Albert Schweizer, Einstein at work
+ * ARTS: Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B de Mille, Irving Berlin, Rutland Boughton; jazz popular
1914
+ EAST ASIA: Germany yields islands in Pacific to Japan, Australia & NZ, and concessions in China
+ EUROPE: OUTBREAK OF FIRST WORLD WAR (fuelled by Balkan crisis & intransigent Euro powers)
+ EUROPE: Battles of Namur, Mons, Ypres, Tannenberg, Marne; AMERICAS: strife between US & Mexico
+ WORLD: French & British annex German colonies except German East Africa; UK takes Egypt (Suez Canal)
+ C AMERICA: Panama Canal opens; AFRICA: uniting of Nigeria
1915
+ EUROPE: devastating war in Belgium, Poland, North Sea, Aegean, Armenia, Persia, Balkans
+ EUROPE: airborne & submarine war, Zeppelins bomb London; Joffre, Haig & Nicholas II commanders
+ USA: President W Wilson's 'New Freedom' (against corruption, trusts, protectionism & unfair taxes)
+ INNOVATION: Ford's farm tractor & millionth car; first transcontinental telephone call (Bell)
1916
+ INNOVATION: first birth control clinic opens, NY USA; blood transfusion; USA: alcohol prohibition
+ INDIA: Hindus & Muslims join to call for Indian autonomy; EUROPE: Martin Buber's 'Spirit of Judaism'
+ EUROPE: expensive stalemate in war provokes political crises in all countries
+ IRELAND: Sinn Fein Easter Rebellion; MIDEAST: T E Lawrence supports Arabs against Turks
+ AMERICAS: USA expands in Caribbean (buying Danish & Dutch islands)
Age 10
1917
+ MIDEAST: Balfour Declaration promises Jews a national home in British-occupied Palestine
+ RUSSIA: OCTOBER REVOLUTION: world's first socialist state; peace, land reform, democracy
+ USA: USA joins world war; EUROPE: Finland & Albania gain independence
+ EUROPE: Germany, Austria & Turkey in retreat; starvation in Germany
+ EUROPE: Germany, Austria & Turkey sue for armistice: end of First World War; 8.5m dead
+ RUSSIA: minority Bolsheviks take over; widespread civil war; famine & disease spread
+ USA: President W Wilson announces 'Fourteen Points' (progressive treaty proposals for world)
+ ASIA: Japanese advance into Siberia; BRITAIN: women over 30 become voters
+ EUROPE: Czechoslovakia (Masaryk), Yugoslavia, Poland & Iceland independent
+ MIDEAST: Woolley excavates Babylon; INNOVATION: Shapley researches Milky Way galaxy
1919
+ WORLD: nationalist movements & revolts in India, Egypt, China
+ WORLD: Paris Peace Conference; map of Europe & Middle East redrawn; USA now leading world power
+ EUROPE: influenza epidemic (millions die); unrest in Germany; Weimar Rep; White Russian defeat
+ INNOVATION: Rutherford's research on atom, Cambridge UK; ARTS: Bauhaus school of design in Germany
+ INNOVATION: first crossing of Atlantic by air (Alcock & Brown, 16 hrs); advances in meteorology
+ USA: race riots & strikes; MIDEAST: Syria independent; EUROPE: Hungary independent
1920
+ MIDEAST: Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk) leads Turkish nationalist movement & resistance to partition
+ WORLD: League of Nations established, HQ Geneva (unsuccessful after 1924; USA does not join)
+ * WORLD: end of European dominance; rise of USA & USSR; disarmament fails; slow economic recovery;
fragile new democratic states; antipathy to USSR; Third World nationalism; Britain & France divide Mid East
+ INNOVATION: first public radio broadcasts, USA and UK (BBC); International Court of Justice, the Hague, founded
+ * WORLD: rise of Ghandi, Churchill, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin; RUSSIA: end of Civil War
1921
+ PERSIA: Reza Khan becomes leader in Persia, becomes Shah 1925 (bringing reform)
+ E AFRICA: Washington conference attempts to regulate situation in East Asia
+ N AFRICA: Battle of Anual: Spanish army defeated by Moroccans
+ USA: USA restricts immigration (maturing of nation); trade protectionism, stock-market boom
+ GERMANY: galloping inflation in Weimar Rep; PERSIA: Reza Khan takes power
+ IDEAS: Arthur Waley & W Y Evans-Wentz, orientalists;
1922
+ MIDEAST: Greek army expelled from Turkey; last Ottoman sultan deposed; republic declared
+ USSR: formation of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (CCCP); ITALY: Mussolini takes power
+ IRELAND: Irish Free State, Eire, created; BRITAIN: Marie Stopes advocates birth control
+ INNOVATION: research on heredity (Morgan), white corpuscles, diabetes, physics, sound movies, astronomy
+ * ARTS: Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington; T S Eliot, Brecht, James Joyce, V Woolf, D H Lawrence
1923
+ EUROPE: French occupy Ruhr (on German failure to pay reparations); Pan-Europa Movement founded
+ USA: General Motors established (world's largest manufacturing company); racist Ku Klux Klan
+ JAPAN: Tokyo & Yokohama destroyed in earthquake; WORLD: exploration in Tibet, Gobi & Poles
+ EUROPE: dictatorships: de Rivera in Spain, Mussolini in Italy
+ MIDEAST: Transjordan independent; Turkish capital moves to Ankara
+ IDEAS: Schweitzer 'Philosophy of Civilisation'; Webbs' 'Decay of Capitalism'; Mauthner 'Atheism'
1924
+ USSR: death of Lenin (rise of Stalin); * SCANDINAVIA: rise of Social Democracy (Hjalmar Branting)
+ BRITAIN: first Labour government (Ramsey MacDonald, short-lived); INDIA: Ghandi fasts 21 days
+ INNOVATION: Imperial Airways; Time Magazine; electric razor; Hubble Effect; theory of acids & bases
1925
+ EUROPE: Locarno treaties stabilise frontiers in the West; MIDEAST: Hebrew University, Jerusalem
+ GERMANY: Hitler's 'Mein Kampf' published; BRITAIN: Unemployment Insurance Act
+ IDEAS: Quantum Mechanics (Heisenberg, Bohr & Jordan)
+ JAPAN: general suffrage for males; MEDITERRANEAN: Cyprus becomes British colony
1926
+ CHINA: Chiang Kai-shek reunites China; MIDEAST: reform & modernisation in Turkey
+ BRITAIN: general strike in Britain (against unemployment & government policies)
+ IBERIA: Salazar takes power in Portugal; N AFRICA: revolt crushed in Morocco by Spain
+ * ARTS: Talking movies, great film-makers: Griffith, Disney, Eisenstein, Hitchcock, Chaplin
+ ARTS: Milne's 'Winnie the Pooh'; INNOVATION: Goddard (US) fires first rocket
Age 20
1927
+ WORLD: economic conference of 52 nations at Geneva
+ GERMANY: 'Black Friday' collapse of economy; foreign troops leave; Nazi Party program published
+ INNOVATION: first electronic musical instrument; ARTS: Gershwin & Hammerstein at work in NYC, USA
+ INNOVATION: Lindbergh's NY-Paris flight in 'Spirit of St Louis' (33 hrs)
1928
+ USSR: first Five Year Plan and collectivisation of agriculture ('command economy')
+ WORLD: Briand-Kellogg Pact (15+54 states sign) bans war as a means to settle conflicts
+ BRITAIN: suffrage for women over 21; ATLANTIC: Amelia Earhart flies the Atlantic
+ INNOVATION: Fleming discs penicillin; first organ transplants; first TV broadcasts, NY; teleprinters
+ S AMERICA: collapse of Brazilian economy
1929
+ WORLD: Wall Street Crash precipitates world economic depression (unemployment, loss, poverty)
+ BRITAIN: Labour gov't (R MacDonald); OCEANIA: Labour gov't; RUSSIA: Trotsky exiled (killed 39)
+ C EUROPE: dictatorship in Yugoslavia; MIDEAST: Palestinians attack Jews (over Wailing Wall)
+ USA: construction of Empire State Building (1929-31); growth of comic strips; gangsterism
+ INNOVATION: isolation of estrone (fem hormone); quartz-crystal clock; Einstein's Unified Field Theory
1930
+ S AMERICA: military revolution in Brazil & Argentina; * GERMANY: rise of Nazi Party & its sponsors
+ WORLD: naval disarmament treaty (US UK Japan France Italy); * international drive against narcotics
+ INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi starts campaign of non-violent civil disobedience against British
+ INNOVATION: planet Pluto discovered by Tombaugh; devel of cyclotron; photo flash bulbs
+ AFRICA: Ras Tafari becomes Ethiopian Emp Haile Selassie; trans-Africa Benguela Railway completed
+ IDEAS: Adler, Freud, Keynes, Planck, Trotsky, Laski, Einstein, Heidegger, Vienna Circle
1931
+ E ASIA: Japanese annex Manchuria; INDIA: anti-British unrest, Congress banned, Ghandi arrested
+ BRITAIN: Gold Standard abandoned (econ downfall); EUROPE: bank crises in Germany & Austria
1932
+ MIDEAST: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia formed by Ibn Saud; USSR: Second Five Year Plan; famine
+ S AMERICA: Chaco War, Bolivia & Paraguay; USA: F D Roosevelt President (1932-45 - reconstruction)
+ GERMANY: Nazi majority in Reichstag; emigration of artists; JAPAN: export price undercutting
+ INNOVATION: development of radio astronomy; Piccard's balloon flight to 17.5 miles up; vitamin research
1933
+ GERMANY: Hitler Chancellor (1933-45): Nazi revolution: Reichstag fire, dictatorship, Jew-hunts
+ USA: Roosevelt's 'New Deal'; US abandons Gold Standard; recognises USSR; repeals prohibition
+ FRANCE: Stavisky corruption scandal; MIDEAST: massacre of Assyrian christians in Iraq
+ INNOVATION: Arctic warming discovered (9° C in 30 yrs); ARTS: 'King Kong'
1934
+ * CHINA: Long March of Communists begins, with Mao Tse-dong; USSR: Stalin's purges begin
+ N AFRICA: Italian suppression of Senussi resistance in Libya
+ EUROPE: revolution in Austria; Hitler & Mussolini meet; general strike in France
+ WORLD: USSR joins League of Nations, Japan leaves, renounces various treaties
+ BRITAIN: regional planning & driving tests introduced; Churchill warns of war
+ IDEAS: Toynbee's 'A Study of History'; ARTS: Gershwin's 'Porgy & Bess'; Fred Astaire
1935
+ N AFRICA: Italy invades Ethiopia
+ C AMERICA: land redistribution & oil nationalisation in Mexico; USA: Social Security Act
+ GERMANY: Saarland annexed, breaking of treaties, social pressures; USSR: political show trials
+ INNOVATION: Alcoholics Anonymous, NYC; radar; Hammond Organs
+ BRITAIN: Oswald Mosley's Fascism
1936
+ MIDEAST: Palestinian revolt against Jewish immigration; oil pipeline Iraq-Levant
+ GERMANY: German reoccupation of Rhineland; Japan signs anti-Comintern pact with Germany
+ IBERIA: Spanish Civil War begins (Franco); N AFRICA: British occupy Suez Canal by alliance
+ AMERICAS: Pan-American Congress; USA proclaims good-neighbour policy; USA: 'Swing' music
+ IDEAS: Keynes' 'Theory of Employment, Interest & Money'; INNOVATION: BBC regular TV transmissions
Age 30
1937
+ ASIA: Japan invades China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanking); Chiang Kai-Shek & Mao Tse-Dong unite
+ MIDEAST: separate Arab & Jewish Palestinian states suggested; WORLD: Germany-Italy-Japan pact
+ USA: neutrality declared; econ recession; 'Hindenberg' Zeppelin disaster; Ford Foundation established
+ INNOVATION: jet engine first built in UK; first worldwide radio broadcast; nylon patented (du Pont)
1938
+ EUROPE: Germany occupies Austria; Munich conference; dismemberment of Czechoslovakia
+ USSR: pogroms & trials, rapid industrialisation; EUROPE: Roosevelt urges European amicability
1939
+ EUROPE: Germany invades Poland: SECOND WORLD WAR begins; war at sea, USSR fights in Poland
+ IBERIA: fascist dictator Franco in power, Civil War ends; alliance with Germany-Italy
+ USA: economic boom (war trade from Europe); WORLD: Pan-Am & BOAC founded
+ E ASIA: Japanese friction with USA & UK in China
+ INNOVATION: polyethylene; Sikorsky's helicopter; DDT; research on splitting atom; FM radio
1940
+ EUROPE: Germany overruns Norway, Belgium, France, Denmark, Netherlands
+ W EUROPE: air Battle of Britain; British night bombing of Germany; U-boat warfare
+ CHINA: UK reopens Burma Road to supply Chinese against Japan
+ FRANCE: Lascaux prehistoric wall paintings discovered (20,000 yrs old)
1941
+ WORLD: Japan attacks USA in Hawaii: USA enters Second World War
+ WORLD: Germany invades Russia & Egypt; Japan invades Hong Kong & Philippines
+ WORLD: USA begins lend-lease to Britain (end of British capital dominance in world)
+ INNOVATION: 'Manhattan Project' (atomic research); plutonium discovered
1942
+ ASIA: Japan overruns SE Asia; PACIFIC: Battle of Midway: USA halts Japanese expansion
+ N AFRICA: Battle of El Alamein, German defeat and retreat (turning-point)
+ EUROPE: German VIth army surrenders at Stalingrad; Italian capitulation; Jewish Holocaust
+ INNOVATION: Fermi splits the atom; first electronic computer; magnetic tape-recording; Oxfam founded
+ INDIA: Ghandi demands Indian independence
1943
+ EUROPE: German retreat begins; Warsaw ghetto massacre; bombing of Germany; Italy surrenders
+ ASIA: US forces take Pacific islands; Chinese push back Japanese
+ USA: race riots; wage, salary & price freeze (against inflation)
1944
+ EUROPE: Allied landings in Normandy (D-Day); Russian advance in E Europe; Warsaw uprising
+ ASIA: Vietnam (Ho Chih Minh) declares independence of France & Japan; Japanese losses; US bombs Japan
+ S AMERICA: rise of Peron in Argentina; FRANCE: de Gaulle takes power
1945
+ WORLD: Yalta Conference (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill; origin of 'Cold War'; world map redrawn)
+ EUROPE: defeat of Germany, suicide of Hitler; Germany divided into 4 zones; Nuremburg trials
+ INNOVATION: ATOMIC BOMB FIRST DETONATED, NM, USA; atomic energy research, Harwell, UK
+ WORLD: USA drops atom bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki (forcing surrender); WW2 ends, 45m dead
+ WORLD: UNITED NATIONS established, HQ New York; World Bank founded (reconstruction & development)
+ MIDEAST: Arab League formed; C EUROPE: People's Rep of Yugoslavia declared (Tito)
1946
+ CHINA: Civil War in China (1945-9) (between Kuomintang & Communists)
+ * SE ASIA: Vietnamese struggle against France (1946-54); MIDEAST: Br & Fr leave Lebanon
+ EUROPE: Paris Peace Conference; general devastation & chaos; Churchill's 'Iron Curtain' speech
+ GERMANY: Communists gain gov't in E Germany; SCANDINAVIA: Tage Erlander, PM of Sweden (46-69)
+ INNOVATION: pilotless missile; discovery of 'solar wind'; xerography process (photocopying)
Age 40
1947
+ S ASIA: India (Hindu) & Pakistan (Islamic) independent (Ghandi & Nehru); Burma independent
+ WORLD: intensification of Cold War (1945-89): Truman Doctrine; formation of NATO alliance
+ SE EUROPE: Greek Civil War (1947-9); USA: first UFOs reported
+ EUROPE: US Marshall Plan for econ reconstruction in Europe; Benelux customs union (seed of EC)
+ INNOVATION: supersonic flight, USA; transistor invented; Thor Heyerdahl sails Pacific on Kon Tiki
1948
+ MIDEAST: establishment of state of Israel (Ben Gurion): first Arab-Israeli war
+ E EUROPE: Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary; Berlin airlift
+ AMERICAS: Organisation of American States established; WORLD: World Health Assembly, Geneva
+ EUROPE: Hague Conference on European Unity; INNOVATION: LP record, Mt Palomar telescope
+ IDEAS: Kinsey on sexology; Big Bang theory of origin of universe
+ ARTS: Rodgers & Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'
1949
+ CHINA: Communist victory; PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA declared (Mao Tsedong, Chou Enlai)
+ SE ASIA: Indonesia independent; CHINA: Chiang Kai-Shek removes to Formosa (Taiwan)
+ EUROPE: Council of Europe founded, Strasbourg; German Federal Republic founded
+ S AFRICA: apartheid program inaugurated; USA: anti-Communist trials (McCarthyism)
+ INNOVATION: US missile reaches 250 miles into space; USSR's first atomic bomb
+ BRITAIN: nationalisation & establishment of 'welfare state'
1950
+ EAST ASIA: Korean War (1950-53) (communists against capitalists); US aids Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia
+ C ASIA: Chinese forces occupy Tibet; S AFRICA: race riots against apartheid, Johannesburg
+ USA: McCarthyite anti-Communist & Korea paranoia; Fuchs (UK) & Gold (US) atomic secrets trials
+ WORLD: UN reports 450m children undernourished; world population 3.2 billion
1951
+ PACIFIC: Australia, NZ & USA sign Anzas Pact
+ INNOVATION: first nuclear power stations in USA & UK; colour TV (US)
+ WORLD: Cold War: defections (Burgess & Maclean); spy trials in US & Czechoslovakia; East Berlin escapees
1952
+ E AFRICA: Mau-Mau rebellion in Kenya
+ N AFRICA: military revolt against Britain in Egypt; proclamation of republic by Nasser
+ INNOVATION: contraceptive pill developed (US); hydrogen bomb (US); isotopes in medicine & industry
+ GERMANY: economic revival, Germany joins World Bank; Israeli-German restitution agreement
+ N AMERICA: first major nuclear accident & leak, Canada
1953
+ USSR: end of Stalinist period in USSR; Kruschev First Secretary; E ASIA: Korean Armistice
+ WORLD: Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of UN (1953-61); Hillary & Tenzing climb Mt Everest
+ AFRICA: unrest in Kenya, Rhodesia & Nyasaland; WORLD: first Commonwealth Conference, London
+ INNOVATION: lung cancer attributed to cigarette smoking; structure of DNA molecule identified, UK
+ * ARTS: Britten, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, K Amis, Somerset Maugham, William Golding, Priestley, Picasso
1954
+ SE ASIA: Laos, Cambodia & Vietnam become independent of France (Geneva Conference)
+ N AFRICA: beginnings of nationalist revolt in Algeria
+ WORLD: agreements between France-West Germany, Japan-Burma, US-Taiwan, US-Japan
+ USA: McCarthyism tempered; physicist Oppenheimer demoted; Distant Early-Warning System (radar)
+ INNOVATION: Bannister runs 4-minute mile; WORLD: World Council of Churches convenes; Billy Graham
1955
+ ASIA: Bandung conference
+ E EUROPE: Warsaw Pact signed (Soviet & East European defence pact)
+ W EUROPE: European Union (France, Italy, W Germany); BRITAIN: rail & dock strikes
+ WORLD: Universal Copyright Convention; INNOVATION: UHF broadcasting; artificial diamonds
+ USA: black civil rights agitation, Alabama; rise of Martin Luther King; AFL-CIO merger
+ INNOVATION: hovercraft & optical fibres
1956
+ MIDEAST: Second Arab-Israeli war; N AFRICA: Suez crisis: Anglo-French invasion of canal zone
+ E EUROPE: Polish revolt, Gomulka in power; Hungarian revolt crushed by Russia (mass arrests)
+ S ASIA: Pakistan becomes an Islamic Republic; AFRICA: Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco independent
+ * ARTS: rock'n'roll: Elvis Presley's 'Blue Suede Shoes'; AMERICAS: Fidel Castro & Che Guevara
+ INNOVATION: transatlantic telephone cable; neutrino discovered; antibiotic research; FORTRAN devised
+ IDEAS: dawn of mass Peace Movement (CND marches, Aldermaston, UK); INNOVATION: first video recording
Age 50
1957
+ SE ASIA: Civil war in Vietnam
+ EUROPE: Treaty of Rome: FORMATION OF EUROPEAN COMMUNITY; EFTA 1959
+ * AFRICA: decolonisation in W Africa: Ghana independent
+ INNOVATION: FIRST SPACE SATELLITES LAUNCHED, Sputniks I & II, USSR
+ WORLD: 71 cities with 1m+ people (16 in 1914)
1958
+ FRANCE: Fifth Republic in France, under General de Gaulle
+ WORLD: Communist influence (USSR-China cooperation, USSR aid to Egypt & Cuba; Chinese in Indochina)
+ AMERICAS: West Indies Federation; anti-USA feeling in S America; USA: 'Explorer' satellite
+ WORLD: Beatnik movement in Europe & USA; nuclear submarine passes under Arctic icecap
+ INNOVATION: Van Allen belt discovered; stereo recording; IDEAS: Galbraith's 'Affluent Society'
1959
+ C AMERICA: Cuban Revolution (Fidel Castro)
+ WORLD: World Refugee Year; USSR sends two monkeys into space & Lunik satellites to Moon
+ MEDITERRANEAN: Cyprus becomes republic under Archbishop Makarios
+ ARTS: Gunther Grass, Ionesco, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Ian Fleming, Philip Roth, Graham Greene
+ C ASIA: flight of Dalai Lama from Chinese-occupied Tibet (exile government in North India)
1960
+ ASIA: Sino-Soviet disputes begin (end of cooperation); USA-USSR: U-2 spyplane crisis
+ AFRICA: 'Africa's Year': many states independent; outbreak of civil war in Congo
+ USA: J F Kennedy, Pres (60-63); USSR: Leonid Brezhnev Pres; WORLD: US-USSR-UK-France summit fails
+ S AMERICA: Brasilia becomes capital of Brazil; GERMANY: neo-Nazism grows, is banned
+ INNOVATION: first communications & weather satellites, USA; laser device; Carbon-14 dating
1961
+ SE ASIA: Increasing US involvement in Vietnam (against Communist growth)
+ EUROPE: East Germans build Berlin Wall (height of 'Cold War'; AMERICAS: 'Bay of Pigs' fiasco
+ S AFRICA: South Africa becomes independent republic; UN condemns apartheid
+ INNOVATION: FIRST MAN IN SPACE, Gagarin, USSR; structure of DNA molecule determined, UK
+ AFRICA: Tanganyika Conference (on protecting African wildlife)
+ ARTS: Heller's 'Catch-22', Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land'
1962
+ ASIA: Sino-Indian war (in Himalayas)
+ AFRICA: Algeria independent (after uprising against France); Uganda & Tanganyika independent
+ WORLD: Cuba missile crisis (threat of nuclear war); U Thant becomes UN Secretary-General
+ ROME: Second Vatican Council reforms catholic liturgy & dogma
+ INNOVATION: Telstar, Venus probe, orbiting astronauts; thalidomide scandal
+ * WORLD: decline of 19th C industries (coal-based) & rise of Third World industry (SE Asia)
1963
+ USA: civil rights unrest, Alabama, 'Freedom Marches', DC; Kennedy assassinated
+ USSR-USA 'Hot Line'; Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (USA, USSR, UK); BRITAIN: Great Train Robbery
+ BRITAIN: Profumo Affair; Philby spy scandal; UK application to join EC rejected by de Gaulle
+ INNOVATION: first woman in space (V Tereshkova, 3 days); quasars discovered; artificial heart used
+ SE ASIA: military coup in S Vietnam (USA aided); AFRICA: Kenya independent (Jomo Kenyatta)
+
1964
+ USA: Civil Rights Bill inaugurates Pres Johnson's Great Society program; BRITAIN: Harold Wilson, PM
+ CHINA: publication of 'Thoughts of Chairman Mao'; SE ASIA: escalation of Vietnam war
+ AFRICA: Tanzania formed (Nyerere); Zambia (Kaunda), Malawi & Congo (Tshombe) independent
+ MIDEAST: Arafat becomes leader of Palestinian Al Fatah (PLO)
+ BRITAIN: Harold Wilson, PM; Mods & Rockers; 'Brain Drain'; emergence of Beatles & Mersey Sound
1965
+ INDIA: Indo-Pakistan War (over Kashmir); SE ASIA: military takeover in Indonesia
+ AFRICA: Rhodesia declares UDI; Gambia independent; socialist revolution in Algeria
+ USA: black civil rights marches (Alabama), anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, LA race riots
+ SE ASIA: full-scale war in Vietnam; USSR supports North Vietnam
+ WORLD: earthquake in Chile; tornadoes in US; cyclones in East Pakistan
+ USA: Ralph Nader fights for consumer rights
1966
+ * CHINA: Cultural Revolution (Red Guard, purges, forced reforms, 'words of Chairman Mao')
+ USA: black discontent & growth of Black Power; WORLD: International Days of Protest (anti-Vietnam War)
+ * WORLD: 'Flower Power' & use of LSD grows (San Francisco, London, Ibiza, Goa, Amsterdam, Kathmandu)
+ BRITAIN: economic downfall & standstill; IBERIA: loss of four unarmed US H-bombs (retrieved)
+ INNOVATION: * international spread of the supermarket & mass tourism; Surveyor 1 sends pictures from Moon
Age 60
1967
+ MIDEAST: Six Day War, between Israel & Arabs (Israel gains Jerusalem, closes Suez Canal)
+ AFRICA: Biafra Civil War in Nigeria (1967-70 - much death & famine); EUROPE: military coup in Greece
+ CHINA: China-UK friction over Hong Kong; MIDEAST: pan-Arab solidarity grows
+ N AMERICA: de Gaulle's 'Quebec Libre' speech; EUROPE: military coup in Greece
+ ARTS: Beatles' 'Sgt Pepper', Dylan, Clapton, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, Joplin, G Dead, Airplane
+ INNOVATION: development of genetic engineering (synthesis of DNA); Expo 67, Montreal; heart transplants
1968
+ C EUROPE: liberal 'Prague Spring' (Dubcek) halted by USSR intervention; unrest in Warsaw
+ USA: assassination of Martin Luther King & Robert Kennedy; CANADA: Pierre Trudeau, liberal PM
+ WORLD: student & political protest (near anarchy in Germany, France, UK); USA: draft-dodging
+ BRITAIN: curbs on immigration from India, Africa, West Indies (repatriation suggested)
+ INNOVATION: growth of worldwide satellite communications; pulsars discovered
+ * JAPAN: now third largest industrial state in world; A RTS: 'Monty Python', Kenneth Clark's 'Civilisation'
1969
+ IRELAND: violence breaks out in Ulster (between Catholic nationalists & Protestant unionists)
+ INNOVATION: FIRST MAN LANDS ON THE MOON (Armstrong, USA); supersonic Concorde airliner
+ MIDEAST: growth of Palestine Lib'n Front (Y Arafat); C EUROPE: public suicide of Jan Palach
+ WORLD: Rome convention on marine pollution; first banning of DDT & cyclamate food additives
+ * IDEAS: influential Feminist, Green, New Left, Black, inner growth movements; Woodstock festival
+ WORLD: world inflation, high interest rates; Nixon, Golda Meir, Indira Ghandi, W Brandt, Heath
1970
+ E EUROPE: Polish-German treaty (recognition of post-WW2 frontiers); German 'Ostpolitik'
+ S AMERICA: socialist Allende elected president of Chile, assassinated 1973
+ WORLD: growth of airplane hijacking; low financial confidence; SE ASIA: Vietnam de-escalation
+ S AMERICA: world's first elected Marxist president, Allende, Chile
+ USA: Kent State deaths, 450 colleges close; Charles Manson; 'Jesus Movement' (fundamentalism)
+ MIDEAST: Palestinians fight Jordan for space to live & operate; IDEAS: G Greer 'Female Eunuch'
1971
+ WORLD: US-China detente, China joins UN; first US-USSR nuclear test ban treaty (ocean floor)
+ S ASIA: Indo-Pak war leads to breakaway of Bangla Desh; SE ASIA: war spreads to Laos & Cambodia
+ AFRICA: Idi Amin, Uganda dictator (1971-79 - terror); Algeria nationalises French gas & oil interests
+ EUROPE: end of 400-year dispute between Catholic & Anglican churches (ecumenicalism)
+ BRITAIN: postal strike; internment without trial in Ulster
+ INNOVATION: 'Intel' microprocessor silicon chip developed
1972
+ * WORLD: DÉTANTE (relaxing of Cold War); USA: 'Watergate Affair' (secrecy & corruption)
+ SE ASIA: Marcos, dictator in Philippines; OCEANIA: Whitlam's Labour government, Australia (anti-USA)
+ INNOVATION: discovery of Tasaday stone-age tribe, Philippines; 'homo habilis' (Richard Leakey, Kenya)
+ S ASIA: Ceylon becomes Sri Lanka republic
1973
+ SE ASIA: USA failing in IndoChina, VietCong, Pathet-Lao & Khmer Rouge gaining; 2m dead (65-73)
+ MIDEAST: Yom Kippur, fourth Arab-Israeli war; Arab oil embargo of industrial world
+ EUROPE: Britain, Eire & Denmark join EC; E & W Germany recognise each other
+ WORLD: major recession in world (oil prices & economic instability; decline of Euro-USA dominance)
+ S AMERICA: military coup, Chile (Allende dies, CIA involvement); return of Perons, Argentina
+ INNOVATION: US Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter; IDEAS: Schumacher's 'Small is Beautiful'
1974
+ IBERIA: end of dictatorship in Portugal; AFRICA: Mozambique & Angola soon independent
+ MEDITERRANEAN: Turkish invasion of East Cyprus (partition); return of democracy in Greece
+ USA: Nixon resigns in Watergate affair; protests over pardoning of Nixon; corruption trials
+ SE ASIA: Communists take over Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; ARTS: ABBA (pop music)
+ AFRICA: drought & famine; H Selassie of Ethiopia deposed by Marxist junta; Eritrean liberation war
+ INNOVATION: Skylab; USSR lands on Mars; research on quarks; WORLD: worldwide economic inflation
1975
+ MIDEAST: war between Christians & Muslims in Lebanon starts
+ EUROPE: 35 nations sign Helsinki Accords on Security & Cooperation; WORLD: International Women's Year
+ ASIA: India annexes Sikkim; Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces terror 'reforms'; end of Vietnam War
+ WORLD: independence of Angola, Mozambique, Papua New Guinea, Surinam; military coup in Peru
+ WORLD: growing Arab solidarity against Isreal; OPEC raises oil prices 10%; Suez Canal reopens
+ WORLD: US Apollo & USSR Soyuz craft meet in space; Europe & US liberalisation on homosexuality
1976
+ AFRICA: Morocco & Mauritania partition Spanish Sahara; Angola civil war starts; Soweto riots
+ IBERIA: liberalisation in Spain on death of Franco; WORLD: destruction of ozone layer noted
+ WORLD: USA-USSR nuclear test treaty; USA: Bicentennial; 'Moonies'; Jimmy Carter, President
+ CHINA: Mao dies; Hua Kuo-Feng begins liberalisation; 'Gang of Four' coup attempt
+ SCANDINAVIA: Swedish Social Democratic Party (Olof Palme) loses first election for 44 years
+ WORLD: earthquakes in China, Italy, Turkey, Mindanao, Bali, Guatemala; EUROPE: riots in Poland
Age 70
1977
+ WORLD: HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES (Carter, Sakharov, Amnesty International); energy crisis & conservation
+ WORLD: two jumbo jets collide at Tenerife, killing 575 people
+ MIDEAST: PLO calls for independent Palestinian nation; Egypt-Israel agreements
+ ASIA: military coups in Pakistan (Zia) & Thailand; S AFRICA: 'independent black homelands' created
+ INNOVATION: space shuttle; neutron bomb; discovery of Chiron & Uranus' rings; genetics breakthroughs
+ USA: blackouts in NYC (disruption & looting); WORLD: volcanic eruptions in Japan, Italy, Hawaii
1978
+ WORLD: unrest in Nicarague, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Bolivia; war in Lebanon complexifies
+ INNOVATION: Soviet cosmonauts 20 weeks in space; 'test-tube baby' (UK); ARTS: Andrew Lloyd-Webber
+ EUROPE: Red Brigades (Italy), Baader-Meinhof (Ger), IRA (UK) bombings
+ AFRICA: Katanga invaded by rebels (repulsed); S AMERICA: 'People's Temple' suicide of 917 people
+ * SE ASIA: beg of migration of Vietnamese 'boat people' (escaping communist regime)
+ ROME: Polish Pope John Paul II (first non-Italian since 1522)
1979
+ C ASIA: Soviet forces occupy Afghanistan (1979-89) (fight between Soviets & Islamic fundamentalism)
+ MIDEAST: Shah deposed; Ayatollah Khomeini returns to found fundamentalist Islamic republic
+ AFRICA: Uganda invaded by expatriots, Idi Amin deposed (end of genocide, corruption, torture)
+ SE ASIA: Vietnam invades Kampuchea (against Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime)
+ BRITAIN: Margaret Thatcher becomes PM; IRAN: students take US hostages (seeking return of Shah)
+ * WORLD: growth of influential New Age, complementary medicine, womens' and green movements
1980
+ MIDEAST: Iran-Iraq war (80-89, deadlocked, costly); US abortive attempt to rescue hostages
+ C AMERICA: ruthless civil wars in San Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America
+ E EUROPE: Solidarity (Lech Walesa) focuses dissent in Poland (seed of later revolutions)
+ AFRICA: Zimbabwe independent (Mugabe)
1981
+ * ASIA: rise of Islamic Fundamentalism (Khomeini); Sadat (Egypt) killed; Muhajedin fighters
+ WORLD: assassination attempts on US President Ronald Reagan & Pope John Paul II
+ MIDEAST: Israeli planes destroy nuclear plant in Iraq (preventing bomb-making)
+ BRITAIN: IRA Maze hunger strike; inner city riots, unemployment 2m+
+ USA: Ronald Reagan accuses USSR of being 'Evil Empire'; moral-majority conservatism
1982
+ MIDEAST: Israel invades troubled Lebanon (evacuation of PLO by sea)
+ S AMERICA: Falklands War (UK 'Iron Lady' vs Argentine junta) over Malvinas islands
+ IBERIA: socialist Gonzalez, PM (reform & economic growth); ARTS: Attenborough's film 'Ghandi'
+ S ASIA: Tamil separatists unleash unrest in Sri Lanka
+ * WORLD: peak of nuclear war fears ('Star Wars', cruise missiles, Greenham Common women)
1983
+ MIDEAST: 239 US Marines killed by Islamic Jihad terrorists (US withdraw from Lebanon)
+ INDIA: Bengalis massacred in Assam in civil riots
+ E ASIA: USSR Migs shoot down stray Korean airliner over Kamchatka
+ INNOVATION: Pioneer 10 passes Neptune and leaves solar system
+ * WORLD: int'lising of finance grows almost to cult proportions (takeovers, junk-bonds)
1984
+ INDIA: Bhopal Union Carbide toxic gas disaster (2500 die)
+ INDIA: gov't invasion of Sikh Golden Temple, Kashmir; Sikhs kill Indira Ghandi
+ AFRICA: disastrous famine in Ethiopia (weather, war + government restrictions)
+ INNOVATION: identification of AIDS virus; retrieval & repair of satellite by space shuttle
+ BRITAIN: coal miners' strike (against industrial decline & gov't); WORLD: AIDS scares
+ C AMERICA: civil war in Nicaragua (Sandinista gov't vs right-wing, US-backed Contras)
1985
+ WORLD: Live Aid (Geldof, raises money for Ethiopian famine, swings awareness worldwide)
+ WORLD: international terrorism (mainly Islamic) threatens order & security
+ WORLD: Fr agents sink Greenpeace 'Rainbow Warrior' (to prevent protest against nuclear test)
+ S AFRICA: black township unrest, state of emergency declared
+ USSR: rise to power of Mikhael Gorbachev, perestroika & glasnost (new era in USSR)
1986
+ USA: 'Irangate' affair; explosion of space-shuttle 'Challenger'; support of right-wing Contras
+ WORLD: explosion of Chernobyl nuclear plant (Ukraine) brings fear & opinion swing worldwide
+ SE ASIA: dictator Marcos ousted by Mrs Aquino in Philippines ('people power' against dictators)
+ N AFRICA: US bombing of Libya (against int terrorism & Col Ghadafi)
+ * WORLD: International pressure groups: Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, peace groups, Amnesty International
Age 80
1987
+ WORLD: growing atmosphere for disarmament: Reagan (US) & Gorbachev (USSR) summits
+ USSR: Gorbachev starts major liberal reforms (social & economic restructuring & openness)
+ MIDEAST: Iran-Iraq war intensifies (endangering Persian Gulf, oil interests & neighbours)
+ WORLD: 'Black Monday' Stock Market crash ends period of world economic growth & speculation
+ WORLD: Japan now dominates world financial markets; ecological priorities grow (ozone-layer)
+ BRITAIN: 'Spycatcher' secrets trials; hurricane hits England
1988
+ WORLD: USA-USSR DISARMAMENT TALKS END THE COLD WAR
+ USA: 'Irangate' trials (over clandestine military deals between USA & Iran)
+ WORLD: rise of threat of chemical warfare (Iraqi use against Kurdish minority & Iran)
+ C ASIA: Tibetan revolts against Chinese government
+ SE ASIA: ascendancy of the Asian 'tiger economies' - Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia
+ WORLD: rise of threat of chemical warfare (Iraqi use against Kurdish minority & Iran)
1989
+ EUROPE: Communist governments topple in East Europe (non-violent velvet revolutions, except Rumania)
+ WORLD: awakening of nationalist feeling worldwide (USSR, East Europe, Asia)
+ WORLD: Salman Rushdie affair (awakens old shadows of European-Islamic strife)
+ WORLD: FALL OF IRON CURTAIN & BERLIN WALL (changes in world power and in Europe)
+ WORLD: campaign to create a World Park in Antarctica
+ CHINA: Tienanmen Square democracy movement crushed (human rights)
1990
+ S AFRICA: liberalisation and ending of apartheid (President de Klerk)
+ MIDEAST: Iraq occupies Kuwait (threatening world economy & oil supplies)
+ WORLD: global corporate power (Microsoft, News International, McDonalds, corporate takeovers)
+ USSR: separatist movements (Baltics, Georgia, Caucasus; disintegration, threat of civil war)
+ EUROPE: reunification of Germany begins new era in 1990s Germany (Chancellor Kohl)
1991
+ MIDEAST: Gulf War (Desert Storm, against Iraq); Shia & Kurdish rebellions; major relief operations in Iraq
+ AFRICA: famine in Ethiopia/Sudan (changes in aid operations, growth of large aid organisations)
+ MIDEAST: Lebanese civil war (1976-91) ends in national exhaustion (reconstruction follows)
+ RUSSIA: rapid end of USSR, Gorbachev & Communist party (coup attempt); rise of Yeltsin's Russia, with
Western business invasion & growth of Russian business-mafia; Ukraine & Baltic states independent
+ C ASIA: new states of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kirgyzstan, Turkmenistan
1992
+ WORLD: growth of the World Wide Web, bringing Internet into widespread popular use
+ WORLD: noticeable major global climatic changes; UN Rio Earth Summit (on global ecological questions)
+ EUROPE: European Union integration (Maastricht Treaty, harmonisation, social & economic)
+ AFRICA: failed UN/US intervention in Somalia (peacekeeping & aid fail; African power-politics low-point)
+ SE EUROPE: break-up of Yugoslavia into small states, war between Serbia & Croatia
+ W EUROPE: rise of the mysterious phenomenon of crop formations
1993
+ EUROPE: Bosnian civil war (between Muslim, Croat & Serb Bosnians, atrocities & concentration camps)
+ MIDEAST: Israel-Palestine peace accords (mediated in Norway, plans for a Palestinian state)
+ * WORLD: political, religious & institutional corruption exposed in many countries
+ USA: Pres Bill Clinton (US period of wealth, technological growth & sole world superpower)
+ RUSSIA: Mafiosi-businessmen become the dominant power in Russia
1994
+ AFRICA: Rwanda massacres (of Tutsi by Hutu; genocidal horror, Hutus flee, refugee camps)
+ S AFRICA: multi-racial elections in S Africa (ANC, Pres Nelson Mandela, multi-racial society)
+ RUSSIA: Chechen war (94-97, Chechens declare independence, Russian invasion, destruction of Grozny)
+ * CHINA: rise of China as a world economic/manufacturing power (rebuilding of Shanghai)
1995
+ EUROPE: NATO intervention in Bosnia, war ends (NATO/UN occupation, Serb loss; UN peacekeeping)
+ MIDEAST: Israeli PM Rabin assassinated (by right-wing Jew, Israeli peace process fails, right-wing gov't)
+ WORLD: furore over French nuclear testing in Pacific Ocean (growing world pacifism)
+ WORLD: UN Women's Conference, Beijing (Third World women's influence and role in world change)
1996
+ ASIA: decline of Japan as economic power (loans crises, lack of reform, competition from Tiger economies)
+ C ASIA: fundamentalist Taliban militia take Afghanistan (oppression of women)
+ INNOVATION: a computer beats chess-master Kasparov at chess
+ * MIDEAST: Kurdish campaigns for independence (Turkey, Syria, Iraq)
Datelist extracted from The Historical Ephemeris by Palden Jenkins, 1993, Glastonbury Archive
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