Sir George Trevelyan: memories and observationsWorld events, timeline 1906-1996the wider context of Sir George's life |
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* 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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