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End of WWI
At 5 AM on the morning of November 11th 1918 where an armistice was signed in a railroad car parked in a French forest near the front lines. The terms of the agreement called for the cessation of fighting along the entire Western Front to begin at precisely 11 AM that morning. After four years of bloody conflict, the Great War was at an end. -
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. -
The Jazz Age
The Jazz Age was a feature of the 1920s (ending with The Great Depression) when jazz music and dance became popular. This occurred particularly in the United States, but also in Britain, France and elsewhere. Jazz played a significant part in wider cultural changes during the period, and its influence on pop culture continued long afterwards. Jazz music originated mainly in New Orleans, and is/was a fusion of African and European music. -
Mass production
The 20th century's definition of mass production appeared in a 1926 Encyclopædia Britannica supplement. It was written based on correspondence with Ford Motor Company. -
Invention of the television
The first TV was available in very crude form on an experimental basis in the late 1920s, then popularized in greatly improved form shortly after World War II, the television set has become commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions, particularly as a vehicle for entertainment, advertising, and news. -
Market Crash of 1929
In October 1929 was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout. The crash signalled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. -
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in 1930 and lasted until the late 1930’s or middle 1940’s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. -
1938 Day of Mourning
On January 26th 1938 was the 150th anniversary of the landing of the First Fleet in Australia. For some people it is a day to celebrate (having parades, parties, and a re-enactment of the First Fleet) for others a day to mourn (as Aborigines we have no reason to rejoice and wanted to show the white people of Australia the frightful conditions in which the native Aborigines of this continent live.) -
Start of WWII
The start of the war was generally held to be the 1st of September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. -
Japanese Attack of Pearl Harbour
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7th 1941. -
Bombing of Darwin
on the 19th February 1942, was both the first and the largest single attack ever mounted by a foreign power on Australia. 242 Japanese aircraft attacked ships in Darwin's harbour and the town's two airfields in an attempt to prevent the Allies from using them as bases to contest the invasions of Timor and Java. -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima
Japan was conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in August 1945. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. -
Declaration of Human Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on the 10th of December 1948, was the result of the experience of WW2. With the end of that war, and the creation of the United Nations, the international community vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of that conflict happen again. -
Invention of the internet
The Internet begins with the development of electronic computers in the 1950s. Initial concepts of packet networking originated in several computer science laboratories in the United States, Great Britain, and France. The US Department of Defence awarded contracts as early as the 1960s for packet network systems, including the development of the ARPANET. -
Melbourne Olympics
The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1956, apart from the equestrian events, which were held five months earlier in Stockholm, Sweden. -
Cuban Missile Crisis
In October 1962 between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other side. The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the Cold War came close to turning into a nuclear conflict and it’s the first documented instance of mutual assured destruction (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. -
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream…” speech
"I Have a Dream" is a public speech delivered by American civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he calls for an end to racism in the United States. Delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, the speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. -
Australian Freedom Rides
The Freedom Ride through western New South Wales towns in February 1965 drew attention to the racism in these towns. Aboriginal student Charles Perkins was, by the end of the journey, a national figure in the fight for Aboriginal rights. -
Invention of the mobile phone
On the 3rd of April 1973 when Martin Cooper, a Motorola researcher and executive, made the first mobile telephone call from handheld subscriber equipment, placing a call to Dr. Joel S. Engel of Bell Labs. The prototype handheld phone used by Dr. Cooper weighed 1.1 kg and measured 23 cm long, 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide. The prototype offered a talk time of just 30 minutes and took 10 hours to re-charge. -
Release of Crocodile Dundee
Released on the 30th of April 1986 in Australia, and on the 26th of September 1986 in the United States, it was the second-highest-grossing film in the United States in that year and went on to become the second-highest grossing film worldwide at the box office as well -
Fall of the Berlin Wall
On November 9th 1989 a member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law comes into force. That meant the end of the Berlin Wall. Soon other border crossing points opened the gates to the West In that night the deadly border was opened by East Germans peacefully. -
United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The most internationally recognised treaty on the planet, the Convention sets out the basic rights of children and the obligations of governments to fulfil those rights. This ground-breaking treaty was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989 and was ratified by Australia in December 1990.