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399 BCE
Socrates
Socrates was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is known as one of the founders of western philosophy. -
Aug 18, 1227
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan was the first emperor of the Mongol Empire. He came into power after uniting many nomadic tribes of Northeast Asia. -
May 30, 1431
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc was a hero from the Hundreds Year war between England and France. -
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon is a famous french military leader who rose to power during the french revolution. Napoleon took France to the peak of its empire. -
Beethoven
Beethoven was a German composer who remains one of the most admired composers in western culture. -
Davy Crocket
David Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". -
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the USA and is known for leading the union in the civil war. -
Budapest
Budapest, Hungary’s capital, is bisected by the River Danube. Its 19th-century Chain Bridge connects the hilly Buda district with flat Pest. A funicular runs up Castle Hill to Buda’s Old Town, where the Budapest History Museum traces city life from Roman times onward. -
Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid was an outlaw and gunfighter in the midwest. He killed a total of 8 men before he was shot and killed. -
Belgians in the Congo
In the period from 1885 to 1908, many well-documented atrocities were perpetrated in the Congo Free State which, at the time, was a colony under the personal rule of King Leopold II of the Belgians. -
Television
Television made a huge impact on the world because instead of people hearing speeches from world leaders over the radio, they could see the leaders giving the speeches. -
Bridgette Bardot
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot, often referred to by her initials B.B., is a French animal rights activist and former actress and singer. -
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis. A treatment for psychopathy where the patient talks to a doctor. -
Influenza Vaccine
In the 1940s, Thomas Francis Jr and Jonas Salk researched and developed the first inactivated Flu vaccine. -
Chubby Checker
Chubby Checker is an American Rock and roll singer and dancer. He is widely known for popularizing many dance styles including The Twist dance -
"Bridge on the River Kwai"
The real bridge on the River Kwai was never destroyed, not even damaged. It still stands on the edge of the Thai jungle about three miles from this peaceful town and it has become something of a tourist attraction. The bridge was erected by Allied pris oners during the Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II. -
Eichmann
Otto Adolf Eichmann was a German-Austrian SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust—the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" -
Bernie Goetz
Bernhard Goetz is best known for his moniker "the Subway Vigilante." Following an assault in 1981, Goetz was infuriated by the lack of prosecution of the three assailants. -
space monkey
The U.S. was the first country ever to launch a primate, sending a rhesus monkey named Albert to a sub-space altitude of 39 miles. -
Red China
Red China refers to the communist-controlled Chinese government that lasted until 1950. -
Studebaker
A 14-month model "year" produced 343,164 cars -- the most for any vehicle in Studebaker's long history. By the end of 1950, company employment was up to 25,000, a peacetime record. -
The King and I
The King and I is a musical based on Margaret Landon's novel Anna and the King of Siam -
Dacron
Dacron was invented and in New York, they started selling suits made from dacron. -
H - Bomb
A hydrogen bomb was first created by the United States after the Soviet Union developed its own atomic bomb. The bomb is much stronger than the atomic bomb, and it gave the U.S. an advantage for a small amount of time. -
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger, partially published in serial form in 1945–1946 and as a novel in 1951. It was originally intended for adults but is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst, alienation, and as a critique on superficiality in society. -
England Gets New Queen
On February 6, 1952 queen Elizabeth became the new ruler in the united kingdom after her fathers death. -
Santayana
George Santayana was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain. -
Panmunjom
Its name is often used as a metonym for the nearby Joint Security Area (JSA), where discussions between North and South Korea still take place in blue buildings that straddle the Military Demarcation Line. As such, it is considered one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. -
Peter Pan
On February 5th, 1953 the popular Disney movie peter pan was released. -
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. -
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin was a Georgian revolutionary and the ruler of the Soviet Union from 1927 until 1953. -
Rosenbergs
Julius Rosenberg and Ethel Rosenberg were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. -
Korean War
The Korean War was a war between North Korea, with military support from China and the Soviet Union, and South Korea, backed by personnel from the United Nations. -
Dien Bien
The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was a climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War that took place between 13 March and 7 May 1954. -
Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest physicists of all time. -
Disneyland
In July of 1955 the now world famous Disneyland was first opened. -
James Dean
James Dean was an American actor. -
Brooklyn has a winning team
On October 4, 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series at last, beating the New York Yankees 2-0. They'd lost the championship seven times already, and they'd lost five times just to the Yankees. -
Trouble in the Suez
The Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli war, also called the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. -
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and of the 20th century. -
Joe McCarthy
Joe McCarthy was an American politician and attorney who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. -
Edsel is a no-go-
Ford Motor Company introduced the 1958 model Edsel automobile on September 4, 1957 after much fanfare. Initial sales were disappointing to say the least. -
Sputnik
Sputnik 1 was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the USSR on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program. -
children of thalidomide
Many children in the 1960's were born with phocomelia as a side effect of the drug thalidomide. -
Payola and Kennedy
A payola scandal turned the world of rock radio on its head in 1959, taking down one of the eras most beloved DJs, Alan Freed, and almost costing Dick Clark his career. -
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly was an American singer-songwriter who was a central and pioneering figure of mid-1950s rock and roll. -
Syngman Rhee
Syngman Rhee was a South Korean politician and dictator who was the founder and served as the first President of South Korea, from 1948 to 1960. -
Pasternak
Boris Pasternak was a Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pasternak's first book of poems, My Sister, Life, was published in Berlin in 1922 and soon became an important collection in the Russian language. -
Birth control
Gregory Pincus and John Rock created the first birth control pills. The pills did not become widely available until the 1960s. -
Psycho
Psycho was a horror movie from 1960. -
JFK assassination
JFK was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. -
Bay of Pigs invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a failed landing operation on the southwestern coast of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles who opposed Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. -
"Stranger in a Strange Land"
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. -
Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway served in World War I and worked in journalism before publishing his story collection In Our Time. He was renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man. -
Berlin
The Berlin Crisis of 1961 occurred between 4 June – 9 November 1961, and was the last major politic-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. -
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. -
Liston beats Patterson
On September 25, 1962, Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson in two minutes, six seconds. For the first time in history, a world heavyweight champion had been knocked out in the first round. -
"Lawrence of Arabia" Movie
Due to his knowledge of the native Bedouin tribes, British Lieutenant T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is sent to Arabia to find Prince Faisal (Alec Guinness) and serve as a liaison between the Arabs and the British in their fight against the Turks. -
British Beatlemania
Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963. -
Birmingham Protest
The Birmingham campaign, also known as the Birmingham movement or Birmingham confrontation, was a movement organized in early 1963 by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to bring attention to the integration efforts of African Americans in Birmingham, Alabama. -
British politician sex scandal
On June 5, 1963, British Secretary of War John Profumo resigns his post following revelations that he had lied to the House of Commons about his sexual affair with Christine Keeler, an alleged prostitute -
Pope Paul
Pope Paul VI was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in 1978. -
Peyton Place
Like the novel and film of the same name, this nighttime soap opera is set in the small New England town of Peyton Place, whose quaint charm masks a complicated web of extramarital affairs, shady business deals, scandals, even murder. -
Malcolm X
Malcolm X was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. He is best known for his time spent as a vocal spokesman for the Nation of Islam. -
Kerouac
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist of French Canadian ancestry, who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. -
Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. -
Woodstock
Woodstock was a music festival held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, 40 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music" and alternatively referred to as the Woodstock Rock Festival, it attracted an audience of more than 400,000. -
Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the only heavyweight champion to have finished his career undefeated. -
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician. He served as Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and President from 1945 until his death in 1969. -
punk rock
Punk rock is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock. -
Gamal Abdel Nasser
Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was an Egyptian politician who served as the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year. -
Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 in order to reestablish democracy in France. -
Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev led the Soviet Union as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and as chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964 -
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. -
Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of U.S. President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. -
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953, succeeding upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt after serving as the 34th vice president. -
Juan Perón
Juan Peron was an Argentine Army general and politician. After serving in several government positions, including Minister of Labour and Vice President of a military dictatorship, he was elected President of Argentina three times. -
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin, formed in 1976. -
Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz better known internationally as Fidel Castro, was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President from 1976 to 2008. -
Elvis Presely
Elvis was an American singer, musician and actor. He is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. -
Crack
A powdered form of cocaine that you can smoke -
Princess Grace
Grace Patricia Kelly was an American film actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956. -
Sally Ride
Sally Kristen Ride was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman in space. -
heavy metal suicide
I new type of extreme rock that became very popular in the 80's. -
Cola War
The Cola War is the long lasting battle between Pepsi and Coca Cola. They have been happening for a long time but boomed in 1985. -
Sugar Ray
Sugar Ray is an American rock band formed in Newport Beach, California in 1986. Originally playing heavier nu metal style music. -
Roy Cohn
Roy Marcus Cohn was an American lawyer who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954. -
Liberace
Liberace was an American pianist, singer, and actor. A child prodigy born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin. -
Hypodermics on the shore
The syringe tide was an environmental disaster during 1987–88 in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York where significant amounts of medical waste, including hypodermic syringes, and raw garbage washed up onto beaches on the Jersey Shore. -
Georgy Malenkov
Georgy Malenkov was a Soviet politician who briefly succeeded Joseph Stalin as the leader of the Soviet Union. -
China's under martial law
During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, the Chinese People's Liberation Army played a decisive role in enforcing martial law, suppressing the demonstrations by force and upholding the authority of the Chinese Communist Party -
Russians in Afghanistan
The Soviet–Afghan War was a conflict wherein insurgent groups, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a nine-year guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside. -
Ayatollah's in Iran
Shia cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, first came to political prominence in 1963 when he led opposition to the Shah. -
Johnny Ray
John Ray was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll. -
Communist bloc
The Communist bloc was the soviet union's attempt at establishing a buffer zone between them and the west. -
Roy Campanella
Roy Campanella was an American baseball player, primarily as a catcher. The Philadelphia native played in the Negro leagues and Mexican League for 9 years before entering the minor leagues in 1946. -
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon served as the 37th president of the United states until he resigned after the watergate scandal. -
Mickey Mantle
Mickey Charles Mantle was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees as a center fielder, right fielder, and first baseman. -
Joe Dimaggio
Joe Dimaggio was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. -
Foreign debts
Foreign debt climbed quickly in the cold war, but it has not stopped its increase since the end of the cold war. -
terror on the airline
February 6, 2000: Ariana Afghan Airlines Boeing 727 was hijacked on an internal flight within Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and ended up at London Stansted Airport, where most of the passengers claimed political asylum. -
Mafia
a version of gangster films—are a subgenre of crime films dealing with organized crime, often specifically with Mafia organizations. Especially in early mob films, there is considerable overlap with film noir. -
Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and became a highly influential voice of modern conservatism. -
Brando
Marlon Brando Jr. was an American actor and film director with a career spanning 60 years, during which he won many accolades, including two Academy Awards for Best Actor. -
John Glenn
John Herschel Glenn Jr. was a United States Marine Corps aviator, engineer, astronaut, businessman and politician. He was the third American in space, and the first American to orbit the Earth. -
Doris Day
Doris Day was an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. She began her career as a big band singer in 1939.