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The Boston Red Sox win the first World Series against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, fly first powered, controlled, heavier-than-air plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
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New York City subway opens.
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San Francisco earthquake and three-day fire; more than 500 dead.
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Model T produced by Ford Motor Company.
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Boy Scouts of America incorporated.
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Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, becomes immigration center for Asians entering U.S.
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First use of aircraft as offensive weapon in Turkish-Italian War.
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New Mexico and Arizona admitted as states.
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Titanic sinks on maiden voyage; over 1,500 drown.
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League of Nations holds first meeting at Geneva, Switzerland.
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Edwin Powell Hubble proposes theory of expanding universe.
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Nellie Tayloe Ross elected governor of Wyoming; first woman governor elected in U.S.
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Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
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St. Valentine's Day gangland massacre in Chicago.
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Pluto discovered by astronomers.
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Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly Atlantic solo.
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Roosevelt inaugurated (“the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”); launches New Deal.
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Hundreds of Americans join the “Lincoln Brigades.”
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New York World's Fair opens.
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Winston Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister.
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Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl published.
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Woody Guthrie records “This Land is Your Land.”
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U.S. Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager becomes first person to break the sound barriee.
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Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi by Hindu fanatic.
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Brink's robbery in Boston; almost $3 million stolen.
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Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sentenced to death for passing atomic secrets to Russians.
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Russians launch Sputnik I, first Earth-orbiting satellite—the Space Age begins.
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Army's Jupiter-C rocket fires first U.S. Earth satellite, Explorer I, into orbit.
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Cuban President Batista resigns and flees—Castro takes over.
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U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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John N. Mitchell, H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman found guilty of Watergate cover-up.
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Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and more than 2,600 other blacks arrested in Selma, Alabama during three-day demonstrations against voter-registration rules.
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Power failure in Ontario plant blacks out parts of eight states of northeast U.S. and two provinces of southeast Canada.
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Sen. Robert F. Kennedy is shot and critically wounded in Los Angeles hotel after winning California primary.
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Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil A. Armstrong, Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins—take man's first walk on moon.
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Five men are apprehended by police in attempt to bug Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C.'s Watergate complex—start of the Watergate scandal.
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Jim Jones' followers commit mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana.
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Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to families of dead and injured in Kent State University shootings.
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Nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania releases radiation.
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U.S. breaks diplomatic ties with Iran.
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A month after Reagan’s election, a deranged fan shot and killed John Lennon outside his New York home. While Reagan’s election signaled the end of the sixties and seventies politically, Lennon’s death spelled the end of the period culturally.
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The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its launch. All seven crew members died and the shuttle fell into the Atlantic Ocean. In response, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months.
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The Chinese witnessed the fall of European communism from afar. The Chinese people wanted freedom as well. Protests began on April 14, 1989 and quickly expanded. Mikhail Gorbachev’s state visit inspired many Chinese dissidents. After the Soviet premier left China, the government sent in the tanks. Western journalists were forced off the air in the middle of broadcasts. One man stood in the way of a column of tanks. There may have been over 100,000 protesters.
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In 1987, Ronald Reagan challenged Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. By 1989, the Soviet Union could no longer keep their empire. They had gone bankrupt trying to keep up with the American military buildup. Demonstrations broke out all over East Germany that September. People demanded freedom. The demonstrations grew. On November 9, 1989, people began tearing the wall down. East Germany officially began dismantling the wall the following June.
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On June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for fighting South African Apartheid. He became a symbol of South African injustices perpetrated on black Africans. South Africa suffered as an international pariah and the country itself began to stagger. After President P.W. Botha suffered a stroke and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk, Apartheid fell and Mandela was released. He went on to become the country’s president.
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Germany was split in two following World War II. West Germany prospered while East Germany fell behind and experienced economic turmoil and dislocation. Some westerners wished to reunite the two countries, but the Soviet Union always refused. By 1989, the Soviets could no longer afford their empire and let Germany go. The following year, the two Germanys reunited. France quickly surrendered.
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Communism is nothing more than another form of fascism. From 1919-1991, communists terrorized the people of Russia and conquered territories surrounding Russia. In 1979, the Soviets appeared invincible. By December, the USSR ceased to exist.
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The third wave of human history began in earnest when the government unleashed the internet. The first wave was the Agrarian Age (5000 BC-1750 AD). The second wave was the Industrial Age (1750-2000).
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The British and Irish established a power sharing agreement in Northern Ireland. It was a major development in the peace process. Northern Ireland was ceded to Britain following the Irish War of Independence and has been a major sore point between the Irish and British ever since. Maybe one day, Ireland will be reunited.
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A tragedy at NASA occurs when the Space Shuttle Columbia explodes upon reentry over Texas. All seven astronauts inside are killed.
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American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins his record 7th straight Tour de France.
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In the first Space Shuttle flight since the tragedy of 2003, Discovery goes into orbit on a mission that returns to earth safely on August 9.
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Hurricane Katrina strikes the Gulf Coast, inundating the city of New Orleans with water from Lake Pontchartrain when the levees that maintain the below sea level city break. Over one thousand three hundred people perish from Alabama to Louisiana in one of the worst natural disasters to strike the United States.
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The fifty star flag of the United States of America becomes the longest flying flag in history after flying over forty-seven years.
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An 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocks Chile. Fatalities are relatively low, with some 750 people killed in the devastation. However, as many as 1.5 million people are displaced. Chile's electricity grids, communication, and transportation systems are badly damaged, severely hampering rescue and aid efforts.
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Seven years after the war in Iraq began, President Obama announces the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom with a withdrawal of combat troops. Obama emphasizes that U.S. domestic problems, mainly the flailing economy and widespread unemployment, are more pressing matters to his country. The U.S. will continue to be a presence in Iraq, mainly with civilian contractors but also with a smaller military contingent of approximately 50,000 troops.
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First of 33 trapped Chilean miners is rescued after spending 68 days trapped in a mine half a mile underground. He is pulled to safety via a capsule made for the rescue mission. The rest of the miners will be carried to safety over the next 24 hours.
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New York passes a law to allow same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry. The vote comes on the eve of the city's annual Gay Pride Parade and gives new momentum to the national gay-rights movement.
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After more than 50 years of struggle, South Sudan declares independence and becomes Africa's 54th state.
