Great Britain defeats Boers of South Africa in Boer War
Wright brothers develop the first aircraft
Russo-Japanese war
Albert Einstein proposes the theory of relatively
Selma Lagerlöf is awarded the Noble Prize
Chinese Revolution forces led by Sun Yat-sen overthrow the Manchu dynasty
James Joyce, Dubliners
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World War I
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Russian Revolution; Lenin comes to power in Russia
Anna Akhmatova, "Lot's Wife"
Nineteenth Amendment to U.S. Constitution gives women to vote
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Rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Josef Stalin replaces Lenin as leader of the USSR
Worldwide economic depression begins
Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany
Period: to
Spanish Civil War
Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa
Japan invades China
Aimé Césaire coins the term 'négritude' and becomes one of the founders of the Negritude movement
World War II begins in Europe; Germany invades Poland
Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor
Gabriela Mistral is awarded the Nobel Prize
Nazis murder over eleven million Jews (the Holocaust), as well as others “undesirables”
U.S. drops atomic bombs on Japan; World War II ends; United Nations founded; Cold War begins
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European decolonialization
State of Israel is proclaimed
People’s Republic of China is established
Period: to
Korean War
Santha Rama Rau, Gifts of Passage
Period: to
Postmodernism movement; magical realism develops in Latin America
Albert Camus is awarded the Nobel Prize
Soviets launch the first satellite into outer space
Elie Wiesel, Night
Léopold Sédar Senghor is elected first president of Senegal
Berlin Wall is built
Cuban missile crisis; U.S. troops go to South Vietnam
President John F. Kennedy is assassinated
Barbara Kimenye, Kalasandra
Period: to
Cultural Revolution in People’s Republic of China
Six-Day War between Israel and Arab nations
Yasunari Kawabata is awarded the Nobel Prize
Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.; USSR invades Czechoslovakia
U.S. astronauts land on the moon
Pablo Neruda is awarded the Nobel Prize
OPEC oil embargo leads to energy crisis
Yehuda Amichai, Seven Laments For the War Dead
Watergate scandal causes President Nixon to resign
Vietnam War ends
Shah deposed in Iran; ayatollah Khomeini comes to power
Solidarity trade union is founded in Poland
Gabriel García Márquez is awarded the Nobel Prize
Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes premier of USSR and establishes policy of glasnost (openness)
Wole Soyinka is awarded the Nobel Prize
Octavio Paz is awarded the Nobel Prize
Berlin Wall is dismantled; Communist regimes are replaced by democratic ones in Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc.; Chinese hardliners crack-down on pro-democracy students in Tiananmen Square
Octavio Paz is awarded the Nobel Prize
East and West Germany are reunited
Naguib Mahfouz, The Time and the Place
U.S. and allies wage war against Iraq and liberate Kuwait; USSR dissolves
Conflict in Bosnia begins
Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa
