| 1. |
United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima, Nagasaki: Japan surrenders to end World War II. |
1945 |
| 2. |
American astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon. |
1969 |
| 3. |
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor: United States enters World War II. |
1941 |
| 4. |
Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first powered airplane. |
1903 |
| 5. |
Women win the vote. |
1920 |
| 6. |
President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas. |
1963 |
| 7. |
Horrors of Nazi Holocaust, concentration camps exposed. |
1945 |
| 8. |
World War I beings in Europe. |
1914 |
| 9. |
Brown v. Board of Education ends "separate but equal" school segregation. |
1954 |
| 10. |
U.S. stock market crashes: The Great Depression sets in. |
1929 |
| 11. |
Alexander Fleming discovers the first antibiotic, pencillin. |
1928 |
| 12. |
Structure of DNA discovered. |
1953 |
| 13. |
U.S.S.R. dissolves, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns: Boris Yeltsin takes over. |
1991 |
| 14. |
President Richard M. Nixon resigns after Watergate scandal. |
1974 |
| 15. |
Germany invades Poland: World War II begins in Europe. |
1939 |
| 16. |
Russian revolution ends: Communists take over. |
1917 |
| 17. |
Henry Ford organizes the first major U.S. assembly line to produce Model T cars. |
1913 |
| 18. |
Soviets launch Sputnik, first space satellite: space race begins. |
1957 |
| 19. |
Albert Einstein presents special theory of relativity: general relativity theory to follow. |
1905 |
| 20. |
FDA approves birth-control pill. |
1960 |
| 21. |
Dr. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine proven effective in University of Pittsburgh tests. |
1953 |
| 22. |
Adolf Hitler named Chancellor of Germany: Nazi Party begins to seize power. |
1933 |
| 23. |
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. |
1968 |
| 24. |
D-Day invasion marks the beginning of the end of World War II in Europe. |
1944 |
| 25. |
Deadly AIDS disease identified. |
1981 |
| 26. |
Congress passess landmark Civil Rights Act outlawing segregation. |
1964 |
| 27. |
Berlin Wall falls as East Germany lifts travel restrictions. |
1989 |
| 28. |
Television debuts in America at New York World's Fair. |
1939 |
| 29. |
Mao Tse-tung establishes Peoples Republic of China: Nationalists flee to Formosa (Taiwan). |
1949 |
| 30. |
Charles Lindbergh crosses the Atlantic in first solo flight. |
1927 |
| 31. |
First mass market personal computers launched. |
1977 |
| 32. |
World Wide Web revolutionizes the Internet. |
1989 |
| 33. |
Scientists at Bell Labs invent the transistor. |
1948 |
| 34. |
FDR launches "New Deal:" sweeping federal economic, public works legislation to combat depression. |
1933 |
| 35. |
Cuban Missile Crisis threatens World War III. |
1962 |
| 36. |
"Unsinkable" Titanic, largest man-made structure, sinks. |
1912 |
| 37. |
Germany surrenders: V.E. Day celebrated. |
1945 |
| 38. |
Roe v. Wade decision legalizes abortion. |
1973 |
| 39. |
World War I ends with Germany's defeat. |
1918 |
| 40. |
First regular radio broadcasts begin in America. |
1909 |
| 41. |
Worldwide flu epidemic kills 20 million. |
1918 |
| 42. |
'ENIAC' becomes world's first computer. |
1946 |
| 43. |
Regular TV broadcasting begins in the United States. |
1941 |
| 44. |
Jackie Robinson breaks baseball's color barrier. |
1947 |
| 45. |
Israel achieves statehood. |
1948 |
| 46. |
Plastic invented: revolutionizes products, packaging. |
1909 |
| 47. |
Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott begins after Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white person. |
1955 |
| 48. |
Atomic bomb tested in New Mexico. |
1945 |
| 49. |
Apartheid ends in South Africa: law to treat races equally. |
1993 |
| 50. |
Civil rights march converges on Washington, D.C.: Martin Luther King gives "I Have A Dream" speech. |
1963 |
| 51. |
American scientists patent the computer chip. |
1959 |
| 52. |
Marconi transmits radio signal across the Atlantic. |
1901 |
| 53. |
White House sex scandal leads to impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. |
1998 |
| 54. |
Sec. of State George Marshall proposes European recovery program (The Marshall Plan). |
1947 |
| 55. |
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in California. |
1968 |
| 56. |
U.S. rejects Versailles Treaty: dooms League of Nations. |
1920 |
| 57. |
Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" stimulates environmental protection movement. |
1962 |
| 58. |
British rock group The Beatles takes the United States by storm after debut on the Ed Sullivan show. |
|
| 59. |
Congress passes Voting Rights Act, outlawing measures used to suppress minority votes. |
1965 |
| 60. |
Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space. |
1961 |
| 61. |
First jet airplane takes flight. |
1939 |
| 62. |
U.S. combat troops arrive in South Vietnam: U.S. planes bomb North Vietnam. |
1965 |
| 63. |
North Vietnamese forces take over Saigon. |
1975 |
| 64. |
Manhattan Project begins secret work on atomic bomb: Fermi triggers first atomic chain reaction. |
1942 |
| 65. |
Congress strengthens "GI Bill of Rights" to help veterans. |
1945 |
| 66. |
Alan Shepard becomes first American in space. |
1961 |
| 67. |
Watergate scandal engulfs Nixon administration. |
1973 |
| 68. |
Earthquake hits San Francisco: "Paris of the West" burns. |
1906 |
| 69. |
United Nations is officially established. |
1945 |
| 70. |
Communists build wall to divide East and West Berlin. |
1961 |
| 71. |
Mohandas Gandhi begins leading nonviolent reform movement in India. |
1920 |
| 72. |
Standard Oil loses Supreme Court antitrust suit: monopolies suffer blow. |
1911 |
| 73. |
United States withdraws last ground troops from Vietnam. |
1973 |
| 74. |
North Atlantic Treaty Organization established. |
1949 |
| 75. |
Joseph Stalin begins forced modernization of the Soviet Union: resulting famines claim 25 million. |
1928 |
| 76. |
Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt beats incumbent President Herbert Hoover. |
1932 |
| 77. |
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Soviet Premier: begins era of "Glasnost." |
1985 |
| 78. |
Max Planck proposes quantum theory of energy. |
1900 |
| 79. |
Scientists clone sheep, dubbed Dolly, in Scotland. |
1997 |
| 80. |
Congress passes interstate highway bill. |
1956 |
| 81. |
Panama Canal opens, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. |
1914 |
| 82. |
Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique" inaugurates modern women's rights movement. |
1963 |
| 83. |
The Space Shuttle Challenger explodes killing crew including school teacher Christa McAuliffe. |
1986 |
| 84. |
United States sends troops toe defend South Korea. |
|
| 85. |
Violence erupts at Democratic National Convention in Chicago. |
1968 |
| 86. |
Sigmund Freud publishes "The Interpretation of Dreams." |
1900 |
| 87. |
China begins "Great Leap Forward" modernization program: estimated 20 million die in ensuing famine. |
1958 |
| 88. |
United States enters World War I. |
1917 |
| 89. |
Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs—a single-season record that would last for 34 years. |
1927 |
| 90. |
John Glenn becomes first American to orbit the earth. |
1962 |
| 91. |
North Vietnamese boats reportedly attack U.S. ships: Congress passes Gulf of Tonkin resolution. |
1964 |
| 92. |
Pathfinder lands on Mars, sending back astonishing photos. |
1997 |
| 93. |
Hitler launches "Kristallnacht," ordering Nazis to commit acts of violence against German Jews. |
1938 |
| 94. |
Winston Churchill designated Prime Minister of Great Britain. |
1940 |
| 95. |
Louise Brown, first "test-tube baby," born healthy. |
1978 |
| 96. |
Soviets block West Berlin: Western allies respond with massive airlift. |
1948 |
| 97. |
Bill Gates and Paul Allen start Microsoft Corp. to develop software for Altair computer. |
1975 |
| 98. |
Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion results in deaths of an estimated 7,000 |
1986 |
| 99. |
Teacher John Scopes' trial pits creation against evolution in Tennessee. |
1925 |
| 100. |
The U.S. Surgeon General warns about smoking-related health hazards. |
1964 |
