The 20th century

In 1901, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, and Marconi received a transatlantic radio signal (Europe).

In 1902, Willis Carrier designed the first modern air conditioning system, initially to control humidity in a printing plant (United States).

In 1903, the Wright brothers achieved the first powered, controlled aeroplane flight (North America).

In 1904, FIFA was founded in Paris by seven European associations (France).

In 1905, Einstein published four papers including special relativity and the mass–energy equivalence (Europe).

In 1906, an earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco (North America).

In 1907, Leo Baekeland produced Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic (United States).

In 1908, the Model T went into production, and the Tunguska event flattened Siberian forest.

In 1909, Robert Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole (Arctic).

In 1910, Halley's Comet returned and the Earth passed through its tail, prompting a wave of public alarm.

In 1911, Rutherford proposed the nuclear atom, and Amundsen reached the South Pole.

In 1912, the Titanic sank on her maiden voyage (Atlantic).

In 1913, the moving assembly line began at Ford, and Bohr published his model of the atom (North America and Europe).

In 1914, the First World War began, and the Panama Canal opened.

In 1915, Einstein completed the general theory of relativity (Europe).

In 1916, the battles of the Somme and Verdun were fought, and the Easter Rising took place in Dublin (Europe).

In 1917, the Russian Revolution brought the Bolsheviks to power (Russia).

In 1918, the First World War ended and an influenza pandemic began that killed tens of millions.

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and Eddington's eclipse observations supported general relativity.

In 1920, the League of Nations was established.

In 1921, insulin was isolated at the University of Toronto (North America).

In 1922, the BBC began broadcasting, and Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered (Britain and Egypt).

In 1923, the Great Kantō earthquake destroyed much of Tokyo and Yokohama (Japan).

In 1924, the first Winter Olympics were held at Chamonix, and the Greenwich time signal began broadcasting (France and Great Britain).

In 1925, Heisenberg set out matrix mechanics, the first complete formulation of quantum mechanics (Germany).

In 1926, John Logie Baird demonstrated television, and Goddard launched the first liquid-fuelled rocket (Britain and North America).

In 1927, Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic, and the first feature-length talking picture was released (North America).

In 1928, Alexander Fleming observed the antibacterial effect of penicillin (Britain).

In 1929, the Wall Street Crash began the Great Depression, and Hubble published evidence that the universe is expanding.

In 1930, Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory (North America).

In 1931, Kurt Gödel proved that any consistent formal system rich enough for arithmetic contains true statements it cannot prove (Austria).

In 1932, James Chadwick identified the neutron, completing the picture of the atomic nucleus (England).

In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany (Germany).

In 1934, the Dust Bowl reached its worst extent across the American plains, driving mass migration west (United States).

In 1935, radar was first demonstrated for aircraft detection in Britain (Britain).

In 1936, Alan Turing described the universal computing machine (Britain).

In 1937, the Hindenburg airship was destroyed by fire at Lakehurst (North America).

In 1938, nuclear fission was identified by Hahn and Strassmann and explained by Meitner and Frisch (Germany and Sweden).

In 1939, the Second World War began with the invasion of Poland.

In 1940, the Battle of Britain was fought in the skies over southern England (Britain).

In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, widening the war.

In 1942, the first controlled nuclear chain reaction was achieved in Chicago (North America).

In 1943, Colossus was designed at Bletchley Park, the first programmable electronic digital computer (England).

In 1944, Allied forces landed in Normandy on D-Day (Europe).

In 1945, the Second World War ended, atomic bombs were used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the United Nations was founded.

In 1946, ENIAC was unveiled, and the first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly was held in London (United States and England).

In 1947, the transistor was demonstrated at Bell Labs, and India and Pakistan became independent.

In 1948, the National Health Service was established in Britain, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted (Britain and global).

In 1949, NATO was established, and the People's Republic of China was proclaimed.

In 1950, Alan Turing proposed the imitation game as a way of sidestepping the question of whether machines think (England).

In 1951, the first commercial computer sold in Britain, LEO, began running payroll and stock control for a catering company (England).

In 1952, the Great Smog of London killed thousands and led directly to the Clean Air Act (England).

In 1953, Watson and Crick published the double-helix structure of DNA, and Everest was first climbed.

In 1954, the first nuclear power station to supply a grid began operating at Obninsk (Soviet Union).

In 1955, the polio vaccine was declared safe and effective (North America).

In 1956, George Miller published 'The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two', still among the most cited papers in psychology (United States).

In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite.

In 1958, NASA was established, and the integrated circuit was demonstrated (North America).

In 1959, the first spacecraft reached the Moon, and the Antarctic Treaty was signed.

In 1960, the first working laser was demonstrated (North America).

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space.

In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis brought the superpowers close to nuclear war.

In 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas (North America).

In 1964, the Civil Rights Act outlawed major forms of discrimination in the United States (North America).

In 1965, the first spacewalk was performed by Alexei Leonov.

In 1966, England won the football World Cup at Wembley, and Luna 9 made the first soft landing on the Moon (England and the Moon).

In 1967, the first human heart transplant was performed in Cape Town (South Africa).

In 1968, Apollo 8 carried a crew around the Moon and returned the Earthrise photograph (the Moon).

In 1969, Apollo 11 landed the first humans on the Moon, and the first ARPANET link was established.

In 1970, the first Earth Day was held, and Apollo 13 returned safely after an explosion.

In 1971, the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004, was released (North America).

In 1972, the last crewed Moon landing took place with Apollo 17.

In 1973, an oil embargo triggered a global energy crisis, and the United Kingdom joined the European Communities.

In 1974, the Rubik's Cube was invented, and Lucy, an early hominin skeleton, was found in Ethiopia.

In 1975, the Vietnam War ended with the fall of Saigon (South-East Asia).

In 1976, the Concorde entered supersonic passenger service, and Viking 1 landed on Mars.

In 1977, the Voyager probes were launched, and Apple II and Atari 2600 helped open home computing.

In 1978, the first baby conceived by in vitro fertilisation was born (Britain).

In 1979, the Three Mile Island accident occurred, and the first cellular network opened in Japan.

In 1980, smallpox was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization.

In 1981, the first Space Shuttle flew, and the IBM PC was released (North America).

In 1982, the compact disc was launched commercially.

In 1983, TCP/IP became the standard protocol of the ARPANET, a founding moment for the internet.

In 1984, DNA fingerprinting was developed at the University of Leicester (Britain).

In 1985, the Antarctic ozone hole was identified by the British Antarctic Survey.

In 1986, the Chernobyl reactor exploded, and the Challenger shuttle broke up after launch.

In 1987, the Montreal Protocol was agreed to phase out ozone-depleting substances, and is often cited as the most successful environmental treaty.

In 1988, the Morris worm spread across the early internet, the first widely publicised such incident (United States).

In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and Tim Berners-Lee proposed the World Wide Web.

In 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, and Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

In 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved, and the World Wide Web became publicly available.

In 1992, the Maastricht Treaty created the European Union and set the path to a single currency (Europe).

In 1993, CERN placed the World Wide Web software in the public domain, removing any licence barrier to its adoption (Switzerland).

In 1994, South Africa held its first fully democratic election, and the Channel Tunnel opened.

In 1995, the World Trade Organization was established.

In 1996, Dolly the sheep was born, the first mammal cloned from an adult cell (Britain).

In 1997, a computer defeated the reigning world chess champion in a match for the first time.

In 1998, construction of the International Space Station began.

In 1999, the euro was introduced as an accounting currency (Europe).

In 2000, a working draft of the human genome was announced.