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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1939 | - 1939: Second World War starts
- 1939: First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic
- 1939: German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed
- 1939: Helicopter Invented
- 1939: Refugees on the St. Louis Refused Entry Everywhere
- 1939: World War II Begins
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| 2 | 1940 | - 1940: London Blitz
- 1940: Igor Sikorsky invented the heliocopter
- 1940: Disney's 'Fantasia'
- 1940: Battle of Britain
- 1940: Leon Trotsky Assassinated
- 1940: Nylons on the Market
- 1940: Stone Age Cave Paintings Found in France
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| 3 | 1941 | - 1941: Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
- 1941: Jeep Invented
- 1941: Manhattan Project Begins
- 1941: Mount Rushmore Completed
- 1941: Nazi Rudolf Hess Flies to Britain on a Peace Mission
- 1941: Siege of Leningrad
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| 4 | 1942 | - 1942: Battle of Midway
- 1942: Battle of Stalingrad
- 1942: Japanese-Americans Held in Camps
- 1942: Nazis Raze Town in Retaliation for Reinhard Heydrich's Death
- 1942: T-shirt Introduced
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| 5 | 1943 | - 1943: Autism identified
- 1943: French Resistance Leader Jean Moulin Killed
- 1943: Italy Joins the Allies
- 1943: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
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| 6 | 1944 | - 1944: Ballpoint Pens Go On Sale
- 1944: D-Day
- 1944: First German V1 and V2 Rockets Fired
- 1944: Hitler Escapes Assassination Attempt
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| 7 | 1945 | - 1945: Second World War ends
- 1945: The Atomic Age begins with atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ending World War II
- 1945: Allied troops liberate Nazi death camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau (January 26), Buchenwald (April 11), and Dachau (April 24), providing the world with the first photographic evidence of the horrific atrocities committed there
- 1945: First Computer Built
- 1945: Germans Surrender
- 1945: Hitler Commits Suicide
- 1945: Microwave Oven Invented
- 1945: United Nations Founded
- 1945: U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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| 8 | 1946 | - 1946: ENIAC computer makes 5,000 additions in one second
- 1946: Bikinis Introduced
- 1946: Dr. Spock Publishes 'The Common Book of Baby and Child Care'
- 1946: Juan Per?n Becomes President of Argentina
- 1946: Nuremberg Trials
- 1946: Winston Churchill Gives His 'Iron Curtain' Speech
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| 9 | 1947 | - 1947: Invention of transistor
- 1947: Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier
- 1947: Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered
- 1947: Jewish Refugees Aboard the Exodus Turned Back by British
- 1947: Marshall Plan
- 1947: Polaroid Cameras Invented
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| 10 | 1948 | - 1948: Life magazine makes American painter Jackson Pollock an overnight celebrity by devoting a three-page spread with color photographs to him and his paintings under the headline, "Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?"; Abstract Expressionism becomes a subject of widespread popular ridicule.
- 1948: Berlin Airlift
- 1948: Berlin Airlift
- 1948: Big Bang Theory Formulated
- 1948: Gandhi Assassinated
- 1948: Policy of Apartheid Begun
- 1948: State of Israel Founded
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| 11 | 1949 | - 1949: Mao proclaims Peoples Republic of China
- 1949: China Becomes Communist
- 1949: First Non-Stop Flight Around the World
- 1949: George Orwell Publishes Nineteen Eight-Four
- 1949: NATO Established
- 1949: Soviet Union Has Atomic Bomb
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| 12 | 1950 | - 1950: UK's longest running soap, The Archers, first airs on BBC Midlands Home Service
- 1950: First Modern Credit Card Introduced
- 1950: First Organ Transplant
- 1950: First Peanuts Cartoon Strip
- 1950: Korean War Begins
- 1950: Senator Joseph McCarthy Begins Communist Witch Hunt
- 1950: U.S. President Truman Orders Construction of Hydrogen Bomb
- 26 May 1950: 26 MAY: UK drivers cheer end of fuel rations
Long queues have appeared at garages this evening and motorists have torn their ration books into confetti after the government announced an end to petrol rationing. The Minister of Fuel, Noel Baker, told the House of Commons rationing would be abolished because two American companies had agreed a deal to supply oil in return for buying British goods. "This is indeed VP [Victory for Petrol] day for the motor users' campaign," said a spokesman for three motoring organisations - the RAC, AA and Royal Scottish Automobile Club. "The effect on the industrial, commercial and community life will be electric. Ration books now become as obsolete as the man with the red flag."
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| 13 | 1951 | - 1951: The word 'brainwashing' is coined
- 1951: Color TV Introduced
- 1951: South Africans Forced to Carry ID Cards Identifying Race
- 1951: Truman Signs Peace Treaty With Japan, Officially Ending WWII
- 1951: Winston Churchill Again Prime Minister of Great Britain
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| 14 | 1952 | - 1952: The Mousetrap opens Nov 25
- 1952: Car Seat Belts Introduced
- 1952: Jacques Cousteau Discovers Ancient Greek Ship
- 1952: Polio Vaccine Created
- 1952: Princess Elizabeth Becomes Queen at Age 25
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| 15 | 1953 | - 1953: Waiting for Godot debuts in Paris
- 1953: DNA Discovered
- 1953: Hillary and Norgay Climb Mt. Everest
- 1953: Joseph Stalin Dies
- 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Executed for Espionage
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| 16 | 1954 | - 1954: Raymond Kroc buys McDonald's franchise rights and begins the global proliferation of golden arches.
- 1954: Britain Sponsors an Expedition to Search for the Abominable Snowman
- 1954: First Atomic Submarine Launched
- 1954: Report Says Cigarettes Cause Cancer
- 1954: Roger Bannister Breaks the Four-Minute Mile
- 1954: Segregation Ruled Illegal in U.S.
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| 17 | 1955 | - 1955: ITV formed
- 1955: Disneyland Opens
- 1955: James Dean Dies in Car Accident
- 1955: McDonald's Corporation Founded
- 1955: Rosa Parks Refuses to Give Up Her Seat on a Bus
- 1955: Warsaw Pact Signed
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| 18 | 1956 | - 1956: Eurovision Song Contest starts
- 1956: Elvis Gyrates on Ed Sullivan's Show
- 1956: Grace Kelly Marries Prince Rainier III of Monaco
- 1956: Hungarian Revolution
- 1956: Khrushchev Denounces Stalin
- 1956: Suez Crisis
- 1956: T.V. Remote Control Invented
- 1956: Velcro Introduced
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| 19 | 1957 | - 1957: The Space Age begins as the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 1 - the first satellite
- 1957: Dr. Seuss Publishes 'The Cat in the Hat'
- 1957: European Economic Community Established
- 1957: Soviet Satellite Sputnik Launches Space Age
- 1957: Laika Becomes the First Living Animal to Orbit Space
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| 20 | 1958 | - 1958: UNIMATE is first industrial robot
- 1958: Boris Pasternak Refuses Nobel Prize
- 1958: Chinese Leader Mao Zedong Launches the 'Great Leap Forward'
- 1958: Hope Diamond is Donated to the Smithsonian
- 1958: Hula Hoops Become Popular
- 1958: Lego Toy Bricks First Introduced
- 1958: NASA Founded
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| 21 | 1959 | - 1959: Beyond the Fringe' debuts in Edinburgh
- 1959: Castro Becomes Dictator of Cuba
- 1959: International Treaty Makes Antarctica Scientific Preserve
- 1959: Kitchen Debate Between Nixon and Khrushchev
- 1959: The Sound of Music Opens on Broadway
- 1959: U.S. Quiz Shows Found to be Fixed
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| 22 | 1960 | - 1960: Launch of 'Coronation Street'
- 1960: Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho Released
- 1960: Brazil's Capital Moves to Brand New City
- 1960: Lasers Invented
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| 23 | 1961 | - 1961: Adolf Eichmann on Trial for Role in Holocaust
- 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion
- 1961: Berlin Wall Built
- 1961: Peace Corps Founded
- 1961: Soviets Launch First Man in Space
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| 24 | 1962 | - 1962: Movie Actress Marilyn Monroe dies of an overdose of sleeping pills.
- 1962: Andy Warhol Exhibits His Campbell's Soup Can
- 1962: Cuban Missile Crisis
- 1962: First Person Killed Trying to Cross the Berlin Wall
- 1962: Marilyn Monroe Found Dead
- 1962: Rachel Carson Publishes 'Silent Spring'
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| 25 | 1963 | - 1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
- 1963: Betty Friedan Publishes 'The Feminine Mystique'
- 1963: JFK Assassinated
- 1963: Martin Luther King Jr. Makes His 'I Have a Dream' Speech
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| 26 | 1964 | - 1964: Beatles Become Popular in U.S.
- 1964: Cassius Clay (a.k.a. Muhammad Ali) Becomes World Heavyweight Champion
- 1964: Civil Rights Act Passes in U.S.
- 1964: Hasbro Launches GI Joe Action Figure
- 1964: Nelson Mandela Sentenced to Life in Prison
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| 27 | 1965 | - 1965: The United States begins air raids in Vietnam, committing 190,000 U.S. troops there by year's end.
- 1965: Cigarette ads banned on UK television
- 1965: Japan's Bullet Train Opens
- 1965: Los Angeles Riots
- 1965: U.S. Sends Troops to Vietnam
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| 28 | 1966 | - 1966: Private theatre clubs lose immunity from censorship
- 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)
- 1966: Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children
- 1966: Black Panther Party Established
- 1966: Mao Zedong Launches the Cultural Revolution
- 1966: Mass Draft Protests in U.S.
- 1966: Star Trek T.V. Series Airs
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| 29 | 1967 | - 1967: Three US astronauts killed in fire during launch pad test
- 1967: First colour TV in Britain
- 1967: First human heart transplant in South Africa by Christiaan Barnard
- 1967: Che Guevara Killed
- 1967: First Heart Transplant
- 1967: Six-Day War in the Middle East
- 1967: Stalin's Daughter Defects
- 1967: Three U.S. Astronauts Killed During Simulated Launch
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1939 - 1967 (28 years)