| 1951 |
|
ANZUS Pact signed by Australia, New Zealand and USA |
| 1951 |
|
American post-war occupation of Japan ends |
| 1952 |
|
George VI dies - Elizabeth II takes British throne |
| 1952 |
|
Bolivian Revolution |
| 1952 |
|
Death of Eva Perón ("Evita") in Argentina |
| 1952 |
|
Huge collectivization push in rural China |
| 1952 |
|
Samuel Beckett develops Theatre of the Absurd - "Waiting for Godot" |
| 1952 |
|
Dwight Eisenhower becomes US President |
| 1953 |
|
New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary first to reach summit of Everest |
| 1953 |
|
Death of Sergey Prokofiev (composer) |
| 1953 |
|
Death of Josef Stalin - Nikita Khruschev becomes Premiere |
| 1953 |
|
Crick and Watson demonstrate double-helix structure of DNA |
| 1953 |
|
Soviets successfully test hydrogen bomb |
| 1953 |
|
Mau Mau Rebellion breaks out in Kenya |
| 1953 |
|
Korean War ends after involving China, US and several other countries |
| 1954 |
|
End of First Indochina War - Vietnam partitioned |
| 1954 |
|
Laos and Cambodia recognized as independent |
| 1954 |
|
Rock'n'Roll music becomes popular - Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, etc |
| 1954 |
|
Anti-Communist McCarthyism censured in US |
| 1955 |
|
Coup deposes dictator Juan Perón in Argentina |
| 1955 |
|
Warsaw Pact signed by USSR, Poland, Romania, Hungary,
Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Albania |
| 1955 |
|
Death of Albert Einstein, German-born physicist |
| 1956 |
|
Suez Crisis - Britain and France invade Egypt |
| 1956 |
|
Gamal Abdel Nasser becomes President of Egyptian Republic |
| 1956 |
|
Hungarian revolt brutally suppressed by Soviets |
| 1956 |
|
"My Fair Lady" popular musical |
| 1957 |
|
Sir Harold MacMillan becomes British Prime Minister |
| 1957 |
|
Death of Jean Sibelius (Swedish composer) |
| 1957 |
|
Russian Sputnik sattelite launched |
| 1957 |
|
European Economic Comunity (EEC) established |
| 1957 |
|
Ghana first African colony to gain independence from Britain |
| 1957 |
|
India claims state of Kashmir |
| 1958 |
|
Dalai Lama flees Tibet from Chinese persecution |
| 1958 |
|
Charles de Gaulle given extensive powers in France |
| 1958 |
|
Ayub Khan becomes military leader of Pakistan |
| 1958 |
|
Oral contraceptive pill becomes available |
| 1958 |
|
Great Chinese Famine of 1958-61 kills an estimated 36 million |
| 1959 |
|
Terrorist organization ETA founded to fight for Basque independence |
| 1959 |
|
Fidel Castro establishes communist dictatorship in Cuba |
| 1959 |
|
Communist North Vietnam starts war against Capitalist South |
| 1960 |
|
Construction of Aswan High Dam in Egypt begins |
| 1960 |
|
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) established |
| 1960 |
|
DH Lawrence's 1928 book "Lady Chatterley's Lover" legally published in the UK |
| 1960 |
|
Congo gains independence from Belgium |
| 1961 |
|
Cuban Missile Crisis after US-backed anti-Castro Bay of Pigs invasion fails |
| 1961 |
|
Berlin Wall built between East and West Germany |
| 1961 |
|
Russian Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space |
| 1961 |
|
South Africa declares republic and leaves British Commonwealth |
| 1961 |
|
Portugal loses its territories in Goa, India |
| 1961 |
|
Death of Ernest Hemingway (writer) |
| 1962 |
|
Georges Pompidou takes over after vote against Charles de Gaulle |
| 1962 |
|
Yemenese Civil War |
| 1962 |
|
Sino-Indian Border Conflict between China and India |
| 1962 |
|
Death of Marilyn Monroe (actress) |
| 1962 |
|
Rachael Carson's book "Silent Spring" launches environmental movement |
| 1963 |
|
The Beatles rise to popularity |
| 1963 |
|
US President John F Kennedy shot |
| 1964 |
|
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) formed |
| 1964 |
|
Nelson Mandela jailed for campaigning against apartheid in South Africa |
| 1964 |
|
Kenya becomes republic under Jomo Kenyatta |
| 1964 |
|
Indian Prime Minister Jahawarlal Nehru dies |
| 1964 |
|
Military dictatorship established in Brazil |
| 1964 |
|
Civil Rights Act passed in US |
| 1964 |
|
US becomes involved in Vietnam War |
| 1965 |
|
White government declares independence in Southern Rhodesia |
| 1965 |
|
Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of Philippines |
| 1966 |
|
Cultural Revolution begins in China |
| 1967 |
|
Sir Francis Chichester first to sail around world single-handed |
| 1967 |
|
Che Guevara, Cuban revolutionary leader, killed in Bolivia |
| 1967 |
|
First Arab-Israeli (6-Day) War |
| 1967 |
|
General Agreement on Tarrifs and Trade (GATT) formulated |
| 1967 |
|
Nigerian Civil War - Biafra famine |
| 1967 |
|
General Suharto of Indonesia wrests power from President Sukarno |
| 1967 |
|
First human heart transplant performed in South Africa |
| 1967 |
|
"Flower Power" at its height in California |
| 1968 |
|
C Day Lewis becomes British Poet Laureate |
| 1968 |
|
Albania withdraws from Warsaw Pact for ideological reasons |
| 1968 |
|
Prague Spring uprising in Czechoslovakia crushed by Soviets |
| 1968 |
|
Pierre Trudeau becomes Prime Minister of Canada |
| 1968 |
|
Black rights campaigner Martin Luther King assassinated |
| 1969 |
|
British supersonic aircraft Concorde makes maiden flight |
| 1969 |
|
Border disputes between China and Russia |
| 1969 |
|
Provisional IRA, terrorist offshoot of IRA, formed |
| 1969 |
|
Catholic vs Protestant "Troubles" resume in Ireland |
| 1969 |
|
Willi Brandt becomes German Chanceller |
| 1969 |
|
Moammar al-Qaddafi (Gadafi) leads military coup in Libya |
| 1969 |
|
Neil Armstrong becomes first man to walk on Moon |
| 1969 |
|
US involvement in Vietnam War peaks |
| 1970 |
|
Sendero Luminoso ("Shining Path") Maoist guerrilla group founded in Peru |
| 1971 |
|
Death of Igor Stravinsky (composer) |
| 1971 |
|
Revolution in Ethiopia overthrows Haile Selassie |
| 1971 |
|
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar become independent from Britain |
| 1971 |
|
Indira Ghandi becomes Prime Minister of India |
| 1971 |
|
Indo-Pakistan War - Bangladesh declared independent republic |
| 1971 |
|
Rapprochement between US and China - Richard Nixon's visit |
| 1971 |
|
Hugo Banzer leads military coup in Bolivia and becomes dictator |
| 1972 |
|
"Bloody Sunday" massacre in Ireland |
| 1972 |
|
British impose direct rule on Northern Ireland |
| 1972 |
|
Francis Ford Coppola's movie "The Godfather" released |
| 1972 |
|
Treaty recognizes East and West Germany as sovereign states |
| 1972 |
|
"Detente" - Strategic Ams Pact between Russia and the West |
| 1972 |
|
European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) |
| 1972 |
|
President Idi Amin expels Asians from Uganda |
| 1972 |
|
Ceylon becomes independent Republic of Sri Lanka |
| 1973 |
|
Britain joins European Economic Community |
| 1973 |
|
General Augusto Pinochet ousts democratic Allende government in Chile |
| 1973 |
|
Second Arab-Israeli (Yom Kippur) War |
| 1973 |
|
Saudi Arabia leads huge oil price increases - world economy slows |
| 1973 |
|
Carl XVI Gustaf becomes King of Sweden |
| 1973 |
|
Death of Pablo Picasso (Spanish artist) |
| 1973 |
|
US launches Pioneer II to explore outer planets |
| 1973 |
|
Henry Kissinger becomes US Secretary of State |
| 1974 |
|
Alexander Solzhenitsyn deported to the West |
| 1974 |
|
Turkey intervenes in Cyprus |
| 1974 |
|
PLO under Yasser Arafat recognized as representing Palestine |
| 1974 |
|
Portugal overthrows dictatorship - António de Spinola President |
| 1974 |
|
Portugal grants independence to Mozambique, Angola and other colonies |
| 1974 |
|
South Africa voted out of UN for apartheid policies |
| 1974 |
|
India explodes first nuclear device |
| 1974 |
|
Watergate Scandal - Richard Nixon quits as President |
| 1975 |
|
Birmingham Pub Bombings by IRA |
| 1975 |
|
Christian vs Muslim war in Lebanon |
| 1975 |
|
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia assassinated |
| 1975 |
|
Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain after Franco's death |
| 1975 |
|
Civil war breaks out in Angola |
| 1975 |
|
US pulls out of Vietnam War |
| 1975 |
|
Communists finally triumph in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia |
| 1976 |
|
Punk (rebel music cult) develops - Sex Pistols, Clash, etc |
| 1976 |
|
Death of Sir Benjamin Britten (composer) |
| 1976 |
|
Mao Tse-Tung dies - Gang of Four arrested |
| 1976 |
|
Giulio Andreotti leads minority government in Italy |
| 1976 |
|
Baader-Meinhof Gang (leftist terrorists) active in Germany |
| 1976 |
|
Free elections re-established in Spain |
| 1976 |
|
Military coup in Argentina and start of state-sponsored "Dirty War" (until 1983) |
| 1977 |
|
Israel under Menachem Begin starts West Bank settlements |
| 1977 |
|
Activist Steve Biko dies in custody in South Africa |
| 1977 |
|
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto executed after coup in Pakistan |
| 1978 |
|
Aldo Moro assassinated by leftist Red Brigade terrorists |
| 1978 |
|
ETA (Basque seperatist group) active in Spain |
| 1978 |
|
Radical reorganization of Cambodia by cruel Pol-Pot regime |
| 1978 |
|
Muhammed Zia Ul-Haq becomes hard-line Muslim President of Pakistan |
| 1979 |
|
Margaret Thatcher becomes British Prime Minister |
| 1979 |
|
Military coup in Bolivia |
| 1979 |
|
Somoza regime in Nicaragua ousted by leftist Sandinistas |
| 1979 |
|
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan |
| 1979 |
|
Iranian Revolution - Ayatollah Khomeini proclaims Islamic Republic |
| 1979 |
|
Camp David Agreement brokers peace between Israel and Egypt |
| 1979 |
|
Idi Amin forced out of Uganda |
| 1979 |
|
"Boat People" start to flee Communist regime in Vietnam |
| 1979 |
|
President Park Chung Hee of South Korea assassinated |
| 1979 |
|
Three Mile Island nuclear reactor incident in US |
| 1980 |
|
Robert Mugabe leads first black government in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) |
| 1980 |
|
John Lennon (singer) shot |
| 1980 |
|
Social Democratic Party formed |
| 1980 |
|
Deng Xiao-Ping becomes Chairman of China |
| 1980 |
|
Relations between East and West Germany deteriorate |
| 1980 |
|
Military coup in Turkey under Kenan Evren |
| 1980 |
|
Iran-Iraq War begins |
| 1980 |
|
Gdansk Shipyard Strike in Poland - Lech Walesa forms Solidarity |
| 1980 |
|
Tito dies - Yugoslavia's six states begin to argue |
| 1980 |
|
Iranian Hostage Crisis - hostages held in US Embassy in Tehran |
| 1980 |
|
Eruption of Mount St Helens (60 killed) |
| 1980 |
|
Ronald Reagan becomes US President |
| 1981 |
|
Black youths riot in British cities |
| 1981 |
|
IRA prisoners go on hunger strike - 10 die |
| 1981 |
|
François Mitterrand becomes first Socialist President of France |
| 1981 |
|
Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spenser |
| 1981 |
|
President Anwar al-Sadat of Egypt assassinated by Muslim fundamentalists |
| 1981 |
|
Greece votes in Socialist Andreas Papandreou |
| 1981 |
|
AIDS becomes major health threat throughout world |
| 1982 |
|
Britain regain Falklands Islands (Malvinas) after Argentinian occupation |
| 1982 |
|
Israel invades Lebanon - Israel-Lebanon War |
| 1982 |
|
Martial law in Poland ended by Solidarity action |
| 1983 |
|
Bettino Craxi leads Italian coalition government |
| 1983 |
|
Helmut Kohl becomes German Chancellor |
| 1983 |
|
End of Israel-Lebanon War |
| 1983 |
|
Norway's Gro Harlen Brundtland establishes WCED |
| 1983 |
|
Socialist government headed by Mário Soares in Portugal |
| 1983 |
|
Coloureds and Asians allowed vote in South Africa |
| 1983 |
|
Philippino opposition leader Benigno Aquino assassinated |
| 1984 |
|
Death of Sir John Betjeman (poet) |
| 1984 |
|
Miners' Strike in Britain |
| 1984 |
|
Drought and famine in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan |
| 1984 |
|
Indira Ghandi assassinated by Sikhs - violence erupts in India |
| 1984 |
|
Bhopal industrial disaster in Madhya Pradesh (4,000 - 25,000 killed) |
| 1985 |
|
Brazil returns to democratic civilian rule |
| 1985 |
|
Nevado del Ruiz volcano in Colombia claims 25,000 lives |
| 1985 |
|
Mikhail Gorbachev becomes Russian Premiere - "Glasnost" and "Perestroika" |
| 1985 |
|
Enver Hoxha dies - Albania gradually relaxes foreign relations |
| 1985 |
|
Pro-Solidarity Father Jerzy Popieluzsko assassinated in Poland |
| 1985 |
|
Tamil separatist resurgence in Sri Lanka |
| 1986 |
|
Jacques Chirac becomes Prime Minister |
| 1986 |
|
Chernobyl nuclear power station explodes, contaminating most of Europe |
| 1986 |
|
Marcos flees country and Corazon Aquino takes power in Philippines |
| 1987 |
|
Russia and West sign first of several treaties to reduce nuclear arms |
| 1987 |
|
Iran-Contra Affair - arms for aid scandal |
| 1987 |
|
Intifada - Palestinian opposition to Israeli occupation of Gaza and West Bank |
| 1988 |
|
End of Iran-Iraq War |
| 1988 |
|
US and Canada sign free trade agreement |
| 1989 |
|
Pro-democracy protest in Tianenmen Square, Beijing, brutally crushed |
| 1989 |
|
Akihito succedes his father Hirohito as Emperor of Japan |
| 1989 |
|
Russians pull out of costly war in Afghanistan |
| 1989 |
|
European Monetary System (EMS) establishes move towards single currency |
| 1989 |
|
Death of Salvador Dalí (Spanish artist) |
| 1989 |
|
Exxon Valdez oil-spill in Alaska |
| 1989 |
|
Overthrow of communist rule in Poland, Hungary, East Germany and Bulgaria |
| 1989 |
|
Non-violent Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia |
| 1989 |
|
Violent overthrow of Ceausescu's communist regime in Romania |
| 1989 |
|
Berlin Wall demolished |
| 1990 |
|
Margaret Thatcher resigns - John Major takes over as British PM |
| 1990 |
|
Alberto Fujimori elected President in Peru |
| 1990 |
|
East and West Germany unite as Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1990 |
|
Neslon Mandela released - end of apartheid in South Africa |
| 1990 |
|
Hubble Space Telescope launched |
| 1991 |
|
USSR breaks up into constituent countries - end of Soviet era |
| 1991 |
|
Official dissolution of Warsaw Pact |
| 1991 |
|
Persian Gulf War starts after Iraq invades Kuwait |
| 1991 |
|
Ethiopian Civil War ends - Eritrea becomes independent |
| 1991 |
|
Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi killed by Tamil suicide bomber |
| 1992 |
|
Civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina starts |
| 1993 |
|
Bill Clinton elected US President |
| 1993 |
|
New York World Trade Center bombing |
| 1993 |
|
Salvatore Riina, reputed Mafia leader, arrested |
| 1993 |
|
European Union (EU) formed by former EEC members |
| 1993 |
|
Violent constitutional crisis in Russia after Boris Yeltsin dissolves legislature |
| 1994 |
|
Jean Chrétien becomes Canadian Prime Minister |
| 1994 |
|
Rwandan genocide of ethnic Tutsis by Hutus |
| 1994 |
|
"Chunnel", rail tunnel between England and France, inaugurated |
| 1994 |
|
IRA announce unconditional cease-fire - lasts until 1996 |
| 1994 |
|
Construction starts on China's Three Gorges Dam |
| 1994 |
|
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) established |
| 1994 |
|
Nelson Mandela becomes first black President of South Africa |
| 1994 |
|
Sovereignty of Quebec narrowly defeated in referendum |
| 1995 |
|
The Great Hanshin earthquake hits Kobe, Japan, killing over 6,000 |
| 1995 |
|
World Trade Organization (WTO) established to replace GATT |
| 1995 |
|
End of war in Bosnia-Herzegovina |
| 1995 |
|
Russian war in Chechnya (ends in 1996) |
| 1996 |
|
Prince Charles divorces Princess Diana |
| 1996 |
|
Israel elects Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister |
| 1997 |
|
Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister |
| 1997 |
|
Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule |
| 1997 |
|
US spacecraft begins exploration of Mars |
| 1997 |
|
Princess Diana killed in Paris car accident |
| 1997 |
|
Asian financial crisis |
| 1997 |
|
Catholic nun Mother Teresa dies after nearly 50 years work in India |
| 1998 |
|
Male impotence drug Viagra licensed for use in USA |
| 1998 |
|
Good Friday Accord (Belfast Agreement) signed by Ireland and Britain |
| 1998 |
|
Indonesian dictator Suharto steps down after 32 years in power |
| 1998 |
|
German chancellor Helmut Kohl defeated by Gerhard Schröder |
| 1999 |
|
Bill Clinton acquitted in impeachment trial |
| 1999 |
|
Euro launched on international currency markets |
| 1999 |
|
King Hussein of Jordan dies after ruling for 46 years |
| 1999 |
|
Columbine High School murders |
| 1999 |
|
Nelson Mandela retires as president of South Africa - succeeded by Thabo Mbeki |
| 1999 |
|
Military coup led by Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrows Pakistani government |
| 1999 |
|
China launches first spacecraft |
| 1999 |
|
Vladimir Putin becomes acting Russian President after Yeltsin resigns |
