1900-present Important Dates

1905

Russo-Japanese war

1910-1920

Mexican Revolution (Diaz overthrown)

1911

Chinese Revolution (end of Qing)

1914-1918/19

World War I/ Treaty of Versailles

1917

Russian Revolution

1928

Kellogg-Briand Pact (outlawing war)

1929

Stock market crashes

1931

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1935

Italian invasion of Ethiopia

1937

Japanese invasion of (rest of) China (rape of Nanking)

1939

German blitzkrieg in Poland

1941

Pearl Harbor, entry of US into WWII

1945

Yalta Conference (beg of Cold War??)

1945

A-Bomb in Hiroshima/Nagasaki

1945

end of WWII (Japan surrenders)

1947

Truman Doctrine (official decl of Cold War)

1947

Independence and Partition of India/Pakistan

1948

Birth of Israel

1948-1949

Berlin Blockade/Airlift

1949

NATO founded

1949

Chinese Communist Revolution

1950-1953

Korean War

1954

Vietnam expels France (Dien Bien Phu)

1955

Bandung Conference (Non-Aligned Nations)

1956

Khrushchev begins de-Stalinization

1957

Sputnik

1959

Cuban Revolution (Fidel Castro)

1962

Cuban Missile Crisis

1965-1973

Vietnam War

1966-1976

Chinese Cultural Revolution

1967

6-Day War between Israel and Arab States

1973

Yom Kippur war (OPEC Oil Embargo)

1979

Iranian Revolution

1979

China begins "Socialist Market Economy" reforms (Deng Xiaoping)

1987

1st Palestinian Intifada

1989

Tiananmen Square

1989

Fall of Berlin Wall

1990

Namibia gains independence (last African colony)

1991

1st Persian Gulf War

1991

USSR disbanded

1994

Genocide in Rwanda

1994

1st all race elections in S. Africa

2001

9/11 attacks; war on terror begins

2003

US invades Iraq

2004

Facebook founded

2007-08

Global "Great Recession" begins

2011

Wikileaks, "Arab Spring" democracy

2011

Syrian Civil War begins

2014

Rise of Islamic State