Greenough, Western Australia: Step Back in Time

Greenough, Western Australia, is located 400 kilometres north of Perth and 24 kilometres south of Geraldton. It is a picturesque area of fertile flats and rich, red loamy soil, only a short distance from Lucy's beach.

The Buffeting winds that prevail in the Greenough region have created a landscape of curious, yet beautiful, leaning trees, set amongst well-preserved Victorian limestone buildings. 

Today, the old settlement operates as an open-air museum.

The Yamatji people 

Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for thousands of years. On Barrow island, in a cave, near Karratha in Western Australia, archaeologists have found artefacts which have been dated at 50,000 years old. A cave south of Geraldton, which contained eggshells, ochre and animal bones, has been dated at 25,000 years old.

About 600 different tribal groups existed around Australia before European settlement, with differing cultures and beliefs.

The Yamatji people hunted and collected food from the land, including witchetty grubs, emu eggs, goannas and bush pears. Interestingly, one of the methods the Yamaji people used to cook a kangaroo was by digging a deep hole, making a fire at the bottom, filling the kangaroo’s stomach cavity with hot rocks, putting the kangaroo in the ashes and then putting ash on the top of the kangaroo and leaving it to cook.

Aboriginal man and his dog returning from hunting kangaroo in the Upper Murchison, ca.1930, SLWA

George Grey, a European explorer who walked from Kalbarri to Perth in 1839, noted the use of wells by Aboriginal people for accessing water sources. Animal skins were used to carry the water over long distances. Grey also wrote of seeing fields of yams growing in the Yamaji region.

Dreamtime (creation) stories shaped the laws and customs of the Yamatji people. Dingos were often very important to Aboriginal people, helping to keep them warm, find water, and as pets (women would walk about with a dingo draped around their waist). As recently as 110 years ago, Aboriginal men used dingoes to help hunt kangaroos.

Aboriginal woman carrying a dingo, n.d, NLAUST

In some Aboriginal cultures, dingos were suckled by women like they were their own children, and dingos have featured in Dreamtime stories and are regarded as ancestors. 

The Yamatji people have a particular story where a dingo guardian protects the tribe from an enormous black kangaroo, which explains why the Yamatji often kept at least two dingos about for safety.

Aboriginal men dressed for corroboree, circa 1900, SLAW

EMU FEATHER SLIPPERS: These slippers are worn by me'Boolya' or medicine man of an aboriginal tribe when on special aim secret missions. They are made of emu feathers and practically defy trackers. In the sole of the slipper, on the right is a cleverly concealed receptable to hold two mother of pearl operating knives for tribal ceremonies. This is a rare curio in the possession of Mr. Me Vicker-Smyth, of Elder House, Per th, and was secured by him duringa recent tour of the Murchison. Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950), Saturday 10 December 1932

1839: Exploration

The area around Greenough was first explored by Europeans when George Grey, in 1839, was looking for more agricultural lands. After which, he named the area after Sir George Bellas Greenough, the president of the Royal Geographical Society in London.

Grey's exploration became shipwrecked in Gantheaume Bay and experienced one disaster after another, and all the boats were lost. So Grey and his party had to walk all the way back to Perth. It was during the walk that Grey came upon Greenough. He said:

"We passed a large assemblage of native huts of the same permanent character as those I have before mentioned: there were two groups of those houses close together in a sequestered nook in a wood, which taken collectively would have contained at least a hundred and fifty natives. We halted for the night in the dry bed of a watercourse, abounding in grass, so that we again enjoyed the luxury of a soft bed. At first I thought that we were near natives from hearing a plaintive cry like that of a child, but Kaiber assured me that it was the cry of the young of the wild turkey."

Seated portrait of Sir George Grey, a top hat in his hands and a writing desk on his right side, circa 186. PD

1850s

Reports were spreading from others who trekked into the Greenough area of its suitability for farming land. Greenough is a fertile area due to the presence of lagoons, which existed long ago, that became cut off from the ocean, and over time, the frequent floods of the Greenough River left rich soil behind in the area.

In 1850 cattle and sheep were driven overland from Perth into the Greenough region, and pastoral runs like Glengarry and Ellendale were established. Among those early settlers were Thomas Brown, Major Logue and Edward Hamersley of the cattle company.

Augustus Gregory surveyed 30,000 acres (120 km²) of land in the region in 1851, as well as a road, that became known as the Greenough Flats. In 1857, Augustus Gregory surveyed roads and land allotments of 30,000 acres and the land opened up for settlement.

Sir Augustus Charles Gregory KCMG FRSGS(1 August 1819 – 25 June 1905) was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor.

The first European woman in the district, Eliza Brown, in 1851 arrived at Champion Bay to visit her husband Thomas Brown at the Glengarry homestead. The Colonisation Assurance Company leased 60,000 acres of the Greenough Flats, with plans to settle immigrant farmers on small blocks. The plan soon failed.

Hamersley and Co. expanded into the Greenough and became a major player in the development of the Flats in 1852.

In 1852, George Shenton exchanged his farm at Wanneroo near Perth for land on the Greenough River flats, now known as Walkaway. He was the director of the Western Australian Bank from 1847 to 1867. Shenton’s relative, William Cousins, grew a wheat crop on this land that was probably the first in the area.

Despite the rich soil, the farmers of Greenough would struggle due to lack of equipment. Many used spades to till their fields, as they did not even own ploughs.

In July 1853, a mail service was established. A police constable and native tracker carried the mail by horse from Perth.

As the settlement expanded, there was an increase in settler-Aboriginal conflicts.

Settlers

Clinch's Mill was first built in 1854 by Thomas Whitfield and his partner Robert Sutherland, funded by Walter Padbury, the first flour mill in the district. John Maley was the overseer of the construction of the mill. Maley opened a General Store in 1863 adjacent to the flour mill. Edward Whitfield sold the mill in 1869 to Thomas Clinch.

Clinch's mill, one of the landmarks of the Greenough district, lt was occupied during the latter part of last century by Thomas Clinch,Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 19 April 1934

Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News (WA : 1848 - 1864), Friday 30 September 1859

Colonial Secretary Barlee visited the district in 1856 and stated: “it surpasses beyond comparison any part of this colony that I have seen”.

William Criddle was a stonemason who came to the Greenough district in 1857 with his family. The first European baby born in the district is believed to have been his daughter, Mary. Two of the houses Criddle built were washed away in the floods and the last survived. William Criddle died in 1875.

Mr. and Mrs. William Criddle, early pioneers of the Greenough district. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 16 November 1939

The partnership of Messrs Edward Hamersley, Samual Phillips and Lockier Burges, operating as the Cattle Company, took up land at Greenough. The partnership dissolved, and Edward Hamersley retained the Greenough holdings, which included Well Station.

A sale of blocks of land occurred in 1857 with land selling at £1 an acre. John Broad, John Rhodes, Edward Tuncliffe and Joseph Coker and their families took up leases.

Guard's Village

In the same year of 1857, a Pensioner Guards village was established at the northern end of the Greenough, near Gregory Road. 

One of the Pensioner Guards who settled on the Greenough Flats was Felix Devlin, whose cottages lies in ruins. Pensioner Kelly's Cottage from 1888 survives, as does McNeece's Cottage. 

The well-known landmark of the area,  Corringle, is the place where the remains of the original "Adlam Cottage" (1868) can be found. Carson’s Cottage was owned by James Carson, a Private in the 57th Regiment. He was allocated land at Greenough and took up the title in 1874.

Mr Joseph Adlam, arrived from England on the Clara, Hecame here as a guard over convicts, butbefore long obtained a grant of between 200 and 300 acres of land at the Greenough

Rock of Ages

Ex-convict John Patience built the cottage named "Rock of Ages" in 1857.

Ex-onvict John Patience built "Rock of Ages" near Greenough, WA, circa 1857

Temperance League

Frederick Waldeck took up land on the Front Flats in 1857, but the family did not move to their property, Mount Pleasant, until 1860. 

Waldeck donated land in 1861 to the Greenough School Committee, which had raised money by public subscription for providing a school, to the district. However, the school closed in 1863, and the building was used as a Lodge for the Temperance League.

Ruins of the schoolhouse and later, Temperance League, Greenough, WA

Farmers' Club

In 1858 Alex Dewar was granted the lease of land. In 1896, Thomas Clinch purchased the property and gave the land to the Greenough Farmers' Club.

Joseph Green was granted a lease in 1858 for land which would later be the site of Waldeck’s Cottage, Stone Barn and Wesley Church.

During the 1860s the future for Greenough was looking bright, with over a thousand people living in the area.

Walter Padbury's steam powered flour mill at Greenough, later known as Maley's Mill, ca. 1860, SLWA. The first flour mill in the district built by Walter Padbury and extended by Thomas Church

Stone barn, built 1860s built by ticket-of-leave convict labour. James Smith took up the title in 1877. The property was later owned by J.S. Maley of Home Cottage

Gray's Store

Gray's Store & Residence was built in 1861 by Henry Gray using convict labour. The two-storey part of the building was used as a residence for the Gray family, while the single-story part was the store. Behind the store is an unusual water cistern built of stone with a vaulted roof. The building was damaged by fire in 1975.

John S. Maley and Elizabeth K. Waldeck were married at Gray's Store in 1862, as no churches existed at Greenough at the time.

Gray's store and residence, circa 1861, Greenough, WA

Victorian Express (Geraldton, WA : 1878 - 1894), Wednesday 13 September 1882

Police Station & Gaol

Police were first stationed at Greenough in 1863, and in 1865, Maitland Brown was appointed the first Resident Magistrate. The Police Station & Gaol began construction in 1870 and cost about  £1,500.

The construction of the Greenough Police Station & Goal began in 1870 and cost about 1,500 pounds, Greenough, WA

Hampton Arms Inn

Hampton Arms Inn, the first hotel in the Greenough area, was built in 1863, by Robert Pearson.

Hampton Arms Inn, the first hotel in the area, was built in 1863 by Robert Pearson

Victorian Express (Geraldton, WA : 1878 - 1894), Wednesday 27 November 1878

School Days

Central Greenough School was built by William Trigg in 1865. The building has also been used as an Anglican church and a community hall.

Central Greenough School was built by William Trigg in 1865, Greenough, WA

A Mechanics Institute was built in 1868, on land donated by J.S. Maley adjacent to his Mill on the Front Flats in Phillips Road.

Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

The Wesleyan Church, which is located opposite Gray's Store, is a tall Victorian Gothic Revival random rubble limestone building, which was built in 1867, using ticket of leave labour. Land for the church was donated by John Mills. This building is historically important due to the large Wesleyan Community, which existed during the town's heyday, and the connection to the Waldeck family.

There were 162 houses in the Greenough area in 1870.

St. James Church

St. James Church in South Greenough, Western Australia was built in 1872. The church survived the terrible floods of 1888 and continued to be a place of worship until 1961. Shortly afterwards, the building was saved from demolition by the local community.

St. James Church in South Greenough, Western Australia, was built in 1872

A cyclone in 1872 caused great destruction and loss of property.

Business

Victorian Express (Geraldton, WA : 1878 - 1894), Wednesday 6 April 1881

Geraldton Observer (WA : 1880 - 1881), Tuesday 15 March 1881

Major flooding occurred in 1888. Then the discovery of gold in Western Australia during the 1990s led to the gradual decline of the population of Greenough. The construction of the railway line through Walkaway in 1894 and rust diseases in the wheat also impacted the prosperity of the area.

St Catherine's Hall 

St Catherine's Hall, which is built of locally quarried limestone opened on 4 May 1898, celebrated with a concert and a dance.

St. Catherine’s Hall built 1898, Greenough, WA. Built in Victorian Georgian style

Presentation Convent

The convent at Greenough housed the Dominican sisters who arrived from New Zealand in 1899. The Dominican sisters moved to Dongara in 1901 and the Presentation Sisters then took over the building and ran a boys' boarding school. 

Greenough Presentation Convent, WA W.A. Record (Perth, WA : 1888 - 1922), Saturday 10 December 1904

Greenough Convent, WA, circa 1898

The Presbytery

The Presbytery was built in 1900 on the former site of Edward Whitfield's property, by Mr Bennett, furnished by the church, and housed the local priest for thirty years.

The presbytery was built in 1900 by Mr Bennett and housed the local priest for thirty years

Road Board

A permanent one-room stone office in Gregory Road, Greenough, constructed of rubble limestone, was built in 1906. The Greenough Road Board was formed in 1871, with early meetings at the Hampton Hotel. The first meeting of the Greenough Road Board was held in the office on 4 September 1906. The last meeting was held there on 11 March 1952.

The Road Board building was built in 1906, Greenough, WA

Farming Days

Harold Clinch's farm, Greenough, WA, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Friday 27 September 1912

Anglican Church

The first Anglican Church of Greenough was built in 1892 of iron and timber. The building had been shipped out from England complete with all fittings and assembled on Company Rd. In 1913, St Catherine’s Church, the second Anglican Church, replaced the former timber building.

Built in 1913, St Catherine’s Church, Greenough, WA, built

Greenough Scene

Scene on the Greenough River, Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 25 September 1919

1940s

A general view of the Greenough flats on which the show was held. Western Mail (Perth, WA : 1885 - 1954), Thursday 17 October 1940

Leaning Tree

Leaning tree of Greenough, WA

Ned and Harriet Hackett

Ned and Harriet Hackett ran a store next-to their home. Ned also worked as a blacksmith, cobbler, carpenter and undertaker. The cottage was built after the 1888 flood.

Ned and Harriet Hackett, ran a store next-to their home. Ned also worked as a blacksmith, cobbler, carpenter and undertaker. The cottage was built after the 1888 flood

Catholic Church and Goodwin's Cottage

The St Peter's Catholic Church was built in 1908; an earlier church had been destroyed by floods in 1888. The cottage next-door was built in 1890, for Ned Goodwin, a retired policeman and his wife. When Ned died in 1912, the building returned to the church. The Presentation Sisters used the cottage as a school until 1958, demolishing a wall between two small rooms to make one large schoolroom.

St Peter's Catholic church that was designed and built by W. Martin in 1908. An earlier church was destroyed by the 1888 flood

The Greenough/Walkaway Heritage Trail is a 57 km drive though an attractive rural landscape and buildings from the early settlement of the area. is a 57km drive 


Around Greennough

Clinch's Mill, a late nineteenth century former mill complex built in the Victorian Georgian style, was constructed in 1859

Greenough Museum and Gardens, set in the 19th century former Maley family homestead, Greenough, WA

The presbytery was built in 1900 by Mr Bennett and housed the local priest for thirty years, Greenough, WA

Central Greenough School was built by William Trigg in 1865, Greenough, WA

The construction of the Greenough Police Station & Gaol began in 1870 and cost about 1,500 pounds, Greenough, WA

Greennough, WA

The construction of the Greenough Police Station & Gaol began in 1870 and cost about 1,500 pounds, Greenough, WA

Gray's store and residence, circa 1861, Greenough, WA

Abandoned cottage, Greenough, WA

Cliff Grange, residence of the manager of the Mill, Greenough, WA

This bridge at Greenough, WA, was built in 1864, designed by John S Maley and built by ticket-of-leave convict labour

Things To Do and Places To Go

The Greenough/Walkaway Heritage TrailThe 

Central Greenough National Trust

Greenough Museum on Phillips Road, Greenough is open daily between 8.30 am and 3.00 pm (Fridays 12.30 pm closing).

Short Outline of World History Timeline: Modern 6.

1982 CE
First Israeli invasion of Lebanon, for the purpose of attacking the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1982 CE

Hama massacre.

1982 CE

On December 7, 1982, Texas became the first U.S. state and territory in the world to use lethal injection to carry out capital punishment.

1982 CE

Sony CDP-101 was released in 1982, the world's first commercially released compact disc player.

1982 CE

Princess Grace of Monaco (formerly known as Hollywood star Grace Kelly) died on September 14, 1982, the day after her car plunged off a mountain road.

1983 CE

End of dictatorship in Argentina. Second Sudanese Civil War begins. Invasion of Grenada by the United States. Bombing of U.S. Embassy in Beirut.

1984 CE

In 1984, researchers identify the cause of AIDS, as the HIV virus.

1984 CE

The miners' strike of 1984–85 was led by Arthur Scargill of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the National Coal Board (NCB), to try to prevent colliery closures.

1984 CE

Assassination of Indira Gandhi.

1983–85 famine in Ethiopia.

1985 CE

Live Aid music-based fundraising initiative for the Ethiopian famine.

1986 CE

The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on Tuesday, January 28, 1986, when the Space Shuttle Challenger (OV-099) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard.

1986 CE

In the early morning hours of April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian, exploded.

 This photo was taken from a helicopter on the day following the explosion. The destroyed Chernobyl reactor, one of four units operating at the site in Ukraine in 1986. IAEA Imagebank - 02790015

1986 CE

Return of Halley's Comet.

1986 CE

End of dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.

1987 CE

World population reaches 5 billion.

1987 CE
The antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) was introduced.

1987 CE

MV Doña Paz was a Philippine-registered passenger ferry that sank after colliding with the oil tanker MT Vector on December 20, 1987. An estimated death toll of 4,386 people and only 25 survivors.

1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines.

1988 CE

Mikhail Gorbachev's program of economic, political, and social reform, Perestroika, begins.

1988 CE

End of dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile.

1988 CE

In 1988, a bomb downed a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew in what became known as the Lockerbie bombing. Bombing Suspects, Libyans.

1988 CE
Burma became independent in 1948. Elected government overthrown 1962. Burma Armed Forces military coup 1988. Name change to Myanmar in the following year.

1988 CE

Eurotunnel began construction in 1988 and opened in 1994.

1989 CE

Fall of the Berlin Wall. And collapse of the Soviet Bloc in Europe.

People atop the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate on 9 November 1989

1989 CE

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 led to in the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

1989 CE

First direct Presidential election in Brazil since 1960.

1989 CE

Fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, after the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses.

1989 CE

First close up pictures of Neptune.

1989 CE

Trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceaușescu.

1989 CE

The United States invades Panama, by sea, air and land, in an attempt to overthrow military dictator Manuel Noriega.

1989 CE

British computer scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He wrote the first web browser in 1990.

1990 CE

The reunification of Germany.

1990 CE

Launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. Gulf War begins. Contra War ends.

1990 CE

Although scientists first identified carbon dioxide’s importance for climate in the 1850s, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) First Assessment Report (FAR) was completed in 1990, stating with confidence that CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect.

1991 CE

Boris Yeltsin becomes the first President of the Russia.

1991 CE

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence and insurgencies fought in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001, which led to the breakup of the Yugoslav state.

1991 CE

Beginning of the Somali, Sierra Leonian and Algerian Civil Wars.

1992 CE

Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union.

1992 CE

End of dictatorship in Albania and South Korea.

1992 CE

The Bosnian War was characterised by bitter fighting, indiscriminate shelling of cities and towns, ethnic cleansing and systematic mass rape, mainly perpetrated by Serb, and to a lesser extent, Croat and Bosniak forces.

1992 CE

Discovery of the Kuiper belt and the first extrasolar planets.

1993 CE

Independence of Eritrea.

 

1993 CE

World Trade Center bombing terrorist attack, carried out on February 26, 1993. The Islamic terrorists received financing from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,  "the principal architect of the later 9/11 attacks".

1993 CE

The 1993 Waco siege between the government federal agents and cult leader David Koresh. Texas, US.

1994 CE

End of apartheid in South Africa and election of Nelson Mandela.

6th April 2000 Visit of Nelson Mandela to give a lecture at LSE on 'Africa and Its Position in the World.' Held at the Peacock Theatre.

1994 CE

Yemeni Civil War (1994). Assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira triggers the Rwandan genocide.

1994 CE

MS Estonia, carrying 989 passengers between Tallinn and Stockholm, sank in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people.

1995 CE

Establishment of the World Trade Organization.

1995 CE
The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing killed 168 people and injured over 680 others.

1995 CE

Srebrenica massacre. NATO bombing raids in Bosnia, end the Bosnian War.

1995 CE

The Tokyo subway sarin attack, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo.

1996 CE

First Congo War begins. Zaire becomes the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997.

1996 CE

End of dictatorship in Taiwan.

1996 CE

The Taliban takes control of Afghanistan.

1996 CE

The Port Arthur massacre of 28–29 April 1996 was a mass shooting in which 35 people were killed and 23 wounded in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Leads to gun regulations in Australia.

1997 CE

Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from UK to China.

1997 CE

Diana, Princess of Wales, died in hospital after being injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris.

1997 CE

March 1997, all 39 members of the religious cult Heaven's Gate commit suicide.

1998 CE

Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa against the West.

1998 CE

Political sex scandal that involved 49-year-old, President Bill Clinton, and 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky, consumed the news cycle.

1998 CE

Google founded.

1998 CE

Good Friday Agreement brings an end to the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

1998 CE

Fall of Suharto, Indonesia.

The North Korean famine, a period of mass starvation together with a general economic crisis from 1994 to 1998 in North Korea.

1990 CE

Euro currency introduced.

1990 CE

End of the Yugoslav Wars. Second Chechen War and Second Liberian Civil War begin. Fourth Indo-Pakistani War. Crisis in East Timor leads to 1400 deaths.

1990 CE

Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, United States.

World population reaches 6 billion.  

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2000 CE

Vladimir Putin becomes President of Russia.

2000 CE
British Army launch Operation Palliser which ends the Sierra Leone Civil War.

2000 CE

ASG a radical Islamic separatist group, attack a Malaysian dive resort on the island of Sipadan, seizing 21 hostages.

2000 CE

Multiple terrorist bombings in Metro Manila occurs on Rizal Day, killing 22 people and injuring more than 120 others. Various Islamic groups were implicated in the bombings.

2001 CE

The September 11 attacks (also referred to as 9/11) were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda against the United States on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Afghanistan War begins.

Plumes of smoke billow from the World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, after a Boeing 767 hits each tower during the September 11 attacks. Michael Foran

2001 CE

Steve Jobs introduces the first iPod. Wikipedia is launched.

2001 CE

The Nepalese royal massacre. Twelve members of the royal family were killed in a mass shooting during a party. Crown Prince Dipendra named as perpetrator of the massacre.

2002 CE

Islamic terrorist bomb detonated inside Paddy's Nightclub in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 23 Britons, and people of more than 20 other nationalities).

2002 CE

Construction of the Israeli West Bank barrier begins.

2002 CE

Establishment of the International Criminal Court.

2002 CE

Guantanamo Bay detention camp is established and America demands Iraq allow unfettered access to weapons inspectors.

2003 CE

The United States invades Iraq and topples Saddam Hussein.

2003 CE

The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

2003 CE

Second Congo War ends with more than 5 million dead. Second Liberian Civil War ends.

2004 CE

Facebook, a social networking service, launched as TheFacebook.

2004 CE

Madrid train bombings killed 193 people and injured around 2,000.

2004 CE

The Beslan school siege, by Islamic militants, ended with the deaths of at least 334 people.

2004 CE

The Boxing Day Tsunami killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14 countries, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

2004 CE

The 2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing by Islamic extremists, led to the death of 116 people.

2005 CE
London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of coordinated Islamic terrorist suicide attacks in London, England, killing 52 people and injuring hundreds.

2005 CE

Hurricane Katrina hit the United States, particularly in the city of New Orleans, and an estimated 1,833 people died.

2005 CE

80,000 are killed in an earthquake in Kashmir.

2006 CE

The 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War.

2006 CE
Execution of Saddam Hussein.

2006 CE

Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian agent, dies from poisoning in the UK.

2006 CE

A coup d'état in Thailand.

2007 CE

Virginia Tech student shot 49 people on campus, killing 32 and wounding 17.

2007 CE

The global financial crisis (GFC), was an economic disaster in markets and banking systems between mid 2007 and early 2009.

2008 CE

Cyclone Nargis kills 133,000 in Myanmar.

2008 CE

Gaza War, 2008 South Ossetia war.

2008 CE

The Mumbai Islamic terror attacks of 26 November 2008 left 166 people dead.

2008 CE

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, first started up on 10 September 2008.

2009 CE

The Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009, when the jihadist group Boko Haram started an armed rebellion against the government of Nigeria.

2010 CE

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti kills 230,000.

2010 CE

European Debt Crisis: Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

2010 CE

Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.

2010 CE

Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two Islamic female terrorists during the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro (Lubyanka and Park Kultury), with roughly 40 minutes in between. At least 40 people were killed, and over 100 injured.

2010 CE

A series of anti-government protests and uprisings, called the Arab Spring.

Demonstrations in Al Bayda for support of Tripoli and Az Zawiyah. User:ليبي_صح

2010 CE
The Kyrgyz Revolution. Nigerian coup d'état. Manila hostage crisis.

2011 CE

Independence of South Sudan.

2011 CE

Christchurch earthquake kills 185 and injures 2,000.

2011 CE

A peaceful uprising against the president of Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, turned into a civil war.

2011 CE

Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement, began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, against economic inequality. It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement.

2011 CE

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan, resulting in a massive tsunami. An estimated 20,000 people were dead or missing.

2011 CE

The London Riots, were a series of riots, between 6 and 11 August 2011, when thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, and mass deployment of police, and resulted in the deaths of five people.

2011 CE

Osama bin Laden is shot dead by United States Navy SEALs in Pakistan.

2011 CE

22 July, right-wing Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik set off a bomb in Regjeringskvartalet and less than two hours later, at a summer camp, for the youth division of the ruling Norwegian Labour Party, opened fire at the participants, killing 69.

2011 CE

Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

World population reaches 7 Billion.

2012 CE

The Higgs boson was discovered as a new particle.

2012 CE

Hurricane Sandy kills 209 people in North America, while Typhoon Bopha kills over 1,600 in the Philippines.

2012 CE

Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip.

2012 CE

The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 26 people lost their lives, including 20 children between six and seven years old, and six adult staff members.

2012 CE

A mass shooting occurred inside a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, during a midnight screening of the film The Dark Knight.

2012 CE

On 13 January 2012, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground and overturned after striking an underwater rock off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, resulting in 32 deaths.

2012 CE

A Pakistani Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai, a 20-year-old girl, for promoting education for girls.

2013 CE

The Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed, which housed five garment factories and killed at least 1,132 people and injured more than 2,500.

2013 CE

Edward Snowden copied and leaked highly classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) in 2013, when he was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee and subcontractor.

2013 CE

More Than 300 Chemical Attacks Launched by Syrian officials during Syrian Civil War.

2014 CE

The Ebola epidemic of West Africa was of unprecedented scale and duration.

2014 CE

Russia's annexation of Crimea and the War in Donbass.

2014 CE

Malaysia Airlines flight 370 disappearance.

2014 CE

Coup d'état in Thailand.

2014 CE
Indonesia AirAsia Flight 8501 crashes into the Java Sea, while Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Ukraine and Air Algérie Flight 5017 is downed in Mali.

2014 CE

Taliban kill more than 130 students in Pakistan.

2014 CE

Israel launches an assault on the Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of 71 Israelis and 2,100 Palestinians.

2014 CE
ISIS controlled more than 34,000 square miles in Syria and Iraq.

2014 CE

The police shooting of African-American teenager, Michael Brown, leads to violent unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.

2015 CE

Islamic Terror attacks in Paris killed 130 people and wounded 494.

Islamic State in West Africa massacre over 2000 people. 

Islamic Al-Shabaab mass shooting in Kenya kills 148.

Multiple atrocities perpetrated by Islamic State.

2015 CE

Earthquakes in the Himalayas kills over 10,000 people.

2015 CE

American white supremacist and mass murderer convicted for perpetrating the Charleston church shooting on June 17, 2015 in the U.S. state of South Carolina.

2016 CE

In November 2016, WHO announced the end of the Zika epidemic.

2016 CE

Multiple atrocities by Islamic State.

2016 CE

The people of the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union.

2016 CE

United States troops withdraw from Afghanistan after 15 years.

2016 CE

Failed coup d'état in Turkey and government purges.

2016 CE

Dhaka attack kills 29 people by Islamic terrorist operation.

2017 CE
UN sanctions on North Korea after the country tests a hydrogen bomb.

2017 CE
Islamic terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England kills 22 people and injures over 500.

2017 CE

Myanmar's army accused of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims.

2017 CE

Islamist group, Al-Shabaab, likely responsible for two truck bombings which took place in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, killing at least 587 people and injuring 316 others.

2017 CE

Hurricane Harvey kills 107 and becomes the costliest hurricane in US history, while Hurricane Irma kills 134, and Hurricane Maria kills 3,059.

2017 CE

Stephen Paddock opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. He killed 58 people and wounded 413. Motive undetermined.

2017 CE

Allegations of sexual crimes against film producer, Harvey Weinstein. Later sentenced to 23 years in prison.

2017 CE

Grenfell Tower fire in London kills 72 and injures 70.

2017 CE

Islamic State inspired gunman kills 36 people at Resorts World Manila.

2018 CE

Turkey invades northern Syria, while 70 die in a chemical attack, triggering a missile strike against Bashar al-Assad.

2018 CE

Four people poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury and Amesbury, UK. Russians suspected.

2018 CE

The yellow vests movement for economic justice began in France in October 2018.

A gilets jaunes demonstration in Paris on 8 December 2018, Olivier Ortelpa - https://www.flickr.com/photos/copivolta/46193754882/

2018 CE

Sunda strait tsunami kills 426 and injures 14,000. Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami kills 4,340 and injures 10,700.

2018 CE

Journalist Jamal Khashoggi is assassinated inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

2018 CE

China's National People's Congress votes to abolish presidential term limits, allowing Xi Jinping to rule for life.

2018 CE

12 boys exploring a cave in Thailand's Chiang Rai province with their football coach, who became trapped after the cave flooded, were successfully rescued.

2019 CE

Christchurch mosque shootings, by right-wing extremist, kill 51 people. While a suicide bombing in Iran kills 41, and a series of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka kills 250.

2019 CE

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant loses the last of its territory.

2019 CE

Sudanese coup d'état.

2019 CE

First ever image of a black hole, at the core of galaxy Messier 87.

2019 CE

The extradition bill that ignited the Hong Kong protests declared "dead" but protesters still resisting China.

2019 CE

Fires in Brazil and Australia. Six million hectares destroyed in Australia and three million hectares burnt in Brazil.

2019 CE

Bone fragments found, Callao Cave in the Philippines, reveal a short-statured and distinct hominin species —which researchers named Homo luzonensis.

2019 CE

The United States Justice Department charged Huawei with a series of federal crimes.

2019 CE

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange is arrested in London.

2019 CE

A young Iranian woman set herself on fire to protest the threat of six months of jail time for watching a men's soccer game.

2019 CE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

2019 CE

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is impeached by the House of Representatives but acquitted by the Senate.

2019 CE

Coronavirus pandemic begins in Wuhan, China.

2020 CE

The government of New South Wales, Australia, declares a state of emergency. Whilst the government of Victoria, Australia declares a state of disaster amid large bushfires that have killed as many as 500 million animals.

2020 CE

U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

2020 CE

Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down by Iran's armed forces, killing all 176 people on board.

2020 CE

The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the coronavirus pandemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

2020 CE

The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdraw from the European Union.

2020 CE

Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war.

Short Outline of World History Timeline: Modern 5.

1949 CE
Partition of Germany into the Soviet socialist (East) and German Democratic Republic (West).

1949 CE

Partition of Kashmir.

1949 CE

People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong established.

1949 CE

The Republic of China relocates to Taiwan. The exodus of the remnants of the Kuomintang-ruled government of the Republic of China to the island of Taiwan in December 1949, at the end of the Chinese Civil War.

1949 CE

On 29 August 1949, the Soviet Union secretly detonates its first atomic bomb.

1950 CE

North Korea invaded South Korea, June 1950. At least 2.5 million persons lost their lives. The Korean War (1950-1953).

1951 CE
The Colombo Plan, a multilateral fund, to boost Asian economic and social development.

After Japan's surrender in 1945 and the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the United States, between 1945 and 1952.

1952 CE

Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II, in 1952, at the age of 25.

Photo of Queen Elizabeth II in Royal Dress. c1953

1952 CE

A hydrogen bomb, a type of nuclear bomb, was detonated on November 1, 1952, by the United States.

1952 CE
First effective polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk.

1953 CE

DNA was first identified in the late 1860s by Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher and many other scientists added to the information about the DNA molecule. James Watson and Francis Crick were able to use these findings to determine the three-dimensional double helix structure of DNA in 1953.

1953 CE

Edmund Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached the summit of Mount Everest, 29 May 1953.

1954 CE

Brown v. Board of Education decision of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional.

1955 CE

Nikita Khrushchev in control of the Soviet Union.

1955 CE

The first antiprotons were created by Berkeley Lab's Bevatron in 1955, at the energy particle accelerator.

1955 CE

Warsaw Pact, a collective defense treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955.

1955 CE
The Vietnam War was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. The communist government of North Vietnam against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the United States.

1956 CE

The Hungarian Revolution.

1957 CE

Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik, world's first artificial satellite.

1957 CE

The Treaty of Rome, officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (or EEC).

1958 CE

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established in 1958.

1959 CE

The Great Chinese Famine, between the years 1959 and 1961.

1959 CE

Independence of Cyprus.

1959 CE
World population reaches 3 billion.

1960 CE

The combined oral contraceptive pill, first approved for contraceptive use in the United States, in 1960.

A combined oral contraceptive pill that includes a combination of Gestodene (79%) and Ethynylestradiol (21%).

1960 CE

The independence of seventeen African nations.

1960 CE
European Free Trade Association formed.

1960 CE
The Sino-Soviet split.

1961 CE

Mao's Great Leap ends after tens of millions of deaths, with estimates ranging between 18 million and 45 million deaths. 

1961 CE

Construction of the Berlin Wall. 

1962 CE

The Cuban Missile Crisis. A dangerous confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union.

1962 CE

Mercury-Atlas 6 (MA-6) was the first American orbital spaceflight, which took place on February 20, 1962.

1963 CE

 Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers the "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington.

1963 CE

Assassination of John F. Kennedy. 

1964 CE

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, USA. 

1964 CE

Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface.

1965 CE

Joseph Mobutu becomes dictator of the Congo.

1965 CE

 Indonesia's anti-communist purge, kills hundreds of thousands of Indonesians.

1965 CE

Singapore separated from Malaysia, 9 August 1965, to become an independent and sovereign state.

1965 CE

Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines. He ruled as a dictator under martial law from 1972 until 1981.

1965 CE

The Indonesian army destroyed Indonesia’s Communist Party (PKI), after a group calling themselves the “30th September Movement”, kidnapped six generals in a mismanaged attempt to weaken the army.

1966 CE

The Cultural Revolution, in China under Mao, from 1966 until 1976; purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society. The Guangxi Massacre (cannibalism also occurred) and many were persecuted or died during the Cultural Revolution. Chinese paintings were torn apart, and Chinese temples were desecrated.

1967 CE

A social phenomena, the summer of 1967, when thousands of young supporters of the counterculture flocked to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district.

1967 CE
Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria.

1968 CE
Assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

1968 CE

Leonid Brezhnev sent a massive invasion force to crush the Prague Spring.

May 1968 protests in France.

1968 CE

The three-decade conflict between nationalists (mainly self-identified as Irish or Roman Catholic) and unionists (mainly self-identified as British or Protestant), called the Troubles begins in Ireland.

1969 CEApollo 11 landed humans on the Moon.

1969 CE

The Stonewall riots, a series of violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBT) community against a police raid on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City.

1969 CE

Muammar Gaddafi overthrows King Idris of Libya in a Coup d'état.

1969 CE

Woodstock music festival was held August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York.

1969 CE

The Boeing 747 revolutionized air travel.

1968 CE

Followers of Charles Manson's cult kill five people in movie director Roman Polanski's Beverly Hills, California, home,

1970 CE

More than a million people died in Nigeria as a result of the civil war.

1970 CE

The Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, of unarmed college students by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, during a mass protest against the bombing in neutral Cambodia by United States military forces.

1970 CE

Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

1971 CE

Independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan. 

1971 CE

Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda. 

1972 CE

Mass shooting occur on 30 January 1972 in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireland, dubbed Bloody Sunday, when British soldiers shoot 26 unarmed civilians during a protest march against internment, without trial.

1972 CE

First Sudanese Civil War.

1973 CE

Chilean coup d'état.

1973 CE

Arab–Israeli War.

1973 CE

Watergate break-in and coverup led to the impeachment of President Nixon for obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress.

1973 CE

Skylab was the first space station operated by the United States.

1973 CE

Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court, in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction.

1974 CE

Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Many Greek-Cypriots became internally displaced people.

Greek Cypriot prisoners taken to Adana camps in Turkey

1974 CE

Portugal begins transition to democracy. 

1974 CE

Discovery of "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) in Tanzania.

World population reaches 4 billion in 1974.

1975 CE

The Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War.

1975 CE

Victory for the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. More than a million people were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime. Khmer Rouge regime overthrown, 1979.

1976 CE

First outbreak of the Ebola virus. 

1976 CE

Steve Wozniak invented the Apple I computer and sells it to Steve Jobs. In the following year, the introduction of the first mass-produced personal computers. 

1977 CE

Launch of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts,

1978

Artificial insulin is invented.

1978 CE

900 members of James Jones cult die in a mass murder-suicide by drinking cyanide-laced punch. 

1978 CE

First test-tube baby.

1978 CE

Cambodian-Vietnamese War begins. Uganda–Tanzania War begins. War in Afghanistan (1978–present).

1978 CE
China's leader, Deng Xiaoping, implemented a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms. In the following year, implementation of China's One-child policy.

Deng Xiaoping, 6 April 1976

1979 CE

Smallpox eradicated.

1979 CE

Soviet–Afghan War begins. 

1979 CE

The Iran hostage crisis, a diplomatic standoff between the United States and Iran. 

1979 CE

A partial meltdown of reactor number 2 of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station and radiation leak, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

1980 CE Rhodesia, becomes Zimbabwe and gains independance.

1980 CE
Iran–Iraq War.

1980 CE
Azaria Chamberlain goes missing from a tent in a campground near Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Northern Territory, Australia.

1980 CE

John Lennon is fatally shot in front of his New York City home by crazed fan.

1981 CE

First orbital flight of the Space Shuttle.

1981 CE

The wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer took place on Wednesday 29 July 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral in London, UK.
 

1981 CE

The AIDS epidemic officially begins.
 

 

Short Outline of World History Timeline: Modern 4

1901 CE
Australia became a nation on 1 January 1901. Six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia.

1902 CE

Second Boer War ends.

1903 

The 1903 Wright airplane was the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft. It was designed and built by the Wright brothers.

1903 CE

The Mensheviks and Bolsheviks, factions of the Russian socialist movement emerged in 1903, following a dispute in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.

1903 CE

The Teddy Bear was invented in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt.

1904 CE

The Russo-Japanese War was fought during 1904 and 1905 between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria.

1904 CE

President Theodore Roosevelt expanded the Monroe Doctrine in 1904, asserting the right of the United States to intervene to stabilize the economic affairs of states in the Caribbean and Central America, if they were unable to pay their international debts.

1905 CE

Albert Einstein's formulation of relativity.

1907 CE

A peasants' revolt in Romania. About 11,000 die.

1908 CE
The Ford Model T automobile (known as the Tin Lizzie, Leaping Lena, jitney or flivver) was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908.

1925 Ford Model T touring, built at Henry Ford’s Highland Park Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. This example now resides in Australia, owned by the founder of FordModelT.net, ModelTMitch

1908 CE

Messina earthquake kills over 70,000 people.

1910 CE

George V becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India.

1910 CE

In 1910, the Earth was to pass through the tail of Halley's Comet, which caused extreme public panic, that the apocalypse was coming.

1911 CE

Xinhai Revolution in China overthrows the last imperial dynasty, Qing Dynasty.

1911 CE

Roald Amundsen first reaches the South Pole.

1911 CE

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on March 25, 1911, led to the deaths of 146 workers and the implementation of many workplace safety reforms.

1911 CE

Ernest Rutherford identifies the atomic nucleus.

1912 CE

End of the Chinese Empire and Republic of China established.

1912 CE

Morocco becomes a protectorate of France.

1912 CE

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner operated by the White Star Line that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912, after striking an iceberg.

RMS Titanic departing Southampton on April 10, 1912. F.G.O. Stuart

1912 CE

The Chinese nationalist party is founded. The Kuomintang.

The Balkan Wars consisted of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in 1912 and 1913.

1913 CE

Niels Bohr makes foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory.

1913 CE

Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line enabling the mass production of an entire automobile.

1913 CE

Yuan Shikai tried to install himself as as the Hongxian Emperor of China.

1914 CE

Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, triggering the start of World War I.

1915 CE

The British ocean liner, RMS Lusitania, was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 miles (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 passengers and crew.

1915 CE

The Armenian Genocide was the systematic mass murder and expulsion of 1.5 million ethnic Armenians carried out in Turkey and adjoining regions.

1916 CE

Easter Rising in Ireland.

Sackville (now O'Connell) Street, Dublin, after the 1916 Easter Rising.

1915 CE

Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey, at dawn on 25 April 1915.

 WW1 Trench Warfare, 28 April 2016

1916 CE

Grigory Rasputin is assassinated.

1917 CE

Abolition of the monarchy in 1917 and beginning of Russian Revolution.

1917 CE

Independence of Poland and Finland.

1918 CE

The Hundred Days Offensive defeats Germany. Armistice of 11 November 1918 ends World War I.

1918 CE

Spanish flu pandemic.

1918 CE
The Russian Imperial Romanov family (Emperor Nicholas II, his wife Empress Alexandra and their five children: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei) were shot and bayoneted to death by communist revolutionaries under Yakov Yurovsky in Yekaterinburg on the night of 16–17 July 1918.

1918 CE

The defeat of the Ottomans led to the subsequent partitioning of the Ottoman Empire.

1919 CE

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919; forced Germans to pay substantial financial penalties and Germany lost about 13% of its territory.

1919 CE
Establishment of the Weimar Republic after the collapse of the German Empire.

1919 CE

The League of Nations was established to maintain world peace.

1919 CE

The Italian National Fascist Party is established by Benito Mussolini.

1919 CE

Egyptian Revolution of 1919. Turkish War of Independence begins.

1919 CE

Ernest Rutherford discovers the proton.

1929 CE
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933.

New York City Deputy Police Commissioner John A. Leach, right, watching agents pour liquor into sewer following a raid during the height of prohibition

1920 CE

Mohandas Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, led a successful campaign for India's independence from the British.

1921 CE

Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party.

1922 CE

Irish Free State is established, ending the three-year Irish War of Independence. The Province of Northern Ireland is created within The United Kingdom.

1922 CE

Egypt gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1922 CE

Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamun's tomb.

Harry Burton: Tutankhamun tomb photographs: c1922

1922 CE

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a federal socialist state in Northern Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991.

1922 CE

The Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 was signed by major nations to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction.

1925 CE

Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1925 to 1945.

1923 CE

Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic caused considerable internal political instability.

1924 CE

After the death of Lenin, Joseph Stalin won the leadership power battle. Trotsky was eventually expelled from the Soviet Union in February 1929 and he spent the rest of his life in exile.

1924 CE
Kemal Atatürk abolished the caliphate and founded Turkey as a modern secular state.

1925 CE

Mein Kampf is published.

1926 CE

Scottish engineer, John Logie Baird, one of the inventors of the mechanical television, demonstrated the first working television system on 26 January 1926.

1926 CE

Hirohito became the 124th emperor of Japan and was the longest-lived and longest-reigning historical Japanese emperor and the second longest-reigning monarch in the world.

1927 CE

The Jazz Singer, a film released in 1927, was the first feature-length motion picture with a synchronized recorded music score and lip-synchronous singing and speech.

1927 CE

The provisional Parliament House, opened in 1927, served as the home for Australia's Federal Parliament until 1988.

1927 CE

Chinese Civil War begins.

1927 CE

World population reaches 2 billion.

1927 CE

Charles Lindbergh made the first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean on May 20-21, 1927.

1928 CE

Discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming.

1928 CE

The Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928 is an international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve disputes or conflicts.

1929 CE

The Wall Street Crash was a major stock market crash that occurred in 1929 and led to the Great Depression.

Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, February 1931

1931 CE

Floods in China kill up to 2.5 million people.

1931 CE

The 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, the Empire State Building, was built in 1931.

1931 CE

The Chinese Soviet Republic was established in November 1931, by future Communist Party of China leader, Mao Zedong.

1932 CE
Soviet famine of 1932–33.

1932 CE
BBC World Service, the world's largest international broadcaster, began broadcasting in 1932.

1933 CE

Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany and in the following year, Hitler declares himself Fuhrer of Germany.

1935 CE

Conquest of Abyssinia by Benito Mussolini. In the following year, Italy annexes Ethiopia.

1936 CE

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom from 20 January 1936, until his abdication on 11 December of that year.

1936 CE

The last known thylacine, dies in Hobart Zoo.

Thylacine (juvenile in foreground) pair in Hobart Zoo. c1921

1937 CE

Japanese invasion of China. The Nanking Massacre, committed by Imperial Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing (Nanking), then the capital of China.

1937 CE

The Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate King George VI.

1938 CE

Anschluss unifies Germany and Austria. Munich agreement hands Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Great Purge ends after nearly 700,000 executions. Kristallnacht in Germany,

1939 CE
End of Spanish Civil War; Francisco Franco becomes dictator of Spain. Nazi invasion of Poland triggers the beginning of World War II in Europe.

1940 CE

Nazis invade France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.

1941 CE

Operation Reinhard begins the main phase of The Holocaust.

1941 CE

The attack on Pearl Harbor, a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. The attack led to the United States' formal entry into World War II the next day.

1941 CE

The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

1943 CE

Battle of Stalingrad ends with over two million casualties and the retreat of the German Army.

1944 CE

D-Day landings in Normandy. Liberation of Paris. The Siege of Leningrad ends with Soviet victory after over a million deaths.

British Forces during the Invasion of Normandy 6 June 1944
Troops of 3rd Infantry Division on Queen Red beach, Sword area, circa 0845 hrs, 6 June 1944.

1944 CE

The world's first programmable electronic digital computer, Colossus, was invented by British codebreakers to aid the deciphering of German coded radio messages.

1945 CE

Allied bombing of Dresden. Battle of Berlin. Yalta Conference.

The end of the Second World War, 2 September 1945. About 75 million people died in World War II, including about 20 million military personnel and 40 million civilians, from genocide, massacres, bombings, disease, and starvation.

1946 CE

Philippines independent from USA.

1947 CE

Independence of India and Pakistan and beginning of First Indo-Pakistani War.

1947 CE

The Truman Doctrine, to contain Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War, was announced by President Harry S Truman. The Central Intelligence Agency was created on July 26, 1947.

1948 CE

The Marshall Plan was an American initiative passed in 1948 for foreign aid to Western Europe.

1948 CE

Founding of the OECD and the World Health Organization (WHO).

1948 CE

Assassination of Mohandas Gandhi.

1949 CE

Creation of NATO.