The top 100 news stories of the 20th century. Via Transbuddha.
I work across the street from the old Newseum. I can’t wait until the new one by the Capitol is complete.
1 1 U.S. drops atomic bomb 1945
2 3 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor 1941
3 2 Men first walk on the moon 1969
4 4 Wrights fly first airplane 1903
5 6 JFK assassinated in Dallas 1963
6 11 Antibiotic penicillin discovered 1928
7 5 U.S. women win the right to vote 1920
8 10 U.S. stock market crashes 1929
9 21 New polio vaccine works 1953
10 12 DNA’s structure discovered 1953
11 7 Nazi Holocaust exposed 1945
12 19 Einstein conceives relativity 1905
13 36 ‘Unsinkable’ Titanic sinks 1912
14 17 Ford creates assembly line 1913
15 8 World War I begins 1914
16 27 Berlin Wall falls 1989
17 51 First computer chip patented 1959
18 25 Deadly AIDS disease identified 1981
19 30 Lindbergh flies Atlantic alone 1927
20 52 Radio signal spans Atlantic 1901
21 13 Soviet Union dissolves 1991
22 32 World Wide Web invented 1989
23 24 Allies invade France on D-Day 1944
24 37 U.S. celebrates V-E Day 1945
25 42 ENIAC accelerates computing 1946
26 38 Roe vs. Wade legalizes abortion 1973
27 28 Official U.S. debut of TV 1939
28 46 Plastic revolutionizes products 1909
29 20 Birth control pill OK’d by FDA 1960
30 9 Court ends ‘separate but equal’ 1954
31 53 President Clinton impeached 1998
32 33 Scientists invent transistor 1948
33 23 M.L. King Jr. assassinated 1968
34 26 Congress OKs Civil Rights Act 1964
35 88 U.S. enters World War I 1917
36 16 Communists take over Russia 1917
37 40 U.S. radio broadcasts begin 1909
38 50 King delivers ‘Dream’ speech 1963
39 14 President Nixon resigns 1974
40 81 Panama Canal opens 1914
41 15 Germany invades Poland 1939
42 34 FDR’s New Deal begins 1933
43 83 Shuttle Challenger explodes 1986
44 66 Shepard first American in space 1961
45 57 ‘Silent Spring’ warns of eco-danger 1962
46 69 World’s nations form U.N. 1945
47 79 Scientists clone sheep 1997
48 18 Soviets launch first satellite 1957
49 39 World War I ends 1918
50 60 Gagarin first man in space 1961
51 45 Israel achieves statehood 1948
52 43 U.S.-licensed TV begins 1941
53 48 U.S. tests atomic bomb 1945
54 55 Robert F. Kennedy slain 1968
55 22 Hitler named chancellor 1933
56 41 Flu epidemic kills 20 million 1918
57 90 Glenn first American in orbit 1962
58 97 Gates, Allen start Microsoft 1975
59 44 Robinson integrates baseball 1947
60 73 U.S. troops leave Vietnam 1973
61 78 Quantum mechanics proposed 1900
62 64 Secret project to make A-bomb 1942
63 80 Interstate highways approved 1956
64 65 GI Bill of Rights strengthened 1945
65 62 U.S. escalates Vietnam War 1965
66 71 Gandhi starts nonviolent reform 1920
67 95 First ‘test-tube baby’ born 1978
68 35 World crisis over Cuba missiles 1962
69 68 Quake, fire devastate S.F. 1906
70 49 Apartheid ends in South Africa 1993
71 31 Apple II first mass-market PC 1977
72 58 Beatles tour USA 1964
73 47 Alabama bus boycott begins 1955
74 99 Scopes: evolution vs creation 1925
75 61 First jet plane takes off 1939
76 93 Hitler launches ‘Kristallnacht’ 1938
77 76 FDR defeats President Hoover 1932
78 54 Marshall Plan unveiled 1947
79 92 Pathfinder sends Mars photos 1997
80 82 Friedan sparks women’s rights 1963
81 89 Babe Ruth hits 60 home runs 1927
82 100 U.S. warns of smoking hazards 1964
83 94 Churchill leads Great Britain 1940
84 74 NATO established 1949
85 98 Chernobyl nuke plant explodes 1986
86 70 Berlin Wall goes up 1961
87 29 Mao starts communist China 1949
88 67 Watergate engulfs Nixon 1973
89 77 Gorbachev begins ‘glasnost’ 1985
90 86 Freud interprets dreams 1900
91 96 Airlift saves West Berlin 1948
92 84 U.S. defends South Korea 1950
93 75 Soviet famine to kill 25 million 1928
94 56 U.S. rejects League of Nations 1920
95 72 Standard Oil trust busted 1911
96 59 Congress passes voting act 1965
97 87 China’s famine to kill 20 million 1958
98 85 Riots at Democratic convention 1968
99 63 North Vietnam takes Saigon 1975
100 91 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution OK’d 1964
