1900 to present
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1944 A.D...
Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6). G.I. Bill of Rights enacted. Bretton Woods Conference creates International Monetary Fund and World Bank (July 1-22). Dumbarton
Oaks Conference-U.S., British Commonwealth, and USSR propose establishment of United Nations (Aug. 21-Oct. 7). Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16). Woody Guthrie records
"This Land is Your Land." Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
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Week 38
1934 A.D...
Chancellor Dollfuss of Austria assassinated by Nazis. Hitler becomes führer. USSR admitted to League of Nations. Dionne sisters, first quintuplets to survive beyond infancy, born in Canada.
Mao Zedong begins the Long March north with 100,000 soldiers. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 39
1935 A.D...
Saar incorporated into Germany after plebiscite. Nazis repudiate Versailles Treaty, introduce compulsory military service. Mussolini invades Ethiopia; League of Nations invokes sanctions.
Roosevelt opens second phase of New Deal in U.S., calling for social security, better housing, equitable taxation, and farm assistance. Huey Long assassinated in Louisiana. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 40
1936 A.D...
Germans occupy Rhineland. Italy annexes Ethiopia. Rome-Berlin Axis proclaimed (Japan to join in 1940). Trotsky exiled to Mexico. King George V dies; succeeded by son, Edward VIII, who soon
abdicates to marry an American-born divorcée, and is succeeded by brother, George VI. Spanish civil war begins. Hundreds of Americans join the "Lincoln Brigades." (Franco's fascist forces
defeat Loyalist forces by 1939, when Madrid falls.) War between China and Japan begins, to continue through World War II. Japan and Germany sign anti-Comintern pact; joined by Italy in 1937.
(Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 41
1937 A.D...
Hitler repudiates war guilt clause of Versailles Treaty; continues to build German power. Italy withdraws from League of Nations. U.S. gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese in Yangtze River. Japan
invades China, conquers most of coastal area. Amelia Earhart lost somewhere in Pacific on round-the-world flight. Picasso's Guernica mural. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 42
1938 A.D...
Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed. Munich Pact > Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia.
Douglas "Wrong-Way" Corrigan flies from New York to Dublin. Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage. Orson Welles's radio broadcast War of the Worlds. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 43
1939 A.D...
Germany invades Poland; occupies Bohemia and Moravia; renounces pact with England and concludes 10-year non-aggression pact with USSR. Russo-Finnish War begins; Finns to lose one-
tenth of territory in 1940 peace treaty. World War II begins.(For detailed chronology, see World War II.) In U.S., Roosevelt submits $1,319-million defense budget, proclaims U.S. neutrality,
and declares limited emergency. Einstein writes FDR about feasibility of atomic bomb. New York World's Fair opens. DAR refuses to allow Marian Anderson to perform. Gone with the Wind premieres.
(Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 44
1940 A.D...
Hitler invades Norway, Denmark (April 9), the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (May 10), and France (May 12). Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister.
Trotsky assassinated in Mexico (Aug. 20). Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by USSR. U.S. trades 50 destroyers for leases on British bases in Western Hemisphere.
Selective Service Act signed. The first official network television broadcast is put out by NBC. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 45
1941 A.D...
Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia. Japanese surprise attack on U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor brings U.S. into World War II; U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan. Manhattan
Project (atomic bomb research) begins. Roosevelt enunciates "four freedoms," signs Lend-Lease Act, declares national emergency, promises aid to USSR.
Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 46
1942 A.D...
Declaration of United Nations signed in Washington (Jan. 1). Nazi leaders attend Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "final solution to the Jewish question,"
the systematic genocide of Jews known as the Holocaust. (For detailed chronology of the Holocaust, see The Holocaust.) Women's military services established.
Enrico Fermi achieves nuclear chain reaction. More than 120,000 Japanese and persons of Japanese ancestry living in western U.S. moved to "relocation centers," some for
the duration of the war (Executive Order 9066). Coconut Grove nightclub fire in Boston kills 492 (Nov. 28). (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 47
1943 A.D...
Churchill and Roosevelt hold Casablanca Conference (Jan. 14-23). Mussolini deposed. President freezes prices, salaries, and wages to prevent inflation. Income tax withholding
introduced. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
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1899 to antiquity
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1095 A.D...
At Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls for a holy war to wrest control of Jerusalem from Muslims, which launches the First Crusade (1096), one of at least 8 European military campaigns between
1095 and 1291 to regain the Holy Land. (For detailed chronology, see The Crusades.) (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
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Week 38
c. 1008 A.D...
Murasaki Shikibu finishes The Tale of Genji, the world's first novel. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 39
1009 A.D...
Muslims destroy Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 40
1013 A.D...
Danes control England. Canute takes throne (1016), conquers Norway (1028), dies (1035); kingdom divided among his sons: Harold Harefoot (England), Sweyn (Norway), Hardecanute (Denmark). (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 41
1040 A.D...
Macbeth murders Duncan, king of Scotland. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 42
1053 A.D...
Robert Guiscard, Norman invader, establishes kingdom in Italy, conquers Sicily (1072). (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 43
1054 A.D...
Final separation between Eastern (Orthodox) and Western (Roman) churches. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 44
1055 A.D...
Seljuk Turks, Asian nomads, move west, capture Baghdad, Armenia (1064), Syria, and Palestine (1075). (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 45
1066 A.D...
William of Normandy invades England, defeats last Saxon king, Harold II, at Battle of Hastings, crowned William I of England ("the Conqueror"). (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 46
1068 A.D...
Construction on the cathedral in Pisa, Italy, begins. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
Week 47
1073 A.D...
Emergence of strong papacy when Gregory VII is elected. Conflict with English and French kings and German emperors will continue throughout medieval period. (Courtesy of Infoplease.com)
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