Timeline of Modern History (1901-)

This is a timeline of modern history, here defined as comprising the years since 1901.

1900s

1901: Australian colonies unified under single government. Boxer Rebellion ends. Edward VII becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India upon the death of Queen Victoria. Platt Amendment limits the autonomy of Cuba in exchange for withdrawal of American troops. Assassination of William McKinley. Emily Hobhouse reports on the terrible conditions in the 45 British concentration camps for Boer women and children in South Africa. Guglielmo Marconi receives the first trans-Atlantic radio signal.
1902: Second Boer War ends. Philippine–American War ends. Cuba gains independence from the United States. Willis Carrier invents the first modern electrical air conditioning unit. Unification of Saudi Arabia begins. Venezuela Crisis, in which Britain, Germany and Italy sustain a naval blockade on Venezuela in order to enforce collection of outstanding financial claims.
1903: First controlled heavier-than-air flight of the Wright Brothers. Herero and Namaqua Genocide, the first genocide of the 20th century, begins in German South-West Africa. In Russia the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks form from the breakup of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. Pius X becomes Pope. The teddy bear is invented. The first Tour de France is held. Independence of Panama, the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama. The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople-Baghdad Railway.
1904: Entente cordiale signed between Britain and France. A Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts the Russo-Japanese War. Trans-Siberian railway is completed. Construction of the Panama Canal begins. Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo Free State. End of British expedition to Tibet.
1905: Russo-Japanese War ends. Revolution of 1905 in Russia. Persian Constitutional Revolution begins. Trans-Siberian Railway opened. Albert Einstein's formulation of relativity. Schlieffen Plan proposed. The British Indian Province of Bengal, was partitioned by the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon. First Moroccan Crisis. The Norwegian Parliament declares the union with Sweden dissolved, and Norway achieves full independence.
1906: Earthquakes in San Francisco, California (death toll: 3000) and Valparaíso, Chile (death toll: 20,000) occur. Dreyfus Affair ends. Stolypin reform in Russia creates a new class of affluent kulaks. Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off and flies his 14-bis to a crowd in Paris. Death of Paul Cézanne. The Muslim League is formed by Nawab Salimullah Khan of Dacca. The US began the Second Occupation of Cuba.
1907: Herero and Namaqua Genocide ends. A peasants' revolt in Romania kills roughly 11,000. The Indian National Congress splits into two factions at its Suratsession, presided by Rash Behari Bose. Persian Constitutional Revolution ends with the establishment of a parliament. Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907. The Anglo-Russian Entente bring a pause in The Great Game in Central Asia. Elections to the new Parliament of Finland are the first in the world with woman candidates, as well as the first elections in Europe where universal suffrage is applied.
1908: First commercial radio transmissions. The Ford Motor Company invents the Model T. First commercial Middle-Eastern oilfield established, at Masjed Soleymanin southwest Persia. The Tunguska impact devastates thousands of square kilometres of Siberia. Young Turk Revolution in the Ottoman Empire. Independence ofBulgaria. Austro-Hungary annexes Bosnia-Herzegovina, triggering the Bosnian Crisis. Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, assumes the throne. 1908 Messina earthquake kills over 70,000 people.
1909: United States troops leave Cuba. Bosnian crisis ends with Austro-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Robert E. Peary claims to have reached the North Pole though the claim is subsequently heavily contested. Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. Ottoman countercoup fails in the Ottoman Empire. A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah, Persian Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. Japan and China sign the Jiandao/Gando Treaty

1910s

1910: Beginning of the Mexican Revolution. George V becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India. Union of South Africacreated. 5 October 1910 revolution in Portugal and proclamation of the First Portuguese Republic. Imperial Japan annexes Korea. Deaths of Leo Tolstoy and Mark Twain. Boy Scouts of America is founded. Halley's Comet returns. Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom. Albanian Revolt of 1910.
1911: Xinhai Revolution in China overthrows the Qing Dynasty. Roald Amundsen first reaches the South Pole. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire results in the deaths of 146 workers and leads to sweeping workplace safety reforms. New Delhi becomes the capital of British India. Ernest Rutherford identifies the atomic nucleus. TheItalo-Turkish war leads to the capture of Libya by Italy. Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft lands on a ship. Agadir Crisis.
1912: End of the Chinese Empire; Republic of China established. The African National Congress is founded. Morocco becomes a protectorate of France. Sinking of the RMS Titanic. First Balkan War begin. Woodrow Wilson is elected 28th President of the United States. Arizona becomes the last state to be admitted to the continental Union. United States occupation of Nicaragua begins. The Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, is founded.
1913: Niels Bohr formulates the first cohesive model of the atomic nucleus, and in the process paves the way to quantum mechanics. In the 1913 Ottoman coup d'état,Ismail Enver comes to power.Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line. La Decena Trágica. Yuan Shikai uses military force to dissolve China's parliament and rules as a dictator. Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring infamously premiers in Paris. Treaty of London. Second Balkan War and Treaty of Bucharest. The Federal Reserve System is created.
1914: Gavrilo Princip assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, triggering the start of World War I. The United Kingdom establishes the Sultanate of Egypt as a protectorate. Panama Canal opens. Benedict XV becomes Pope. Martha, last known passenger pigeon, dies.
1915: The RMS Lusitania is sunk. The United States occupation of Haiti begins. Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is released. First use of poison gas at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle and Second Battle of Ypres.
1916: Easter Rising in Ireland. The implementation of daylight saving time. Warlord Era begins in China. David Lloyd George becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Gallipoli Campaign fails. First use of tanks at the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Battle of the Somme. Grigory Rasputin is assassinated by H.H. Prince Felix Youssoupov. The Pact is agreed upon by both the Congress and the Muslim League at the Indian city of Lucknow. Battle of Verdun. The Arab Revolt begins
1917: Russian Revolution ends the Russian Empire; beginning of Russian Civil War. USA join the Allies for the last 17 months of World War I. Independence of Polandand Finland recognised. The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded. October Revolution in Russia. Ukrainian–Soviet War begins.
1918: End of World War I. German Revolution begins. Abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Spanish flu pandemic. Murder of Tsar Nicholas II and his family. Poland,Ukraine and Belarus are among a number of states to declare independence from Russia. Finnish Civil War. Mehmed VI becomes last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and last Caliph. Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire begins. The Kingdom of Iceland and The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs are established. The British occupy Palestine. Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen is founded. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is declared. Armenian–Azerbaijani War begins. Polish–Ukrainian War begins.
1919: Treaty of Versailles redraws European borders. German Revolution ends with the collapse of the German Empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. Victory for Estonia in the Estonian War of Independence. League of Nations founded in Paris. Polish-Soviet War begins. The Italian National Fascist Party is established by Benito Mussolini. Comintern established. Egyptian Revolution of 1919. Turkish War of Independence begins. End of Polish–Ukrainian War. TheInternational Labor Organisation is established. Ernest Rutherford discovers the proton. First experimental evidence for the General theory of relativity obtained by Arthur Eddington.

1920s

1920: Mexican Revolution ends. Greece restores its monarchy after a referendum. Turkish–Armenian War is fought, and ends with victory for Turkey. Red Army invasion of Azerbaijan and Armenia ends the Armenian–Azerbaijani War and concludes with their incorporation into the Soviet Union. Mohandas Gandhi launchesNon-cooperation movement. Prohibition in the United States enforced.
1921: Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of the Nazi Party as hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic begins. Russia invades Georgia and incorporates it into the Soviet Union. End of Russian Civil War, Polish-Soviet War and Ukrainian–Soviet War. Coup brings the Pahlavi dynasty to power in Iran.
1922: Ottoman Sultanate abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly; Sultan Mehmed VI is deposed. Irish Free State is established, while the Province of Northern Ireland is created within The United Kingdom. The Irish Civil War begins. The Italian reconquest of Libya begins. The union of Costa Rica, Guatemala,Honduras and El Salvador is dissolved. Egypt gains independence from the United Kingdom, though British forces still occupy the Suez Canal. March on Rome bringsBenito Mussolini to power in Italy. Howard Carter discovers Tutankhamen's tomb. Gabriel Narutowicz, President of Poland is assassinated. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the world's first officially Communist state, is formed. Pius XI becomes Pope. James Joyce publishes Ulysses. The Washington Naval Treaty is signed. Mohandas Gandhi calls off Non-cooperation movement.
1923: Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic ends with the introduction of the Rentenmark. Time Magazine is first published. Irish Civil War ends. The Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt to overthrow the Weimar Republic, ends in failure and brief imprisonment for Adolf Hitler but brings the Nazi Party to national attention. A military coup ousts and kills Bulgarian Prime Minister Aleksandar Stamboliyski. The Great Kantō earthquake kills at least 105,000 people in Japan. Turkish War of Independence ends; Kemal Atatürk becomes the first President of the newly established Republic of Turkey; Ankara replaces Istanbul as its capital. The Walt Disney Company is founded.
1924: Death of Vladimir Lenin triggers power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. The Caliphate is abolished by Kemal Atatürk. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation founded under J. Edgar Hoover. The August Uprising in Georgia against Soviet rule. George Gershwin composes Rhapsody In Blue. U.S.Immigration Act of 1924 significantly restricts immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and Southern Europe.
1925: Benito Mussolini gains dictatorial powers in Italy. Mein Kampf is published. First televisual image created by John Logie Baird. Locarno Treaties are signed. Serum run to Nome.
1926: Hirohito becomes Emperor of Japan. Coups in Greece, Poland and Portugal install new dictatorships.
1927: The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie", is released. Joseph Stalin becomes leader of the Soviet Union. Chinese Civil War begins. Bath School disaster. Australian Parliament convenes in Canberra for the first time. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland officially becomes the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Saudi Arabia gains independence. The BBC is granted a Royal Charter in the United Kingdom. World population reaches 2 billion. Charles Lindbergh's flight to Paris.
1928: Discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming. Warlord Era ends in China. Malta becomes a British Dominion. Bubble gum is invented. King Zog I is crowned in Albania. The Kellogg-Briand Pact is signed in Paris. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is established. Mickey Mouse is created at the Walt Disney Studio. Hassan al-Banna founds the Muslim Brotherhood.
1929: Wall Street crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. Leon Trotsky is exiled First people sent to the gulag in the Soviet Union as Stalin assumes effective control. Pope Pius XI signs the Lateran Treaty with Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Vatican City is recognised as a sovereign state. Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. The first Academy Awards are presented.

1930s

1930: Aided by the Great Depression, the Nazi Party increases its share of the vote from 2.6% to 18.3%. Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto. Salt March by Mohandas Gandhi and the official start of civil disobedience in British India. Military coups replace governments in Peru and Brazil. Haile Selassie becomes king of Abyssinia. First FIFA World Cup hosted.
1931: Floods in China kill up to 2.5 million people. Independence of South Africa. Construction of the Empire State Building. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is adopted as the United States's national anthem. The Second Spanish Republic is declared. The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong. Statute of Westminster creates the British Commonwealth of Nations. Japan invades Manchuria, China and occupies it until the end of World War II.
1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President of the United States. Éamon de Valera becomes President of the Executive Council (prime minister) of the Irish Free State. The Nazi party becomes the largest single party in the German parliament. Military coup in Chile. BBC World Service starts broadcasting. The Neutron is discovered. Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
1933: Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. New Deal begins in America. Japan and Germany announce they are going to leave the League of Nations. United States occupation of Nicaragua ends. Prohibition in the United States is abolished.
1934: Dictatorships begin in Brazil and Bolivia. Mao Zedong begins the Long March. United States occupation of Haiti ends. United States grants more autonomy to the Philippines. Adolf Hitler instigates the Night of the Long Knives, which cements his power over both the Nazi Party and Germany. With the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler declares himself Fuhrer of Germany. Bonnie and Clyde are shot to death in a police ambush. John Dillinger is gunned down by the FBI outside the Biograph Theater.
1935: Second Italo-Abyssinian War concludes with the exile of Haile Selassie and the conquest of Abyssinia by Benito Mussolini. Persia becomes Iran. William Lyon Mackenzie King is elected Prime Minister of Canada. Enactment of the Nuremberg racial laws.
1936: Beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Great Purge begins under Stalin. Edward VIII becomes King of the British Commonwealth and Emperor of India, beforeabdicating and handing the throne to his brother, George VI. George Nissen and Larry Griswold build the first modern trampoline. Hoover Dam is completed. Arab Revolt in Palestine against the British begins to oppose Jewish immigration. Italy annexes Ethiopia. "Benjamin", the last known thylacine, dies in Hobart Zoo.
1937: Japanese invasion of China, and the beginning of World War II in the Far East. Rape of Nanking. Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Irish Republican Army attempts to assassinate King George VI of the United Kingdom. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first feature-length animated movie released. Deaths of George Gershwin and Maurice Ravel. German zeppelin Hindenburg crashes in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
1938: Anschluss unifies Germany and Austria. Munich agreement hands Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Great Purge ends after nearly 700,000 executions.Kristallnacht in Germany, while Time Magazine declares Adolf Hitler as Man of the Year. DC Comics hero Superman has its first appearance.
1939: End of Spanish Civil War; Francisco Franco becomes dictator of Spain. Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. Nazi invasion of Poland triggers the beginning of World War II in Europe. Soviet invasion of Poland begins 16 days later. Palestinian revolt against the British ends. Pius XII becomes Pope. Death of Sigmund Freud.