1900 - 1990
Aaron Copland.
1900
Max Planck introduces the idea of 'quantizing energy'.
1900 - 1912
The practice of taking afternoon coffee takes off in Germany.
1900
Hills Brothers start packaging coffee in vacuum sealed tins.
1900
Coffee Robusta is planted in Java.
1900
Hershey's introduce the Hershey bar.
1900
The American Sugar Refining Company is renamed as Domino Sugar.
1900 - 1930
Britain and France attempt to suppress the production of opium in the 'Golden Triangle' region of South East Asia, covering Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
1900
America passes the Gold Standard Act, matching its currency to the value of gold.
1900
The Ashanti Wars in Ghana. British forces suppress an African uprising.
1900
New foods introduced to America in 1900: Wesson Oil, Hershey bars, Hills Bros coffee.
1901
Satori Kato invents instant coffee in Chicago.
1901
Suchard introduces the Milka bar.
1901
Duke buys Ogden Tobacco, significantly increasing his UK presence.
1901
Imperial Tobacco is formed from W. D. & H. O. Wills, John Player and 11 other British tobacco companies, to try to provide opposition to American Tobacco and Duke.
1901
The Peruvian cotton crop is decimated by a virus.
1901
The Idaho Sugar Company is established by Mormon businessmen from Utah.
1901
The Monsanto Company is founded in St Louis Missouri. Its first product is the sweetener Sacharrin, which it supplies to Coca-Cola.
1901
Australia gains independence from Britain as a Commonwealth nation.
1901 - 1904
The National Antarctic Expedition led by Robert Falcon Scott discovers the Polar Plateau.
1901 - 1903
The first German Antarctic Expedition explores Eastern Antarctica.
1901
In the Smithsonian Annual Report of 1901 Robert Thurston suggests wind, tidal and solar power as replacements for coal.
1901
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society is founded.
1901
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke combines nationalism and environmentalism in his poetry.
1901
John Muir writes Our National Parks.
1901
Henry Perky relocates The Natural Food Company to Niagara Falls, NY, to produce Shredded Wheat.
1901
Gulf Oil and Texaco are formed after huge quantities of oil were struck at Spindletop oil field in East Texas. The discovery led to the 'Texas Oil Boom' and rapid economic growth.
1902
British American Tobacco is formed as a joint venture between J. B. Duke's American Tobacco and Britain's Imperial Tobacco. They agree not to trade in each other's home territory.
1902
Philip Morris creates a US company in New York.
1902
Women get the vote in Australia.
1902
New foods introduced to America in 1902: Barnum's Animal Crackers, Presto self-rising cake flour, Salada Tea, Karo Corn Syrup, NECCO Conversation Hearts.
1902 - 1904
The Scottish Antarctic Expedition establish a permanent weather base in the South Orkney Islands.
1902 - 1984
Ansel Adams' photographs of American Western landscapes will become icons of the conservation movement in US.
1902
New foods introduced to America in 1902: Barnum's Animal Crackers, Presto self-rising cake flour, Salada Tea, Karo Corn Syrup, NECCO Conversation Hearts
1902
International Harvester is founded in Canton, Illinois, to make agricultural equipment.
1902
The National Farmers Union is established in the US.
1903
Sanka (de-caffeinated) coffee is invented by Ludwig Roselius in Germany.
1903
Milton Hershey builds a new mass-production facility at Hershey, Pennsylvania.
1903
The number of people suffering heroin addiction rises dramatically.
1903
Ford Motor Company is founded.
1903 - 1906
Roald Amundsen sails the Northwest passage in a Norwegian herring boat.
1903
The Wright brothers complete the first successful powered flight.
1903
Delhi Durbar.
1903
William Harley and Arthur Davidson produce their first motorised bicycle and go on to form the Harley-Davidson company.
1903 - 1909
President Theodore Roosevelt's administration creates many millions of national forests and wildlife refuges and areas of special interest such as the Grand Canyon.
1903
Charles Saunders starts plant breeding experiments that will generate Marquis wheat, a hardy wheat variety suited to cold climates.
1904 - 1989
Salvador Dali.
1904 - 1997
Willem de Kooning. He emigrated to the US when he was 22.
1904
Iced tea is created at the St Louis World's Fair by Englishman Richard Blechynden.
1904
Mustard was added to hot dogs at the St Louis World's Fair.
1904
Tobacco coupons are introduced.
1904
American inventor Michael Owens invents the glass shaping machine, transforming the mass produced distribution of liquids.
1904
Britain and France sign the Entente Cordial, ending hostility between the two nations. This expands into the Triple Entente with Russia.
1904
Britain acknowledges France's sphere of influence in Morocco.
1904
British Tibetan Expedition led by Francis Younghusband as part of the 'Great Game.'
1904
Child lead poisoning is first linked to lead-based paints.
1904 - 1905
Russo-Japanese War. Treaty of Portsmouth is signed ceding South Sakhalin and the Liaotung Peninsula to the Japanese and thus ending the war.
1905
Indian woman Sarojini Naidu publishes her first work The Golden Threshold. Naidu later became President of the Indian National Congress.
1905 - 1980
Jean-Paul Sartre.
1905
Albert Einstein publishes his paper on the Special Theory of Relativity.
1905
Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé and the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company merge, with factories in Britain, the USA, Switzerland and Germany.
1905
Cadbury's introduce the Dairy Milk bar, using increased milk and cream content.
1905
American Tobacco Company acquires Lucky Strike.
1905
US report on Philippine opium prohibition published. US Congress bans opium smoking.
1905
Canada sells $18m worth of timber to the US.
1905
The United States Forest Service is created.
1905
Lord Curzon effects the partition of Bengal, which causes great resentment.
1905
Alberta and Saskatchewan become Canadian provinces.
1905
Women get the vote in Finland.
1905
The first Italian-style pizzeria opens in New York City.
1905
New foods introduced to America in 1905: Heinz Baked Beans, Hebrew National frankfurters, Royal Crown Cola, Ovomaltine (renamed Ovaltine).
1905
US Congress adopts new policies to protect forestlands
1905
National Audubon Society is formed by George Bird Grinell to promote wildlife conservation.
1905
January Bloody Sunday - Tsarist troops open fire on a peaceful demonstration of workers in St Petersburg.
1905
Albert Einstein develops the equation E=mc2, which is later key to making nuclear energy possible.
1906
J. M. Dent begins to publish classic literature with the 'Everyman's Library' series.
1906
George Constant Washington invents mass produced instant coffee in Guatemala.
1906
Brown & Williamson is founded in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
1906
The All India Muslim League is founded and advocates independence for India.
1906
Foundation of Rolls-Royce in Manchester, England.
1906
Xerox is founded as a supplier of photography materials under its original name The Haloid Photographic Company.
1906
Kellogg's cereal company started operations in Michigan under the name Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company.
1906
National Monuments Act protects Muir Woods, Pinnacles National Monument (CA), Mount Olympus National Monument, and others.
1906 - 1908
Late Qing opium suppression movement.
1906
Will Kellogg founds the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in Michigan to produce Corn Flakes. The company is later renamed Kellogg's.
1907
Colour photography is invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere.
1907
The first rotary winged aircraft, the helicopter, is invented by Paul Cornu.
1907
The Audion, a radio amplifier, is invented by Lee de Forest.
1907
Hershey's introduce chocolate Kisses.
1907
American Spice Trade Association formed.
1907
American Tobacco Company acquires Butler & Butler and the Pall Mall brand.
1907
China and Britain agree to phase out their mutual participation in the Sino-Indian opium traffic.
1907
The British Central African Federation is replaced by the Nyasaland Protectorate. Cotton and tobacco are dominant industries.
1907
Oklahoma is added as a state of the Union.
1907
New Zealand assumes complete self-government.
1907 - 1909
The British Antarctic Expedition led by Shackleton reaches the magnetic South Pole.
1907
Rachel Carson is born. She becomes a leading figure in the environmental movement.
1907
Royal Dutch Shell is formed through a merger of the British company, Shell, and the Royal Dutch oil company with the intention of competing with the globally dominant Standard Oil.
1908 - 1986
Simone De Beauvoir.
1908
American merchant Thomas Sullivan accidentally invents tea bags.
1908
Melitta Bentz invents the coffee filter and helps found the Melitta Bentz Company.
1908
Theodor Tobler and Emil Baumann create the Toblerone bar.
1908
Britain and Canada ban cigarette sales to those under 16.
1908
The Opium Act in Canada makes it an offence to import, sell or smoke opium in Canada.
1908
The Young Turk Revolution lead by Turkish nationalist Kemal Ataturk, further weakens the Ottoman Empire.
1908
The Belgian Congo is established.
1908
New foods introduced to America in 1908: Tea bags, French Dip sandwich, Hershey bars with almonds.
1908 - 1910
The Fourth French Antarctic Expedition led by Jean-Baptiste Charcot charts the Bellinghausen sea and the area around this.
1908
Hiram Bingham III starts his explorations of South America.
1908
The Ford Model T becomes the first mass produced automobile using Ford's innovative assembly line method of production.
1908
The US National Conservation Movement is founded.
1908
The National Farmers' Union is founded in Great Britain.
1908
After 8 years of searching, William Knox D'Arcy's explorers discover oil in Persia. The Anglo-Persian Oil Company is formed (later becoming BP).
1909
Mahatma Gandhi publishes Hind Swaraj.
1909
Frank Lloyd Wright designs the Robie House in Chicago.
1909
Guglielmo Marconi receives the Nobel Prize for Physics with Karl Ferdinand Braun for their contribution to the development of wireless telegraphy.
1909
The Czarnikow-Rionda Company succeeds Czarnikow, MacDougall, & Co. and controls over 40% of Cuba’s sugar exports.
1909
US Congress bans the importation of opium except for medicinal use.
1909
The International Opium Commission meets in Shanghai to try to restrict trade.
1909
Gold is discovered in Timmins, Ontario.
1909
Arctic explorer, Robert Peary is the first man to reach the North Pole.
1909
Charles Van Hise writes The Conservation of Natural Resource.
1910
Thés 'dansants' start at the Waldorf Hotel, London, to capitalise on the craze for the Argentinian tango.
1910
Feodora chocolate is founded in Germany.
1910
Chili peppers are grown in California.
1910
Gauloises cigarettes are introduced.
1910
China and Britain agree to stop the opium trade.
1910
Japan invades Korea.
1910
South Africa gains independence from Britain, but remains in the Commonwealth.
1910 - 1912
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen is the first to reach the South Pole, beating the ill-fated Scott expedition.
1910
Singapore replaces opium farms with government opium monopoly.
1910 - 1911
Alexander Hosie tours Chinese poppy fields to confirm Chinese state prohibtion implementation.
1911
J. E. Casely Hayford writes his Ethiopia Unbound - stating a case for racial emancipation.
1911
Marie Curie receives the Nobel Prize for her work on radioactivity.
1911
Ernest Rutherford shows that atoms have a central nucleus.
1911
The National Coffee Association is founded in America.
1911
Anti-Trust legislation by the US Supreme Court forces the break up of American Tobacco Company into Liggett & Myers (28% of market), Lorillard (15%) and American Tobacco (37%).
1911
Abram Lyle receives a Royal warrant for Lyle's Golden Syrup made from refined sugar cane.
1911
The British South Africa Company unites northern and southern Rhodesia.
1911
Northern Territory is created as a separate state of Australia.
1911
The Festival of Empire.
1911
Hiram Bingham III is taken to see Machu Picchu for the first time.
1911
Delhi Durbar attended by King George V.
1911
Legislature is passed in Pennsylvania which gives city governments the authority to pass smoke abatement laws.
1911
Marquis wheat wins a $1,000 prize from the Canadian Pacific Railroad Company as the best wheat to grow in Canada.
1911
The Holt Manufacturing Company introduce a self-propelling harvester.
1912
Arthur Conan Doyle writes the fantasy adventure novel The Lost World.
1912
Claude McKay becomes the first person to publish a work in Jamaican Patois with his book of poetry Songs of Jamaica.
1912
Jean Neuhaus II creates the Belgian praline, a chocolate with a nut or cream paste filling.
1912
Liggett & Myers introduce Chesterfield cigarettes.
1912
The Imperial Tobacco Company of Canada is formed.
1912
Dr Isaac Adler links lung cancer with smoking.
1912
The International Opium Conference takes place in The Hague to restrict trade in drugs.
1912
Absinthe is banned in the US due to concerns over its effects.
1912 - 1949
The Republic of China is established by Sun Yat-Sen.
1912
Morocco becomes a French protectorate.
1912
The African National Congress is formed.
1912
Arizona and New Mexico are admitted as states of the Union.
1912
The Continental Drift theory is consolidated by Alfred Wegener.
1912
David Brower is born, the founder of Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute.
1912
The Canada Grain Act is passed to ensure the improvement of Canadian grain types.
1912
Nabisco invent the Oreo cookie at their Chelsea Factory in New York.
1913
Publication of Gitanjali - a collection of over 100 Bengali poems by Rabindranath Tagore translated into English with an introduction from W. B. Yeats.
1913
Cass Gilbert completes the Woolworth skyscraper in New York at 241m tall.
1913
The American Society for the Control of Cancer is formed.
1913
R. J. Reynolds introduces the Camel cigarette - pre-blended and pre-packed in a 20 pack.
1913
Cotton T-shirts are introduced in the US Navy.
1913
The US Federal Reserve Act establishes that currency must be 40% backed by gold reserves.
1913
Gold production begins in Nigeria.
1913
Women get the vote in Norway.
1913
Britain takes control of Zanzibar.
1913
The Alberta Farmers' Cooperative Elevator Company is founded.
1914
J. S. Fry & Sons introduce Fry's Turkish Delight.
1914
Imperial Tobacco introduces the Embassy brand.
1914 - 1919
Cigarettes are included in soldiers' rations in World War I, increasing the popularity of smoking.
1914
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act is passed in the US to regulate and tax the sale of cocaine and opiates. The ban on the legal sale of cocaine and opiates forces the trade underground.
1914
The Ottoman Empire supports the German Axis forces in World War I.
19140628
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife are assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, provoking an Austrian-Serbian war that quickly escalates into a world war.
1914 - 1918
World War 1.
1914
Southern and northern Nigeria are unified.
1914 - 1917
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, led by Ernest Shackleton, fails to cross the Antarctic when its ship is crushed by the ice.
1914
The Panama Canal is opened.
1914
Austria-Hungary declares war upon Serbia. Russia mobilizes its army in their defence.
1915 - 2005
Arthur Miller.
1915
Lyon's Corner House on the Strand opens.
1915
Cadbury's introduces the Milk Tray assortment box. Roses follow in 1938.
1915
China starts to grow tobacco on a significant scale.
1915
Absinthe is banned in France for its psychoactive effects. The ban is lifted in 1988.
1915
British, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and other allied forces attempt to invade Turkey via Gallipolli with disastrous consequences.
1915
South African forces capture German South West Africa, which comes under British control.
1915
D. W. Griffith makes The Birth of a Nation.
1915
Gandhi returns to India.
1915
Women get the vote in Denmark.
1915
Germany captures Warsaw.
1916
American Tobacco introduces the Lucky Strike cigarette.
1916
T. E. Lawrence helps to precipitate an Arab Revolt, which overthrows Ottoman rule in the Middle East.
1916
Belgium holds suzerainty of Ruanda-Urundi, until it becomes a League of Nations mandate in 1924.
1916 - 1922
David Lloyd George is British Prime Minister.
1916
William Boeing establishes his airplane company in Seattle, Washington.
1916
Easter Rising.
1916
The Vancouver grain terminal is opened.
1917
British Columbia becomes the biggest timber producer in Canada.
1917
America enters the war on the Allied side after continued German attacks on shipping and threats to US interests.
1917
Puerto Rico falls under American sovereignty.
1917
The US Virgin Islands fall under US sovereignty.
1917
Women get the vote in Canada, Russia and Poland.
1917
The Muscovy Company is wound up following the Russian Revolution.
1917
Nicholas II abdicates power to his brother Mikhail, who transfers power to the Provisional Government under Prince Lvov. This marks the end of tsarist Russia.
1917 - 1923
Russian Civil War.
1917
British Indian opium exports to China formally end.
1918 - 2008
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
1918
American-Chinese Tobacco is formed.
1918
Women get the vote in the UK, Germany and Hungary.
1918
The Brest-Litovsk treaty is signed by German and Russian delegates. Russia cedes about a third of her populace, farmlands and factories, and three quarters of her coal and iron mines to Germany. The Russian Bolshevik Government renounces its territorial claims upon Finland, the Ukraine, the Baltic provinces, the Caucasus and Poland and is forced to cede all areas captured during the Russo-Turkish war to the Ottoman Empire.
1918
Ten days after Germany's surrender in the First World War, British statesman Lord George Nathaniel Curzon praised oil by declaring "The Allied cause floated to victory upon a wave of oil".
1919
Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje becomes the first black South African to write a novel in English with his book Mhudi.
1919
Walter Gropius founds the Bauhaus movement in Berlin.
1919
Albert Einstein publishes his paper on General Relativity.
1919
Betty's of Harrogate is opened by Swiss confectioner, Frederick Belmont.
1919
J. S. Fry & Sons is merged with Cadbury's.
1919
Cigarettes are now the most popular form of tobacco consumption.
1919
The Ottoman Empire is partitioned after World War I.
1919
The Treaty of Versailles imposes harsh terms on Germany, with France taking Alsace-Lorraine, France and Belgium occupying the Ruhr Valley and heavy reparations being payable.
1919
Benito Mussolini forms the Italian fascist party.
1919
Tanganyika becomes a British protectorate following the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany is stripped of its colonies.
1919
Kamerun is divided into British and French Cameroons in the aftermath of World War I.
1919
Togoland is split between Britain and France.
1919
The Bismarck Archipelago is given to Australia in the aftermath of World War I and is known as Papua New Guinea.
1919
The Government of India Act gave more power to Indian legislature in recognition of calls for independence and the role of India in World War 1.
1919
Women get the vote in Finland.
19190413
The Amritsar Massacre - British troops fire on a mass meeting fearing insurrection.
1919 - 1941
Japan's opium monopoly operative in Korea.
Irish War of Independence.
1919
Over 6.1m tons of chemical fertiliser are used worldwide.
1920 - 1929
Tea starts to become a popular beverage in India.
1920
Prohibition legislation increases coffee sales in America.
1920
Cadbury's introduces the Flake bar.
1920
Mars Corporation is founded by Frank C. Mars in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
1920 - 1929
The boll weevil devastates the cotton crop in the South. Many farmers start growing peanuts.
1920
The world sugar price collapses.
1920
The Empire Timber Exhibition shows the range of countries exporting different types of timber within the British Empire.
1920 - 1933
Prohibition is enacted in the US banning the production and sale of alcohol. It forces the trade underground and the act is repealed in 1933.
1920
The German Nazi Party is established.
1920
Japan takes over all former German Pacific colonies north of the Equator.
1920
Britain takes control of the protectorate of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I.
1920 - 1929
Gandhi leads a campaign of non-violent resistance in support of Indian independence.
1920
Women get the vote in America.
1920
Iraq becomes a British mandate.
1920s
Marjorie Stoneman Douglas leads the crusade to save the Florida Everglades.
1920
The Treaty of Tartu is signed by Soviet Russia, renouncing all claims on Estonian territory in perpetuity and confirming the layout of Russian-Finnish borders.
1921
Gandhi starts a campaign to promote Indian cloth, boosting the cotton industry.
1921
Tate & Lyle is founded.
1921
Hitler becomes leader of the Nazi Party in Germany.
1921
Treaty of Riga signed, thus ending the Polish-Soviet War.
1921
The Washburn Crosby Company introduces the 'Betty Crocker' name for answering correspondence.
1921
The Farmers' Union of Canada is established.
1922
T. E. Lawrence publishes Seven Pillars of Wisdom.
1922
James Joyce publishes Ulysses.
1922
Alberic Guironnet founds La Vivarais chocolate factory, later to become Valrhona.
1922
Perugina introduce the Baci to celebrate Valentine's day.
1922
Anti-Trust action by the US Government causes Domino Sugar to contract.
1922
Kemal Ataturk founds modern Turkey, ending the Ottoman Empire.
1922
National Coast Anti Pollution League is formed in New Jersey, US, to stop oil dumping.
1922
Anglo-Irish Treaty comes into effect affirming the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland as separate states.
Irish Civil War between pro and anti-treaty nationalists.
1923
Le Corbusier publishes Vers une Architecture.
1923
Sound film is invented by Lee de Forest.
1923
Edwin Hubble proves the existence of other galaxies.
1923
Kenco coffee is created, selling coffee from Kenya to Britain and America.
1923
Mars introduces the Milky Way bar.
1923
Cadbury's introduces cream filled eggs.
1923
Kraft Foods is founded and initially focusses on the dairy sector.
1923
Hitler's attempted coup fails and he is imprisoned for one year. He uses the time to write Mein Kampf.
1923
The Alberta Wheat Pool is founded, followed the year after by Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
1924
E. M. Forster publishes A Passage to India.
1924
Philip Morris introduces the Marlboro brand, aimed at women.
1924
British Empire Exhibition.
1924 - 1925
League of Nations conferences to enhance international cooperation in narcotics control.
1924
General Mills introduces Wheaties, the 'breakfast of champions.'
1925
The Distillers Company merges with Johnnie Walker and Buchanan-Dewar.
1926
Chuck Berry is born.
1926 - 1997
Allen Ginsberg.
1926
John Logie Baird demonstrates his television system which could broadcast live moving images with tone graduation.
1926
Godiva chocolates are founded in Belgium.
1926
Mussolini seizes power in Italy after his blackshirts occupy Rome.
1927
Virginia Woolf publishes her novel To the Lighthouse.
1927
Gitanes cigarettes are introduced.
1927
British American Tobacco (now a UK independent company) acquires Brown & Williamson and starts to make Raleigh cigarettes.
1927
Al Jolson appears in The Jazz Singer - the first talking picture - as Hollywood starts to dominate world cinema.
1927
Kellogg's introduces Rice Krispies.
1928 - 1987
Andy Warhol. Made art from ubiquitous cultural icons.
1928
Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin.
1928
Cadbury's introduces the Fruit & Nut bar. Whole Nut follows in 1933.
1928
Stalin introduces his first 'Five Year Plan for Economic Construction'.
1928
Shredded Wheat is acquired by the National Biscuit Company or Nabisco.
1929
Ernest Hemingway writes A Farewell to Arms.
1929
Edwin Hubble shows that the galaxies are moving away from each other forming the basis of the Big Bang theory.
1929
El Rey chocolate is founded in Venezuela.
1929
The Wall Street crash has a disastrous impact on the German economy.
1929
A bomb is thrown into the Indian Central Assembly, marking the beginning of a wave of violent protest calling for Indian independence.
1929
The Wall Street Crash sets up the decade-long Great Depression which affected most western economies.
1930
William Van Alen's art-deco Chrysler Building graces Manhattan, reaching 320m (including the spire).
1930
Shreve, Lamb and Harmon's Empire State Building becomes the tallest building in the world at a height of 381m (excluding antennae).
1930
Benson & Hedges introduce Parliament cigarettes with the first commercial filter tip.
1930 - 1939
Mechanised weaving begins to dominate Chinese textile production.
1930
Publication of The Fur Trade in Canada by Harold Innis.
1930
Gandhi leads the Salt March to call for Indian independence.
1930
Despite the Canadian debut in 1929, an American, Colonel Clarence Birdseye, claimed credit for starting the frozen-food industry in 1930. He had been developing frozen foods independently at the same time, but his products did not enter the market until March 6, 1930.
1930
Unilever is formed from the merger of British company Lever Brothers and Dutch owned Margarine Unie to become the first modern multinational company.
1930
The Ryvita Company is founded in Birmingham and is famous for its wheat crispbreads.
1931
The Narcotics Convention is agreed between nations to prevent the production and sale of opium and other narcotics.
1931
Britain abandons the Gold Standard.
1931
One of Austria's leading banks fails as customers demand their money.
1931
The Royal Commission on Licensing finishes its report on the effects of alcohol on society and the benefits of licensing.
1931
Auguste Piccard starts a series of record balloon flights to the upper atmosphere.
1931
General Mills introduces Bisquick baking mix.
The Boulder Dam, later named the Hoover Dam, was constructed to provide water and hydro-electric power to low desert parts of the U.S.
1932
C. S. Forester publishes Death to the French - a novel set during the Napoleonic Wars - and introduces the fictional character Horatio Hornblower.
1932
Mars introduces the Mars bar and opens a separate Mars Company in the UK.
1932
The Zippo Manufacturing Company is established, making lighters on an Austrian design.
1932
Gold is discovered in Kenya.
1932
Iraq declares independence from Britain.
1932
At the Imperial Economic Conference, Britain agrees to give preferential treatment to certain goods from Commonwealth nations, and for Commonwealth countries to increase tariffs to non-Commonwealth nations.
1932
British Medical Journal states that leaded petrol is dangerous.
1932
Japan establishes an opium monopoly in its satellite state of Manchuguo.
1933
Brown & Williamson introduce Kool menthol cigarettes.
1933
President Roosevelt passes the Emergency Banking Act to stop the run on gold and silver.
1933
Hitler is made Chancellor of Germany and attacks the terms of the Treaty of Versailles and spreads race-hatred and hatred of communism.
1933
The UK gives preferential treatment to Commonwealth trade.
1934
America passes the Silver Purchase Act and the Gold Reserve Act, effectively nationalising supplies of silver and gold.
1934
Hitler purges the Nazi leadership in the Night of the Long Knives.
1935 - 1977
Elvis Presley.
1935
Rowntree's introduces the Kit Kat bar.
1935
Gold and silver are commonly used in telecommunications switching packets.
1935
Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, by Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith.
1935
Germany re-arms.
1935
The Wilderness Society is formed.
1935
The Republic of China implements its Six-Year Plan to suppress its domestic opium traffic.
1935
The Canadian Wheat Board is established as a marketing agency to sell Canadian wheat.
1935 - 1936
Exhibition of Chinese Art at Royal Academy in London sees ceramics take its place alongside other art forms. This exhibition confirms the growing scholastic interest in Chinese porcelain as art.
1936
John D and Mack Rust introduce the mechanical cotton picker, making many farmhands redundant.
1936
Coopers Inc. of Illinois introduce the cotton brief or 'jockey shorts'.
1936
The appellation controllée system is introduced in France.
1936
Italy invades Ethiopia.
1936 - 1939
The Spanish Civil War results in a win by Nationalist forces under Franco, supported by the Nazis.
1936
Germany reoccupies the Rhineland.
1936
The first official portrait of the fictitious 'Betty Crocker' is printed.
1937
The turbojet engine is invented by Frank Whittle.
1937
Alan Turing develops the concept of a theoretical computing machine.
1937
Rowntree's introduces Smarties. Mars introduces Maltesers.
1937
Fort Knox bullion reserve is opened in Kentucky.
1937
The term "greenhouse effect" is coined by American Glen Thomas Trewartha.
1937
Irish Constitution – Ireland becomes ‘Eire’ and the title ‘Irish Free State’ is no longer used.
1938
The ballpoint pen is patented by Laszlo Biro in Paris.
1938
Nestlé invent freeze dried coffee and creates the Nescafé brand.
1938
Dr Raymond Pearl writes Tobacco Smoking and Longevity showing that smoking shortens life.
1938
The National Cotton Council of America is formed.
1938
Kristallnacht sees widespread attacks on Jews in Germany.
1938
Germany and Austria are forcibly reunited.
1938
Germany annexes the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
1938
George S. Calendar, British engineer, publishes an article on the greenhouse effect, The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and its Influence on Temperature. Using data from 200 weather stations around world between 1880 and 1934, Calendar finds the temperature is rising.
1938
Japan establishes the Kōain (Asian Development Agency), which, among many other unrelated functions, is intended to centralize its imperial opium supply.
1939
John Steinbeck publishes Grapes of Wrath.
1939
American Tobacco introduces King Size Pall Mall cigarettes.
1939
Germany invades Poland precipitating World War II.
1939 - 1945
World War II.
1939
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, promising mutual non-aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union.
1939
With no formal declaration of war, the Red Army invade Poland from the east, sixteen days after Germany had invaded from the west. The Russian Government claimed that, owing to the "disintegration" of the Polish State, it was their "sacred duty" to protect their blood-relations living on Polish territory.
1939 - 1940
Winter War. The conflict ended with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty.
Access to oil is considered crucial in the victory of the Allies over the Axis powers. Oil policy is prioritised by the US at the end of the war.
1939
Albert Einstein informs President Roosevelt of the importance of research on nuclear chain reactions and the possibility that research might lead to developing powerful bombs.
1940
The US imports 70% of the world's coffee crop.
1940 - 1945
Coffee breaks are introduced in American wartime factories.
194004
Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
194005
Germany invades Belgium and the Netherlands.
194006
Germany invades Paris and France surrenders. British forces escape at Dunkirk.
194008
The Battle of Britain commences and aerial battles rage for 3 months. The RAF gradually gain the ascendency and plans for invasion are shelved.
1940
Italy sides with Germany and declares war on the Allies.
194006
The War in North Africa commences and see-saws repeatedly.
1940 - 1945
Winston Churchill is British Prime Minister. He returns to power 1951-1955.
1940
The Jeep was developed by Willys-Overland Motors.
1940
The first McDonald's burger restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California. Within 75 years there will be more than 33,000 McDonald's restaurants around the world.
1941
Mars introduces M & M's.
1941
John Rex Whinfield and James Tennant Dickson invent polyethylene terephthalate, which forms the basis of polyester and terylene.
1941
A ship containing 20,000 cases of whisky is wrecked off the Isle of Erisay in the Hebrides prompting the story 'Whisky Galore' by Compton Mackenzie.
19411207
Japan attacks US forces at Peal Harbour, Hawaii, provoking American entry into the war.
1941
Solar water heaters are being used extensively in Florida and California.
19410413
Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact signed.
19410622
Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia.
1941
Peak production year for Japan's opium monopoly in Korea.
1942 - 1943
The Battle of Stalingrad rages for 9 months, ending with a Russian victory.
194210
Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats the German and Italian forces and provokes a retreat.
19420212
Japanese forces capture Singapore.
19420505
Japanese forces capture the Philippines.
19420120
Reinhard Heydrich starts formal implementation of the Final Solution programme to wipe out Jews, Gypsies and the disabled.
19420604
Battle of Midway - America gains a decisive naval and air victory over Japan and changes the tide of the War in the Pacific.
1942
The Quit India movement is started by the Indian National Congress.
19420912 - 19430202
Battle of Stalingrad.
1943
Alan Turing develops the code-breaking machine Colossus.
19430513
The War in North Africa finishes with the defeat of German forces in Tunisia. American forces helped with the final assault.
194307
Allied forces invade Italy.
19430712
Battle of Kursk - Russian forces win the largest tank battle in history.
1943
Jacques Cousteau pioneers the aqualung and popularises the idea of undersea exploration.
1943
IKEA is founded in Sweden.
1943
The Canadian Wheat Board is granted a monopoly in trading in Canadian wheat.
1943
The Hanford site is developed to produce plutonium as part of the Manhattan Project. The B Reactor was the first large-scale plutonium production reactor in the world.
1944
The Bretton-Woods Agreement establishes the International Monetary Fund and pegs various currencies against the US dollar, which is still fixed against gold.
1944
Smokey Bear first appears in campaigns to prevent forest fires.
19440606
D-Day. Allied forces invade France.
19440824
Allied forces retake Paris.
1944
Russia occupies Poland.
19440831
The Red Army captured Bucharest, Romania. Soviet troops maintained their presence until 1958.
19440919
The Moscow Armistice was signed, ending the Continuation War between Finland and the USSR.
1945 - 1981
Bob Marley. He succeeds in making Reggae music popular around the world.
1945
Animal Farm is written by George Orwell, an allegory of the Stalin regime in Russia.
1945
DDT is widely used as an insecticide by farmers to control pests in wheat, cotton and other crops.
1945
Following the war where they were issued as undershirts in the military, T-shirts become a popular under and outer garment.
1945
North Vietnam achieves independence from France following the August Revolution. The production of opium increases.
19450508
VE Day. The Allies celebrate the German surrender and the end of the war in Europe.
194502
American forces invade Iwo Jima and meet continued fierce resistance.
19450806
American bombers drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
19450809
American bombers drop an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
19450902
Japan surrenders, ending World War II.
19450430
Hitler commits suicide in Berlin.
1945 - 1954
The French Indochina War. France reoccupies its colonies after the war and meets fierce resistance in Indochina, which results in France being forced to withdraw.
1945
Wilfred Thesiger explores Arabia.
194502
After committing to join the war effort against Japan, the Soviet Union gained the right to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the Yalta Conference.
19450420 - 19450502
Battle of Berlin.
1945
DDT is widely used as an insecticide by farmers to control pests in wheat, cotton and other crops.
1946
The microwave oven is invented by Percy Spencer.
1946
Achilles Gaggia invents the modern Espresso machine.
1946
The modern Cappucino is invented using the modern Espresso machine.
1946
DuPont buys the rights to polyethylene terephthalate from ICI and introduces polyester in America 5 years later as a fabric requiring no ironing.
1946
America assumes control of the Marshall Islands from Japan following World War II and uses them for nuclear testing.
1946
Juan Peron seizes power in Argentina.
1946
The Philippines declare independence.
19460509
The Soviet Union relinquish their occupations in Iran.
1947
Creation of the Valrhona chocolate brand.
1947
China closes its tobacco market to foreign companies.
1947
AT&T Bell create the first transistor using gold contacts.
1947
India gains independence from Britain and Pakistan is established as a separate country.
1947
Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki expedition proved that it was possible to sail across the Pacific from Peru to Polynesia on primitive rafts.
1947
Imperial Oil brought Leduc No.1 into production in the presence of invited guests and the media. The discovery of oil transformed the economy of Alberta and other areas of Western Canada.
1948
The International Tea Agreement regulates the production and prices of tea.
1948
Michel Cluizel starts making high quality chocolate in Normandy.
1948
The Rembrandt Tobacco Company is founded by Anton Rupert in South Africa.
1948
Opium production in Burma rises after independence.
1948
The Marshall Plan is announced - an American-funded plan to rebuild the post-war economies of western Europe.
1948
Israel is founded from the Palestine mandate.
1948
Apartheid is introduced in South Africa.
1948
The United Nations passes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1948
Sri Lanka declares independence from Britain.
1948
Lost City of the Incas is written by Hiram Bingham III.
1948
Ghawar oil field discovered in Saudi Arabia - it is the largest conventional oil field in the world.
1948
Fairfield Osborne publishes Our Plundered Planet.
1948
United Biscuits is formed from a merger between McVitie & Price and MacFarlane Lang. They specialise in crackers, twiglets and biscuits.
1949
George Orwell publishes his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty Four.
1949
Rural handloom weaving is destroyed in China following the Revolution and textile mills predominate.
1949
People's Republic of China is established by Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Zedong.
1949
Germany is divided into East and West Germany in the aftermath of World War II. Berlin is also divided.
1949
Korea is partitioned and given independence in the wake of World War II.
19490404
Creation of NATO, an alliance of western countries against the threat of Russia and the eastern Bloc powers.
1949
The Dominion of Newfoundland is amalgamated into Canada.
1949
The London Declaration drops 'British' from the Commonwealth and accepts republican countries as members.
1949
First United Nations conference in held on the environment.
1949
The first Soviet nuclear explosive device (RDS-1) was successfully tested at a yield of 22 kilotons.
1949
Eire becomes ‘Republic of Ireland’ and leaves the Commonwealth.
1949
Over 13.5m tons of chemical fertiliser are used worldwide.
1950
The Kenyan Tea Board is established as tea planting takes off in East Africa.
1950
Coffee is planted in New Guinea.
1950
Morton Levin makes an unambiguous link between smoking and lung cancer.
1950 - 1959
Harvesting machinery replaces sharecroppers on American farms.
1950
McCarthyism emerges in America as an intense hatred of communism.
1950 - 1953
The Korean War ends in a stalemate as America, Australia and other forces face China and North Korea. The country is divided at the 38th parallel.
1950
Jacques Cousteau founds the French Oceanographic Campaign.
1950
In a telegram to Shtykov, (the Soviet Ambassador to North Korea) Stalin writes in regard to North Korea's planned invasion of the South: "tell him (Kim II Sung) that I am ready to help him in this matter".