RADIO ACROSS THE ATLANTIC (1901) Radio pioneer Gugliemo Marconi sends the first radio signals from England to Canada.
SOUTH POLE (1911) Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen becomes the first person to reach the South Pole. »pp126–27
1900 THE WRIGHT FLYER (1903) The first powered, controlled flight takes place at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, US. »pp132–33
Wright Flyer Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright’s plane had a wooden frame covered in muslin cloth.
WAR IS OVER (1945) The war ends in August with Victory over Japan Day, following Victory in Europe day in May. »pp140
Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 “Shturmovik” anti-tank aircraft
D-DAY (1944) British, US, and Canadian troops land on French beaches to gain access to Germanheld territory. »pp142–43
NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA (1945) Korea is divided into the Soviet-controlled North and the US-occupied South.
GERMANY INVADES THE SOVIET UNION (USSR) (1941) The war’s largest invasion, on the Eastern Front, changes the course of the war. »pp140–41
TITANIC DISASTER (1912) The luxury cruise ship Titanic is sunk by an iceberg, killing more than 1,500 passengers and crew.
US JOINS WORLD WAR II (1941) The US joins the war after Japan attacks the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. »pp138–39
WORLD WAR II (1939–45) England and France declare war on Germany after it invades Poland. »pp138–43
Mohandas Gandhi spinning cotton in defiance of British law
SUPERSONIC FLIGHT (1947) The Bell X-1 rocket plane is the first manned aircraft to fly faster than sound. »pp132–33
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE (1947) Gandhi inspires the end of British rule in India, and the country is divided into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. »pp144–45
CHINA POWER (2013) China becomes the largest trading nation in the world, overtaking the US. »pp154–55
WORLD WIDE WEB (1991) British scientist Tim Berners-Lee creates a system of interlinked pages on the internet and calls it the World Wide Web. »pp152–53
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APARTHEID (1948–94) South African apartheid law severely restricts the rights of black people. It is abolished in 1994.
END OF THE COLD WAR (1991) Aggression between the US and USSR finishes, as Communist government ends and the USSR splits up.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL (1948) The State of Israel is declared, following a United Nations vote to partition British-controlled Palestine.
MOUNT EVEREST (1953) Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay conquer the world’s highest mountain.
EMAIL (1971) Computer programmer Ray Tomlinson sends the first email. »pp152–53
ARPANET (1969) Computers are connected in a network for the first time. The network, in California, US, is called ARPAnet and is an early version of the internet. »pp152–53
AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS (1955–68) Martin Luther King Jr. rallies AfricanAmericans to demand equal rights.
VIETNAM WAR (1956–75) North and South Vietnam are united in 1975 after the US lose the war to stop Communism in the South.
WALKING ON THE MOON (1969) US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first person to walk on the Moon. »pp150–51
ABORIGINAL RIGHTS (1967) The Australian government recognizes Aboriginal People as full Australian citizens.
IN 2008, 978 MILLION PEOPLE WATCHED THE BEIJING OLYMPICS’
