World History

1989

On 9 November 1989, after peaceful mass protests, the border crossings unexpectedly opened and thousands poured into the West. The fall of the Wall set off the end of East Germany and reunification.

💡 Did you know? It was partly triggered by a garbled press conference; the opening was actually meant to come later.

1945

With the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht on 8 May 1945, the war in Europe ended: the deadliest conflict in history.

💡 Did you know? The war in the Pacific ended only in September 1945 after the atomic bombings of Japan.

Neil Armstrong

On 20 July 1969, as part of Apollo 11, Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon. Around 600 million people watched on TV worldwide.

💡 Did you know? His line 'one small step for man …' went down in history.

1914

After the assassination in Sarajevo of the Austrian heir, World War I began in summer 1914. Machine guns, tanks and poison gas were used on a large scale for the first time.

💡 Did you know? It was called 'the Great War': no one yet suspected a second would follow.

1949

With the Basic Law of 23 May 1949, the three western zones became the Federal Republic. A few months later East Germany (the GDR) was founded in the east.

💡 Did you know? The Basic Law was at first meant only as a temporary measure until reunification.

Christopher Columbus

Sailing for Spain, Columbus set out to find a sea route to India and reached the Caribbean in 1492. He thereby set off the European colonisation of the Americas.

💡 Did you know? Until his death he believed he had landed in Asia: hence the name 'Indians'.

Chinese dynasties

The Great Wall was built over many centuries by different dynasties to protect the empire from horse peoples of the north. Taken together it runs thousands of kilometres.

💡 Did you know? Contrary to the popular myth, it cannot be seen from space with the naked eye.

1789

In 1789 the people overthrew the absolute monarchy; the storming of the Bastille on 14 July became its symbol. From it come the ideals 'liberty, equality, fraternity'.

💡 Did you know? The guillotine was introduced as the means of execution: King Louis XVI died by it too.

1990

On 3 October 1990 East Germany joined the Federal Republic: after 41 years Germany was one state again. The day is still the national holiday.

💡 Did you know? 3 October replaced 17 June as the 'Day of German Unity'.

1912

On her maiden voyage the 'unsinkable' Titanic struck an iceberg and sank; over 1500 people died. There were too few lifeboats for everyone on board.

💡 Did you know? The wreck was found only in 1985, at a depth of almost 4000 m.

Martin Luther

With his 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences, Luther set off the Reformation, which split the Church. His Bible translation shaped the German language.

💡 Did you know? Legend says he nailed the theses to the door of the Wittenberg castle church.

1776

On 4 July 1776 the 13 British colonies declared their independence. The phrase 'all men are created equal' became world-famous.

💡 Did you know? 4 July is still the US national holiday ('Independence Day').

476

In AD 476 the Germanic leader Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman emperor. The year is seen as the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages.

💡 Did you know? The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire lived on for almost 1000 more years.

1939

With the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, World War II began. Britain and France then declared war.

💡 Did you know? It became the deadliest conflict in human history, with up to 70 million dead.

1918

On 11 November 1918 World War I ended with the armistice. Shortly before, the monarchy in Germany collapsed and the Kaiser abdicated.

💡 Did you know? The 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh terms on Germany: fuel for later conflict.

Yuri Gagarin

On 12 April 1961 Gagarin became the first human to orbit the Earth, in just over 100 minutes. His flight was a highlight of the space race between the USA and the USSR.

💡 Did you know? On landing he ejected from the capsule and parachuted to the ground.

2001

On 11 September 2001 attackers flew hijacked planes into the towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon; almost 3000 people died. The attacks reshaped world politics.

💡 Did you know? They triggered the 'War on Terror' and the invasion of Afghanistan.

1945

On 16 July 1945 the USA detonated the first atomic bomb ('Trinity') in the New Mexico desert. Weeks later bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

💡 Did you know? Project leader Oppenheimer later quoted: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

1949

In 1949 the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb: earlier than the West had expected. This began the nuclear arms race of the Cold War.

💡 Did you know? Soviet spies had obtained design data from the US atomic programme.

1950

In 1950 communist North Korea invaded the South; the USA and China intervened. The war ended in 1953 with an armistice along the 38th parallel.

💡 Did you know? A peace treaty was never signed: officially the truce still holds today.

1952

In 1952 the USA detonated the first hydrogen bomb ('Ivy Mike'), hundreds of times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb. It made an entire Pacific island vanish.

💡 Did you know? H-bombs use nuclear fusion: the same reaction as inside the Sun.

1953

On 17 June 1953 over a million people in East Germany protested against the regime; Soviet tanks crushed the uprising.

💡 Did you know? In West Germany, 17 June was the national holiday for decades.

1954

In 1954 the KGB was founded as the powerful secret service of the Soviet Union, handling espionage, foreign operations and surveillance of its own population.

💡 Did you know? Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer before his political career.

1954

In 1954 the Soviet leadership under Khrushchev transferred the Crimean peninsula from the Russian to the Ukrainian Soviet republic. Within the USSR this was at first only an administrative act.

💡 Did you know? This border became a point of conflict after 1991 and was violently challenged by Russia in 2014.

1956

In 1956 Hungary rose up against Soviet domination. The uprising was bloodily crushed by the Red Army; hundreds of thousands fled to the West.

💡 Did you know? Despite sympathy, the West did not intervene militarily.

1957

In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. Its beeping could be heard on radios worldwide and caused the 'Sputnik shock' in the West.

💡 Did you know? The shock drove the USA to found the space agency NASA.

1961

During the night of 13 August 1961 East Germany began dividing Berlin with barbed wire and later concrete, to stop the mass flight to the West. The Wall stood for 28 years.

💡 Did you know? Families were separated overnight; at first some jumped from windows into the West.

1961

In 1961 the Soviet Union detonated the 'Tsar Bomba', the most powerful nuclear weapon ever set off. The blast could be felt hundreds of kilometres away.

💡 Did you know? Its yield was many times greater than all bombs dropped in World War II combined.

1962

In 1962 the deployment of Soviet nuclear missiles on Cuba brought the USA and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war. After 13 days the Soviets withdrew the missiles.

💡 Did you know? Afterwards a 'hotline' was set up between Washington and Moscow.

1968

In 1968 Czechoslovakia attempted 'socialism with a human face'. Warsaw Pact troops invaded and ended the reforms.

💡 Did you know? The student Jan Palach set himself on fire in 1969 in protest against the occupation.

1983

In 1983 US President Reagan announced a space-based missile defence system, mockingly nicknamed 'Star Wars'. It was meant to intercept Soviet nuclear missiles.

💡 Did you know? Technically it was never fully feasible, but it put the USSR under economic pressure.

1985

In 1985 Gorbachev took over the leadership of the Soviet Union and launched deep reforms with 'glasnost' (openness) and 'perestroika' (restructuring). They helped end the Cold War.

💡 Did you know? In 1990 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

1991

At the end of 1991 the Soviet Union broke apart into 15 independent states; the Cold War was finally over. Russia and Ukraine, among others, emerged from it.

💡 Did you know? After a failed coup against Gorbachev, the collapse accelerated rapidly.

1991

In 1991 the USA and the Soviet Union signed the START I treaty to drastically cut their strategic nuclear weapons: one of the most important disarmament treaties of the Cold War.

💡 Did you know? Both sides committed to dismantling thousands of warheads.