The plush Del Monte Hotel in Monterey, California, opened

The country claimed 93,000 miles of railroad

Halftone photographic illustrations appeared in newspapers for the first time

Midwest farmers burned their corn for fuel as prices were too low to warrant shipping

President James A. Garfield was assassinated

The Diamond Match Company was created

Marquette University was founded in Milwaukee

Barnum & Bailey’s Circus was created through the merger of two companies

Chicago meatpacker Gustavus F. Swift perfected the refrigeration car

Josephine Cockrane of Illinois invented the first mechanical dishwasher

A U.S. Constitutional amendment to grant full suffrage to women was

introduced in Congress this and every year until its passage in 1920

Thanks to high tariffs, the U.S. Treasury had a surplus of $145 million

The U.S. had 2,400 magazines and daily newspapers, and 7,500 weekly

newspapers

The typewriter and the telephone were both novelties at the 1876 Centennial

in Philadelphia; in 1880, 50,000 telephones existed nationwide and at the turn

of the century, that number tripled

George Eastman’s famous slogan “You Push the Button, We Do the Rest”

helped make Kodak camera a part of many American homes

The Canadian Pacific Railroad reached the Pacific Ocean

Baseball set players’ salaries at $1,000-$2,000 for the 1885 season

The first photograph of a meteor was taken

Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa, performed the first appendectomy

Bachelor Grover Cleveland entered the White House as president

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published

The Washington Monument was dedicated

The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail

The Salvation Army was officially organized in the U.S.

Texas was the last Confederate state readmitted to the Union

Louis Pasteur successfully tested an anti-rabies vaccine on a boy bitten by an infected dog

Leo Daft opened America’s first commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore

In the Wyoming Territory, 28 Chinese laborers were killed and hundreds more chased out of town by striking coal miners

The first gasoline pump was delivered to a gasoline dealer in Ft. Wayne, Indiana

Massive immigration transformed the nation, largely unaffecting rural South

Irish women immigrants to America, in demand as servants, outnumbered men

Literary Digest began publication

Restrictive anti-black “Jim Crow” laws were enacted throughout the South

American Express Traveler’s Cheque was copyrighted

Ceresota flour was introduced by the Northwest Consolidated Milling Company

George A. Hormel & Co. introduced the packaged food Spam

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was organized

Bicycle designer Charles Duryea and brother James designed a gasoline engine capable of powering a road vehicle

Edouard Michelin obtained a patent for a “removable” bicycle tire that could be repaired quickly in the event of puncture

Rice University and Stanford were chartered

Bacteriologist Anna Williams obtained her M.D. from the Women’s Medical College of New York and worked in the diagnostic laboratory of the city’s Health Department, the first such lab in America

Chicago’s Provident Hospital became the first interracial hospital in America

Irene Coit became the first woman admitted to Yale University

The electric self-starter for automobiles was patented

Important books included Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy; The Light That Failed by Rudyard Kipling; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and Tales of Soldiers and Civilians by Ambrose Bierce

Mintonette, later called volleyball, was created by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts

Oscar Wilde’s last play, The Importance of Being Earnest, was first shown at St. James’s Theatre in London

The first professional American football game was played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, between the Latrobe YMCA and the Jeannette Athletic Club

Rudyard Kipling published the story “Mowgli Leaves the Jungle Forever” in Cosmopolitan illustrated magazine

George B. Selden was granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile

Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a type of radiation later known as x-rays

Oscar Hammerstein opened the Olympia Theatre, the first in New York City’s Times Square district

Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death

The Anti-Saloon League of America was formed in Washington D.C.

The London School of Economics and Political Science was founded in England

W. E. B. Du Bois became the first African-American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University

President William McKinley used the telephone to help his re-election

Hamburgers were introduced by Louis Lassen in New Haven, Connecticut

The cost of telephone service fell as more companies offered a 10-party line

Cigarette smoking was popular and widely advertised

Excavation had begun on the New York subway system

The U.S. College Entrance Examination Board was formed to screen college applicants using a Scholastic Aptitude Test

Puerto Rico was declared a U.S. territory

A tidal wave in Galveston, Texas, killed 4,000 people

The U.S. Navy bought its first submarine

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) attacked the American Federation of Labor for accepting the capitalist system

A New York law limiting hours of work in the baking industry to 60 per week was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court

Oklahoma was admitted to the Union

Planters Nut and Chocolate Company was created

Samuel Hopkins Adams’ The Great American Fraud exposed the fraudulent claims of many patent medicines

Anti-liquor campaigners received powerful support from the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, led by Frances E. Willard

President Grover Cleveland wrote in The Ladies’ Home Journal that women of sense did not wish to vote: “The relative positions to be assumed by men and women in the working out of our civilizations were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours.”

President Theodore Roosevelt admonished well-born white women who were using birth control for participating in willful sterilization, a practice known as racial suicide

Women’s Wear Daily began publication in New York

70 percent of bread was baked at home, down from 80 percent in 1890

Father’s Day and the Boy Scouts of America made their first appearances

The concept of the “weekend” as a time of rest gained popularity

Actress Blanche Sweet was one of D.W. Griffith’s regulars in the one- and two-reelers that dominated the movie industry

The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, deadly because the single exit door was locked to prevent theft, brought demands for better working conditions

California women gained suffrage by constitutional amendment

The use of fingerprinting in crime detection became widespread

Marie Curie won an unprecedented second Nobel Prize, but was refused admission to the French Academy of Science

The divorce rate climbed to one in 12 marriages, from one in 85 in 1905

An attempt by Congress to exclude illiterates from immigrating, a bill promoted by the unions to protect jobs, was vetoed by President Howard Taft in 1913, reasoning that illiteracy was no test of character

The Woman’s Peace Party was founded with social worker Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House in Chicago, as its first president

A divorce law requiring only six months of residence was passed in Nevada

A Chicago law restricted liquor sales on Sunday

American Tobacco Company selected salesmen by psychological tests

Railway workers gained the right to an eight-hour day, preventing a nationwide strike

Margaret Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the country, distributing information in English, Italian and Yiddish

The Mercury dime and Liberty fifty-cent piece went into circulation

High school dropout Norman Rockwell published his first illustration in The Saturday Evening Post

South Carolina raised the minimum working age of children from 12 to 14

Stanford Terman introduced a test for measuring intelligence, coining the term “IQ” for intelligence quotient

Boston police struck against pay scales of $0.21 to $0.23 per hour for 83- to 98-hour weeks.

The dial telephone was introduced in Norfolk, Virginia

U.S. ice cream sales reached 150 million gallons, up from 30 million in 1909

The New York Daily News became the first tabloid (small picture-oriented) newspaper

Boston Red Sox pitcher and outfielder Babe Ruth hit 29 home runs for the year and the New York Yankees purchased his contract for $125,000

More than four million American workers struck for the right to belong to unions

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 1.4 million women had joined the American work force since 1911

Following the 1918 strike by the Union Streetcar Conductors protesting the employment of female conductors, the War Labor Board ruled in favor of the continued employment of women

Southern leaders of the National Association of Colored Women protested the conditions of domestic service workers, including the expectation of white male employers of the right to take sexual liberties with their servants

James Buchanan “Buck” Duke donated $47 million to Trinity College at Durham, North Carolina and the college changed its name to Duke

College football surpassed boxing as a national pastime

With prohibition the law of the land, party-goers hid liquor in shoe heels, flasks form-fitted to women’s thighs, and perfume bottles

The Charleston, a dance that originated in Charleston, South Carolina, was carried north and incorporated into the all-black show Shuffle Along

The U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an Oregon law that required all grammar school-aged children to attend school

The Methodist Episcopal General Conference lifted its ban on theatre attendance and dancing

Walt Disney began creating cartoons, featuring “Alice’s Wonderland”

Al Capone took control of Chicago bootlegging

Chesterfield cigarettes were marketed to women for the first time

The first ham in a can was introduced by Hormel

Cars appeared in such colors as “Florentine Cream” and “Versailles Violet”

Earl Wise’s potato chips were so successful he moved his business from a remodeled garage to a concrete plant

To fight depression in the automobile industry, Henry Ford introduced the eight-hour day and five-day work week

With prohibition under way, the Supreme Court upheld a law limiting the medical prescription of whiskey to one pint every 10 days

The illegal liquor trade netted $3.5 billion a year

The movies became America’s favorite entertainment, with more than 14,500 movie houses showing 400 movies a year

True Story Magazine reached a circulation of two million with stories such as “The Diamond Bracelet She Thought Her Husband Didn’t Know About”

40 percent of all first-generation immigrants owned their own homes, while 29 percent of all second-generation immigrants were homeowners

Sinclair Lewis refused to accept the Pulitzer Prize because it “makes the writer safe, polite, obedient, and sterile”

Martha Graham debuted in New York as choreographer and dancer in Three Gopi Maidens

The Jazz Singer, the first talking film, made its debut

Women’s skirts, the shortest of the decade, were just below the knee with flounces, pleats, and circular gores that extended from the hip

Ethel Lackie of the Illinois Athletic Club broke the world’s record for the 40-yard freestyle swim with a time of 21.4 seconds

The car boom collapsed after the Depression and one million auto workers were laid off

Trousers became acceptable attire for women who played golf and rode horses

Radio set sales increased to 13.5 million

Boeing hired eight nurses to act as flight attendants

Fortune Magazine was launched by Henry R. Luce at $1.00 per issue

The University of Southern California polo team refused to play against the UCLA until its one female member was replaced by a male

Laurette Schimmoler of Ohio became the first woman airport manager, earning a salary of $510 a year

Alka-Seltzer was introduced by Miles Laboratories

Clairol hair products were introduced by U.S. chemists

For the first time, emigration exceeded immigration

More than 75 percent of all cities banned the employment of wives

The National Forty-Hour Work Week League formed, calling for an eight-hour workday in an effort to produce more jobs

To generate income, Nevada legalized both gambling and the six-month divorce

Chicago gangster Al Capone was convicted of evading $231,000 in federal taxes

New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was opened

Silent film extra Clark Gable appeared in the movie A Free Soul, gaining instant stardom, while Universal studios recruited actress Bette Davis

The Social Security Act passed Congress

The Emergency Relief Appropriation Act gave $5 billion to create jobs

Fort Knox became the United States Repository of gold bullion

Nylon was developed by Du Pont

New York State law allowed women to serve as jurors

An eight-hour work day became law in Illinois

A Fortune poll indicated that 67 percent favored birth control

Trailer sales peaked; tourist camps for vacationing motorists gained popularity

Ford unveiled the V-8 engine

Recent advances in photography, like 35 mm camera and easy-to-use exposure meters, fueled a photography boom

Life magazine began publication, with a claim that one in 10 Americans had a tattoo

The National Park Service created numerous federal parks and fish and game preserves, adding a total of 600,000 additional acres to state preserves

Mercedes-Benz created the first diesel-fueled passenger car

A revolt against progressive education was led by Robert M. Hutchins, president of the University of Chicago

Molly Dewson of the National Consumers’ League led a fight to gain the appointment of more female postmasters

RKO released Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film, Pinocchio

Truth or Consequences debuted on NBC Radio

Booker T. Washington became the first African-American to be depicted on a U.S. postage stamp

McDonald’s restaurant opened in San Bernardino, California

President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress for approximately $900 million to construct 50,000 airplanes per year

The Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and death camp opened in Poland

WW I General John J. Pershing, in a nationwide radio broadcast, urged aid to Britain in order to defend America, while national hero Charles Lindbergh led an isolationist rally at Soldier Field in Chicago

Nazi Germany rained bombs on London for 57 consecutive nights

The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 created the first peacetime draft in U.S. history

The U.S. imposed a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan

Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican challenger Wendell Willkie to become the first and only third-term president

Agatha Christie’s mystery novel And Then There Were None was published

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died in office and Harry Truman became president

WW II ended

Penicillin was introduced commercially

Strikes idled 4.6 million workers, the worst stoppage since 1919

The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at a post-1929 high of 212.50

U.S. college enrollments reached an all-time high of more than 2 million

Ektachrome color film was introduced by Kodak Company

Hunt Foods established “price at time of shipment” contracts with customers

The U.S. birth rate soared to 3.4 million, up from 2.9 million in the previous year

New York State forbade discrimination by employers, employment agencies and labor unions on the basis of race, the first time in American history a legislative body enacted a bill outlawing discrimination based on race, creed, or color

The Boy Scouts collected 10 million pounds of rubber and more than 370 million pounds of scrap metal during the war, while Chicago children collected 18,000 tons of newspapers in just five months

The Korean War began

Congress increased personal and corporate income taxes

President Truman ordered the Atomic Energy Committee to develop the hydrogen bomb

Boston Red Sox Ted Williams became baseball’s highest paid player with a $125,000 contract

Senator Joseph McCarthy announced that he had the names of 205 known Communists working in the State Department

The FBI issued its first list of the Ten Most Wanted Criminals

The first kidney transplant was performed on a 49-year old woman in Chicago

Charles M. Schultz’s comic strip, Peanuts, debuted in eight newspapers

M&M candy was stamped with an “M” to assure customers of the real thing

The first Xerox copy machine was introduced

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting the term of the president to two terms, was adopted

Univak, the first general-purpose electronic computer, was dedicated in Philadelphia

CBS introduced color television in a program hosted by Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey

Jet news magazine was launched

Harvard Law School admitted women for the first time

H&R Block, in Kansas City, began offering tax preparation services when the IRS stopped preparing people’s taxes

Margaret Sanger urged the development of an oral contraceptive

For the first time in history, women outnumbered men in the U.S.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for espionage against the U.S.

President Truman dispatched an air force plane when Sioux City Memorial Park in Iowa refused to bury John Rice, a Native American who had died in combat; his remains were interred in Arlington National Cemetery

Charles F. Blair flew solo over the North Pole

Entertainer Milton Berle signed a 30-year, million-dollar-plus contract with NBC

The Supreme Court declared racial segregation in public schools illegal

Open-heart surgery was introduced by Minneapolis physician C. Walton Lillehe

RCA introduced the first color television set

The $13 million, 900-room Fontainebleau Hotel opened at Miami Beach

Sports Illustrated Magazine was introduced

Dr. Jonas E. Salk, U.S. developer of anti-polio serum, started inoculating school children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Marian Anderson, the first black soloist of the Metropolitan Opera, appeared as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera

Blacks in Montgomery, Alabama, boycotted segregated city bus lines, and Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat in the front of the bus

National Review and Village Voice began publication

HEW Secretary Oveta Culp Hobby opposed the free distribution of the Salk vaccine to poor children as “socialized medicine by the back door”

Smog and poisoned air became a public concern

Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound

Racial segregation on interstate buses and trains was ordered to end

The AFL and CIO merged, with George Meany as president

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit a high of 488, and a low of 391

The Ford Foundation gave $500 million to colleges and universities nationwide

Four students from NC Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, began a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter, which triggered similar nonviolent protests throughout the southern U.S.

Joanne Woodward received the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

The U.S. announced that 3,500 American soldiers would be sent to Vietnam

The U.S. launched the first weather satellite, TIROS-1

Ben Hur won the Oscar for Best Picture

A Soviet missile shot down an American spy plane; pilot Francis Gary Powers was captured and released 21 months later in a spy swap with the U.S.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law

The U.S. FDA approved birth control as an additional indication for the drug Searle’s Enovid, making it the world’s first approved oral contraceptive pill

Harper Lee released her critically acclaimed novel To Kill a Mockingbird

Presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy participated in the first televised presidential debate

President Eisenhower authorized the use of $1 million toward the resettlement of Cuban refugees, who were arriving in Florida at the rate of 1,000 a week

The U.S. Supreme Court declared in Boynton v. Virginia that segregation on public transit was illegal

“Flower Power” was coined by Allen Ginsburg at a Berkeley antiwar rally

The U.S. Immigration Bill abolished national origin quotas

The Voting Rights Act, which eliminated literacy tests and provided federal oversight in elections, stimulated a dramatic increase in voting by African-Americans

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Connecticut statute forbidding the use of contraceptives and eliminated state and local film censorship

After extended hearings on cigarette smoking, Congress required package warning: “Caution: Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health”

Black Sabbath’s debut album, regarded as the first heavy metal album, was released

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty went into effect, after ratification by 56 nations

Earth Day was proclaimed by San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto

Paul McCartney announced the disbanding of the Beatles, as their twelfth album, Let It Be, was released

Four students at Kent State University in Ohio were killed and nine wounded by Ohio National Guardsmen during a protest against the U.S. incursion into Cambodia

The U.S. promoted its first female generals: Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington

The Women’s Strike for Equality took place down Fifth Avenue in New York City

The first New York City Marathon took place

Garry Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury debuted in dozens of U.S. newspapers

The North Tower of the World Trade Center was the tallest building in the world at 1,368 feet

Alvin Toffler published his book Future Shock

The pocket calculator was marketed

The universal product code was designed for the supermarket industry

3M developed Post-it stock to stick paper to paper

The first desktop microcomputer became available

The Equal Opportunity Act forbade discrimination based on sex or marital status

Minnesota became the first state to require businesses, restaurants, and institutions to establish no-smoking areas

Top films were Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and The Exorcist

McDonald’s opened its first drive-through restaurants

AT&T, the world’s largest private employer, banned discrimination against homosexuals

Harvard changed its five-to-two male to female admissions policy to equal admissions

The Atomic Energy Commission was dissolved

The Supreme Court ruled that the mentally ill cannot be hospitalized against their will unless they are dangerous to themselves or to others

Chrysler, and other auto companies, offered rebates to counter record low sales

The Rolling Stones tour grossed $13 million, and singer Stevie Wonder signed a record contract for $13 million

A Massachusetts physician was convicted of manslaughter for aborting a fetus

Rape laws in nine states now required less corroborative evidence necessary for conviction and restricted trial questions regarding the victim’s past sex life

Yellow ribbons became a symbol of American concern for the hostages in Iran

The divorce rate had grown from one in three marriages in 1970 to one in two

The World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been eradicated

A 10-year study correlated fatal heart disease to saturated-unsaturated fats

The prime rate hit 21 percent, and gold was $880 per ounce

Veteran’s Administration study showed Vietnam vets suffered more emotional, social, educational and job-related problems than other veterans

Top albums of the year included Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Blondie’s Eat to the Beat, Off the Wall by Michael Jackson and Glass Houses by Billy Joel

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, reported that “passive smoking” can lead to lung cancer

The “Stop Handguns Before They Stop You” Committee reported: “Last year handguns killed 48 people in Japan, 8 in Great Britain, 34 in Switzerland, 52 in Canada, 58 in Israel, 21 in Sweden, 42 in West Germany, 10,720 in U.S. God Bless America”

The U.S. Army ruled that male officers were forbidden to carry umbrellas

Highly addictive, inexpensive cocaine derivative “crack” became popular

Parents and schools fought over AIDS-afflicted children being in public schools

The Nobel Peace Prize went to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, founded by cardiologists at Harvard and in Moscow

The Supreme Court upheld affirmative-action hiring quotas

Rock Hudson became one of the first public figures to acknowledge his battle with AIDS, raising public awareness of the disease

The Food and Drug Administration approved a low-calorie fat substitute

The Hubble space telescope was launched into orbit

Dieting became a $33 billion industry

John J. Audubon’s book, Birds of America, sold for $3.96 million at auction

Television premieres included The Simpsons, Law and Order, Twin Peaks and Seinfeld

Women constituted 11 percent of U.S. military troops, up from three percent in 1973

An EPA report claimed that 3,800 people died annually from second-hand smoke

Dances with Wolves was named the Academy Awards’ best picture; Pretty Woman, Total Recall, Goodfellas and Home Alone were also released

The stock market hit a high of 2,999.75

President Bush and Premier Gorbachev called for Iraqi withdrawal following its invasion of Kuwait

Supreme Court ruled that only a constitutional amendment can enforce term limits on Congress

The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at 5,216

After 130 years, Mississippi lawmakers ratified the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery

About 55 percent of women provided half or more of household income

New York became the 38th state to reinstate capital punishment

The 25th anniversary of Earth Day was celebrated

The U.S. banned the manufacture of freon due to its effect on the ozone layer

Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine followers were handed long prison sentences for plotting to blow up New York-area landmarks

France detonated its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb

Congress voted to rewrite the 61-year-old Communications Act, freeing television, telephone, home computer industries to cross into each other’s fields

World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” winning a six-game match in Philadelphia

Dr. Jack Kevorkian was acquitted of assisted suicide for helping two suffering patients kill themselves

Liggett became the first tobacco company to acknowledge that cigarettes are addictive and cause cancer

The first of the Nixon White House tapes concerning Watergate were released

The Senate passed an immigration bill to tighten border controls, making it tougher for illegal immigrants to get U.S. jobs, and curtail legal immigrants’ access to social services

Millennium celebrations were held throughout the world despite fears of major computer failures due to “Y2K” bug, fears that proved largely unwarranted

President Bill Clinton proposed a $2 billion program to bring Internet access to low-income houses

Supreme Court gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run from a police officer

The Millennium Summit among world leaders was held at the United Nations

President Bill Clinton created the Giant Sequoia National Monument to protect 328,000 California acres of trees from timber harvesting

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated the Sherman Antitrust Act by tying its Internet browser to its operating system

George W. Bush was declared the winner of the presidential race in a highly controversial election against Al Gore

The female-oriented television cable channel Oxygen made its debut

Carlos Santana won eight Grammy awards, including Album of the Year for Supernatural

George W. Bush was inaugurated in Washington, DC, for his second term as the forty-third president of the United States

Demonstrators marched through Baghdad denouncing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and rallied in the square where his statue had been toppled in 2003

The Superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380 made its first flight from Toulouse

The Provisional IRA issued formally ordered an end to the armed campaign it had pursued since 1969, and ordering all its units to dump their arms

The largest UN World Summit in history was held in New York City

Scientists announced that they had created mice with small amounts of human brain cells in an effort to make realistic models of neurological disorders

The Tea Party movement hosted its first convention in Nashville, Tennessee

President Obama established the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

The US Navy officially announced that it would end its ban on women in

submarines

The District of Columbia’s same-sex marriage law went into effect

At the 82nd Academy Awards, The Hurt Locker won six Oscars including the first Best Director award for a woman, Kathryn Bigelow

President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law aiming to insure 95 percent of Americans

An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and sank the rig, initiating a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, considered the largest environmental disaster in US history

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law by President Obama

Former US Solicitor General Elena Kagan was sworn in as Justice of the Supreme Court

The last US combat troops left Iraq

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors banned McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, citing obesity concerns

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange began releasing confidential U.S. diplomatic documents

General Motors introduced the first Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid electric vehicle

President Obama signed the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal into law

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft concluded its four-year orbital mission over Mercury

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing

Cuba was officially removed from the US State Sponsors of Terrorism list

Former Olympian Bruce Jenner became the first transgender person to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine

Rachel Dolezal resigned as president of the NAACP Spokane, Washington amid allegations that she claimed to be black but was actually white

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upheld subsidies for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) nationwide

The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees a right to samesex marriage

The South Carolina State House removed the Confederate battle flag from its grounds after weeks of protest, and placed it in a museum

Birdman won four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director

President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan which included first-ever Environmental Protection Agency standards on carbon pollution from U.S. power plants

Kim Davis, a clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, was found in contempt of court and jailed for five days for refusing to issue marriage licenses to samesex couples

President Obama ordered up to 50 U.S. special operations ground troops to be deployed in Syria to fight Islamic State militants

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced that all combat roles in the military must be opened to women

SpaceIL launches the Beresheet probe, the world’s first privately financed mission to the Moon

Fifty people are killed and fifty others injured in terrorist attacks, streamed live on Facebook, on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, the deadliest shooting in the country’s modern history. Facebook disabled 1.5 million videos of the event

At the 91st Academy Awards, Green Book won Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali’s portrayal of Don Shirley; Bohemian Rhapsody led the ceremony with four awards, including Best Actor for Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury. Roma and Black Panther also received three awards apiece, with the former winning Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón and becoming the first Mexican submission to win Best Foreign Language Film. Olivia Colman was awarded Best Actress for portraying Anne, Queen of Great Britain in The Favourite

The Overstory by Richard Powers wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction

A Texas Longhorn from Alabama sets Guinness world record with horns that are nearly 11 feet wide, longer than the Statue of Liberty’s face

Venezuela enters a constitutional crisis as Juan Guaidó and the National Assembly declare incumbent President Nicolàs Maduro “illegitimate”; Maduro severs diplomatic ties with the United States and Columbia and expels the German ambassador

President Donald Trump confirms that the U.S. will leave the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987; Russia follows with suspension of its obligations to the treaty

Catholic Pope Francis is the first pontiff to visit the Arabian Peninsula and to change the church’s stance on the death penalty, arguing for its abolition

An unmanned demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the Space X Dragon spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the International Space Station

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8 bound for Nairobi, crashes shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 passengers. Boeing 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 models are subsequently grounded worldwide

The final territory of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), located in Syria, is liberated

Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope project announce the first-ever image of a black hole, located in the center of the M87 galaxy

NepaliSat-1 is launched, Nepal’s first ever research satellite to be sent into space

A series of bomb attacks occur at eight locations in Sri Lanka, leaving at least 253 people dead and over 500 injured; this is the first major terrorist attack in the country since the Sri Lankan Civil War ended in 2009

Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky is elected President of Ukraine in a runoff election. Zelensky portrayed a fictional Ukrainian president in the television series Servant of the People

The number of deaths from the Kivu Ebola outbreak exceeds 1,000, the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, only surpassed by the West African Ebola virus epidemic of 2013–2016

Taiwan’s parliament becomes the first in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage; Botswana decriminalizes homosexuality; the Supreme Court of Ecuador rules in favor of same-sex marriage

British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation in the wake of Brexit failure

South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reports that North Korea executed nuclear envoy Kim Hyok-choi and four other diplomats in March after the failed Hanoi summit with the United States, and that Kim Jong-Un’s top aide was sentenced to hard labor

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, held in France, is won by the United States

Several U.S. states pass highly controversial fetal heartbeat bills, which ban abortions as early as six weeks, before many women are even aware that they are pregnant

President Donald Trump declares a national state of emergency to obtain funding for his border wall; the Supreme Court declares that he can use $2.5 billion in military funding to proceed with construction

The Supreme Court blocks a citizenship question from being added to the 2020 census, which may have caused less people to respond to the census and ultimately misrepresent minority populations

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex releases blueprint for a new green deal to combat climate change that calls for a massive cut in carbon emissions

Notable deaths in 2019 include: liberal Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens; African American artists Mavis Pusey and John Singleton; film director Franco Zeffirelli; boxers Pernell Whitaker and Eusebio Pedroze; fashion industry giants Gloria Vanderbilt and Karl Lagerfeld; scientist Murray Gell-Mann; and architect I.M Pei

July 20 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing

Australian Kerry Robertson becomes the first person to use a new assisted dying program to end her life

Saudi Arabia announces new rules for women, including independent travel without a male guardian’s permission

WalMart announces that it will stop selling handguns and some ammunition in the wake of the El Paso WalMart shooting

The Joker, directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix, wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival

Poet John Milton’s annotated copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) is found in a Philadelphia library in what could be the modern world’s most important literary discovery

Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg sails from Sweden to New York on an emissions-free yacht and delivers an emotional speech to the United Nations about climate change

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump

The World Health Organization announces that 800,000 children in DR Congo will be vaccinated as the world’s largest measles epidemic claims thousands of lives

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos agree to record-breaking $35 billion divorce settlement.

Qasem Soleimani—one of Iran’s most senior military figures—was killed in a US drone strike.

Iran pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, saying it will not limit its uranium enrichment.

Golden Globes: 1917 Best Drama; Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Best Comedy/Musical; Best Actress award to Renee Zellweger for her performance in the drama Judy; Best Actor award to Joaquin Phoenix for his performance in The Joker; Best Actress award to Awkwafina for her performance in the comedy The Farewell; Best Actor award to Taron Edgerton for his performance in Rocketman.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex (Prince Harry and Meghan Markel) announced their decision to “step back” as senior members of the Royal Family; referred to as “Sussexit” or “Megxit” in the international media.

Australian bushfires death toll reached 27; millions of hectares of land have burned, with devastating ecological effects.

In the process known as Brexit, the United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdrew from the European Union, beginning an 11-month transition period.

President Donald Trump was acquitted on two articles of impeachment in February after a highly partisan Senate trial.

The World Health Organization labeled the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic in March as confirmed cases outside China—where the epidemic broke out—tripled in a week. Parts of China and Italy—with the bulk of the worldwide death toll of 3,996—remained on lockdown.

Film producer Harvey Weinstein is convicted of a criminal sex act and rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison after over 100 women made public allegations against him.

Helicopter crash killed all nine passengers including basketball star Kobe Bryant, who was 41, and his 13-year-old daughter.

Rare, circumbinary planet called TOI 1338-b was discovered.

The International Criminal Court authorized the Afghanistan War Crimes Inquiry to proceed, allowing for the first time U.S. citizens to be investigated.

In March share prices fell sharply around the world, in response to economic concerns and the impact of COVID-19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 2,000 points, its biggest ever fall in intraday trading. Oil prices plunged by as much as 30% in early trading, the biggest fall since 1991, after Saudi Arabia launched a price war.

Notable deaths in 2020 include: Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak (ousted during the Arab Spring): American actor Kirk Douglas; Prozac Nation author Elizabeth Wurtzel; and British computer scientist Peter T. Kirstein.

In June global COVID-19 confirmed cases exceed 10 million, with a worldwide death toll of more than 500,000.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of police sparks nationwide riots and looting in the United States, cities impose curfews, and Los Angeles declares a state of emergency.

The Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law requiring abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Princeton University announces it will remove Woodrow Wilson’s name from campus buildings because of his racist thinking.

U.S president Donald Trump suspends funding of the World Health Organization.

European Space Agency/JAXA space probe BepiColombo sets out for Venus; its final destination is Mercury by 2025.

After criticism for the spread of coronavirus misinformation, Facebook removes “pseudoscience” and “conspiracy theory” as options for targeted ads.

The Pentagon formally releases three videos of “unidentified aerial phenomena” encountered by U.S. Navy pilots.

Radiocarbon and DNA analysis of fossils found in Bulgaria indicate they belong to Homo sapiens rather than Neanderthal, meaning that modern humans may have arrived in Europe thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

Costa Rica becomes the first Central American country to legalize same-sex marriage.

Private company SpaceX launches NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, the first manned spacecraft to take off from U.S. soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011.

Russian president Vladimir Putin declares a state of emergency after 20,000 tons of oil leaked into the Ambamaya River near the Siberian city of Nonisk.

Iran shot down Ukrainian airliner PS752, killing all 176 people on board, during a series of escalations that nearly brought Iran and the United States to war.

The 2020 Summer Olympics, scheduled to take place in Tokyo, were postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus. Other major sporting events worldwide have been cancelled or postponed.

South Korean film Parasite unexpectedly won the Oscar for Best Film.

An explosion of stored ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut, Lebanon, leaving 190 dead, 6,500 injured, and an estimated 300,000 people homeless. The Lebanese government resigned amid public anger.

A locust infestation continued to threaten food supplies in East Africa and other regions, the worst outbreak in 70 years in Kenya and the worst in 25 years in Ethiopia, Somalia, and India.

The United States passed the Hong Kong Autonomy Act imposing sanctions on individuals and entities that materially contribute to the Chinese central government’s suppression of the Hong Kong democracy movement.

Joe Biden was officially selected as the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, running against Republican incumbent Donald Trump.

A surge in mail-in ballots for the November 2020 US presidential election is expected, raising concerns over voter fraud and US Post Office resources.

Senator Kamala Harris is selected as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, becoming the third woman to run for vice president and the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent.

Rumors circulated that North Korean president Kim Jong-Un was gravely ill or dead, but photos were later released by state media of Kim at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

A bitcoin scam allegedly run by Florida teen Graham Clark took over the Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Kanye West, among others.

Flooding of the Brahmaputra River kills 189 and leaves 4 million homeless in India and Nepal.

Russian voters back a constitutional amendment that will allow president Vladimir Putin to seed two additional six-year terms when his current term ends in 2024.

Asian giant hornets, known as “murder hornets,” were seen for the first time in the United States in Washington state; the hornets can wipe out entire bee colonies within hours.

Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has approved the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine.

Israel and the UAE agree to normalize relations, marking the third Israel-Arab peace deal.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the first person in history to have a net worth exceeding $200 billion, according to Forbes.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in Japan’s history, announced his resignation due to ill health.

As of August worldwide cases of coronavirus reached 21.5 million, with 844 thousand deaths; in the United States 6 million cases were reported, with 183 thousand deaths.