20th century

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Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

The 20th century started on 1 January 1901 and ended on 31st of December 2000, according to the Gregorian calendar. Many individuals confuse the 20th century and the so-called nineteen-hundreds (1900s).

However, a number of arguments have been put forward to justify the common usage. One advanced by Stephen Jay Gould is that the first decade consisted of only nine years, thus contradicting the definition of a decade (ten years). Another argument is that the astronomical year numbering system for years does have a year zero, the year generally referred to as 1 BC. In 2000 the International Organization for Standardization clarified ISO 8601 to use the astronomical year numbering system, which could be interpreted as retroactively endorsing all those who had celebrated the new century a few months earlier. Also, decades are almost always considered as starting with the "0" year and named accordingly ("1960s", etc.).

The term is also used to describe various historical periods that overlap with the calendar definition, most notably the Short twentieth century, which describes the 20th Century as spanning from 1914 to 1989 (or sometimes up to and including 1990 or 1991), relegating the pre-World War I 1900s into the 19th Century and putting the post-Soviet 1990s at the beginning of the 21st Century.

Indeed, the part of the 20th Century preceding World War I is quite similar to the late 1800s culturally and technologically, and the decade of the 1990s pointed in many ways (such as the rise of the Internet and digital communications) to the 21st Century; it is perceived by some as being more like the early 21st Century than the 1980s and prior decades.

Contents

Overview

The twentieth century saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovation. Arguably more technological advances occurred in any 10 year period following World War I than the sum total of new technological development in any previous century. Terms like ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage and became an influence on the lives of everyday people. War reached an unprecedented scale and level of sophistication; in the Second World War (1939-1945) alone, approximately 57 million people died, mainly due to massive improvements in weaponry. The trends of mechanization of goods and services and networks of global communication, which were begun in the 19th century, continued at an ever-increasing pace in the 20th. In spite of the terror and chaos, the 20th century saw many attempts at world peace. As the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy said:

What kind of peace do we seek? I am talking about a genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living. Not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time. Our problems are man-made, therefore they can be solved by man, but with time. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal.

Virtually every aspect of life in virtually every human society changed in some fundamental way or another during the twentieth century and for the first time, any individual could influence the course of history no matter their background. Arguably, the 20th century re-shaped the face of the planet in more ways than any previous century.

Scientific discoveries such as relativity and quantum physics radically changed the worldview of scientists, causing them to realize that the universe was much more complex than they had previously believed, and dashing the hopes at the end of the preceding century that the last few details of knowledge were about to be filled in.

For a more coherent overview of the historical events of the century, see The 20th century in review.

The 20th century has sometimes been called, both within and outside the United States, the American Century, though this is a controversial term.

Important developments, events and achievements

Science and technology

Ford assembly line, 1913

The assembly line and mass production of motor vehicles and other goods allowed manufacturers to produce more and cheaper products. This allowed the automobile to become the most important means of transportation.
The invention of fixed-wing aircraft and the jet engine allowed for the world to become "smaller." Space flight increased knowledge of the rest of the universe and allowed for global real-time communications via geosynchronous satellites.
Mass media technologies such as film, radio, and television allow the communication of political messages and entertainment with unprecedented impact
Mass availability of the telephone and later, the computer, especially through the Internet, provides people with new opportunities for near-instantaneous communication
Applied electronics, notably in its miniaturized form as integrated circuits, made possible the above mentioned rise of mass media, telecommunications, ubiquitous computing, and all kinds of "intelligent" appliances; as well as many advances in natural sciences such as physics, by the use of exponentially growing calculation power (see supercomputer).
The development of Nitrogen fertilizer, insecticides and herbicides resulted in significantly higher agricultural yield.
Advances in fundamental physics through the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics led to the development of nuclear weapons (known informally as "the Bomb" and dropped on the industrial town of Hiroshima and the historic town of Nagasaki), the nuclear reactor, the semiconductor and the laser. Fusion power was studied extensively but remained an experimental technology at the end of the century.
Inventions such as the washing machine and air conditioning led to an increase in both the quantity and quality of leisure time for the middle class in developed countries.
Most influential inventions in the 20th century: antibiotics, oral contraceptives, new plastics, transistors, Internet
More...

Wars and politics

Clockwise from top: Trenches in frontline, a British Mark I Tank crossing a trench, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the battle of the Dardanelles, a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks and a Sopwith Camel biplane.

Democratic nations began to extend voting privileges to all adults.
Rising nationalism and increasing national awareness were among the causes of World War I, the first of two wars to involve all the major world powers including Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the Commonwealth of Nations. World War I led to the creation of many new countries, especially in Eastern Europe. Ironically, it was said by many to be the 'War to end all Wars'.
The economic and political aftermath of World War I led to the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe, and shortly to World War II. This war also involved Asia and the Pacific, in the form of Japanese aggression against China and the United States. Among soldiers, civilians also suffered greatly in World War II -- from the bombing of cities on both sides, and in the German genocide of the Jews and others, known as the Holocaust.
During World War I, in Russia the Bolshevik putsch led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the Soviet Union's involvement in World War II, Communism became a major force in global politics, spreading all over the world: notably, to Eastern Europe, China, Indochina and Cuba. This led to the Cold War and proxy wars with the West, including wars in Korea (1950-1953) and Vietnam (1957-1975).
The "fall of Communism" in the late 1980s freed Eastern and Central Europe from Soviet supremacy. It also led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into successor states, many rife with ethnic nationalism, and left the United States as the world's superpower.
Through the League of Nations and, after World War II, the United Nations, international cooperation increased. Other efforts included the formation of the European Union, leading to a common currency in much of Western Europe, the euro around the turn of the millennium.
The end of colonialism led to the independence of many African and Asian countries. During the Cold War, many of these aligned with the USA, the USSR, or China for defense.
The creation of Israel, a Jewish state in a mostly Arab region of the world, fueled many conflicts in the region, which were also influenced by the vast oil fields in many of the Arab countries.

Culture and entertainment

"Film" refers to the celluloid media on which motion pictures reside

As the century begins, Paris is the artistic capital of the world, where both French and foreign writers, composers and visual artists gather.
Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.
After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century.
Rock and Roll and Jazz styles of music are developed in the United States, and quickly become the dominant forms of popular music in America, and later, the world. The Beatles, a 1960s British Rock and Roll band, becomes one of the most successful acts of all time, and is credited, in their experimental later albums, with permanently changing what was thought possible in popular music.
Modern art developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and realism.
The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles.
Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

Disease and medicine

Although the availability and quality of medicine continued to improve, epidemic diseases continued to spread, aided by modern transportation. An influenza pandemic, the Spanish Flu, killed 25 million between 1918 and 1919, while AIDS is yet uncured and treatments remain too expensive for wide use in developing countries.
Advances in medicine, such as the invention of antibiotics, decreased the number of people dying from diseases. Contraceptive drugs and organ transplantation were developed. The discovery of DNA molecules and the advent of molecular biology allowed for cloning and genetic engineering.

Natural resources and the environment

Oil field in California, 1938 The first modern oil well was drilled in 1848 by Russian engineer F.N. Semyonov, on the Aspheron Peninsula north-east of Baku.38

The widespread use of petroleum in industry -- both as a chemical precursor to plastics and as a fuel for the automobile and airplane -- led to the vital geopolitical importance of petroleum resources. The Middle East, home to many of the world's oil deposits, became a center of geopolitical and military tension throughout the latter half of the century. (For example, oil was a factor in Japan's decision to go to war against the United States in 1941, and the oil cartel, OPEC, used an oil embargo of sorts in the wake of the Yom Kippur War in the 1970s).
A vast increase in fossil fuel consumption leads to depletion of natural resources, possibly global warming and possibly both local and global climate change. The problem is increased by, believed by many, world-wide deforestation, also causing a loss of biodiversity. The problem of a depletion of natural resources is decreased by advances in drilling technology which led to a net increase in the amount of fossil fuel that is readily obtainable at the end of the century, as compared with the amount considered obtainable at the beginning of the century.

Significant people

World leaders

Asia
* Mahatma Gandhi, India
* Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore
* Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines
* Corazon Aquino, the Philippines
* Mao Zedong, People's Republic of China
* Deng Xiaoping, People's Republic of China
* Kim Il-Sung, Democratic People's Republic of Korea
* Pol Pot, Cambodia
* Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistan
* Indira Gandhi, India
* Syngman Rhee, Republic of Korea
* Park Chung Hee, Republic of Korea
* Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia
* Jawaharlal Nehru, India
* Emperor Hirohito, Japan
* Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
* Sun Yat-sen, Republic of China
* Chiang Kai-shek, Republic of China
* Achmad Sukarno, Indonesia
* Suharto, Indonesia

Europe
* Levon Ter-Petrossian, Armenia
* Franz Joseph of Austria, Austria-Hungary
* Václav Havel, Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic
* Franjo Tuđman, Croatia
* Archbishop Makarios III, Cyprus
* Thorvald Stauning, Denmark
* Lennart Meri, Estonia
* Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Finland
* Urho Kekkonen, Finland
* Georges Clemenceau, France
* Philippe Pétain, France
* Charles de Gaulle, France
* François Mitterrand, France
* Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany
* Friedrich Ebert, Germany
* Adolf Hitler, Germany
* Konrad Adenauer, West Germany
* Walter Ulbricht, East Germany
* Erich Honecker, East Germany
* Willy Brandt, West Germany
* Helmut Kohl, Germany
* Gerhard Schröder, Germany
* Eleftherios Venizelos, Greece
* Ioannis Metaxas, Greece
* Konstantinos Karamanlis, Greece
* Andreas Papandreou, Greece
* Miklós Horthy, Hungary
* Imre Nagy, Hungary
* Benito Mussolini, Italy
* Aldo Moro, Italy
* Eamon de Valera, Ireland
* Einar Gerhardsen, Norway
* Józef Piłsudski, Poland
* Lech Wałęsa, Poland
* António de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal
* Mário Soares, Portugal
* Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romania
* Milan Kučan, Slovenia
* Francisco Franco, Spain
* Felipe González, Spain
* Adolfo Suárez, Spain
* Olof Palme, Sweden
* Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey
* David Lloyd George, United Kingdom
* Neville Chamberlain, United Kingdom
* Winston Churchill, United Kingdom
* Clement Atlee, United Kingdom
* Margaret Thatcher, United Kingdom
* Tony Blair, United Kingdom
* Josip Broz Tito,Yugoslavia
* Slobodan Milošević, Yugoslavia

Middle East
* Reza Shah Pahlavi, Iran
* Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran
* Mohammad Mosaddeq, Iran
* Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran
* Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran
* Mohammad Khatami, Iran
* Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt or United Arab Republic
* Anwar Sadat, Egypt or United Arab Republic
* David Ben-Gurion, Israel
* Golda Meir, Israel
* Menachem Begin, Israel
* Yitzhak Rabin, Israel
* Hafez el Assad, Syria
* Saddam Hussein, Iraq
* King Hussein, Jordan
* Yassar Arafat, Palestine

Scientists

Biology and Anthropology

Chemistry

Computer Science

Mathematics

Medicine and Pharmacy

Physics and Astronomy

Psychology

Humanities

Business

Automotive pioneers

Aerospace pioneers

Spiritual figures

Pope Pius X
Pope Pius XII
Pope John XXIII
Pope John Paul II
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
The 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Thubten Gyatso
The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The Rev. Billy Graham
Mahatma Gandhi
Aurobindo Ghosh
Ramana Maharshi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Ayatollah Khomeini
Ayatollah Khamenei
Rasputin
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon
L. Ron Hubbard

Artists

Music

Film

Writers and poets

Sports figures

American Football: George Halas; Jim Brown; Joe Montana; Red Grange; Vince Lombardi; Reggie White; Joe Namath; Walter Payton; Lawrence Taylor; Steve Young; Dick Butkus; Mike Ditka; Bill Walsh; Bill Belichick; Troy Aikman; John Elway; Dan Marino; Emmitt Smith; Jerry Rice; Terry Bradshaw; Barry Sanders

Athletics: Al Oerter; Betty Cuthbert; Bob Beamon; Emil Zátopek; Fanny Blankers-Koen; Jim Thorpe; Paavo Nurmi; Hicham El Guerrouj; Steve Ovett; Seb Coe; Jesse Owens; Carl Lewis; Michael Johnson; John Walker; Peter Snell

Baseball: Babe Ruth; Jackie Robinson; Roberto Clemente; Joe DiMaggio; Ted Williams; Hank Aaron

Basketball: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Elgin Baylor; Larry Bird; Wilt Chamberlain; Bob Cousy; Tim Duncan; Julius Erving; Magic Johnson; Michael Jordan; Pete Maravich; Oscar Robertson; Bill Russell; Jerry West

Bodybuilding: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Boxing: Jack Dempsey; Joe Louis; Muhammad Ali; Larry Holmes; Rocky Marciano

Cricket: Brian Lara; Sachin Tendulkar; Sir Don Bradman; Douglas Jardine; Sir Gary Sobers; George Headley; Herbert Sutcliffe; Sir Jack Hobbs; Len Hutton; Malcolm Marshall; Ray Lindwall; Richard Hadlee; Shane Warne; Steve Waugh; Sunil Gavaskar; Victor Trumper; Sir Vivian Richards; Wasim Akram; Wilfred Rhodes; Chris Cairns

Cycling: Eddy Merckx; Fausto Coppi; Lance Armstrong

Equestrian: Mark Todd

Football (soccer): Gunnar Nordahl; Gunnar Gren; Nils Liedholm; Michel Platini; Alfredo di Stefano; Giuseppe Meazza; Bill Shankly; Bobby Moore; Denis Law; Diego Maradona; Hristo Stoichkov; Eusébio; Ferenc Puskas; Franz Beckenbauer; Gordon Banks; George Best; Johann Cruyff; Kenny Dalglish; Lev Yashin; Pelé; Obdulio Varela; Sir Stanley Matthews; David Beckham

Golf: Arnold Palmer; Bobby Jones; Gary Player; Jack Nicklaus; Severiano Ballesteros; Tiger Woods

Ice Hockey: Wayne Gretzky; Bobby Orr; Gordie Howe; Mario Lemieux; Maurice Richard; Mark Messier; Peter Forsberg; Steve Yzerman; Sergei Fedorov; Teemu Selanne; Phil Esposito; Patrick Roy; Marcel Dionne; Raymond Bourque; Joe Sakic; Jaromir Jagr; Saku Koivu

Martial Arts: Bruce Lee

Motor Sport: Ayrton Senna; Jim Clark (racing driver); Juan Manuel Fangio; Michael Schumacher

Mountaineering: Sir Edmund Hillary; Tenzing Norgay

Racing: Lester Piggott; Tony McCoy

Rugby Football: Colin Meads; Gareth Edwards; Wally Lewis

Skiing: Jean-Claude Killy; Franz Klammer; Ingemar Stenmark

Squash: Jahangir Khan; Jansher Khan

Swimming: Dawn Fraser; Mark Spitz; Martin Strel

Tennis: Martina Navrátilová; Arthur Ashe; Rod Laver; Fred Perry; Pete Sampras; Andre Agassi; Bill Tilden; Steffi Graf; John McEnroe; Björn Borg; Boris Becker; Venus Williams; Serena Williams

Decades and years

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Modernism
20th century - Modernity - Existentialism
Modernism (music): 20th century classical music - Atonality - Jazz
Modernist literature - Modernist poetry
Modern art - Symbolism (arts) - Impressionism - Expressionism - Cubism - Surrealism - Dadaism - Futurism (art)
Modern dance - Expressionist dance
Modern architecture - Brutalism - De Stijl - Functionalism - Futurism - International Style - Organicism - Visionary architecture
...Preceded by Romanticism Followed by Post-modernism...
[Edit this box]

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Modernism
20th century - Modernity - Existentialism
Modernism (music): 20th century classical music - Atonality - Jazz
Modernist literature - Modernist poetry
Modern art - Symbolism (arts) - Impressionism - Expressionism - Cubism - Surrealism - Dadaism - Futurism (art)
Modern dance - Expressionist dance
Modern architecture - Brutalism - De Stijl - Functionalism - Futurism - International Style - Organicism - Visionary architecture
...Preceded by Romanticism	Followed by Post-modernism...
[Edit this box]