Historical data timeline

1889: Russian flu pandemic — First influenza to circle the globe; ~1 million dead
1890: Baring crisis — Argentina's default nearly topples Barings Bank
1907: Panic of 1907 — US banking panic spurs the Federal Reserve
1914: First World War — Four years of war convulse Europe
1917: Russian Revolution — Revolution and civil war upend Russia
1918: 1918 influenza pandemic — Deadliest pandemic of the century
1923: German hyperinflation — The mark collapses before the Rentenmark
1929: Great Depression — Wall Street crash opens a decade of slump
1930: Soviet famine — Collectivization famine kills millions
1933: Nazis take power — Hitler made chancellor; democracy collapses
1935: Sulfa drugs arrive — Sulfonamides bend maternal mortality down
1939: Second World War — The deadliest conflict in history
1944: Bretton Woods system — IMF, World Bank and pegged rates founded
1945: DDT malaria campaign — DDT spraying routs malaria in Ceylon
1947: Partition of India — Independence splits India and Pakistan
1948: Marshall Plan — US aid rebuilds Western Europe
1949: People's Republic of China — Communist victory ends the civil war
1950: Korean War — War devastates the Korean peninsula
1956: Hungarian Revolution — Soviet crackdown drives ~200,000 into exile
1957: Treaty of Rome — Six states found the European Community
1960: Year of Africa — 17 African states gain independence
1960: OPEC founded — Five oil exporters form a producer cartel in Baghdad
1961: Berlin Wall built — East Germany seals the inner-German border
1961: Great Chinese Famine ends — Mortality crisis of 1959–61 subsides
1962: Algerian independence — Eight-year war with France ends; mass European exodus
1962: Cuban Missile Crisis — US–Soviet standoff over missiles in Cuba
1965: Green Revolution — High-yield wheat and rice spread across Asia
1966: Suharto era begins — New Order government follows the 1965–66 upheaval
1966: Cultural Revolution — A decade of political upheaval in China
1967: Six-Day War — Arab–Israeli war redraws Middle East borders
1967: Biafran War — Nigerian civil war brings blockade and famine
1971: Bretton Woods system ends — Dollar leaves gold; major currencies float
1971: Bangladesh independence — War of independence separates East Pakistan
1972: Sahel drought — Prolonged drought and famine across the western Sahel
1973: First oil shock — OPEC embargo quadruples oil prices
1973: Chile military coup — Allende government overthrown; Pinochet takes power
1974: Derg coup in Ethiopia — Military council deposes Haile Selassie
1975: Vietnam War ends — Fall of Saigon reunifies Vietnam
1975: Khmer Rouge era — Mass deaths under the regime in Cambodia
1975: Lusophone Africa independent — Portugal's African colonies gain independence
1975: Papua New Guinea independent — Independence from Australian administration
1978: Deng reforms begin — China starts market reforms and opening up
1979: Iranian revolution — Monarchy falls; Islamic Republic established
1979: Second oil shock — Iranian revolution disrupts oil supply
1979: Soviet–Afghan War — Invasion triggers a decade of war and mass flight
1980: One-child policy begins — China enforces strict birth limits
1980: Iran–Iraq War — Eight-year war between Iran and Iraq
1980: Zimbabwe independence — Majority rule follows the Lancaster House accord
1980: Smallpox eradicated — WHO certifies global eradication
1980: Structural adjustment era — IMF and World Bank reform lending spreads
1981: AIDS pandemic emerges — First cases identified; global spread follows
1982: Latin American debt crisis — Mexico's default opens the lost decade
1983: Australia floats the dollar — Financial deregulation opens the economy
1984: Ethiopian famine — Drought and conflict cause mass starvation
1985: Plaza Accord — G5 agree to devalue the dollar
1985: Bolivian hyperinflation — Prices peak near 12,000% before shock stabilization
1986: Chernobyl disaster — Reactor explosion spreads fallout across Europe
1986: Doi Moi reforms — Vietnam begins market-oriented renovation
1986: Oil price collapse — Crude prices halve, straining exporters
1987: Fiji coups — Two coups spur Indo-Fijian emigration
1989: Berlin Wall falls — Communist bloc begins to unravel
1989: Tiananmen crackdown — Protests suppressed; brief pause in opening
1989: Argentine hyperinflation — Annual inflation passes 3,000%
1990: German reunification — East and West Germany reunite
1990: Gulf War — Iraq invades Kuwait; coalition reverses it
1991: USSR dissolves — 15 new states begin transition
1991: Japan's bubble bursts — Asset prices collapse; lost decades begin
1991: India liberalizes — Balance-of-payments crisis spurs sweeping reforms
1991: Yugoslav wars — Federation breaks up amid war and displacement
1991: Somali state collapse — Barre government falls; civil war and famine follow
1994: Rwandan genocide — Around 800,000 killed in roughly 100 days
1994: Apartheid ends — First all-race elections in South Africa
1994: NAFTA takes effect — North American free-trade area created
1994: Plano Real launched — New currency ends Brazil's hyperinflation
1994: CFA franc devalued — 50% devaluation across the franc zone
1997: Asian financial crisis — Currency collapse spreads from Thailand
1997: Hong Kong handover — Sovereignty transfers from the UK to China
1998: Russia defaults — Ruble crisis and domestic debt default
1998: Second Congo War — Multi-state war in the DRC; millions of excess deaths
1998: Ethiopia–Eritrea war — Border war between the two states
1999: Euro launched — Eleven states adopt a single currency
2000: Dot-com bust — Technology stock bubble deflates
2000: Millennium Development Goals — UN sets 2015 targets for poverty and health
2001: 9/11 attacks — Attacks in the US reshape security and travel
2001: China joins WTO — Trade integration accelerates
2001: Argentina defaults — Convertibility collapses in a deep depression
2003: Iraq War — US-led invasion topples the Baath government
2003: HIV treatment scale-up — PEPFAR and the Global Fund expand antiretrovirals
2004: EU eastern enlargement — Ten states join the union
2004: Indian Ocean tsunami — Around 230,000 killed across coastal Asia
2005: Sub-Saharan debt relief — Gleneagles deal and MDRI cancel poor-country debt
2007: M-PESA launches in Kenya — Mobile money spreads financial access
2008: Global financial crisis — Lehman collapse triggers deep recession
2008: Zimbabwe hyperinflation — Currency collapses before dollarization
2010: Eurozone debt crisis — Sovereign debt strains spread from Greece
2011: Arab Spring — Uprisings spread across the Arab world
2011: Syrian civil war begins — War displaces over half the population
2011: South Sudan independence — World's newest state secedes from Sudan
2011: Fukushima disaster — Tsunami and nuclear accident; reactors shut down
2014: Ebola epidemic — West African outbreak kills over 11,000
2014: Russia annexes Crimea — Sanctions follow; war begins in eastern Ukraine
2014: Venezuelan collapse begins — Oil slump tips the economy into prolonged crisis
2015: European migrant crisis — Over a million asylum seekers reach Europe
2015: Paris Agreement — Nearly all states adopt climate targets
2016: Brexit referendum — UK votes to leave the EU; exit follows in 2020
2017: Rohingya refugee crisis — Over 700,000 flee Myanmar to Bangladesh
2020: COVID-19 pandemic — Global lockdowns and the deepest postwar recession
2020: Tigray War — Civil war in northern Ethiopia
2022: Russia invades Ukraine — War drives global energy and food price shocks
2022: Sri Lanka defaults — Reserves run out amid an economic crisis
2023: Sudan civil war begins — Army–RSF conflict displaces millions
2023: Israel–Hamas war — War in Gaza follows the October 7 attacks